2 of those supporting me along this course were Kendra Snyder and Kyle Miller.  It was fun to hear them each time I neared their cheering post.  Julie and I also stayed with them in their Omaha apartment.  I was blessed to have the weekend with them.

Above: Julie, Kyle, and Kendra found a wonderful spot to watch a stretch of the marathon, perched over top the route on a bridge.  I'm in the middle of the picture, still in orange.



At right: my friend Shana Beachey finished ahead of me, completing her first half-marathon.  Also living in Omaha, it was fun to spend time with her and her husband Micah.


As a final word -
What a great weekend, all around!  I was blessed to have the opportunity to travel with Julie again.  We spent time with friends from college, we ate a lot of good food, and I got to run in a professionally-handled marathon.  For the second straight race, I ran the first 20 miles at nearly a 7:30/mile pace before relaxing off that pace to coast the last 6 miles into the finish line.  This one was only 20 days after Columbia and Columbus is only 3 weeks away, so I wonder how I'll hold up between now and then in training runs and during the next marathon in Columbus.  Until then...keep running the race!

At 7 o'clock the gun was fired and we were off.  Here we are heading downhill from the starting line - a great way to start any marathon!  That's me, waving, in orange.  It was a beautiful, cloudless, crisp morning.  Perfect...

Just finished!  I'm waiting as the timing chip that recorded my progress is cut off my shoe.  I look better than I felt in this photo!  This was the only race I've ever run that had a finish line indoors.