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When it comes to the Marathon Team, along with the act of actually running a marathon, I have had nothing but great experiences.
It has been several months since I ran my first marathon *the Motorola* and thinking back on it brings a smile to my face. The night before I was so excited I only slept for an hour. After meeting up with some of the team members to carpool to the race, I started to realize there was no way out of this.
When the horn blew, it was Doug, Jeremy, and Peter with me. My goal was 3:30 and our pace was right on that for the first couple of miles. All of a sudden Peter was gone. Then Jeremy disappeared. By that time Doug and I were cruising well under an 8 minute pace so I figured I'd keep going. Doug kept saying we should probably slow down a little but then he would speed up. That kind of nonsense caught up to me right around campus (10 miles) and I had to drop back.
At the halfway point I got a boost with all the people cheering and if I could have kept my pace I would have ended up with a 3:20. That's when my body gave me a reality check.
I had never run more than 12 miles in training and boy did it hit. Luckily I only had about 12 more miles left. For the next 7 or 8 miles it seemed like the crowd had really thinned out and I made a point to take an extra step or two (or 10) at each water stop. I ran into Ran along the way which was kind of cool. He was having a little too much fun with the 3:30 group so I decided to let them pass me though.
The next couple of miles I spent picking people around me out, and trying to run with them. By that time the tiredness in my legs became a twitching in every muscle I always knew I didn't have. As great as the beer stand sounded before the race, I easily passed it up. I got a kick when a volunteer asked me if I needed an ambulance.
Then I met up with Peter again and that really got me going. We were both feeling the pain but running together made things a lot easier. Peter thinks I got fresh again and that's why I passed him. The truth is I was so sick of running at about 25 miles, I would have done anything to just finish so I decided to speed up.
My parents and brother completely surprised me by coming and they were camped out at Zilker Park. That last loop around the park was the hardest. Then I heard the stereo playing Dave Matthews and that helped. When I finally crossed the line the clock said something around 3:46.
Besides not being able to walk for several days, the whole experience is something I will cherish forever. I never would have been able to come close to doing this without the team. If you are someone thinking of running your first marathon, just do what I did....go to the race's website and type in your credit card number. Trust me, when it brings up your receipt with $50 at the bottom, you'll make yourself run it.
Luke Culpepper
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