Wilkins Family: 42

My good friend Phyllis from Texas had the crazy idea of running a marathon in Frankfurt, Germany together. Since it's only a 3 1/2 hour drive from Brussels I agreed.

Now I did another marathon earlier this year in Spain, so the memory was still fresh in my head of what it was like to run a marathon. So I altered my training and mentally trained better and smarted. It was a huge help to have one under the belt.

We had such a wonderful time getting to see Phyllis and her family, we met at a park let the kids all play for a while. She has 3 wonderful boys and her older two are my sons two favorite people in the whole world. It was fun to surprise Landon with them at the park (he didn't know that they were coming until we showed up at the park). We then found lunch at a local pizzeria, and then drove to the marathon expo. Phyllis and I got our swag bags, race numbers, and chips for timing. We couldn't help but giggle the whole time, laughing at all sorts of stuff. Especially the part where we turned a corner and there were at least a hundred people staring at a wall. We got looking it was a wall with all the participants names on it. There were 5 panels about 10 feet long 8 feet high, and thr names were in different colors and sizes. They were split up by different groups of last names A-D, E-H.... But on the board itself they were not alphabetized, we had a good laugh at the expo peoples idea of keeping people busy so they'd stay long and hopefully spend more money. Let's give them an ispy game to keep them here longer. :) we never did find our names, but we gave it a quick try. Then we went back to our apartment let the kids play and made spaghetti for dinner. Then called it a night.

Boys in the park, just talking.

The girls found a swing.

Channeling her inner cowgirl.

I love the colors in this one, if only time really could stand still.

Me and my lovely kids.

Race day! Kirk dropped Phyllis off at my apartment and Jimmy followed him out of town with the kids for the morning. They went off on their own adventure to a fortress and a small German village that was kept up to be like it would have been at the turn of the century. Complete with blacksmiths, markets, people showing how they made fire and bread at that time of life. They really had a good time. Then they came back to town to watch us at the 35K and finish. (They were really close to each other).

The munchkins and I.

The kids at the fortress.

A little German village.

Kids at the German village.

Well Phyllis and I finished up the last few things and then headed out, we had to walk about three blocks to the metro. Five stops with one change in lines we made it very quickly and smoothly. We just kept following people with the "official" garment bag they wanted us to use for turning in clothes. We got to the drop off for clothes very quickly and we were all ready except for the dreaded bathroom line. We had 20 minutes before race time and a huge line, 10 minutes later we were still outside the bathroom in line. Someone mentioned there was a bathroom on the other side of the hall so we took off really quick, got in with no line. We made it down to the start just as the first wave of runners were taking off. (This meant I had 8 minutes until my wave was to start). Phyllis and I found my section and we parted ways, she was in the third wave of runners. All the runners were corralled inside gates, so I actually had to climb up and over the barrier (lots of people were doing this). I got in, put on the headphones, got my music going on my iPod (I took this over my phone thinking it would be great not to have the lady from RunKeeper yelling at me telling me how fast or slow I was going. I ran free of her (I think this was my first mistake).

We finally got moving, 25,000 runners it seemed to take forever to get to the starting line. We were shuffling the first K, second K was just shoulder to shoulder third K I finally hit my stried and pace. I felt good, and I was ready for this race. I passed the pace group with the 3:59 balloons and put as much distance as I could between them and myself. I struggled with my iPod, it somehow got twisted in the holder and the volume was turned up full blast (around the 5K mark). Every time I turned it down it went right back up. Ugh, so I pulled one of my ear buds out and ran with just one in. I kept switching which ear had the music every so often because it was so loud. Then the rain started, it was light at first, we had a few showers that were heavy, but it mostly stayed light. The wind was persistent as ever. 10 K down, not too bad finally found a water station and fueled up. I decided to carry my fuel belt this time (left it at home for my last race, I think I like it better with out but it's nice to have things with you too. Not sure what I'll do next time). TI had made a friend, she too wanted a sub 4 and this was her first. She actually was a much stronger runner than me. We had two hills in the next 10 K, they weren't too bad of an incline, and I ran them strong (my hill training here really paid off). Around 19 K my IT band shot a lightning bolt of pain through my leg. I've dealt with this on and off on my long runs this training season. I think this was the earliest I've felt it in a long run and the most pain it's ever given me, not what I needed. I slowed my pace a bit, and it seemed to subside. My friend headed off into the sea of people ahead of me.

