Thursday, October 9, 2008

Marathon post: part 2

When I look back at it, I think that the most successful part of the first half of the marathon was mental. I didn't let the fact that I had only 1 (unsuccessful) 20 mile run 2 weeks prior bother me, I didn't let the fact that I didn't have any sleep bother me, and I didn't even want to mention to anybody that I had a "tight" gut! For some reason, my stomach was really uneasy. Not quite feeling nauseas, but feeling like if I did anything wrong I would be in trouble.

Sarah and I took our time getting to the start line. I bet there were only about @100 people behind us when the gun horn went off. In fact we were so far back we only assumed that the marathon had started because it was 8:05 when we looked at our watches wondering "has it started"?

We started!

There isn't much to say to be honest. I remember that I was having fun. I was taking in the atmosphere, looking around at the spectators, the buildings, the streets that I have driven by so much but am unable to really look at while driving. I remember, "hey, were close to the Wedge" (food coop) and man I hate driving on this street (Lyndale). I remember seeing a man playing the tuba, not realizing it was Alan Page! I remember loving the spectators along the course. The crowd was so different than my 1/2 mary in Arizona last January. I don't know how to explain it except that it was more personal. Yes, Phoenix RnR had a band every mile and there were plenty of spectators, but Twin Cities had musicians along the path that were there by choice and the spectators were actively cheering for everybody, not just the person that they were out there for in the first place. I knew that I had made the right choice for my first marathon. And I knew then that this will be a marathon I want to do over and over again.

I started with a throw away sweatshirt on. I took it off at around mile 2 but kept it in my arms for awhile. It was kind of weird, but when it started raining really hard, I didn't want to let it go. I had it tucked in my arm like a football and it provided a little warmth and as strangely as it may sound a little security for me. I did finally set it on the side of the road when we had a bathroom break at mile 8 which means I carried that thing 6 miles.

The first 11 miles went awesome. I was running at just the right pace to not even remotely feel tired and I was thinking to myself, I could do this all day! My stomach remained uneasy but I was able to keep that under control. My right foot/ankle hurt but that is to be expected (from me) when I don't have the miles in. My right achilles was a little tight too, but everything was just at an awareness level. I was aware of it, but it just wasn't having any effect on me.

Mile 1: 9:34
Mile 2: 9:54
Mile 3: 10:39
Mile 4: 10:04
Mile 5: 10:06
Mile 6: 10:03
Mile 7: 10:06
Mile 8: 12:22 (3 minute bathroom break with Sarah. well not with her, she was in the next stall, come on people)
Mile 9: 9:59
Mile 10: 9:51
Mile 11: 10:03
Mile 12: 11:58 (stopped for Laura, Greg, Erik and the Mom)(and shot bloks)
Mile 13: 10:16

Ooops, those shot bloks don't feel so good! My stomach was acting up. This was never an issue with training and I was a little freaked. But with water only and a little time it subsided. Why is my left ankle and knee hurting? The pain is never on the left side, always on the right!

Mile 14: 10:29
Mile 15: 10:09
Mile 16: 10:54
Mile 17: 10:08
Mile 18: 10:48

Ok, you may have noticed that a couple of those miles really slowed down. I was lucky to have Sarah as a running partner because she is a great person. But these miles, I was lucky to have her because having the partner is how I was able to rebound some and keep going through mile 18. By this time, I was really hurting on the left side (again, why with the left today?). I was really tight in my ankle, my knee and the psoas muscle. The psoas muscle is comes from the front of your help, through the pelvis and attached to your tailbone/ aka, part of the lower back. So yes, my lower back hurt quite a bit too.

I had to let Sarah go (go Sarah, they'll get me first and you can escape)!
I think that she knew I was having trouble. I was quite talkative the first 13ish miles and then I was quiet and running behind her instead of next to her. It was about mile 18.6 on my Garmin (which was about .3 mile ahead of the course?) when I stopped and told her to go. She was reluctant at first but I relented. I wasn't giving up, but I knew that my pace was over and that I would only slow down the multiple marathoner for the rest of the course. I walked for a little bit @18 minute pace and then came upon some porta-potties. I stretched while in line and that really felt better. The line was taking too long so I turned around to start running again and there was IronJenny. So I ran with her up the hill of the Franklin bridge and at the start until she wisely decided to keep going faster.

Mile 19: 13:33
Mile 20: 14:43
Mile 21: 14:30

I actually ran @ 7/10ths of mile 20 and Mile 21. At this point I was thinking about how to keep this a sub 5 hour marathon. I didn't want it to be more than 5 hours.

You can't always get what you want!

3 comments:

  1. Given your season, it is impressive you even kept things up so well until Mile 18!

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  2. I'm so glad you chose to run this one, but I wish I had known that you'd decided to do it (somehow I never understood what side of the fence you were leaing?) Borsch and I were running your pace, we totally could have run together! What an amazing accomplishment after the summer you had - a little motivation for the next one :). The crowd was definitely down this year, but as usual, they were amazing. Hope to toe the line with you again soon!

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  3. BUT you never gave up. You persevered. YOU ARE A MARATHONER. And also a rock star. :)

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