Everyone Should Run A Marathon

The year was 2006, I was a Sophomore in High School and I had just lost my grandpa. The first loss in my life. After watching him battle bladder cancer for a year, my grandpa, a 6’ 3” burly and robust man dwindled down to an unrecognizable human. He finally got some peace when he went home to the Lord. He was just 59 years old.

When I told my coach how old he was, he was shocked because they were the exact same age. Life is never guaranteed. At 16, 59 seemed old, but it’s not. He was so young and had so much life left to live. I often wondered if he was happy with what he made of his life. The following year the movie The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freedman, was released and it inspired me to create my own Bucket List. A Bucket List is a list of things someone wants to experience or accomplish in their lifetime.

I truly don’t remember every item that I had on my list at that time, but I did know one. I had written that I wanted to run a marathon. Why? I also don’t know. I ran track but I didn’t run long distance. I did two field events (long jump & high jump) and two sprint events (either individual 100, 200, or 400 or any of those relays). I dreaded the mile warm up and the idea of running cross-country seemed so far out of my league at the time. For those that don’t know the high school Cross Country distance race are typically a 5k (3.1 miles). 3.1 miles seemed so far back then.

Anyways, running a marathon was something I would do when I was older. So, I pushed it off and life happened. It wasn’t a priority then but running eventually became a part of my life again in my late 20s and early 30’s. I grew more familiar with the 5k distance and that grew my interest in going further. I ran my first half-marathon in 2022 and I’ll be honest, race day sucked. I was definitely second guessing if I’d ever be able to complete a full marathon. But, as you may be aware, anything can happen on race day. The good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s important to remember that whatever happens doesn’t define you as a runner, the time you put in, or what you will be able to accomplish in the future.

In 2023, our prayers were finally answered, and we were expecting our first child after a 3-year TTC journey. In 2024 we welcomed our son and running a marathon was the last thing on my mind. My postpartum recovery was hard and long. I saw a pelvic floor therapist weekly to help get my body healed and recovered so I could be able to run again. At 15 weeks postpartum my world got rocked when we found out my mother had passed away unexpectedly at the young age of 50.

---

As you can imagine, I was not okay. Postpartum alone is such a heavy transition.  Grieving the loss of my mom has been a long, heavy journey. One I have come to accept will not end as long as I am here on this Earth. It definitely sparked my need to do something big. Something big for myself and in her memory. I chose to run the Cleveland Marathon because of the weekend it fell on the calendar. May 18, 2025. The weekend in between the first Mother’s Day without her and the 1-year anniversary of her death. May 2025 was an emotional month. Lots of tears were shed and lots of miles were ran. 26.2 on one specific day.

I had planned throughout my whole training to run the marathon by myself, but the week of the race, a Facebook post popped up in my sister’s timeline. A runner couldn’t run and was giving his bib away! We snagged it right away for my husband, Zach. I honestly couldn’t believe he was up for the challenge because he was already signed up to run the Spartan Ultra the day before which is a 50k (31.07 miles) AND 60 obstacles. So, yes, he ran over two marathons in two days back-to-back. That’s true love. I was so thankful that I had him by my side the race. I like to think nothing would have been different, but I have a feeling there would have been a lot more bathroom stops if I would have ran alone. Maybe, maybe not.

It was amazing at the starting line early that morning. A total vibe. Everyone was excited and ready to start & knock out those pre-race jitters. It was a chilly morning and we both started with long sleeves before giving them the toss literally after mile 1. It’s nice because all the clothing tossed during the race is donated. Definitely don’t wear something nice if you plan to toss it because you will never see it again.

There we are, in the long sleeves. Looking calm, cool, and collected during the first mile!

This quote was playing over and over in my head all morning.

The next line from Billy Beane is “Hey, anything worth doing is!”

-Moneyball

Zach has run several Marathons and Ultra-marathons and I just felt like he was definitely Brad Pitt’s character in that quote. And if he’s ever telling anyone in the future that it’s not that hard to run marathon, I’ll be there to tell them truth, that “it’s incredibly hard”. But the end of that quote is also true and that they should definetly run a marathon.

