You never forget your first.

First date… Valentines day, Starbucks frappuccinos, and lots of balloons. It felt like the perfect movie scene of my 16 year old dreams.

First job… Bob’s Big Boy, hostess, it sucked.

First heartbreak… Lots of chocolate was involved and I watched About Time on repeat. Well, I still watch it on repeat.

First legal drink… San Francisco at Midnight. I believe I shamed myself by having a Shock Top on tap. Fortunately my tastes for beer have become more refined.

First Marathon. It was March 19, 2017 and the forecast was sunny with a high of 70 degrees. This is the race recap I’ve been meaning to write for two years now.

Looking back now, sometimes it’s hard to believe that person was me. If you’ve read since the beginning, you’d know it took a lot of effort and time (Christianna is… Exhausted). Lots of Saturdays and weeknights went into being able to do this thing. It was a big commitment and undertaking. Something in fact, I did not do alone.

Learning to become independent and taking solace in the freedom of running on my own was what I needed in 2016. At first, I really did need those solitary runs, but to conquer something so massive? I needed the support from others around me. The next step to my changing process was to let people be apart of my life. Yes, I could of figured out how to run a marathon on my own, but with a group of friends, it became that much more worth it! With a side of enjoyable included. It becomes easy to tolerate the pain with good people making jokes along the way.

So, the LA Marathon was just like training; support and company all the way through.

You’d think that with a 26 mile course, 25,000 runners, and god knows how many spectators, it would be easy to be lost in the crowd. How lonely that would of been if that were the case. The thing that made this thing so incredible was how many people I ran into along the way.

For the most part, I was able to stick with two good badass lady friends who carried me through from the beginning at Dodger Stadium to Rodeo Drive. The long sunny stretch of Century City had the heat bearing down on me. I slowed massively here, ready to burn out with the sun. If it weren’t for being spotted by a spectator friend who ran with me for a couple miles to mile 22, I’d still be out there crawling down Santa Monica Blvd. Okay, maybe two years later that might be a bit of an exaggerating, but she did help me find my pace again.

On this particular race, once you get past mile 22 it feels all down hill. Working your way through Brentwood, you’re met with more and more ocean air as you inch closer and closer to Santa Monica. San Vincente Boulevard is also lined with beautiful trees and shade, it was life giving. Lol, I’m talking about feeling alive during a marathon so I must be insane now.

However, by the time I turned the corner onto Ocean Avenue to head towards the Finish line, I was so done and aware of how much pain I was in.

Just like that, five and a half hours of friends, runners, sweat and chaffing was over with. It did feel really good.

Of course what I haven’t had time to touch on, was the bit of post race depression that fell on me. It turns out after months of training was the fun part and it all ending was the sad part. But more on this later. For now, the agenda was celebrations. How did I celebrate this feat? Well, with my first beer in months of course!

Like I said, I’ve been meaning to do this for awhile now. “Why now?” You might ask. Well, I’m struggling to get committed again and now is the time to make these things happen. The Chicago Marathon will be here before I know it, and I need to find this Christianna again before I lose track of time. It’s definitely going to be very hard. I’ll struggle to get out of bed. There will be a lot of icing of the knees. I will have to give up beer and Friday late night’s out. But who knows, maybe it will be full of surprises. Maybe I’ll meet knew runner friends. Maybe I’ll find motivation to finish all the things for myself I want.

So, If you’re in the market for a long run buddy, consider this my post for hire.