Newport Marathon-6/2/2012

This journey started back in January with a new motivation to run a sub-4 hour marathon. Training alone puts all the pressure on yourself. Getting up early, running after work and spending most of my weekends to train. I ran more 20+ milers between March and June 2012, than all of my previous 20+ milers combined. I felt ready! Running the Eugene Marathon on April 29th in a time of 4:01:36, I knew I could achieve my goal! Then, Friday May 25th came and my stomach started to feel ill. I thought it was something I ate, but no it was a stomach bug. I spent Memorial weekend laying low, hoping this bug will pass quick. By Tuesday, 5/29, I felt better. Whew, I was in the clear, I thought. Wednesday came and oh crap, I started to get a itchy throat, stuffy nose. Allergies? No! A head cold! Damn! I spent Wednesday through Friday drinking fluids, taking medicine, trying to rest as much as I can. Saturday morning came, marathon day! I still felt sick, in fact my wife though I had a fever. Great! Never thought about not running, never entered my mind. I'm going to run this marathon!! On your mark, set, go! Off I went! Felt ok running the first half, in fact, my split at 13.1 miles was 1:58:45! I can do this, I thought. Mile 14 or so came and head started pounding, strength was starting to go. Come on, keep going! I pushed and pushed, I couldn't doing anymore and I had to slow my pace. Walked through water stations, then I had to start walk, running. I still had about 9 miles left.... Mile 21 came, come on you can push it for another 5 miles.. This time my mind was stronger than my body, it wanted to go and go hard. My body on the other hand, couldn't. Headache got worst, body felt like it was going to give up, knees stated to get weak. Damn it! You need to finish! Mile 25, I'm there! I didn't really care what my time would be at this point, I just wanted to end this. I heard this lady say ".4 miles from here!" and then I saw my brother in law, Jeff. "Jan and everyone is on the left" he said. Dang, I need to be strong for them, I'm almost there! Mile 26! .2 miles to go, down hill to the finish! Passing a few runners going in the shoot to the finish! Done!! 4:11:19!! Got the glass finisher metal put on my neck. Walked on, got some food. Oh man! Head hurts, body's soo tired. I need medicine for my head bad!! I saw Jan and the rest of the people who came to see me ran. I was glad to see them! Got some protein drinks from Jan and my finisher shirt and started to walk back to the room. Emotions started to hit me, Damn! I didn't do it! A sub 4-hour marathon had to wait for another time. I felt like I failed. Jan said "My gosh, Aaron you were sick. You can't beat yourself up for not reaching your goal!" She's right, but still felt like I failed. After a while, I felt different. Being sick, I still ran my 2nd fastest marathon....more to come.