When runners gathered and lined up at the starting line, freshman Cameron Paladino prepared his body and mind for the challenge in front of him.  His nerves grew before the 7 a.m. start.  There was no turning back now. The time had come, and he had to finish.  

On Feb.14, Valentine’s Day, Paladino competed in the 26.2-mile Austin Marathon.

“I’ve always wanted to run the Austin Marathon,” Paladino said. “I knew it would be a lot of fun.”

It was Paladino’s first marathon, and he wanted to start running marathons at a young age.

He is on the cross country team as well as soccer and plays saxophone in the Wind Symphony.

Participants included both recreational runners and those trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  Paladino finished in 3 hours 45 minutes which is only 40 minutes more than the Boston Marathon qualifying time of 3 hours five minutes.

To his knowledge there were no other students that ran, but he knew of a few teachers that ran the half-marathon and some students who volunteered at the event.

The Austin Marathon has live music from local rock band along the marathon route to keep runners motivated along the route that included some must see areas of Austin such as Lady Bird Lake, Congress Av, the UT campus, the State Capitol complex.

The marathon started at the 100 Block of Congress Av. at W. 2nd St, and finished right in front of the State Capitol Building.

Although he is on the cross country team, Paladino didn’t train during the three to four months leading up to the event. Cross country only practiced and competed during the fall season. Paladino was used to half-marathon distances, but not a full marathon.

“I was nervous,” Paladino said. “I had no idea if I was going to be able to make it.”

Paladino signed up for the marathon the first day sign-ups opened.  His dad was supposed to run with him, but cedar fever prevented him from running.  Even though he ran alone, Paladino didn’t feel alone.

“I loved how it was very interactive,” Paladino said. “Everybody was on the street. There was never a spot or big gap where there wasn’t people on the side of the road cheering you on.”

His dad has qualified for and ran in the Boston Marathon a few times before, so he has watched him run in many marathons before. Paladino wants to do more and more marathons and said he would definitely run in the Austin Marathon again.

Once Paladino got to the finish line, all these thoughts flooded his mind.  After running a marathon for almost four hours, you are physically and mentally drained, and most importantly; hungry.

“The first thing that popped into my mind was ‘I’m hungry’ and ‘I want food,’ but I felt good and I was like ‘I can’t believe I just did that.’” Paladino said. “ At mile 14 I wanted to quit, so I was actually very surprised. My body felt very weird, it wasn’t like pain, but I felt like I was floating almost.”

Paladino gave some helpful advice to future marathon runners out there.

“Never think about running when you’re running,” Paladino said, “Don’t think about how much pain you’re in, when the finish line is, or what you’re going to eat. Just think about something completely different because then the time will go by so much faster.”