there's a reason it's been....let's see...almost three weeks since i've finally posted my recap of the marathon. part of me is trying to get the memories out of my mind. part of me is trying to figure out what the hell i was supposed to "learn" from this awful experience. part of me is just plain pissed that the weather sucked so bad because now i have no idea how well i could have done or how well the training really went.
so if you haven't talked to me personally, i'll give you the full recap. i apologize to those few (oh so few) readers that may have already heard it all.
when i woke up at about 4:00am in San Antonio that fateful morning, the weather channel was telling me it was already 67 degrees and the humidity was rising quickly. by race time it was near 70 degrees and 97% humidity. yikes. what are you supposed to do at that point? nothing really. in my mind i had two options. try to really slow my pace down (but would that really help?) or just put myself out there anyway and see how long i last? i chose the latter, mostly. my true goal and the pace i had trained at was to run 7:10 mile pace, allowing me to dip under that 3:10 marathon mark. instead, i just tucked in with the 3:10 marathon pace group to give myself a more conservative pace of approx 7:15 per mile, plus some people to drag me along if the going got tough. (on a side note, running with the pace group was GREAT! much better than i thought it might be. i just tucked in and ran along and for the most part, we were pretty consistent. if you look at the splits, the fast ones were really just the downhill sections) all in all, things were pretty ok until about 17 miles. then it got ugly. i had to stutter step at one of the water stops b/c i was still in a pretty good group of people and at that point i could really feel my hamstrings and quads cramping. i slowed quite a bit (over a min per mile) and tried to hang on. every water stop at that point i was taking a full cup of sports drink and two full cups of water yet minutes later i would be desperate for more. the humidity just really sucks the life out of you. it's really the only way to explain it. once the severe cramping begins there's really not much you can do but try to move in a forward direction. by the time things really took a turn for the worse i was only about 3 miles from the finish. to drop out at that point would probably mean i'd still have to walk those 3 miles anyway. i was determined to find that godforsaken finish line! longest 3 miles of my life by the way. when i crossed that finish line i began to cry uncontrollably. i wasn't really all that upset. i think it was just my body's way of shutting down completely. then i struggled for almost 20 min to get my bottle of water open. i managed to deliriously make my way to the baggage check trucks to retrieve my stuff. then i remember that as a group, we had decided to meet by the letter "B" (for Big River). i couldn't find that letter to save my life. so i chose to just sit down. not sure how long i was just randomly sitting amongst the crowd of finishers but eventually i rallied myself to stand again. as luck would have it, dustin (kris's husband), who had coincidentally helped take care of all of us after the twin cities marathon, happened to see me while he was looking for kris. thank goodness! i would have never found the "B" as it was in a completely different area from where i was. he guided me to the rest of the group and we found kris in the process. after a long, long hot shower and some massive first aid to my blisters it was time for some food. later i felt much better and was able to enjoy myself for the rest of our trip in san antonio and then austin the few days following. i couldn't walk very quickly and took every opportunity i could to sit (esp. when ben & i went to the TX museum) but all in all i really liked austin and the breakfast joint juan in a million totally lived up to all it's hype!!!
here's my marathon in terms of split times:
mile 1 - 7.34
mile 2 - 7.08
mile 3 - 7.18
mile 4 - 7.14
mile 5 - 7.15
mile 6 - 6.57
mile 7 - 7.20
mile 8 - 7.03
mile 9 - 7.12
mile 10 - 7.15
mile 11 - 7.04
mile 12 - 7.20
mile 13 - 7.19
mile 14 - 7.14
mile 15 - 7.08
mile 16 - 7.19
mile 17 - 7.24
mile 18 - 7.40
mile 19 - 8.32
mile 20 - 8.41
mile 21 - 8.19
mile 22 - 8.27
mile 23 - 8.44
mile 24 - 10.06
mile 25 - 10.14
mile 26 - 10.33
.2 - 2.25
3.26.57
so in the end, will i run another marathon? most likely yes. however, i'm going to take some serious time away from the distance for now. maybe not another one for another year or two. not that i couldn't get talked into it sooner! the funny thing about doing crazy things like running 26.2 miles is that the farther removed you are from that initial feeling, the easier it is to forget how HARD the race was and how HARD and LONG the training was. for me the ultimate frustration was simply that i had finally gotten myself into good shape. really good shape. i felt strong and i felt ready to run under 3:10. it's the fact that i didn't get the chance to see if i really could that hurts so bad....
