The Pain And Agony
Lexx, don't read this post. I don't want to scare you away from marathons. Trust me, it is in your best interest not to read this. God or some other celestial being will kill a chinchilla if you read this post.
I just finished my 9th marathon. I could tell you that they get easier with each race. For the most part I would be telling the truth. This race however, set a new standard for pain. I'm fairly certain this race was more agonizing than my very first one back in 2005.
Now there were a few factors that played a part in this being an unpleasant race. The main one being that I really didn't train for this race. I really let the ball drop. My longest run since my last marathon in December was 12 miles...a far cry from the 20 miler I should have completed. The second factor was the fact that this race is NOT a friendly race for middle of the pack/slow runners. The marathon only consisted of about 400 runners. Most of them were fairly fast. There were no charity marathon runners....thus there were no confidence building slow runners/walkers for me to pass. I was the slow runner/walker that the speedy people were passing. Without the charity marathoners, very few people were running with the interval system. I found this extremely odd. I even got a few dirty looks when it came time to take a walk break. The third problem also deals with the race being so small. They didn't close down the whole street...or even half the street. We were expected to run on the side of the road with cars passing us. That wouldn't have been a problem if they were consistent with what side of the street they wanted us to run on! Without fail the aid station seemed to be on the side of the road that we were not. At one point we had to cross a busy street...no crosswalk...no light...no person directing traffic.
From now on I will try to stick to larger marathons. I enjoy them more. I enjoy the crowds. I enjoy the cheering. The smallest race I would want to do is Anchorage Alaska. That was a small race, but it was a lot bigger than this one...and it worked quite well for me.
This also makes me question whether or not I can get involved in ultra races. Most of those are even smaller than this race. If I feel best when I'm around more people, then that might not be a good avenue for me. I want to eventually run further than 26.2 miles though. Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Perhaps if I had trained better I wouldn't have been as downhearted about the lack of participants.
Now that I've said all the bad things, let me tell you about the rest of the race. I knew Team In Training was not going to be at this race. I wore my TNT singlet because I knew some people would recognize it. I got 3 "Go Team!" calls! Those always perk me up. Hey, I gotta represent! The people who were familiar with TNT got very excited at the sight of my singlet.
At one point in the race, the street went through a field of fruit trees. I heard a low hum. I looked around and saw 3 boxes. Teeheee. I know whats in there! The Buzz-Buzz!!!!
The countryside was beautiful. Horses. Cows. Fields. Dense Trees. Very different from what I'm used to.
As usual I collected a runner during my run. It was her first time and she immediately liked the idea of my interval method. We ran the rest of the race together. The last few miles she had trouble keeping up. I slowed down because I was in such bad pain, I didn't want to be alone. I tried not to let it show. I felt like I needed to be strong and encouraging for my new friend. At one point she fell behind. I sped up a little bit and called Brian to tell him how bad I was hurting. As soon as she caught up I tried to smile again.
As we crossed the finish line her daughter and daughter's friend came running out. I grabbed her hand and the four of us ran across the finish line together. The announcer called our names and where we were from. He then said, "They sure look happy to be finished, and I'm happy too." Yes, I know we're slow. Don't worry, there are not too many people behind us. You can go home soon.
Once I finished I was given a free massage. A local massage school had set up a huge stand to accommodate the runners. It felt nice. I mentioned to my massage girl (I don’t know how to spell the proper name and I don't want to look it up) that my sciatic nerve had hurt me for the majority of the race. Her response was, "Oh, that's not good." Guess I'll be making an appointment with Dr. Smith soon. I don't want to end up like my former TNT mentor Amber. She had to stop running for more than a year due to a sciatic injury.
Anyway, that's my day so far. Right now Brendan is cooking us up some steaks. Mmmmmmmm. So Hungry.
Although I questioned why I bother running marathons during this race, I look forward to The Nike Women's Marathon this year. I really hope to PR (personal record). It will be my third time doing that marathon. Despite the fact that its a difficult race to PR at, I think I have a shot. Especially if I focus on training really hard between now and then. But for right now, I rest.
