The Results…

If you’re looking for times here…wrong place. However, you can find everyone’s times at www.stjudemarathon.org and go to ‘results’ in the left column.
What you will find here is total respect for the runners…all 50 million of them! Ok, so maybe it wasn’t 50 million, but it was a lot! If you have never experienced the St. Jude marathon/half marathon/5K, then I strongly suggest you put it on your bucket list. This was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. The love this city has for St. Jude and the children is unmatched by anything I can possibly think of. We are a blessed city to have such a wonderful place in our back yard, with the outpouring of support by Memphis to these children, doctors, nurses and their families. The support we received as runners was a beautiful thing as well. The city really reached out, and for once, I was proud to live here. I can honestly say I was moved to tears on more than one occasion (and this was before I hit “the wall”)!
Steve and Cody, you guys rock! You endured a start time of 7:15 a.m. and it was sooo cold I know you had trouble breathing. You guys had a lot to have to endure on your run, the masses alone were exhausting. There were 4,000 participants without a staggered start, so working y’alls way through that crowd was a feat in itself! Great job guys!! Y’all are troopers!!
Jennifer, you are a great inspiration and an extremely consistent runner. You kept me going through that first half and finished the 13.1 with me in your dust and knocked 12 minutes off of your last years time! You rock and inspire more than you know! Don’t ever let anyone make you think you aren’t top notch girl!!!
Michelle, you are such an outstanding athlete! Your running skills proved themselves once more! Great job on your first marathon, girl! You got your 26.2 and earned every step of it! Way to hang in there and give it all you had!
Carole and Mike, y’all do these crazy long distance runs often and until now, I had no idea (and still probably don’t have a full idea) of what a distance runner goes through. You guys are nuts! You are most excellent at what you do and if I were a distance runner, I would want to be just like y’all!! Congratulations on another 26.2!! I can only imagine how many total miles y’all have run; I give y’all total props for every step of them! Mike, I know you had to endure some pain along the way this weekend, and that made this run even more meaningful when you can complete it with a body that is struggling! As for me, well…I finished and I couldn’t be happier with my time. For the amount of training that I did (4 long runs, I think) I really couldn’t expect anything more of myself. I was proud to run beside Jen for the first half, and then finished the second half on my own. It was pretty rough at times to say the least. I never wanted to quit or give up but I had some aches that started at mile 15 and once I started aching, that’s all I seemed to be able to focus on. Fortunately, I had my old roller derby friends at mile 18 and that got me through a little further. Just when I hit “the wall” again, to my surprise there was my husband and Jen at mile 23. What a tremendous feeling! I could push through a little more, even though my body continued to argue with me. I was determined to finish! Approaching that finish line was a very emotional moment for me; unfortunately, I had no fluids left in me to cry out! I am so happy to have crossed that line and completed a marathon!
Sometimes it’s not about hitting a PR…It’s about the journey we take. I can honestly say that this was not only one of the most difficult journeys I have ever been on, but also one of the most personally rewarding. I got my checkmark on my bucket list, my 26.2 sticker on my car, my ‘marathon finisher’ medal around my neck, and a bond with a bunch of other crazies that can never be broken…and that’s good enough for me.