Marathon No. 2

My friend, Jen, wanted to train for her first marathon and convinced me to train with her, something I swore I'd never do again after my first experience. My first marathon was on New Year's Day in 2011. I ended up joining a group in my area for this first one in order to have people to train with. My goals for the first marathon were to finish and to jog/run the whole thing. Both goals I accomplished and finished in 4 hours and 28 minutes. I was so proud of myself at that point knowing I was never going to put myself through that torture again and knowing that I was in the best shape I'd ever been in!

I've come a long way in 3 years (despite having a baby in there), and my pace is much faster. So my goal for this second marathon was to finish in under 4 hours. At the same time, I knew that this goal would be difficult to accomplish and might be just out of reach. Regardless, I was confident that I would beat my first time.

We ran into difficulties parking and ended up having to park further away than we wanted because we didn't have time to wait in the line of cars for the closer parking lots. We were nervous about being there for the start of the race! So after parking, we jogged at a good clip to the race starting corral. That's the last thing I wanted to do before the race was to jog about a half mile before I'm about to run 26.2! We did some stretching and snapped a picture in the few minutes we had to spare. I'm bummed that I didn't have time to do some thorough stretching prior to the race (it's my own fault for cutting it too close) as it affected me later in the race.

Me and Jen, my running partner

I started out at a comfortable pace (knowing I needed to save some energy for endurance) running between 8:40 and 8:45 miles. I kept it up till mile 13 before I started to get some side cramps. After eating a Gu, I slowed down my pace a little to 9-minute-miles and that helped with the side cramps.

I knew Matt would be at mile 16, so I was so excited to see him and my sweet boys holding signs for me and cheering me on.

(Matt snapped a few pictures of me running on the course, and every picture has me running next to a different half-naked man!)

At about mile 20, some serious cramping began. I started to think to myself, "This is miserable. Why am I doing this to myself? Why did I voluntarily put myself through this and pay money to do this?"

From there on out, I talked myself through it mile by mile. I stopped worrying about my time so much and just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Prior to this point, I was on track to not only make my goal but to beat it significantly with a 3:52 finish. So I knew I had a little wiggle room to accomplish my goal still but also listen to my body.

A few days before the race, the weather was in the 30s. The day of the race the weather was in the 60s with 100% humidty. I wasn't sure how the humidity affected runners at the time and have since done some research to find that it typically slows runners down due to an increase of body temperature since the sweat doesn't evaporate. Most runners that participated discussed how they experienced a lot of cramping. That was the case for me as well. Around mile 21, I was feeling it the most in my right quad, which I've never experienced before as a runner (usually my hamstrings get sore and/or cramp). I stopped to stretch it out for a moment, but it was ineffective and caused more cramping in my calf. Sheer misery. But what do you do at that point but continue to push on and finish the race?

I saw Matt again at mile 23. As I ran by him I said, "Never again. For real this time. Don't let me ever do another one of these." I had some other snacks and energy supplements with me, but I didn't feel like any of it, so I just stuck to water and gatorade through the duration of the race.

My fastest miles were mile 1 and mile 4 at 8:31 and 8:30 respectively. My slowest miles were mile 21 (when I stopped to "try" to stretch) and mile 25 (stopped to drink some gatorade) at 9:47 and 9:49.

My official chip time was 3:58:08. I finished 6th in my age group, Female 30-34, out of 100 women. And I finished 55th out of all 515 women that ran the marathon. Most importantly, I accomplished my goal!!!! It was so nice to see my parents at the finish line, and it was nice to hear that they were proud of me for accomplishing a goal I set out to do.

I have to put this out there in case it may help any other runner. The bane of my existence as a runner is that running gives me digestive issues. I've tried a few different ideas, but nothing has worked. I have just accepted that I will have to stop to use the restroom during every race, and therefore my official chip time was never going to be accurate. As anyone with this problem knows, it's not fun and can be painful. Through a friend of a friend, I came across Modere and tried their probiotic pills (natural ingredients). It took some experimenting every weekend, but I finally figured out the best times to take the pills in order for me to have successful long runs. It seriously is like a miracle to me that I was able to run over 26 miles without stopping for a potty stop. Yeah!!!

I was in so much pain for the rest of the day...and the next, and the next. Anything that involved my quads or hamstrings was so difficult--bending down, going up and down stairs, sitting down. Even sleeping was uncomfortable/painful that first night. By Thursday I was finally feeling back to normal, except my poor toe. I got a blood blister on my second toe of my left foot under the nail. The nail is still attached, but it's the only thing that still hurts, and the nail will fall off at some point.

Saturday afternoon after the race.

This was the cutest picture of all my boys even though not my best. These are the cute signs that my boys made me!

