Twin Cities Marathon Reflection

Here's the little schpeal I wrote after my first marathon... enjoy!

My First Marathon…

OK, here goes. Brendan has such a knack for writing his little logs of his races, so I’m going to take a stab at it, too…

On Sunday, October 2, 2005 I ran my first ever marathon, something I’d thought about several times, but until this year never seriously considered doing. 26.2 miles! It’s a pretty amazing thing. Even until the start (and up through mile 11½… keep reading) I thought I was insane, I’ll be the first to admit it, and there was no way that I could or would ever run another one. However, now that it’s finished I can clearly see how these things are addicting. My official chip time was 4 hours 42 minutes and 22 seconds… the time on my watch was 4 hours 7 minutes and 7 seconds. Now, you are like, ok, how on earth is there a 35 minute difference between the two. Well, I stopped my watch at each water stop, bathroom stop and when I stopped to tie my shoe after the tag was starting to rub me around mile 15 or 16. Oh, and there was one more time around mile 11½, but I’ll get to that later. Now, here’s the play-by-play of what stood out.

The start: crazy! Just imagine 10,000 some odd people lined up (thankfully not single file, but still squished together like sardines) waiting to begin a race that can last up to 6 hours (the cut-off is 6 hrs)… old, young and in-between… I trained and began the race with my great friend Kaela so we were right there together at the start. I find it hilarious that I never felt a twinge of nervousness before or during my wedding, but was more nervous before this race/run than I had ever been in my life! So, in the starting chute, we were in-between a whole group of old people, and I’m not kidding about being old, they were in their 60’s and smelled like they just stepped out of a nursing home. Needless to say, being nervous and smelling this odor didn’t do wonders for my stomach, but I was determined to keep my breakfast down, I needed the calories and didn’t need the embarrassment. The 1st heat (the AMAZING runners) started what seemed to be about 3-5 minutes before the 2nd heat, (the rest of us). Then there was the 5 minutes after that before we got to the starting line ourselves…

The first few miles were definitely overwhelming, people were running so close to each other, there were huge cracks in the street where I nearly bit it several times, but thankfully didn’t. At about mile 2 or 2½ Kaela and I were separated, I think for me it ended up being a good thing. I was then able to run at the pace that felt perfect to me and didn’t feel any pressure from anyone around me. I have learned that I really enjoy training with others, but racing needs to be on my own, an individual event and experience. I’ve found that when I run with others, we tend to push ourselves harder than we should or at least I should and I cramp up earlier than I should… when I felt my side starting to cramp up around mile 3 I knew it was a good thing that I was running on my own because I was able to change my stride and pace and avoid the cramp worsening and it eventually went away. My next fear was getting sick… at my 20 mile race in early September I began getting physically sick at mile 10 ½ and continued to every few miles after that, I still don’t know how I finished that race! Ok, back to the marathon…

My plan was to eat 1/3 of an energy bar every 4 miles or so, because that’s how I trained, then I realized that the water stops were at miles 2½, 5, 7, 9… (odd numbered miles), but I decided to stick with the every 4 miles, for the time being. I made myself eat 1/3 of a bar at mile 4 or 4½ but I quickly realized that I needed water with the bar, they got so gooey in my mouth and were almost gagging me, so then I waited until the water stops. To be honest, I really don’t remember much between miles 2½ and mile 9 or 10 except that I saw Brendan at mile 4½ or so and that I also started seeing our friends Jen and Chris off and on starting at mile 2ish. I don’t exactly remember the next time I saw Brendan and his dad and brother… I remember that around mile 9 I was hoping I’d see them… it’d been about 4½ miles since the last sighting, so about 40 min. or so. *I was able to maintain about a 9 minute pace for about the first 10-11 miles. All I remember is that around mile 11 I started feeling REALLY sick, like I was going to toss my cookies… er… uh… Powerade :) I was so glad to see Chris and Jen at that point. They were SO positive and asked me what I needed and all I could say was “I think I need a bucket” and started pointing to my stomach. We were coming up to a bridge on the course, the best place for me to duck off to the side and take care of that problem. Jen biked up and was there for me with water to wash my mouth out and keep me positive. To be honest, my biggest fear at this point was for a race official or medic to see me and make me stop the race. I knew that I had just taken in too much fluid and after my side-line investigation of the wildlife I’d be fine. Thankfully, my prayers were answered… it just took a chunk of time (about 5-10 minutes) to get my nature walk finished. At this point, I was now back about 8-10 minutes from where I wanted to be, but I was just glad to keep going. Only 15 miles left, right?! (Was I actually thinking that?! ONLY 15 miles to go? Yes! Never did I think I would be placing “only” and “15 miles” together in a sentence when talking about running!)

