Well, that's finally over. It was exciting and fun. The awesome factor wore off around mile 20 when my legs got sore and it was hard to keep my pace.
That's when I started pulling up all the good energy people had been sending me. Thank you to everyone who was so supportive.
Beautiful sunshine. Perfect temps almost the whole way. It warmed up toward the end, but that's to be expected around noon.
Already thinking about trying it again sometime. But for now, I'm just going to work on walking :-)
UPDATE: Here's a little more info about the race and how things went for me. I'm sorry if it drags on...I've read some of the other race reports on the blog, and there's no way this will be as well put together or eloquent...it's just going to be my ramblings
We parked maybe 1/2 a mile from the start. We'd driven most of the first 13 miles the day before, and were excited to be there for the run. Terri and I followed the same training program (with our own adjustments)...she did hers in MD and I did mine in NC. So we were together again for our first marathon. It was fun and exicting as we walked to the start line. We were making up songs to tunes that popped up in our mind.
"It's a beautiful day for a marathon, a beautiful day for a marathon, won't you run with me? Won't you please? Please, won't you please, run the marathon with me?" and "Rise, and shine, and we're gonna run today, rise, and shine, and we're gonna run today, Rise and shine and, we're gonna run today, all 26.2 miles."
I think the nervous energy was making us a little giddy/silly. It's good we weren't being too self conscious. We were both wearing striped pirate bandana hats with Mickey Mouse ears sticking out the top. At first we didn't see anyone else dressed up like a pirate. That was a little awkward. After hanging around the start line for a while, we saw a few stray pirates here and there...and one guy dressed up in an elf hat. Still not sure about that one.
We made it out of the port-a-potty just in time to stand for the national anthem. I was glad I didn't have to choose between the potty and being patriotic. There were really long lines, and the race was fixin' to start.
We found our corral, and were in the 3rd group to take off. It was so exciting. I started choking up a little, but swallowed hard. I didn't need a headache from crying at the start of the race! My emotions were just overwhelming. I was finally there. All of my focus for the last 3 months was for this moment (and the next 4 1/2 hrs of moments to come). Awesome feeling. My heart still swells thinking back on the emotions I was feeling.
We started out at a slow, warm up mile pace. 9:58 for the first mile. I was happy with it. My garmin was beeping to speed up, but I knew we'd be getting on our pace track soon, so I just let it beep. We had discussed the day before what we wanted to have for our pace goal, and what we wanted to set our garmins at for pace indicators. I had successfully run a 9:30 average 24 mile training run 3 weeks earlier. It was on a super flat course. I felt like I wanted to stay with that 9:30 pace. Terri expressed that she wanted to run a 9:20 pace because that's what the training program had said we could run. I wasn't feeling confident that I could do a 9:20 pace, but I was willing to try.
We set our watches to beep if we went over 9:00 or under 9:45. After the first mile, the next 8 miles were pretty flat, but really winding. We picked up an extra .25 miles somewhere in all of those turns in the first 4 miles. Not using our tangents correctly, I guess. That's how I ended up with 26.47 miles.
Miles 2-9, we started out at the pace I was comfortable with, but just got slower and slower. I found that I had to hold back a lot, and I figured that was good, because I didn't want to burn out later. But we were over our target time, over my goal pace time, and we kept getting slower. I was getting really tired of hearing the garmin beep at me. Paces for those miles were (9:32, 9:34, 9:36, 9:37, 9:45, 9:41, 9:45, 9:51). The folks who lived along the path were great. They were out cheering us on, and had water out for us if we needed it. It was so beautiful and fun. One group even had a couple different beers they were handing out if anyone wanted...it made me laugh. Some other house was giving out tomato juice...I didn't see the vodka with it, but I wondered if they were passing out bloody mary's. What a hoot. The inlet of water between Kill Devil Hills and Manteo was just beyond the houses to our right as we were running down the island. It was beautiful to see the water, and the plants that were growing on the shore. At one point, we ran through a huge field of the wild oat grass and reeds that grew there. It was picture perfect. The golden plants were at least 6 feet tall, and they were blowing in the wind. We could catch glimpses of the water occasionally through them. It was beautiful. At mile 8, we ran around the Wright Brother's Monument. It sits atop a big hill. Luckily, we just ran the perimeter of the hill. I took a picture of Terri on my cell phone to send to her hubby who wasn't able to be there. Then she took one of me, and a fellow runner saw what we were doing. He offered to take one of us together. How fun!