There was an aid station and restrooms roughly every two miles. The only issue was that the restrooms always had a line and the aid stations were always out of gels because we were running slower than the bulk of the crowd. Luckily, I packed enough for the whole race in my running shorts. We did stop to get water & electrolytes at all 14 stations and I ate one-two Honey Stinger gels every 30 minutes. This was a smart move long-term and the one thing I am most proud of because I never hit a wall. Keeping up on my fuel will make or break a run for me so it was definitely something that I practiced while training to avoid my blood sugar dropping two low.  After, we split from the half-marathon runners it was less crowded, no lines, and there were gels at aid stations so we grabbed a few caffeinated Gu gels.

Running through the different neighborhoods was so much fun and helped keep my mind occupied. We ran by a lot of the major Cleveland attractions and honestly, the crowds were amazing! The signs were so entertaining and just made the whole experience a blast. There was one sign that had the mushroom from Mario Brothers and read “tap here to power up”. Of course, we tapped the sign and the recording of the sound of Mario growing in size went off. It was the single best nostalgia moment. At mile 18, there was a runner influencer I follow on Instagram (@belowaveragerunning) cheering us on! There was another group of people holding a sign that read “tap for power” and I moseyed on over to give it a tap (it was out of my way) and when I did all 20 of those people leaped into the air and started cheering so loud. It was a blast and literally gave me power to keep going. And then we had something happen that just proved we were on the right path. On our drive to Cleveland the night before, I shared a story about my mom with Zach that I had never told anyone else. Basically, there was person on a front porch with a loud horn. After we ran by the Christmas Story House, there was a person… on a front porch… with a loud horn…we both looked at each other…Mom was definitely with us.

My cousin was working an aid station through University Hospitals between Miles 20-21. We saw him again after we looped back around between miles 22-23 which was so nice! There is something about people who know your name and high five you as you run by. It helped give us the extra boost to finish strong. If you ever get a chance to cheer on Marathon runners, I highly recommend! You could help someone achieve a bucket list goal!

I know I didn’t hit a wall, but after mile 23 my body really started to hurt, especially my legs. My toe was throbbing and I could feel the blister. I knew that if I stopped it would be so hard to get started again and I really didn’t want to walk at all. I only had 3 miles to go. My favorite affirmation when running is “Forward is a pace.” While I want a faster pace, it’s more important for me to listen to body so we slowed it down slightly and coasted until we hit mile 25. I got a second wind and reminded myself why I was running in the first place. I was running for my mom. Every step I took was one she never could. She got me to the finish line where my sister had our son. I ran over and squeezed his little body and we trotted across the finish line for the first time, as a family of three.

I am so amazed with my body and myself. Not only because I ran 26.2 miles straight, I ran to build a base mileage postpartum for 6.5 months, I trained heavy duty for 16 weeks straight, and all while grieving the death of the woman who gave me life and breastfeeding my first child for approximately 2700 hours.

The human body is amazing. But the bodies of mothers, that is remarkable.

I will not lie to you. There were multiple times I thought to myself,

“What am I even doing?!”

“This is so hard.”

 “I have no time.”

“Why didn’t I do this before I had a baby?!”

There were a lot of late-night treadmill runs, countless stroller runs which meant added weight, and so much sacrifice. So much dedication. I ran the first mile for my nephew, Beau, and the last mile for my mom, both in heaven. Everything in between, that was for me.

I am so thankful for my sister. She took the time to make signs and drive the kids up to Cleveland for the race! She even handed me my son so we could cross the finish line as a family.

You might be wondering if I would I ever run another marathon again?

The short answer is…Absolutely. In fact, I’ll be running the Akron Marathon this Friday!

I learned that I could do a lot more than I thought I could.

I’m sure that’s the case for you too. You might be thinking, “I can’t run a marathon.”

And my response would be…Yes, you can! You just won’t run one because you won’t put in the work. It’s not easy, but you totally can! & you should!

“You can tell me you won’t do something but don’t tell me you can’t.” -Jade Warshaw

I hope this post encourages you to do something you once said you couldn’t do. Whether it’s running a race, paying off debt, or completing a challenging degree program. You’ve got this!

Always,

Erikka