We had a much faster race in us, but it just didn't work out on marathon day. That's kind of a difficult thing to stomach when you've spent so much time training and knew a better race could have/should have happened. But at the same time, that was also a nice thing to remember. The training was real and good. And improvement was marked. Those accomplishments don't change just because of the race not lining up for us on the day.
The beginning of the race was super. We easily clicked along at 10:30 - 10:25 pace. My breathing was effortless. Everything felt pretty good, though I can't say I felt really ready for the race. I was tired and felt heavy/sluggish. I also was having a hard time concentrating on running. But I figured if we could hold that pace, we'd be set up pretty well for making it around 4:30. Our spectators were awesome. Shawn, Greg and Jannelle had a boombox and were dancing Gangnam Style when we saw them. It was so fun - everyone loved them. I was relieved they were having so much fun and helping to make the day great for so many people.
Somewhere in German Village, my knee started hurting. I kept finding the flattest parts of the road to not put extra strain on it. It was a very faint "hey...I'm here" kind of hurt. I was worried though. By mile 13, it was a full on, debilitating hurt, like the way it hurt at the end of our first 20 miles. I was really mad. Why now? I expected it at mile 20 and I was fully prepared to suffer for 6.2 miles. But at the half? My mind was yelling at me: you can't limp for 13 miles. So then I just decided to ignore it. I thought, the pain is here, but there's nothing I can do about it except pretend it's not, so let's see if that works. It didn't really work. I stopped to stretch, and while stretching felt good, it didn't help the knee. Grimacing and wincing, my pace slowed. I was so mad and disappointed. And I was upset to slow down Casey and Jenny. I resolved that I'd walk every water stop, but that wasn't enough. I tried different shuffling/running strides to try to make my knee loosen up, but it never did. There were just waves of it hurting more at some times than others. On top of that, I had a weird nausea thing happen. My jaw and neck tightened up as if I was going to throw up. I shuffled along wide-eyed, thinking about what it would be like to vomit in front of all the people along the course. Then my stomach cramped and I tooted a bit...and totally thought I did more than toot. Ug. Soon after that, my hip tightened up, from all of the limping/odd running stride I had taken on thanks to my knee.
Meanwhile, Casey's chest cold started to wreak havoc on his breathing. He had to stop to walk to catch his breath, and it just got worse. I imagine there was a lot of pain and uncomfortable struggle to breathe properly. And I can't imagine what it was like trying to run 26.2 miles with that cold! I wish he had been able to go into the marathon feeling a lot better than he did.
And so we continued our slow trek to the finish line :) I remember wanting to drop out. I remember also thinking that there was no way I could go another mile back at mile 13 but realizing I had made it 3 more at mile 16. And what finally brought me to my senses was the thought of crossing the finish line. Eventually we started playing the running walking game. Let's run to that stoplight. Ok now let's walk to that traffic cone... This got us through a couple of miles. Then we saw Shawn, Greg and Jannelle around mile 25. Shawn ran with us, carrying the boombox blaring Gangnam Style. That lifted spirits a lot. But we still had to stop before the final half mile. I think we ran the entire final half...I remember getting to 26. Only 2 more minutes... :)
Thankfully the final stretch is downhill and lined with people. My name was still sticking to the front of my shirt in medical tape and quite a few people yelled it. They sounded so genuine...I think people do have a sense of what the 5 hour plus marathoners are going through! We shuffled our way down the hill at what felt like a decent clip and finished in 5 hours and 21 minutes. That was way off my 4:30 goal and slower than my first marathon that I was less prepared for. But. We finished a marathon. That's a huge accomplishment!
I am in more pain now than I've ever been in post any race. I can't walk far before I start limping. Everything in my legs hurts. But I'm sure it will get better soon. I'm hoping to spin Thursday...easy. I was hoping to convince Jannelle to walk with me tomorrow instead of yoga but I'm not even sure I'll be able to do that, which is crazy. This race really beat me up.
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| Casey, me and Jenny...the marathon finishers! |
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But of course, because I'm me, I'm already thinking about what's next.
I thought I'd want to do the Pig in the spring. I feel like I'm in such great shape right now and thought I'd just keep it up. I do...but in a different way. This race has kinda made me want to work on some other running things rather than distance right now. I'm not saying I'll never do another marathon. But I want to get faster right now. That's what has been so fun. Throughout the 22 weeks, I have gotten quite a bit faster. Figuring out the asthma was huge, as was my calf knots. I didn't really work on speed during the marathon training. I worked on consistency, and that in turn made me a better runner who got faster. Well...now it's time for some work on speed within that consistency. I'd like to see what I can do. Maybe even race some people :) I am so competitive...I'd LOVE to be able to be competitive doing something I love!
So...first rest rest rest. The remainder of the week will be trying to be able to walk again. And then hopefully spinning easy on Thursday followed by more walking.
Next week I'll see about running a mile. I don't want to injure myself like I did after my first marathon. It took a few months to get back to it after that which was horrible. I'll try a mile and see how that goes. Then make it up to 2. Then 3. Once I feel normal running again, I'll run 3's consistently for a while.
Then, maybe by December, I can start some speed work. Maybe I'll do a 5K test to use as a benchmark. Map out a 3.1 mile run and run it as fast as I can one weekend, or do the Jingle Bell run. Also what I KNOW will be key is I need to do strength. Must must.
So that's the loose plan for now!
The marathon... it was a fantastic time, despite its challenges. Another wonderful marathon memory has been made, and it's a very very happy one.
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