Finally 21 K, half way, this was good to see. Up to this point the crowds had been great, even with the rain. The sprain had started to let up and was about all gone. The wind however seemed to pick up. It was swirling in all directions and would hit you like a tong of bricks every now and then. This extra resistance made my knee hurt even worse. I started to walk the water stations (which win this large of a group it was hard not to). My goal besides time was to run the whole thing (water stations are the exception to this).

30 K I started to feel like it was never going to end! I was tired of the gels they were giving, and even worse were the bananas I'd had enough. Luckily I did bring my own fuel so I resorted to those. That seemed to be the boost I needed. Jimmy had thought they could be back from their adventure in time to see us at the 35 K. So I started thinking about getting to that point, 25 minutes left before I get to see my family. I kept counting how long at every K it would be before I saw them. At 33 K (9 left to finish) my iPod died! Ugh! Not what I needed! So I pulled my ear bud out and ran free. Listening to the music that the bands were playing. I could hear a brass band in the distance and as I got closer I started singing in my head, a song I knew very well from early morning seminary. It was always a favorite, my started to hear the chorus "Gloria, Gloria, hallelujah! Gloria, Gloria, hallelujah! Gloria, Gloria, hallelujah! His truth is marching on!" Battle Hymn of the Republic. This was definitely the boost I needed. I saw the 35 K sight, but no family. So I figured they didn't make it, but I'd see them after I was done. About two minutes later I came around a corner and I heard Jimmy shout my name. I look over and he was grabbing Clara and she pointed to me! The other two were jumping up and down.i could see the Hettingers and Kirk had his camera aimed right at me. Oh it was good to see their sweet faces.

6 K left! The next three K weren't too bad, the wind was at my back, but I could see we would be running back this way a steady stream of runners in the other side were battling the head wind. So I wasn't too excited. Two more fuel stations to the finish line. This was easy just keep putting one for in front of the other, was what I kept thinking. Finally we made the turning point and headed into the wind! 40 K, two left, and it felt like forever until I saw the 41 K sign. Finally it came, we then tip unread off the road and away from the wind. It felt good, really good for about 10 seconds and then my left calf cramped up! Ahhhhhh! I couldn't run, I was able to walk it out, and get back to running, but that really sucked! There he was the Hammering Man! A 50 foot structure and he has a hammer that goes up and down. We turned at his feet and headed into the stadium! Entering the stadium was great! The red carpet looks stunning, there was confetti all over the ground that had been shot off for the better elite runners. Music blairing, cheerleaders, lights moving all over, and a jumbo tron with runners on the screen and names with times. I did it I crossed the finish line! The time on the clock said 4:09:30 (ish). (I knew it'd be very close to a 4 hour time, I had at least the 8 minutes inbetween the two waves of runners and thn the time it took me to cross the starting line).

I made my way to the side and took a few minutes rest and stretched out what I could. A few seconds later the EMTs were moving me out of the way with a young guy on a stretcher. I was pretty excited to be finished, healthy, strong, and realitively injury free. I limped my was down the stairs (not the best place to have stairs!) and made it back outside where they gave out the medals and had nutrition stations set up. I grabbed two apples and a blanket then found a spot where I could try to watch for Phyllis. she thought she'd finish 20-30 minutes behind me. About 10 minutes laterJimmy called me and asked if I was ok. He was waiting at our meeting spot. He said he just saw Kirk who was had just seen Phyllis at the 35 K mark. So I went to meet up with my family. It was so good to see them, the kids were so excited to see me and my medal. They even fed me some of their German pretzels dad had treated them too. (They tasted so good). We went inside to see if we could watch Phyllis finish. We watched for a while but in the end with three restless kids and a mom who needed to keep moving we walked out (only seconds before she crossed). I went and gathered my things, got in warmer clothes and took my timing chip back. I met my family back outside at our meeting spot and only minutes later Phyllis walked out! It was so good to see her! She was tired, but happy to be done! We did it. Our story is told. All except the schnitzel dinner! (Best dinner after a marathon!).