Sunday, November 8, 2009

Mission: Athens Marathon... ACCOMPLISHED!

124-Score and 19 years ago (aka 490 BC) a Greek named Pheidippides changed the running world forever. After the Athenians defeated the invading Persians at Marathon, Pheidippides ran across the hills to Athens to proclaim, "Rejoice! We have won!" He then collapsed on the spot and died from exhaustion. Thus, the marathon was born.
Today Rob and I retraced the historic route as we ran the Athens Marathon. We started in Marathon and finished in the original Olympic Stadium. We've wanted to do a marathon together, so we figured we might as well do THE marathon, right? :)
Training in pancake-flat Houston, TX and Cambridge, UK didn't really prepare us for the miles of uphill we faced (e.g. mile 11 to 20 was a solid incline). Then, at about mile 20 I discovered some new muscles I didn't know I had as they started seizing up. But Rob was a great cheerleader and support and stayed with me the whole way to the end.
The finish line: I was very, very happy to finally see this.

We didn't die, but I think we understand now why poor old Pheidippides did. We're proud of our accomplishment and are excited to spend the next few days hobbling around Greece.
Although these words were coined by a Roman, they feel equally applicable in Greece tonight: We Came, We Ran, We Conquered!

13 comments:

Kate said...

Congrats!! You should be so proud of yourself! I love all the pictures, especially the one of you two together. Hopefully Bill will be inspired by your journey together and will do some race with me, even a 5k would be great. Congrats again!!

Megan Holdaway said...

You guys are my heroes! Seriously. Way to go! What a great accomplishment. And how cool that you did it in Athens.

The Wigginton Family said...

Congrats you two! I have been thinking about you all day long and I'm so glad to hear that the race was a success. Have so much fun the next few day exploring Greece. We can't wait to see you again soon!

Matt said...

Guys, this is so awesome! What a fun thing to have on your list of "We did that!" ;) And Greece...I have always wanted to go there. Glad you're making lemonade out of some recent lemons! :) Love you!
Nat

Katie and Christian said...

You guys are amazing! What an incredible experience and even cooler that you accomplished it together! Isn't Greece amazing?

Christy said...

Amazing! Congratulations to you both! Matthew wants to know if Rob is actually doing any studying or if he's just galavanting around Europe. ;-)

Camille said...

that is AWESOME!!! want to run the great wall of chine marathon with me and eric sometime!??! i heard that if you run a 4 hr marathon, expect to run this one in 6 hrs!

Suzannah said...

That's amazing! Congrats and have a great time in Greece!

Unknown said...

How do you look so gorgeous after you did that? You AMAZE me.

Linkous said...

What a great way to spend a day :). I can't wait to run one with you! Congratulations!!!!

Alisa and Crowells said...

You guys are awesome! How cool is that! What an accomplishment!! Congrats! Kiss Cambridge for us!!

Becca said...

You said that you'd do it and you did! You guys are awesome and it sounds like you had an amazing time. Congrats!

Mama KK said...

Kudos to you great Kiddos! I am so proud of you both! Way to go!
Hip-hip-hurray! Love, Mom/KK