Over the last year, I’ve been working very hard training for my first full marathon, the Twin Cities Marathon in my home town of Minneapolis. The training has been pretty intense– especially the past few months, but I am proud to report that I am now a marathon finisher with a time of 4:00:11!

My goal time was 4:00, so of course that 11 seconds is a little heartbreaking! If only I would’ve known to bolt it at the end! Race day had some spotty rain showers and I was fighting a bit of a cold, so I’m still very proud of my accomplishment and how strong I felt the entire 26.2 miles– even those last 6 miles. Every description of the Twin Cities Marathon talks about how hilly the course was, especially in the back half but I actually didn’t think it was THAT bad.

The crowd support and cheers from my friends and family definitely helped through the tough moments. I finished in the top 20% of women which also seems crazy given it was my first full marathon!

I’ll post my training plan soon– I ran almost 1000 miles in preparation for the race which may have been harder than the race itself. I swore up and down this would be my one and only full marathon, but now I’m not sure that I can just leave that 4:00 goal without completing it..

What do you guys think– should I run it again next year?