Arizona Marathon final pictures

Before the finish...aware how close 5 hours is but still willing to take a moment to document the moment!

After the finish with my new medal. It is really big, colorful and unique (with a cactus in the middle).

With my dad after I returned to the course after finishing! My family has a terrible track record of not seeing me finish. It must be genetic because it has happened with my mom, sister, husband and now my dad! Maybe I should have taken my phone and given him updates.

With John "the Penguin" Bingham after the finish. I have met him several times at a variety of races. He really is an inspiration and definitely makes sure everyone know that marathoning is manageable with a bit of dedication and effort.

With the "Lucky Marathon Cat" from the PF Changs marathon. I wish I had seen this sign during the day because the lighting would have been alot better. You can see Marathon Kitty was number 1, guess she was an elite runner.

As I mentioned, I had a really great time at Rock and Roll Marathon this past weekend. I did see so many people, enjoy the course and loved the energy throughout the race.

One question I got at work this week is: why did you finish in under 5 hours? Well, this is a funny story in retrospect. My dad (whose priorities are all messed up!) suggested that the NFC (or is it the AFC) Championship was starting at 1 p.m., thus I needed to finish by 1 p.m.. Oddly enough I can take requests (I'm like a DJ for races). Thus I decided that I would finish about 4.5 or 5 hours. As I was leaving the room my dad asked my time. Since I was a little hesitant to commit, I suggested I should finish between 4.5-5.5 hours (thus 12:10-1:10). My dad apparently was not pleased with this band, but did make the effort to see me finish. Sadly I was in the early part of this predicted finish time band and he suggested he got stuck in some marathon traffic which made it so he arrived just a few minutes before 1 p.m.

Being an accomodating daughter I had even suggested that he could go to a bar along the course and I could drop in as I was finishing. He declined this very generous offer. After I finished I doubled back on the course and ultimately stumbled upon him. I did try to recreate my finish but don't think I did a good job.