Saturday, February 7, 2009

Marathon Summary

It's taken me a week, but here's my information about running the marathon. The most important detail: I finished in under 4 hours. My chip time was 3:55.23, which was great. I loved the whole race, except maybe mile 24.

Eric and I started running together as we watched the drag "cheerleaders" with their balloon-filled shirts. Very silly. I stopped at almost every aid station, and ran into trouble at mile 6. I thought Eric stopped for the electrolite drink, so I stopped for water. When I did not see him, I slowed down a bit to look for him. And it turned out he had not stopped, and was hoping I would catch up. Oh well.

I picked up the pace and went on. At the halfway point, my pace was just under 2 hours. So I figured if I could pick it up, I would easily beat 4 hours overall. I don't think I was able to pick up the pace much, though.

All went well, including a couple of small hills. But mile 19 was the first little wall. Things started to feel sore, but did not feel any slower, but it's hard to tell. Unfortunately, my GPS phone lost track for a long time, so I no longer trusted the values. Plus the screen went blank as it got sweaty.

At mile 20, I called Bao as promised to see if he was going to be able to run with me. He was still stuck trying to get to the site. So I called Annie to leave her a message that I had passed mile 20 and I knew I was going to make it. Felt good to say it.

Mile 22 was even better. As I approached it, I heard the beginning chords of "Beautiful Day" from the U2 cover band. I was so psyched up, I was almost more dancing along the route than running. Every one along the side was cheering at me since I was so energetic. Best mile I've ever run.

Then mile 24 hit. Suddenly I was hurting. When I was hurting on the 20 mile training run, the pain eased when I sped up. I was not able to this time. I just had to push through the pain and keep going. The worst mile I ever ran, but I was glad to see I could do it.

When I got closer, I found the pain eased, and my pace picked up again. Mile 26 was in my sights, and I was back up in pace. When I finally passed mile 26, I kicked it in for the last .2. You can see in the pictures that I looked in full motion. But my face looked more painful than I remember.

I left it on the field. After I crossed the finish line, I was fighting nausea I had pushed so hard. And when I bent over to get a water from the bucket, I felt like I might fall. But I was able to walk to the family area, even if just barely. When I sat down, I needed help to get back up when my parents got there.

Footnote: It's almost a year later that I'm posting this. Post-race let down is a real phenomenon, but as you'll see in a bit, I'm still at it.

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