Yay for Kori!

So I have to give a shout out to Kori who finally finished her first marathon! I hope she'll write a race report, but for now I just wanted to brag for her!

Kori and I began our distance running adventure together back in March 2005 when we trained for the Dam to Dam 20k with a city running group. We both had to give up on the Chicago marathon that year because of injury, although I didn't even make it to race day, while Kori made it halfway through the race. Last year, she signed up for Chicago again and was all good until her first 20-miler and had to call it quits.

So this year we signed up for the Twin Cities marathon. My stupid foot kept me from doing it, but Kori made it through all the way to race day and on Sunday finally finished! And she had a brutal day - it was 85 degrees and humid. We had a friend hoping to get a 3:10 to BQ who finished in over four hours and another friend who was hoping for a 3:30 who finished in 4:45. (Okay, at least she didn't pick Chicago again - the odds of finishing there would not have been good).

I went up with Laurie and Kimberly to cheer her on (along with the others from our running group). Since I paid for the race, I totally bandited it with my race number and jumped on the course with her at mile 20. She was walking by then, but man she was hauling ass. We walked 6 15 minute miles and can I tell you how sore I am still? I think it is easier to run 12 minute miles than walk 15 minute miles (athough not at the end of a marathon). They closed the course after 6 hours and Kori was really worried about that, but we came in with 20 minutes to spare.

When we crossed the finish line, I managed to duck the medal person, but dammit, I paid $90 so that wicking finishers shirt is mine.

I am totally breaking t-shirt etiquette.