First of all, I want thank God. This is a huge accomplishment in my life. In February, when I became a Pine Belt Pacer member, I never thought, in my wildest dreams, I would be able to run a 10K race, much less a Marathon.

Thanks to the club, the encouragement, training program, and advices from "Coach" Becky Ryder, I finished the Chicago Marathon. I also left behind 18+ weeks of training, 3 duathlons, my best 5k (Labor Your Legs 22:29) and 35 pounds of body fat.

Now let me tell you about the race….Sunday morning, October 22, was very cold, freezing wind, worse that I expected…there we were 38,000 + runners from 124 countries trying to conquer the windy city of Chicago. 1.5 million people cheering around the course… at the starting line I just had 3 things on my mind, my first goal (finishing before 4:00 hours), my second goal (enjoying the race as much as I can) and the worst case scenario (finishing after 5:00). I knew that anything can happen during the race, but I also remembered what my friend Khalid told me the day before, "No matter what happens during the day of the marathon you have to enjoy the race".

After a salute in about 10 languages, we began exactly at 8:00 A.M., of course it takes me about 5 minutes to get the starting line…I was trying to run with the 3:45 pace group…my strategy was run fast the first half and slowdown in the second half finishing with the 3:55 group. I can not describe the feeling of excitement in the first miles of running; All of Chicago was there cheering the runners. I remember noticing the first clock when I crossed the 5k, there were many things along the course, but I was just focused on the running, the pace and the distance. After 1 hour 55 minutes, I cross the half marathon marker…I felt really good, happy, strong, so I decided to get some energy gel and water…I walked about 50 mts…then continuing running with the 3:45 pacers until the mile 18…I stopped for Gatorade and water waiting for the 3:50 pacers…after running a couple of miles I felt that my body was freezing and shaking. I notice my pants and sweater were all wet and the wind chill was killing me. (I was obligated to run with my warm up clothes because of the cold weather at the beginning of the race). After throwing away the pants and the sweater, I join the 3:55 pacers to finish the race…BUT…at the mile 21 all the muscles in my legs began cramping (later I found that the temperature dropped 10 degrees during the race)…I stopped…can’t run anymore…I stretched, it help a few minutes…and then more cramps…I try to run out the pain…I was running like a mummy…it hurts…I stopped again and walked, I remember still having energy, but I knew my first goal was gone…one of the spectators yelled in Spanish "Keep smiling until the finish line" after that everything changed…I ran a slow pace, but also I sang with the Mariachi in the Mexican neighborhood, danced to salsa music some meters ahead, stopped and talked about the race with some people around the streets, encouraged other runners feeling worse than me… I ran together with Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash. They were strong runners wearing nice fancy costumes. I was enjoying it so much toward the end that I asked one guy, who was offering water, to take a couple of pictures of me…so I went back a few meters in order to run and look good for the picture…that was so funny…it still makes me laugh.

At mile 25 I did something I had planned all along…I took my Honduran flag tied it around my neck and ran my best pace, under the circumstances, to the finish line. Don’t get me wrong, I love the country where I live, but also, I am very proud of the country were I came from.

At the end I finished with a time of 4:42, Strong, Happy, Sore…feeling I accomplished all my goals…yeah…I know what you are thinking…breaking the 4 hours must wait until Houston…YES…I am running in the Houston Marathon next January…Why ?...because I am a runner. © Kily Garcia

With a Pine Belt Pacer Friend

The starting line

The last five miles

Por La Raza (For my people)

A finisher medal