Jennifer, a reader, sent this wonderful letter about her successful completion of the marathon.

It went pretty good! I’m walking fine and I even went for a run tonight. Getting in or out of a chair or on/off the toilet is another story, lol. I finished in approximately 5:45, which takes into account a 7:30+ portapotty stop and a couple of detours to hug and scream at friends along the course. I’m not at all disappointed in my, but of course with all the distractions I’m sitting here going “I coulda easily been in the 5:30s, I’ll have to fix that next time” and I’m scheming and planning already.

You marathoners are a sick bunch of bastages, you know that? Yet I drank your koolaid anyway….

Here’s the one and only (horrendous) picture of me and the 6’6′ Australia firefighter who gave me my Tiffany necklace finisher medal.. and a picture a friend took at mile 8.5 as I ran towards her and her BF (whom I’d never met until that point) like a screaming banshee. The signage makes me laugh! I’m thinking of getting it as a tattoo, ROFL.

I’m just really glad to get this monkey off my back. I started running a few years ago after I stopped smoking and it was like.. “Let’s do a 5k”, I’d do it.. then set my sights onto a 10k, do it, etc.. I’ve been trying to conquer the marathon since 2004 – 3 unsuccessful fund raising attempts with Team in Training that I was forced to abandon and a random successful fund raising shot in the dark with very insufficient training later, it’s finally gone. Forever!!

3 years ago, I was almost 180 pounds. I’d had trouble on and off with weight since middle school, but I had kept it off for a good 10 years until 2005 when somehow what I had vowed would never happen again did, and I was back in size 14-16 jeans. Even a year and a half ago when I first joined my current running group, it took me over an hour to do a 4 mile run because I kept ducking into portapotties during the run and pulling down my pants to make sure my legs weren’t frostbitten (it was my first full winter in Minnesota and the winter running clothes I had bought while living in NY and VA didn’t quite work). All that crap later, I am finally a MARATHONER!