Making your legs move back and forth for 26 miles is not what makes a marathon amazing. It's the 115 times I woke up at 5:00am. It's the 957 miles I ran in preparation for the 26.
Although, 26 miles isn't shabby in and of itself. Just to help create a mental picture, the distance from the Poulsbo Post Office all the way to the Ship Yard is 26 miles. Or, from Blackfoot to Idaho Falls, that's 26 miles. Or from the Dworshak Dam to Lenore.
I've been working toward this goal for a long time and the closer I got, the more excited and down right ridiculously giddy I got. (I realize that it is highly probably that several people got sick of hearing about it.) I was so excited in fact, that going to sleep the night before was impossible. Literally. My heart rate was no where near "at rest" and I could just feel the adrenaline rushing through my veins. Despite all my efforts and attempts to induce sleep, it got later and later and later. I had to get up at 4:00 to catch the ferry. I finally fell asleep at 2:00 but woke up at 3:00. By this point I was in tears. I had been working SO HARD for SO LONG. I was imagining myself slowly and sluggishly dragging myself across the finish line long after the 5 hour mark. The thought of performing anything less than my best, just devastated me. My sweet love did his best to encourage and console me and as I left the house I decided that even if I had to crawl across that finish line, I was going to do this.
Lucky for me I met up with some friends on the ferry. They are more experienced runners than I and assured me that my plight was a very common one. And apparently it's the night before the night before that really counts. In all my marathon preparation reading, I had not yet heard this. But I decided to trust them and did my best to put a smile on my face.
This is a shot of the crowd behind me. This is just a fraction of the racers! I can never get over just how many people are as crazy as me!
I spent most of the first 1/3 of my marathon "pacing myself" or telling myself to slow down. Trying to save my strength. As far as weather was concerned, it was a great temperature and there was lots of shade. I was averaging 10 min miles. Right on track.
One of the parts of the race that I was looking forward to was the split.
When I ran my first 1/2 last year and I got to this point, I was SO GLAD I wasn't going right. But this time around, I was awfully excited to be one of the ones going right!
However, stopping for 2 seconds to take this picture shook things up for me just a bit. When I took my cell phone out of my pouch, my bag of PowerBarFruitSnacks fell out. I noticed fairly soon after I started running again. I had to make a split second decision. Do I back track to get my fuel, or keep going? But 1/2 the challenge of a marathon is making your resources last the full 26 miles. I needed those! So I ran back and picked the bag up off the ground and tried to pick up the pace a little bit to compensate for my hiccup.
Just after mile 10 they were handing out GU. A very popular flavored energy gel. I have never tried the stuff cause I once had a friend tell me their digestive system hadn't exactly appreciated the gesture. But as I approached the hand out, I thought to myself, "1 hour sleep. . . . ya, I'm gonna give this a shot." They handed me an orange flavored one. Not what I would label as "delicious" but it wasn't bad at all. Good tasting even. I squirted a little bit on my tongue every once in a while over the course of the next 3 miles.
Most of the course from here on out had significantly less shade. Last minute I had bought myself a cheap hat. I was SO glad I did.
It was at this point in the race that I began to slow down. I knew I still had a lot of miles ahead of me and the sun beating down was making me feel tired. I just couldn't keep up my 10 min mile pace anymore. My goal of 4 hours and 37 mins slipped further and further away 1 min at a time. But I kept moving, slow or not and resigned myself to a new goal of anything under 5 hours.
As I was approaching mile 20, I realized that I had stared to resume my 10 min mile pace. I realized finishing near my goal was still a possibility. So I picked up the pace. The closer I got to the finish line, the faster I got. There were a few hills near the end and much to my surprise I was able scale them without slowing too much and I zipped right up the last one.
The last mile my calves started to feel like they wanted to cramp up and my feet were hurting, but I was still able to finish strong and fast.
(I still can't believe I did it!)
My awesome mom had been following my progress via automatic text messages the whole way. She immediately texted me my finishing time. I teared up and couldn't believe it!!! 4 hours 35 min. 2 mins less than my goal!!!!!!!!!!
And to make it even better, some of my friends who did the 1/2, had waited around an extra 2+ hours, just to greet me at the finish line! How awesome is that? They were so excited for me. It was so great to have someone to share that moment with other than just congratulate me, myself, and I.
I have not always been athleticly inclined. As a teen, there were many things I chose not to do because I stereotyped myself as "slow and chubby." I was NOT nominated "most likely to run a marathon." I couldn't even run a mile!
Yet here I sit. :)
Moral of the story. Don't tell yourself what you "CAN'T" do.
I wasn't one of the lucky ones born with athletic abilities in my back pocket.
I achieved this goal 1/4 of a mile at a time.
(And I'm awfully happy about it.)
BONUS PICTURE:
Congrats! AMAZING job!!!
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