3rd Marathon under my belt! Hallelujah it's over! :) It was rough, it was fun, and YES, I will definitely do it again!
Here is my usual play by play. I don't expect that anyone actually cares, but when I'm gearing up for #4, I'll love looking back on this, just as I have my other two!
Pre-race night: Had my superstitious pasta dinner with Drew (I have run ONE race since high school without have pasta the night before and the race went horribly!). Got all my gear out and ready and hopped in bed by 9! Maddux came in around 1:30 with a nightmare, high fever, and coughs. Drew was a gem and took him out on the couch after a couple of hours so I could get some much needed sleep.
Morning: Lauren, who I owe OH so very much, picked my friend Cindy and I up and drove us to the light rail station at 6am. It took us right to our starting lines. I had just enough time to wait my turn for the PortaPotty before jumping into my corral (5). Then they announced they would be postponing the start by 15 minutes. 15 minutes later, they postponed it again another 10 minutes!!
Morning: Lauren, who I owe OH so very much, picked my friend Cindy and I up and drove us to the light rail station at 6am. It took us right to our starting lines. I had just enough time to wait my turn for the PortaPotty before jumping into my corral (5). Then they announced they would be postponing the start by 15 minutes. 15 minutes later, they postponed it again another 10 minutes!!
Race time:
Mile 1-2: Garmin GPS wasn't working! I pushed start as I crossed the starting line, looked down a few seconds later and my time was working, but not my pace or distance! I fiddled with the dang thing for 1.5 miles before I got it working! I was in panic mode. On the plus side, the distraction got me off to a good, fast start.
Mile 4: Took my first of four salt packets. I've NEVER done this in a race before and omigosh, it made the biggest difference! I was running between 8:35-8:45 pace
Mile 5-9: I don't remember much except my favorite sign on the course -"THIS IS THE WORST PARADE EVER!!" I was still averaging about 8:45.
Mile 10: All of a sudden I got a horrible, horrible sharp pain in my hamstring insertion (right behind the knee). I realized at this point that in my rush to make it to my corral (before the postponements), I had stopped and stretched my hamstring and only took the time to stretch the one side that gives me trouble. Well, idiot me...I stretched the wrong flippin side! Not sure how big of a difference it would have made, but it was really killing me. I was limping. At 10.5, I stopped, laid on the sidewalk, threw my leg up on a light post and stretched it out. The 4:00 pacer passed me while I was down and I was devastated, as it had been my goal to stay in front of them! I had slowed to about 9:15 or 9:20 just because of the pain. My lungs and heart felt great!
Mile 11-16: My body was feeling great! REALLY great, except my #!$@% hamstring. I made promise after promise to Heavenly Father that if I could just finish the race...if the pain could go away until 12:30...etc. Took more salt packets, shot blocks, water, oranges, and Gatorade...not at the same time.
Mile 16: Best part of my entire race!! My unofficial coach, running-mom, and new friend Jenny Lynn jumped in with me and started pushing me along. She suggested that I take the two IB Profin I had in my belt (duh! Seriously!? I couldn't think of that one on my own!? I'm so dumb!) to help my hamstring.
Mile 17-20: Hamstring pain gone. Finally I could give it my all and catch the 4:00 pacer! Jenny coaches and says, wait till mile 20...so glad! I enjoyed these two miles and started high 5-ing the kids and spectators. I was feeling great! Jenny: "Stop high 5-ing the dang kids and save your energy!!!". Yes ma'am. ;) I told her how much I loved high 5-ing people and so she said she would do the honors for me...and she did! She hit everyone with their hand out! That's love! Did I mention I was feeling GREAT?
Mile 20: Starting to inch closer to the 4:00 pacer. We decide if we speed up, just a bit, to 8:55 I could catch them and finish under 4! Piece of CAKE! All I have is a 10k left. Jenny kept saying "Turkey trot! Turkey trot! That's all we have left is the turkey trot!"
Mile 21: WALL!!!!!!!!! Sprinting as fast as my legs will move, everything I've got, surely I'm running an 8:30 and going to pass the girl in the dang tutu I'm trying to catch. Oh...nope...9:30...darn!
Mile 21-25: So over it. It seriously took every ounce of motivation that I could muster to put one foot in front of the other. And who the heck put a HILL at mile 24 anyway?!!? If Jenny wasn't right next to me, I would have walked. For sure. Tutu girl and 4:00 pacer are inching farther and farther from view and I finally realize I have to let go of that goal. DANGIT! More salt, ShotBlocks, and GU.
Mile 26: Hamstring decides to make an untimely comeback. Owie. But it doesn't last for long and my adrenaline starts to pick up as the streets start filling with spectators and loud cheering! I started to get a little emotional and soaked it all in. All of a sudden it was all worth it! THIS is why I run. THIS is why I do this! Jenny bailed off right after the 26 mile mark. My mom, Drew, Maddux and Reese were on the side cheering me in! I could see the clock displaying the gun time and it said 4:03. I was pretty sure I crossed the start about 4 minutes after the gun, so maybe I had a chance at being under 4. Maybe!!
