Athens Classic Marathon, Athens Greece - 11/7/04

Overall Time - 4:38
Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/TriFilly/AthensMarathon/photo#s5118339197782905666

My mother, father & myself arrived in Greece on Thursday afternoon, picked up packets on Friday morning, toured the Acropolis on Saturday, raced Sunday. The marathon was good & weather was about perfect. Definitely not a race I wanted to DNF, as going back next year isn't quite that feasible.... Got to the start in Marathon and was quite bummed that the little digital camera I'd gotten for a birthday present earlier in the year, specifically to take pics during this race crapped out on me (darn 220 voltage) - oh well. An extra useless 4 oz. to carry w. me.

I was undertrained, but this race was all about the destination and getting the medal - not about my finishing time. Surprisingly, I still ended up w. a 4:38, which although my slowest stand-alone marathon out of three, only 10 minutes off a PR. So, I was really pleased & surprised! My chronic ankle injury flared up, but I knew it would - no big deal. Suck it up & keep moving forward. Thanks to Kathy Matejka, I knew about the hills and had a plan to walk them & I stuck to my plan. Pretty wild to be on the course and recognize many parts from the Olympic TV coverage earlier in the year. The finish in the gorgeous, ancient stadium with the Olympic rings in the background was really thrilling!

Even better, my mom had run the 10K (run in conjunction with the marathon) earlier in the day. First time she'd ever run that far and had a time of 1:21 - significantly ahead of her planned 2:00. She was there to welcome me across the finish line w. her medal on & beaming! I was more excited for her to have raced than for myself. Both really glad to have finished well, gotten the medals and once again, my dad came through as Sherpa-extraordinaire!

Thanks for reading,
Katie - Drowning in Dallas