Is another marathon in my future? I'd like to say definitely no, but I guess I better say, we'll see. I love the half marathon distance so we'll stick with that for awhile. It feels great to be in the best shape of my life (again). :o)

26.2

What better way to bring in the new year than to run 26 miles right? January 1, 2011 I ran my first marathon. I never anticipated that I would set this goal to run a full marathon, but a friend convinced me to join a running group in our area. There were two groups...one group was training for a half marathon and the other was training for a full. The half marathon schedule started out so super easy with 1 mile and then slowly adding on additional miles, that I thought I would train with the marathon group just to see. I could always skip the weeks in the schedule that they were running more mileage than I felt comfortable with. I had signed up for a half marathon for Nov. 20th, and looked around at marathon races on a Saturday. There was only one available that was close by on New Year's Day. The group I trained with was training for the Houston Marathon on Jan. 30th. If I wanted to run the one on Jan. 1st (Kingwood), I knew I'd have to adjust the running schedule. My decision was made for me when I tried to sign up for the Kingwood race, and it was full. I had been waiting to sign up because I wasn't sure I was capable of doing one yet! I went on the waiting list of over 200 people and figured that was the end of any thoughts of running a marathon.

As I continued with the running schedule in order to train for my half, I felt capable of continuing with the higher mileage. I was at 15 miles when I heard that I got into the Kingwood race. I immediately talked with my coach about how to adjust the schedule to make sure I would be ready.

Just a quick summary of my training: It was really nice to be able to have people to run with for the long runs on Saturday. I was in a group of about 25 people all training for a marathon and at a pace of between 9 and 10-minute miles. There were seminars every other Saturday about different tips to take care of your body. Since the seminars started at 8 am, our long runs had to be finished by then. That meant that Saturday mornings were always an early start for me. As the mileage increased, so did the early start. We oftentimes started our running in the dark. I did not get through this whole ordeal without injury. My knees hurt a lot when I ran 18 + miles (which was only twice), but they've been popping frequently from the beginning. I also had pain in the arch of my right foot, which subsided a bit when I got fitted for new shoes. My left ankle bothered me some, but I learned that I just needed to stretch it really good, and then it was okay.

My half marathon went really well on Nov. 20th. I concentrated on pushing myself hard. I aimed to run 8:45 miles, but ended up with 9-minute miles. Because I pushed myself so hard, I felt awful after finishing and made a decision right there that there was no way I wanted to run an additional 13 miles on top of what I already ran. I wanted to pull out of the marathon and get my money refunded. After thinking about it some more, I decided to continue to try to run a marathon, but realized that I would need to slow my pace down significantly if I actually wanted to finish!

Marathon day approached. Weather was perfect. It started out at 47 degrees and by the time I finished it was around 57 degrees. The race track was 4 loops of 6.55 miles with pretty scenery. I was set with a book on tape (which I finished during the race). I did not get a good night's sleep the night before though (fireworks kept me up), and I didn't eat as good as I should have the previous night (all the appetizers were so yummy...but I did pass on dessert). I think because of my diet the night before, my stomach hurt really bad for the first 13 miles. As I was crossing the start/finish line at 13.1 miles, I wanted to quit because I just wasn't feeling good. It was at this point that I saw Matt, my boys, and Matt's parents. That gave me the extra motivation I needed to grab a snack and keep going.

Suprisingly, for not feeling well, my time was better than I expected. I set a tentative goal of wanting to run around 10-minute miles. I started out slower than that (I heard that was supposed to help with energy at the end) at 10:15 miles. Not intentionally, I started running 9:45 miles around mile 4. I was able to keep that pace for quite awhile. I remember looking down at my stopwatch at every mile marker and just being surprised that I was running ahead of schedule, but I was running at a comfortable pace...I wasn't pushing myself at all. My "comfortable pace" was quicker than I anticipated, and I attribute that to my speed training and tempo runs that I did on Tues./Thurs. during my training.

Around mile 20 I hit "the wall" that a lot of runners talk about. I was just doing what I could to keep running, and as soon as I got to a water/gatorade station, I walked while I drank. My pace slowed considerably for about the next 3 miles. Around mile 23, energy kicked in, and I was able to pick up my pace. That mile was actually pretty emotional. While other runners were wiping sweat, I was wiping tears as I realized that I was going to accomplish this goal that was such a challenge to work towards, even the day of the race. It's always more meaningful to accomplish something when you wanted to give up many times throughout the process.

I finished strong, and my finishing time was 4:28:34, which I was very proud of. Overall it was an incredible experience. I was very shaky after finishing...my knees were killing me. (My quads were sore for the next two days, and I walked like an old woman.) I was very grateful to Matt and his parents for coming out to support me. It literally made the difference of me finishing the race!

Mile 13, when I wanted to give up. Blurry picture, but I was handing off my jacket to Matt as I passed him.

Heading back out with snack in hand even though I was in a lot of pain and just wanted to quit. (Side note--> My hair is probably the longest it's ever been right now. I grew it out for the marathon, and I'm so excited to chop it off!)

After the race getting my award. Caleb came to greet me.

Me with my "Texas-sized" award. It is soooo heavy, but I love that it's so big because it represents a big accomplishment. (It was so painful to get in this position for the picture, and Matt had to help me stand up again. The theme of the race was ducks for whatever reason...)

So, are more marathons in my future? I don't think so. I don't have a desire to qualify for Boston (I'd have to run it in 3:40), and the training process took its toll on my body as well as a lot of time away from family. I plan on sticking with half marathons from here on out. The only way I'd run another marathon is if Matt wanted to run one. Then I'd want to run it with him...and beat him :o). In the mean time, it feels AMAZING to be in the best shape I'll probably every be in in my life!