1- I had a pretty good night of sleep. I still woke up a fair amount, but was able to fall right back to sleep, so when my alarm went off at 5am I didn't want to throw my phone across the room, which was nice for a change.
2 - The first full song that came on the radio as I was driving to Waukesha was my FAVORITE. (Mirrors by Justin Timberlake, in case you're curious :)
3 - My textbook hydration made me have to stop at a rest area on the way to the race, and when I got inside the song Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen was playing. Born to Run! Can you believe that?? If that isn't a sign that you're about to have a great marathon I don't know what is.
4 - There was an older man standing outside the rest area when I was jogging back to my car. I gave him a warm 'good morning!' which he promptly echoed back to me. I noticed he was watching me run back to my car and he got a big smile and said 'You're so lucky you can jog, I can't any more because of my legs.' It thought about it for a second, and I thought 'yes - I AM lucky that I can run!' How lucky that I had a marathon to run where I was healthy, felt rested, and no injuries to speak of. I really was lucky!
I kept thinking about that man, and other people I know that are limited by their bodies for one reason or another and literally can't run. I decided that those people would be my source of strength as I ran the impending 26.2 miles.
Packet pick up went smoothly, the temperature was a comfortable 32°, and the breeze was really light. As we lined up and listened to the announcements and the National Anthem I reminded myself of what my goals were. - this is just a long run, you're not racing. - run the second half faster the first. - keep eating and drinking even if you don't feel like it. - listen to your body. - don't obsess over mentally calculating your splits/pace.
I originally wanted to finish between 4:15 and 4:30, since the middle 6ish miles were on pretty technical trail, and at the half way point you had to climb a 40 foot tower, ring a bell, and then run back to the start. Well, mother nature had a different plan and rained like a monsoon two nights before, so for the third time in the history of the race, we had to run an alternate route where we just ran further on the flat, paved, Glacial Drumlin Trail and then head back. Knowing this, I adjusted my mental time to about 4 hours.
I had two sleeves of gel cubes with me, some peanut butter pretzel sandwiches, and a bottle of water so I was set for a good long while. I had drop bag with a Red Bull and more cubes to be delivered to the 4th aid station, so right away it felt good to not be carrying all my supplies at once. I held myself to 9:37 for the first mile, and then slowly started to move up from there. The sun was shining, people were chipper, and I felt like I was dressed perfectly for the weather. I had my iPod with me equipped with a bunch of new tunes, but didn't want to put it on until I felt like I really needed it.
I like to run with a mantra so it keeps me focused - for this one it was 'relaxed and conservative.' It really helped me to stay within a comfortable, but not boring pace. My body felt surprisingly good considering the whole run was on pavement (and some concrete for a few miles in Waukesha) and I was rounding out a 70 mile week which was a lot for me. After just 15 minutes or so I started debating if I should stop for a quick pee break. It was a true mental struggle to decide what to do - can I deal with this the whole way? What if I stop and it takes two minutes and then I miss my PR by 2 minutes? (even though I wasn't racing, I was still thinking it would be nice to PR comfortably if I had that kind of fitness level in me.) If I don't stop will I slow down in my liquids and regret it later? I ran past two empty port a potties, and then decided that I'd stop at the 4th aid station where my drop bag was and get all my 'errands' out of the way in one spot.
Well, it didn't quite work as planned - the drop bags weren't there yet (which yes, did irritate me), and then a guy went into the porta potty right as I was running up to it. Considering he was moving fast, and was a man, I figured he'd be fast. Well, I was wrong. I could hear him blowing his nose and fumbling around. I'm not sure if he was making origami swans out of toilet paper or what, but I was not so subtly making loud throat clearing noises right outside the door until he came out. It was only about 2 minutes that he was in there, but felt like 20, and I topped it off with a dirty look as well which made me feel better.
30 seconds later I was back on my way and glad I stopped, even though it took more time than I wanted. A volunteer assured my that my drop bag would be there when I came back so I figured it was good that I waited to have my Red Bull until mile 16 or so, and I had enough gel cubes to last till then so it wasn't a big deal.
Getting to mile 13 felt good - I checked my watch and was right around 2 hours even, so I was glad I could do easy mental math to shoot for my negative split. Leading up to the turn around I had a ballpark idea of how many women were in front of me, so I decided to slowly try and overtake as many as felt reasonably comfortable. Most people slow down in the second half so I was banking on that, and was feeling good about the pep I still had in my legs.
I kept with the 'relaxed and conservative' mantra, though once I'm running for a long time I get really forgetful, so I kept stumbling over the 'conservative' part. I'd think 'relaxed and... comfortable? cozy? cucumber? umm..... oh yeah - conservative!'
Thankfully, my drop bag was at mile 16 so I quickly took my jacket off and threw that along with my sleeves in there, and took my cubes and Red Bull with me. I was starting to get just a little tired, so the boost of the sugary caffeinated goodness instantly helped. I figured it was also a good time to throw in the iPod and kill two birds with one stone. Some F.Stokes got me into cruise control mode, and off I went.
I slowly crept up on a handful of women and felt good about that. Right after mile 23 I looked ahead and saw a woman walking that I thought could be the first woman in my age group (granted, it's hard to tell ages of women runners since we all look so youthful and vibrant) but I thought she might be in my 35-39, so I turned things up a notch. The faster pace felt a little tougher, but not overly taxing, so I just tried to keep it up to put as much distance between me and her as I could. At this point we were overlapping with the half marathoners that started an hour and a half after the marathoners. Passing them and also telling them 'good job!' kept me going.
And then there was mile 25. I decided to really try and push my pace... and after just a couple minutes got really nauseas and scaled back a bit again. The last 1.2 miles were that same pattern repeating - feeling alright and wanting to be done, pushing my pace, churning stomach, and slowing back down a bit. Over and over and over. Eventually my 'thank yous' to the volunteers became grunts and pleading stares for them to move the finish line closer.
Finally I made it there and was happily met by my mom who had a nice fleece blanket and sour cream and onion Pringles. Exactly what I needed. I finished in 3:50.03, less than two minutes off my PR (THANKS A LOT SLOW GUY IN THE BATHROOM!), and felt surprisingly good.
After pavement marathons I typically feel pretty crippled, but this time I felt relatively good still. I can only attribute that to two things - I ate and kept eating immediately after finishing. And I started adding in weight room workouts the last month or so. My legs just felt stronger this time around and I definitely think it was the leg work I have been doing.
I felt good as I drove home with my medal and award for being second in my age group (7th overall female) and was glad that I had the discipline to run a negative split by ten minutes. Now I get to taper in preparation for the Chippewa 50K that is coming up on April 26th.
My recovery has just been resting, grazing on food, and trying to not wear shoes along with gentle stretching. A longer walk with the dog will be in order later this afternoon, along with a nap. :)