I just finished my 9th marathon. I could tell you that they get easier with each race. For the most part I would be telling the truth. This race however, set a new standard for pain. I'm fairly certain this race was more agonizing than my very first one back in 2005.
Now there were a few factors that played a part in this being an unpleasant race. The main one being that I really didn't train for this race. I really let the ball drop. My longest run since my last marathon in December was 12 miles...a far cry from the 20 miler I should have completed. The second factor was the fact that this race is NOT a friendly race for middle of the pack/slow runners. The marathon only consisted of about 400 runners. Most of them were fairly fast. There were no charity marathon runners....thus there were no confidence building slow runners/walkers for me to pass. I was the slow runner/walker that the speedy people were passing. Without the charity marathoners, very few people were running with the interval system. I found this extremely odd. I even got a few dirty looks when it came time to take a walk break. The third problem also deals with the race being so small. They didn't close down the whole street...or even half the street. We were expected to run on the side of the road with cars passing us. That wouldn't have been a problem if they were consistent with what side of the street they wanted us to run on! Without fail the aid station seemed to be on the side of the road that we were not. At one point we had to cross a busy street...no crosswalk...no light...no person directing traffic.
From now on I will try to stick to larger marathons. I enjoy them more. I enjoy the crowds. I enjoy the cheering. The smallest race I would want to do is Anchorage Alaska. That was a small race, but it was a lot bigger than this one...and it worked quite well for me.
This also makes me question whether or not I can get involved in ultra races. Most of those are even smaller than this race. If I feel best when I'm around more people, then that might not be a good avenue for me. I want to eventually run further than 26.2 miles though. Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Perhaps if I had trained better I wouldn't have been as downhearted about the lack of participants.
Now that I've said all the bad things, let me tell you about the rest of the race. I knew Team In Training was not going to be at this race. I wore my TNT singlet because I knew some people would recognize it. I got 3 "Go Team!" calls! Those always perk me up. Hey, I gotta represent! The people who were familiar with TNT got very excited at the sight of my singlet.
At one point in the race, the street went through a field of fruit trees. I heard a low hum. I looked around and saw 3 boxes. Teeheee. I know whats in there! The Buzz-Buzz!!!!
The countryside was beautiful. Horses. Cows. Fields. Dense Trees. Very different from what I'm used to.
As usual I collected a runner during my run. It was her first time and she immediately liked the idea of my interval method. We ran the rest of the race together. The last few miles she had trouble keeping up. I slowed down because I was in such bad pain, I didn't want to be alone. I tried not to let it show. I felt like I needed to be strong and encouraging for my new friend. At one point she fell behind. I sped up a little bit and called Brian to tell him how bad I was hurting. As soon as she caught up I tried to smile again.
As we crossed the finish line her daughter and daughter's friend came running out. I grabbed her hand and the four of us ran across the finish line together. The announcer called our names and where we were from. He then said, "They sure look happy to be finished, and I'm happy too." Yes, I know we're slow. Don't worry, there are not too many people behind us. You can go home soon.
Once I finished I was given a free massage. A local massage school had set up a huge stand to accommodate the runners. It felt nice. I mentioned to my massage girl (I don’t know how to spell the proper name and I don't want to look it up) that my sciatic nerve had hurt me for the majority of the race. Her response was, "Oh, that's not good." Guess I'll be making an appointment with Dr. Smith soon. I don't want to end up like my former TNT mentor Amber. She had to stop running for more than a year due to a sciatic injury.
Anyway, that's my day so far. Right now Brendan is cooking us up some steaks. Mmmmmmmm. So Hungry.
Although I questioned why I bother running marathons during this race, I look forward to The Nike Women's Marathon this year. I really hope to PR (personal record). It will be my third time doing that marathon. Despite the fact that its a difficult race to PR at, I think I have a shot. Especially if I focus on training really hard between now and then. But for right now, I rest.