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I finished my 6th marathon for 2006. I had lots of fun. I had a great pacing partner, Leah Nfeyler. I met wonderful people during my 5:09:14(chip time, my gun time was 5:17:20. So ignore the time in the photo) adventure.
My co-worker Stacy, called me at the start line and gave me good wishes. I told her I was nervous and that I wanted to finish on time. We had a 30 minute delay because the inclement weather. Standing at the start was awesome. I was warm in the middle with all the body heat. We were off by 7:50 AM.
Mile 1-18 went by so fast. I was feeling goooooooooood. I still couldn't believe how good I felt. I kept thinking at any minute I will stop. But that was not the case. I saw Cindy Borden and group, my older running coach, and she gave me positive feed back on how great I looked. By mile 22, I couldn't feel my legs and my left knee ached so badly, I thought I had to call it quits. But my friend/co-worker, Linda Brown, met me to run the rest of the way with me. She encouraged me to keep going. Then I saw my friend, Steve Williams, who took some great photos of the run. He said keep running. I handed the flag to Linda, and everyone kept telling her, "way to go MIT". She said, "I don't know why they keep saying MIT?" Then she said, "OH, it's on my shirt!". I had no energy to laugh.
By Mile 26, I was so ready for this to be over. Linda and Steve were now both running with me (Thanks a million Linda and mega thanks to you also Steve). I had just crossed the South First bridge where I saw my friend Sybille. She told me that they was some good chili waiting once I crossed the finish line. I turned right on Riverside Drive. I had no energy left. Then I saw my son, Julian, and his hands gripped the chain link fence and he said, "You can do it mom!" That was the energy booster I needed to kick it in turbo boost. I made a mad dash for FINISH LINE. I had finished. My pacing partner had waited for me and the finish line and she gave me a big hug (You can actually see her pink mitten in my finishing photos. I thought that was cute). I reunited with my usual fan club (My older sis Amanda and my sons Julian & Christian). After that it was a mad dash to the chili and it was goooooooooood.
Again, thank you all for your support and encouragement.
Cassandra Medrano
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