My Marathon
So my marathon was on Sunday. Been rather stressing about it for the past month. My last few training runs had gone rather horribly, or hadn't happened at all. I just did not feel properly prepared for it. The most I'd done before this had been 18 miles, and that was with very many long walk breaks toward the end.
So I went into this race, trying not to vomit from nerves with some rather lofty goals actually. Goal #1 was just to finish. Ideally, I would walk each water station, but run the rest. Goal #2 was to finish in under 5 hours. I figured I did my Pikermi in 2:11, if I doubled that, it would be 4:22, plus almost 40 extra minutes. Why on earth I thought I could possibly hope to keep up that pace for the whole race is beyond me. Especially considering there was a water stop pretty much every mile, and I forced myself to walk every single one, even at the beginning, so I could force myself to not start too quickly.
At the starting line, I met Debbie. She had signed up for the 10K, but it started somewhere else, so she was going to run with us till she met up with her friends who were walking the Pikermi (and had started earlier) and then walk back with them. So she and I ran together for the first few miles and chit-chatted randomly which was nice. We were following these two guys who were nice enough to call out the pace we were going at each mile marker. Kept a fairly steady 10:30-ish minute pace for those first few. Then Debbie veered off to use a port-a-potty, and the two guys started to out pace me. I kept saying to myself "run your own race, not anyone else's" and forced myself to slow down and not try to push to keep up with the guys.
The course was gorgeous. Running through the Towpath Trail in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The leaves on the trees were nearly at peak color. The sun was out, but it wasn't too hot. It was in the 50s when the race started, and by the time I was done, it was in the 70s! The only sad thing were all the wollybear caterpillars and leetle baby snakes that had gotten trampled underfoot on the trail. Very sad. Other than that though, gorgeous scenery.
Miles that sucked: 2 (the second mile *always gets me, no matter what the distance), 6, 8 (just before the first turnaround), 13.1 (so disheartening to hit this and then realize you're only half way done), 18-26. Oddly enough, though I was going slower and it was getting progressively harder to start running again after a little walk break, that second half seemed to go by far more quickly than the first. Probably because there were less than 4 miles from the halfway point back to where we started, and the second out-and-back portion was considerably shorter than the first, so it was kind of like "4 miles to the start. 4.5 miles to the turnaround. 4.5 miles back to the finish." Much easier to handle it in sections like that.
Those last 8 miles... man. So I'd done 16 successfully before. And I'd done 18, although badly. So I knew I had to get to 18. And everyone talks about hitting a wall at 19, so I really wanted to get through 19. And I never actually did either of my 20 mile training runs, so then it was get to 20. Then, I calculated that the second turnaround would be at 21.5-ish. So then the challenge was to get to 22. At this point, I realized I had 48 minutes to run the remaining 4.2 miles to make my time goal of 5 hours. So then I started to push myself.
It was hard. REALLY FRIGGIN' HARD. And probably not the best idea. I think at around mile 24, I realized I was a minute behind where I needed to be to finish in under 5. I knew I couldn't make it up, but I also knew I had to keep going. I was *SO* close. This is where CrossFit came in handy though, especially that very last mile. I knew that in CrossFit you have these workouts that really really suck, but they're also usually really short. I kept telling myself that it was only 12 more minutes and I would be done. It really was all about pushing through the discomfort and trying to keep my mind in the game. 5 hours alone with nothing but your thoughts is a LONG-ASS time.
And then I came around the corner of a big shed, and the finish line was right there and it was over. I'd done it. 26.2 miles. And I only ever walked during the water stops. Part of me wanted to cry, but the other part of me was too elated and all smiles. There were hot tubs at the finish. At first, I dipped my legs into the hot one. Felt nice. Then, I went over to the cold one. It was really cold at first, but then it felt absolutely fabulous. I was exhausted, and slightly sore, but not in pain. Had somehow developed a wicked blister on the second-smallest toe of my left foot though. It had gotten under my other toe, and had been repeatedly pinched for those last 8 miles or so. Other than that though, I actually felt really good! No knee pain, no hip pain.
In the end, my official time was 5:02:52. I was a bit bummed that I'd missed my goal by such a small amount, but I'm still rather in disbelief that I actually did it. I *RAN* a marathon. 26.2 miles, and aside from small breaks that were only like 30-60 seconds, I RAN the whole damn thing. I'm still in shock about that.
