26.2 miles is a long way. A very long way. A very very long way. But I suppose I can now say that I ran that far. Not quickly, not prettily, not without some pain, but I got to that darn finish line. I ran a marathon.

The weather for the race was pretty good: chilly, partly cloudy, and not too much wind. The Siouxland Marathon in Sioux City is a smaller race — about 800 participated one way or another, I think — but that comes with a bit more intimacy and midwestern charm. The race expo consisted of getting your race packet, getting a cup of water, and that’s about it — no vendors peddling their wears, no last minute gel pack offers. But that was fine. My goal was to run a marathon, and after the Twin Cities Marathon didn’t work out schedule-wise, the Siouxland would do just fine.

The course was well marked and scenic. The first six miles were on asphalt trails (in the dark at that point) in South Sioux City, Nebraska. After crossing the bridge back into Iowa, the trail continued alongside the river for a good long way. It reminded me a lot of running the Greenway in Grand Forks, actually, but the Greenway is prettier as it’s more open and not so close to an interstate.

I ran the first six miles about right, slightly over 10-minute miles. I was at 2:14 at the halfway point. Perfect, I thought. I’ll just keep this up a and come in under 4:30. Boy was I wrong.

I did manage the next several miles about the same time, I think, but by 17 or 18 I was struggling.  (Typical for first timers, I hear.)  Of course, this is also when the only noticeable hills on the course started showing their ugly selves. This summer I trained in the mountains which would make these hills look like pathetic, but running for two months in Grand Forks made me weak. I started walking quickly at points.

The last six miles were pretty painful, I’ll be honest. Okay, pretty darn painful. My energy level was shot, but at the same time I knew I would finish and the euphoria of that realization kept me going. Also — and I wouldn’t have guessed this — seeing other folks struggle over the last few miles was really helpful. I’m sure this will make a sermon illustration one day, but the race was also runnable by teams of five runners who ran a relay. So by the end, there were some of us who had been running for four hours at the same point in the course with folks who had been running for four minutes. I might have coveted some of their energy and bounce, once or twice. But you could also pick out those of us who had run the full marathon ourselves. Watching those folks struggle those last miles, encouraging each other as we passed, was a great comfort and kept me going.

At about mile 20, I realized my time wasn’t going to be pretty. Every book and person I talked to while training said, with your first marathon, don’t worry about time. It’s a freaking marathon, the goal is to just FINISH. But still, I had run a half marathon in 2:06 and didn’t want to run a full too terribly much more than double that. So, when after a few calculations at mile 20 I realized I might not even make it under 5 hours, I kicked it into high gear. Hmm, well, I did in my head at least. I think my legs maybe moved a tiny bit faster.

The course ends in downtown Sioux City, and about three miles from the finish you can see the skyline of downtown. It looked like it was really far away. Too far. But taking one step at a time, it got closer and closer even though the running wasn’t much fun at that point — back and forth across annoying pedestrian bridges, up and down levees and the like.

Finally, though, I got to the streets of downtown. After I saw the sign for mile 25, I could taste the pizza at the finish and wanted so much to get there. I glanced down at my watch and saw, if I just kept going fairly smoothly, I’d make it under 5 hours. So I just kept it up. And, finally, I made the turn onto 4th Street to see the Finish Line. I had made it. Finished. 4:57:54.

The rest of the day was fairly painful. After the pizza and beer at the bar near the finish, six hours riding in the car back to Grand Forks. Frozen peas for my knees. Gatorade and frequent rest stops. It wasn’t until that night that I saw a bruised toe nail and realized it might just fall off before too long. But the pain — and even the lost nail — is part of the package, really. Running a marathon is an absolutely crazy idea, so it ought to be a bit painful.

Ask me now if I’d run another, and the answer is a clear, “no.” Half marathons are much more enjoyable for me (and my body), and training time is much more reasonable for a busy schedule. That said, I’m very glad, even proud, to have run a full marathon. Call me crazy, but call me a “marathoner” as well.