Indianapolis native Allison Martin recently completed her second marathon at the St Jude Marathon in Memphis, TN.  Martin now lives and works in Nashville, TN and plans to complete her third marathon next spring! She ran the race with her friend Bridget. Excellent job Allison!

YES! Another marathon completed!

This weekend my running partner Bridget and I ran the St. Jude Marathon in Memphis. The weather was great–40s when we started and maybe 60 by the end–with a clear sky and bright sun. Not too strong a sun though. The course was relatively flat with some gradual hills throughout, and sadly some at the end. (Who puts a three-fourths a way up a hill right before mile 24? C’mon!) And several Elvis impersonators, including two at the finish line for a photo op.
Bridget had been having knee pain for the past month or longer, classic runner’s knee, and it started bothering her around mile 13 a lot. We got these way cool temporary tattoos at the registration on Friday that showed your mile times based on your desired finish time. (Check out www.pacetat.com) So we knew that we were a consistent 2 minutes ahead of our 4:45 finish time. Until mile 15. We slowed down quite a bit. Bridget finally convinced me to go on without her since I felt good and her knee was killing. So I took off, determined one of us would finish in our goal time.

And man! I felt GREAT and kept a consistent 10:30 min mile. Not until mile 22 did I really start to slow a bit but by that time, I was so close to the end, I didn’t even care! I ran the whole time, only stopping to stretch at water stops cause my hamstrings were extremely tight!

And then–there it was! AutoZone Park! I entered, ran around the back of the baseball field and crossed the finish line at 4 hours, 42 minutes and 33 seconds!

HOORAY! Now for Country Music April 26th and maybe a 4:20 finish?