Hi Everyone!

I have to ditto Matt and say that you should not run a marathon when you are sick.

I either got a stomach bug or food poisoning on friday and spent most of saturday night throwing up. So much for all the hydrating I had done the last two weeks. I was able to catch a little sleep during the night though and by 2 am Sunday morning, I was feeling better.

I completely lied to my coach and my sister. Some how, I was able to put on a smile and I thought I had everyone fooled. My roommate called and told my coach but I managed to get "lost" in the B corral and my coach couldn't pull me out of the race.

The first half of the marathon was fine. I was on pace for a 4:30 finish. I was achey and more tired than I expected to be but I was okay. Most of my teammates had either raced ahead of me or had dropped behind me by the half way mark so I was completely alone.

Mile 14 the entire race changed. The sun came out for one and the adrenaline that I had from the Magic Kingdom was gone. By mile 15, I was having to work much harder than I ever had before just to stay under a 12 minute mile.

At mile 16, I finally stopped running and moved to the side to walk. I ripped my pace band off and just decided I was going to try to finish. Then all the sudden every drop of water or powerade I had had that morning came erupting from my stomach. No warning at all.

A TNT runner from Indiana stopped when he saw me and walked with me. He just kept talking to me then all the sudden ran ahead. I thought he was gone but a few minutes later he CAME BACK to me with a cup of water. He told me to rinse out my mouth and not to swallow. He stayed with me for a while and when we got to the water stop he advised me to just hold the water in my mouth.He wanted me to stop at the med tent but I refused but he stopped. Turns out he stopped to tell on me, and to wait for one of his teammates.

My coach was waiting at mile 19 and she ran me to mile 20. She told me I was still on pace for under 5 hours but I didn't think I had it in me. She dropped back at mile 20 because several of my teammates were still behind me.

At this point my race went from bad to worse. Somewhere along the way from 20 -21, I got sick again. I felt so bad for the wonderful family that was standing nearby but the gentleman there just handed me one of their water bottles and said "thank you". That was when I realized his daughter was bald under her hat.

At mile 24, I was crying so hard that I could barely see. I hurt EVERYWHERE. My elbows ached, my shoulder and back ached, and my legs and feet were on fire. It hurt more to walk than it did to run but I was incredibly slow. I knew I wasn't going to get in under 5 hours.

Then the same TNT runner from Indiana showed up at my side. He knew my goal of 4:59:59 and he says "You can still make it under 5 but you are going to have run faster - can you stay with me?" I nodded and he chattered me back to a 10 minute mile. The most beautiful sight I have ever seen was the phone booth in Brittain. I started yelling "We're in Epcot! we're in Epcot!" I also started crying again. My angel stayed with me until Mexico where he was stopping for a margarita. I kept going.

Another of my coaches found me right before the Christmas tree in Epcot and ran me in. I was in so much pain and crying so hard that I could barely see. Then we turned the corner and I saw the finish line. The clock above it read 4:59:59 and as I ran toward it flipped to 5:00:00. I almost stopped. I was so disapointed I was crushed. But the crowd started yelling and someone said "raise your hands up - you finished" So I did. The clock time was 5:00:14 - 15 seconds was all I could think.

My coach ran me straight to the medical tent which made me so mad. I could see them giving out the medals and I wanted my medal. I don't think I was very rational at the time. I was so upset that my coach and a medic took me over to get my medal and then escorted me back into the med tent. There they literally held me down. My pulse was over 180. oops.

It wasn't until a couple hours later when I finally got my cell phone that my little sister told me that my chip time was 4:57. I had forgotten that I didn't cross the start until 3 minutes after the clock started.

My coaches are pretty mad at me, they said I was in pretty bad shape and should not have pushed myself that hard. I guess I have to agree with them, I really didn't enjoy the second half at all. I still haven't been able to keep any solid food down. I sip on water and powerade (NOT lemon lime!!) and nibble on crackers but more than a tiny bite makes me too miserable. I hope I feel better tomorrow.

The good news is that everyone on my team finished and most of us made our secondary goal if not our first. TNT raised over 5.7 million dollars for cancer research this weekend. T