26.2: I SPRINTED in as fast as I could (this time I actually got moving to a 7:30 pace!) Since my watch didn't' work for 1.5 miles, I wasn't sure if I'd made it or not! The finish line was bliss. I kinda felt like a rock star when they read my name out as I crossed! ;)
Grabbed my medal, runner's blanket, banana, bagel, JambaJuice, got some pics taken, and went out to search for my family.
Drew ran over and hugged me and said, "Good job honey! I'm SO proud of you! 4:01:30!!! Good job!!" AAAAAHHHH!!!! I missed it by 1 minute and 30 seconds! Oh well. I'm totally thrilled because I improved my time by 37 minutes and I missed a few runs from being massively sick and in the ER. So, I can't complain.
Mile 4: Took my first of four salt packets. I've NEVER done this in a race before and omigosh, it made the biggest difference! I was running between 8:35-8:45 pace
Mile 5-9: I don't remember much except my favorite sign on the course -"THIS IS THE WORST PARADE EVER!!" I was still averaging about 8:45.
Mile 10: All of a sudden I got a horrible, horrible sharp pain in my hamstring insertion (right behind the knee). I realized at this point that in my rush to make it to my corral (before the postponements), I had stopped and stretched my hamstring and only took the time to stretch the one side that gives me trouble. Well, idiot me...I stretched the wrong flippin side! Not sure how big of a difference it would have made, but it was really killing me. I was limping. At 10.5, I stopped, laid on the sidewalk, threw my leg up on a light post and stretched it out. The 4:00 pacer passed me while I was down and I was devastated, as it had been my goal to stay in front of them! I had slowed to about 9:15 or 9:20 just because of the pain. My lungs and heart felt great!
Mile 11-16: My body was feeling great! REALLY great, except my #!$@% hamstring. I made promise after promise to Heavenly Father that if I could just finish the race...if the pain could go away until 12:30...etc. Took more salt packets, shot blocks, water, oranges, and Gatorade...not at the same time.
Mile 16: Best part of my entire race!! My unofficial coach, running-mom, and new friend Jenny Lynn jumped in with me and started pushing me along. She suggested that I take the two IB Profin I had in my belt (duh! Seriously!? I couldn't think of that one on my own!? I'm so dumb!) to help my hamstring.
Mile 17-20: Hamstring pain gone. Finally I could give it my all and catch the 4:00 pacer! Jenny coaches and says, wait till mile 20...so glad! I enjoyed these two miles and started high 5-ing the kids and spectators. I was feeling great! Jenny: "Stop high 5-ing the dang kids and save your energy!!!". Yes ma'am. ;) I told her how much I loved high 5-ing people and so she said she would do the honors for me...and she did! She hit everyone with their hand out! That's love! Did I mention I was feeling GREAT?
Mile 20: Starting to inch closer to the 4:00 pacer. We decide if we speed up, just a bit, to 8:55 I could catch them and finish under 4! Piece of CAKE! All I have is a 10k left. Jenny kept saying "Turkey trot! Turkey trot! That's all we have left is the turkey trot!"
Mile 21: WALL!!!!!!!!! Sprinting as fast as my legs will move, everything I've got, surely I'm running an 8:30 and going to pass the girl in the dang tutu I'm trying to catch. Oh...nope...9:30...darn!
Mile 21-25: So over it. It seriously took every ounce of motivation that I could muster to put one foot in front of the other. And who the heck put a HILL at mile 24 anyway?!!? If Jenny wasn't right next to me, I would have walked. For sure. Tutu girl and 4:00 pacer are inching farther and farther from view and I finally realize I have to let go of that goal. DANGIT! More salt, ShotBlocks, and GU.
Mile 26: Hamstring decides to make an untimely comeback. Owie. But it doesn't last for long and my adrenaline starts to pick up as the streets start filling with spectators and loud cheering! I started to get a little emotional and soaked it all in. All of a sudden it was all worth it! THIS is why I run. THIS is why I do this! Jenny bailed off right after the 26 mile mark. My mom, Drew, Maddux and Reese were on the side cheering me in! I could see the clock displaying the gun time and it said 4:03. I was pretty sure I crossed the start about 4 minutes after the gun, so maybe I had a chance at being under 4. Maybe!!
26.2: I SPRINTED in as fast as I could (this time I actually got moving to a 7:30 pace!) Since my watch didn't' work for 1.5 miles, I wasn't sure if I'd made it or not! The finish line was bliss. I kinda felt like a rock star when they read my name out as I crossed! ;)
Grabbed my medal, runner's blanket, banana, bagel, JambaJuice, got some pics taken, and went out to search for my family.
Drew ran over and hugged me and said, "Good job honey! I'm SO proud of you! 4:01:30!!! Good job!!" AAAAAHHHH!!!! I missed it by 1 minute and 30 seconds! Oh well. I'm totally thrilled because I improved my time by 37 minutes and I missed a few runs from being massively sick and in the ER. So, I can't complain.
I'm so grateful for my family and friends because I totally would have quit training and/or the race if it weren't' for them!
PS- I'm sore as heck right now.
A few iphone snapshots until the official race pics come out...
PS- I'm sore as heck right now.
A few iphone snapshots until the official race pics come out...
