I can’t believe I ran my first marathon just yesterday! It wasn’t the race I envisioned it to be when I first started thinking about it last October, but it was an awesome race nonetheless. I lovvvvvved every moment of it =) And unlike how I felt after the LB half last year, I can’t WAIT to start training for another one!
Special thanks go out to Raciel who stuck with me through 26.2 grueling miles. She made sure I ran on the flat areas, pointed out road hazards so I wouldn’t trip and fall, zapped me out of bouts of negative thinking, and gently pushed me to keep running when I thought I had nothing left in me. Thanks sooooooooooooooooooooo much Raciel! You rock!
Special thanks also go out to my family and friends who made the long drive down to San Diego to watch me finish my first marathon. Their love and support and the thought of seeing their smiling faces at the finish line are what helped keep me going when times were tough.
So, here’s the quick and dirty on the road leading up to the race and the race itself, by numbers =)
Training
- 4 training runs in January, 27 miles
- 6 training runs in February, 51 miles
- 2 training runs in March, 29 miles
- 6 training runs in April, 42 miles
- 6 training runs in May, 69 miles
- 4 weeks recovering from ITBS, knee injury (March-April), no running
Pre-Race
- 5, the number of hours I slept on Thursday night
- 4, the number of hours I slept on Friday night
- 2, the number of hours I slept the night before the race
- 8, the number of pasta/carb dishes I ate 3 days before the race
- 120oz of fluid guzzled 3 days before the race
- XX, the number of Jelly Belly Sport Beans/Shot Bloks freebies nabbed at the race expo ;)
Race
- 24 Shot Bloks consumed
- 5 Nuun tablets used
- 90oz of Nuun gulped
- .6 mi, the extra distance we ran from weaving
- 1 pair of arm warmers lost at around mile 5
- 1 rockin’ playlist!
- 67 degrees, the high that day – perfect running weather!
- 4, the number of times I hyperventilated
- 7, the number of times I teared up during the race
- 2, the number of times I went to the bathroom
- 11, the number of text messages I sent to family and friends
- 1,843,029,473,932, the number of times I thought, “Damn, this is hard!”
The Aftermath
- 1 banana
- 1 individual bag of peanut butter crunch chips
- 1 plate of loco moco mmmm
- 1 cup of vanilla iced coffee
- 1 plate of pork osso buco leftovers
- 1 ice bath
And here’s the slightly longer version ;)
Training
You can see from the numbers that I didn’t do nearly as much as I should have to prepare for the marathon. It was really a mix of a lot of things that were going on these last 5 months, from being in New York for a month during the brutal winter month of January, to the painful ITBS injury I suffered mid-March, to feeling disenchanted with running in general. The disenchantment was probably worse than running in 15 degree weather and ITBS combined.
After recovering from the injury mid-April, I had 4 weeks left to seriously train before I had to start tapering. Those four weeks were spent carefully treading a careful line between doing as much as I could to prepare myself to finish the marathon and trying to avoid reinjuring myself. In the end, I felt confident I could finish, but I pretty much knew that my time goals were out the window. Still, nothing wrong with hoping, right? =)
The Race
I was incredibly tired all of Saturday, but I still couldn’t sleep a wink the night before the race. I finally was able to drift off at around 1am but had to wake up at 3am. We made it to the start line at around 6 where I promptly stood in line for one last minute trip to the porta-potties.
Miles 1-10: These miles went by really, really fast. Energy was high and crowd support was awesome. However, around miles 4-7, I started to feel the effects of having had so little sleep. I could feel the tiredness behind my eyes and I wanted nothing more than to crawl off into bed and take a little nap… for a few hours. Raciel really helped me stay mentally strong. She told me to stay positive and not to psyche myself out. So, I kept telling myself that I wasn’t tired, that I felt good. Positive thinking really works! =) Hearing strangers yell your name also helps. I felt silly having my name stuck on my shirt, but I was glad for all the shout-outs, especially when I hit the later miles.
We also had a nice bathroom break around mile 5. I say nice because we were able use the bathroom in one of the restaurants in downtown SD. Yay for a real bathroom!
During this stretch, I was also stopping to stretch my left IT band every mile or so. It bothers me during every run, starting with mile 2.
The hardest part was running up Hwy 163, which didn’t have very much crowd support and had terrible, terrible slants. We did a lot of weaving from one side of the fwy to the other to make use of the flattest parts and to spare our legs unneeded stress.
Miles 11-15: I was still feeling pretty good around this time and stopping regularly to stretch my left IT band. But, when we started approaching mile 13, I got a little emotional thinking about how we had reached the halfway point and that this was the farthest I’d ever run in a race before… commence the hyperventilation. This lasted for about 5-10 minutes. I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs so we did a lot of walking around this time. I hyperventilated 2 other times during this stretch. Perhaps it was a mix of emotions and my mind anticipating mile 15, which has typically been where I hit the wall.
Miles 16-20: This is where everything started to fall apart for me. We started walking more and running less. My legs were feeling sore, but I think it was more mental than anything else. The 15 mile curse continues! This stretch was also where I threw my 6 hour time goal out the window. I just wanted to finish!
Miles 20-26.2: These were the hardest miles. My feet were in a lot of pain from all the walking we were doing, and I was starting to do a lot of negative thinking. Raciel had her job cut out for her! She told me that I looked very strong, that my running form was still intact, and that I was letting the negative thinking get the best of me. I knew she was right, but I couldn’t really zap myself out of it. We resorted to running to specific landmarks and quit running our intervals.
Nothing was better than seeing the MCRD base come into sight.
Even better was running through the tunnel, seeing the finish line, and hearing the crowds.
The absolute best was seeing my friends and family cheering me on as I crossed the finish line =)
Official Finish Time: 6:39:43 =)
The Aftermath
My legs were shot and shakey and sore! I had ice wrapped around my knees. After I left the runner’s finish line area, I met with my family and friends and hugs were had all around.
My legs were incredibly sore all of Sunday. Walking was slow. Everything was slow. I woke up this morning feeling much better. My knees made it through the marathon in one piece. No knee pain at all! (I’m amazed) My calves and hamstrings have recovered. The only things that are still really, really sore are my quads. Hopefully, they’ll feel better after this week is over.
Thoughts
I loved this race =) I even loved everything that led up to it: the lackluster training, the injury, the disenchantment. I think that somehow all of it combined to revive my love for the sport and my ambition to become a better runner. I’m excited to do a better job at training the next time and to see what this body can really do with proper training.
Now, who wants to run a marathon with me? =)
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