Dork that I am, I'm wearing my race shirt and my finishing medal at work today. Hey, I earned it!
tl;dr Ran my first Marathon. Was totally successful. Time was 5:02:52.
So I went into this race, trying not to vomit from nerves with some rather lofty goals actually. Goal #1 was just to finish. Ideally, I would walk each water station, but run the rest. Goal #2 was to finish in under 5 hours. I figured I did my Pikermi in 2:11, if I doubled that, it would be 4:22, plus almost 40 extra minutes. Why on earth I thought I could possibly hope to keep up that pace for the whole race is beyond me. Especially considering there was a water stop pretty much every mile, and I forced myself to walk every single one, even at the beginning, so I could force myself to not start too quickly.
At the starting line, I met Debbie. She had signed up for the 10K, but it started somewhere else, so she was going to run with us till she met up with her friends who were walking the Pikermi (and had started earlier) and then walk back with them. So she and I ran together for the first few miles and chit-chatted randomly which was nice. We were following these two guys who were nice enough to call out the pace we were going at each mile marker. Kept a fairly steady 10:30-ish minute pace for those first few. Then Debbie veered off to use a port-a-potty, and the two guys started to out pace me. I kept saying to myself "run your own race, not anyone else's" and forced myself to slow down and not try to push to keep up with the guys.
The course was gorgeous. Running through the Towpath Trail in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The leaves on the trees were nearly at peak color. The sun was out, but it wasn't too hot. It was in the 50s when the race started, and by the time I was done, it was in the 70s! The only sad thing were all the wollybear caterpillars and leetle baby snakes that had gotten trampled underfoot on the trail. Very sad. Other than that though, gorgeous scenery.
Miles that sucked: 2 (the second mile *always gets me, no matter what the distance), 6, 8 (just before the first turnaround), 13.1 (so disheartening to hit this and then realize you're only half way done), 18-26. Oddly enough, though I was going slower and it was getting progressively harder to start running again after a little walk break, that second half seemed to go by far more quickly than the first. Probably because there were less than 4 miles from the halfway point back to where we started, and the second out-and-back portion was considerably shorter than the first, so it was kind of like "4 miles to the start. 4.5 miles to the turnaround. 4.5 miles back to the finish." Much easier to handle it in sections like that.
Those last 8 miles... man. So I'd done 16 successfully before. And I'd done 18, although badly. So I knew I had to get to 18. And everyone talks about hitting a wall at 19, so I really wanted to get through 19. And I never actually did either of my 20 mile training runs, so then it was get to 20. Then, I calculated that the second turnaround would be at 21.5-ish. So then the challenge was to get to 22. At this point, I realized I had 48 minutes to run the remaining 4.2 miles to make my time goal of 5 hours. So then I started to push myself.
It was hard. REALLY FRIGGIN' HARD. And probably not the best idea. I think at around mile 24, I realized I was a minute behind where I needed to be to finish in under 5. I knew I couldn't make it up, but I also knew I had to keep going. I was *SO* close. This is where CrossFit came in handy though, especially that very last mile. I knew that in CrossFit you have these workouts that really really suck, but they're also usually really short. I kept telling myself that it was only 12 more minutes and I would be done. It really was all about pushing through the discomfort and trying to keep my mind in the game. 5 hours alone with nothing but your thoughts is a LONG-ASS time.
And then I came around the corner of a big shed, and the finish line was right there and it was over. I'd done it. 26.2 miles. And I only ever walked during the water stops. Part of me wanted to cry, but the other part of me was too elated and all smiles. There were hot tubs at the finish. At first, I dipped my legs into the hot one. Felt nice. Then, I went over to the cold one. It was really cold at first, but then it felt absolutely fabulous. I was exhausted, and slightly sore, but not in pain. Had somehow developed a wicked blister on the second-smallest toe of my left foot though. It had gotten under my other toe, and had been repeatedly pinched for those last 8 miles or so. Other than that though, I actually felt really good! No knee pain, no hip pain.
In the end, my official time was 5:02:52. I was a bit bummed that I'd missed my goal by such a small amount, but I'm still rather in disbelief that I actually did it. I *RAN* a marathon. 26.2 miles, and aside from small breaks that were only like 30-60 seconds, I RAN the whole damn thing. I'm still in shock about that.
Dork that I am, I'm wearing my race shirt and my finishing medal at work today. Hey, I earned it!
tl;dr Ran my first Marathon. Was totally successful. Time was 5:02:52.