Miles 10-13 were in the woods. The first 2.5 were on packed dirt road with some pretty sandy spots along the way. It was full of hills too. I wasn't expecting that. I found that I was trying to run faster to keep the garmin from beeping at me, because I really wanted to make my goal pace. I would look back, and Terri was behind me, so I'd stop and run in place till she caught up with me. This happened the entire 2.5 miles on the dirt path. I think we were both frustrated. She was doing what she could, and I wanted to do what I could, but I didn't want to leave her behind. We've always stuck together for races. It was a huge conflict for me whether I should go on ahead or not. Our miles were (9:53, 10:21, 10:05, 10:35). When we finished mile 12, and I told her that we'd run it in 10:05, she said that she was going to stick to that pace for the rest of the race. She suggested I go on and run what I could, and she'd turn her ipod on and see me at the end. I spent a few minutes thinking about it and debating what I should do...there wasn't an easy answer. Finally, at mile 12.5, the trail turned into a narrow path that went up the side of hill. It was all just thick, soft mulch. That was a bugger! The longest 1/2 mile of the race. It slowed me down too. But I was moving on ahead, and I didn't see Terri after the 13 mile mark.
After mile 13, it was the familliar 1/2 marathon route that I'd run last year. It wasn't as fun running by myself, but I did feel like it was good that I had a chance to run with/for myself. I kind of came to the conclusion that running a marathon is a huge person struggle, especially at the end when you're tired and have to find that extra strength somewhere inside. People have told me that running a marathon is a really spiritual experience. I can see that now, and I think it was okay that I did it by myself. I learned a lot about myself in those last 4 1/2 miles.
I enjoyed the running into the neighborhoods and the cheering crowds. I took another pix of myself as I ran past the sand dunes. It's not easy to take pix on a cell phone while you're running. I'm glad I did it though. That was around mile 15. I sent the pix to my sister and to my friend Cori. My sister was in church & couldn't reply, but Cori did, and gave me some encouragement. It was great to have my phone to get the extra support. Around mile 20, I wasn't able to text and run at the same time. My fingers weren't working very well, so I had to put the phone away. The race was getting rough, and the bridge was still ahead.
I grabbed gu at each of the 4 gu stations they had. I'd brought enough with me, but I thought, hey, they're $1.20 each, so I'll get some free gu! (I think it was actually hammer gel). I'd started putting their gu in my pockets with my gu, and the weight was pulling my skirt down. So I put my gloves in my running bra in the front pocket, and tried to sandwich the gu in between them so they didn't rub my skin off. It didn't work perfectly, and I've got some wicked raw sores on my sternum now. But I've got my $4.80 worth of free gu!
Miles 14-21 paces were (9:39, 9:31, 9:43, 9:27, 9:38, 9:26, 9:31, 9:48). I was happy with those times; that's just where I wanted to be. I could tell around mile 21 I was getting tired. My legs started getting heavy and I could feel the pain creeping up in them. I was glad that I'd run on sore legs before. I was glad that RAD had told me that I should be prepared to run on sore legs. That way, I knew what was going on, and I knew I could just push on and keep going. I was grateful for my training and for the advice of my mentors.
Mile 22 was going up the bridge. I was in the mode to just keep moving, and I didn't really seem to have much control over my speed. It was going to be what it was going to be. I was trying so hard to just keep running up that hill. The 4:15 pace group passed me going up the bridge. I wanted so badly to be able to keep up with them, but after 30 seconds of trying, I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up with them, and I was okay with that. I knew I was doing my best, and the disappointment didn't last long. After the bridge, it was pretty flat through town to the finish line. I was obviously running slower. I can't believe how slow my mile 26 was. I didn't feel like my effort was a 10:50, but that's all I got for my effort. I tried sprinting the last .2 miles. I did increase my pace, but it wasn't a land speed record. I was glad I was able to run a little faster though.
Paces for 22-26.2 were (9:53, 10:10, 10:13, 10:11, 10:50, 9.16-for the .2)
I crossed the finish line, and I was so happy that I finished in 4:20. It worked out to just under a 10 mm pace. Mike was at the finish line to cheer for me - he'd just run the 1/2 and finished it in 2:05. I walked for a while at the end, and was thrilled that I didn't have any horrid leg cramps. All hail to Carolyn and her great suggestion for chicken noodle soup!
We waited in the corral for Terri. She finished in 4:44. I let her run in and then I hugged her. It was so wonderful to be there with her when she finished. We'd done it. It was amazing. It was great. For those few moments there in the corral, we'd conquered the world.
I can't wait to do it again.... | 