SIDE NOTE: prior to and during the race I kept seeing a group of runners who had a bible verse written on their shirts… loosely it is “My strength comes through Him, from whom all things are possible…” This is what kept me going, and I’d say it over and over to myself when the thought of not finishing came into my mind… that and darn-it all, I wanted that finisher shirt! :)

After my little escapade around the ever mentioned mile 11½ the next thing I remember is making it to the ½ way point and then seeing Brendan, Bradley and Gary (brother and father-in-law), Jen and Chris around mile 14. Then the miles began to blur together until mile 17 when I was thinking, “Hey, I’ve run 17 miles, there less than 10 to go, heck there’s 9 to go.. I can do this!” Everyone’s right, it’s all a mental game… I had to keep it positive and not feeling sick or hurting made it pretty easy to keep it positive.

Then, around mile 19, I think, I saw a girl (probably my age or a little younger) limping along the sidelines and crying her eyes out (mascara all over her face!). I asked her if she was ok and she said yes, but then about 100 feet up I remembered that I had some electrolyte pills in my shorts pocket and I ran back to her and gave her a few, explained what they were and told her to take them with water. She thanked me and I was on my way… a little ways up I saw another woman, trying to run through the pain and I gave my last 2 pills to her. Then, around mile 20 I remember seeing a young couple embracing each other, the wife crying in pain… I said the only thing I could think of, which was “you’re doing great! You’ve made it 20 miles! You can walk the rest and still finish in about 5 hours” (based on the timer on my watch)… I was just trying to stay positive. They gave me a thumbs-up and I kept running.

Mile 21, I think, was when the tag in my shoe started bothering me… thankfully, I was able to get my shoe tied, and retied and retied and finally fixed by mile 22, when “the hill” that I’d heard so much about on Summit Ave. arrived. The funny thing, to me, is that about at the top of the hill I saw Brendan, Jen, Chris, Bradley, Gary and Brendan’s cousin Jeff. I either grabbed a quick drink from them or they ran next to me… I can’t remember which, but I asked Jeff (who ran the marathon in 2004) if this was “THE” hill and he said yes, and I started laughing because I was running it like it was a downhill. I had dreaded and feared this hill since last year [2004], when I ran the Twin Cities 10 mile race, where I ran the whole thing feeling like crap! From this point in the race, it was all “oh, only 4 miles to go, that’s about 36-38 minutes” then 3 miles… then 2 and then 1½, 1, ½ and then I hit mile 26!!! Only 0.2 miles to go, and ALL downhill! I kicked it up and sprinted as hard as I could to just before the finish. I remember Brendan kept trying to take a picture of me, but was yelling at me because I was going too fast for the digital camera to get me! HA! About 100 feet from the finish was an older woman (looking to be in her late 60’s) literally tripping/running backwards and spinning in slow circles and looking like she was about to collapse. All I could do was picture her tripping and falling backwards, landing first on her tailbone and then slamming her head into the pavement. I ran over to her and helped her to the side and then finished the race.

The first person I saw after finishing was Kaela… she had finished only 30 seconds or so in front of me! She had done the same thing I had near the finish, but helped an older man. He was cramping horribly and so she grabbed him by the arm and they walked in to the finish. I ran/hobbled over to Kaela, gave her the biggest hug and all I could do was cry and say that we did it.

All in all, I walked more than I wanted to… Probably a mile in all, which is better than I hoped to, but when I was able to run into the finish like I did, I knew I could have pushed it harder, especially the last few miles. Now I know what it’s like to be addicted to marathons… you always want to one-up yourself!

So, that’s my experience… I DID IT!!! I ran a marathon. Twenty-six point two miles! I smiled almost the whole way… then there was mile marker 11½ :)…HA!!! Thank you to everyone who was there to support me. I cannot thank you enough for the water, smiles, waves, words of encouragement, etc. See you next year… maybe… :)