Race # 4 THE BIG ONE St. George Marathon

Tis done.

I finished. I did almost as well as I wanted to.

Anytime anyone asked me what time I wanted to get, It would change :) At one point I was thinking that I maybe could qualify for the Boston Marathon. HA! OK, so I didn't really think I could but thought maybe on a really good day I could. After talking to a lot of people I thought that anywhere from 4:00:00 to 4:30:00 would be a more realistic expectation.

I said it before. I had no idea what to expect.  Boy did I have no idea.

I would compare it to the difficulty of child birth. I don't feel like it's quite as rewarding, thrilling or empowering, but maybe I will after my legs don't feel like they are recovering from a knife fight.

Before I tell you my actual time let me give you a run down of my entire Marathon experience. This could get long, so grab a snack.

The week before the race my hamstrings started getting really tight for no apparent reason. No amount of stretching helped them and I was getting worried so on Wednesday I called my friend who is a massage therapist for help.

She worked out some nasty knots and the tightness turned to just a little bit of sore muscles which was more familiar and less scary. I was quite worried I would end up pulling a muscle with how tight they were.

Anyway, with that done I was feeling better but that night my son got sick and threw up several times in the night. The next night was thankfully better but I knew Friday night in the Hotel was going to be tough.

I had an Advil PM but it didn't touch my insomnia, I'm afraid it may have made it worse. With my alarm set for 3:45 and the clock burning it's 1:15 in my eyes I took a melatonin and that luckily took affect and soon fell asleep. but 2 hours of sleep. I mean..... OUCH!

I didn't really notice though. Adrenalin does a lot, but I'm sure to some degree it had an affect on my run.

I hopped on the early buses hoping to get an early bird prize. (didn't) And tried to rest on the way up.  When I got up there I quickly spotted a neighbor and I just leached on to her to pass time.


The start line is nice. They have bonfires to keep warm, a HUGE line of bathrooms which I used 3 times before the race. (I know, I'm pathetic) and food and drinks, gloves and Mylar blankets. One thing I can say about this race, they have all the bases covered. I felt like every penny I paid to enter that race was put to really good use. I rarely feel that way. Most of the time I wonder where my money went.


So anyway... Starting line was great! I didn't mind waiting around one bit. On my last trip to the bathrooms I was about the 4th person in line when the gun went off. (no big deal, it's chip timed so your time doesn't start until you cross the start line). I took care of business, threw away my blanket and my water bottle  and started running.


I stuck with my neighbor for the first mile when at some point I lost her. I'm pretty sure I was going faster than she wanted to go but in the end she passed me at some point. She's done 13 of these things, I really should have just stuck with her. I probably would have done better.

Mile 1-4 flew by. I seriously don't remember much other than reading all the silly signs people taped everywhere and feeling like even though the sun wasn't even up, I was hot. This was one of the hottest days for the marathon and got into the 90's outside. The start was probably in the high 50's to 60's.

It's a pretty steady up and down until about mile 7 and that is when you spot it. Veyo hill. It's a biggie! But I was feeling great. So before the 7 mile marker I popped a cliff bar shot. Drank some water and took advantage of no wait for a port-a-potty.  I didn't want to walk the hill when I was feeling so good so I just took it slow. In hind sight...maybe I should have just walked it like I was told. But the top was the first spot of sunlight and I wanted to get the most of my "sun free" running. After the dreaded hill it just gradually goes uphill for about another mile or two.  I still only walked when I was drinking water at the aid stations.

Mile 13 passed and I felt good. The time clock read 2:03:00 which was great since I knew I had about 5-10 minutes on the clock and I was running about as fast as I did my half marathon and I was still feeling alive.

Things started to get harder from here.

At some point the guy holding the 4:00 hr pace balloons past me and they were going too fast for me to keep up.

I looked forward to mile 17 when I would open another cliff bar shot and hope for a caffeine boost.

I made it to 17 and was still feeling ok but this is when my legs started to just hurt with every step. My muscles were angry.

Mile 18 to 23 are kind of a blur. They were hard but I was running most of it. I think I walked the steeper hills. But they still seemed to go by quickly.

Mile 23 held in store a great big brick wall. SERIOUSLY kicked my butt. I think a major mistake was stopping to go pee. Turns out I didn't have anything to pee and the sitting was really hard on my legs. They didn't want to start up again and the battle was on. The is where the child birth comparison came to play.

My mind was doing fine. I was thinking "It's just a 5K. That's nothing!" I wasn't gasping for air in anyway. I was still keeping my two to three step breathing pattern, two steps breath in, two steps breath out (I'm kind of neurotic about my breathing pattern, it's hard for me to run with music because of it) but my legs just wouldn't go. Walking felt fine, in fact I could walk pretty fast so when I just had to walk I would try to pass others who were walking. But running, even when it was really slow was still faster than walking so I did my best.

The last three miles were probably somewhere between 40 and 50 percent walking. DARN!

The 4:15:00 balloons went past me somewhere around the 23 mile marker and that was discouraging. But with the end so close what else could I do but keep going?

After rounding the final turn I kept running because I knew I would soon see my kids. There they were, Roman wanted a five. Shane took pictures to document my pain and the finish line was  taunting me and might as well have been four more miles away, it just wouldn't get closer.

I eventually made it. The clock read 4:27:50. My actual time was 4:23:03

The misters at the end were heavenly but hard to leave. I worked my way through the sea of people who could barely stand or were passed out on the ground and found some food. Suddenly I was STARVING and very thirsty.

I got a huge plate of food and a bomb pop (DELICIOUS!) and headed to where I planned on meeting my family. I actually felt OK. Although there was no way I was going to sit down because there would be no getting up. All of my pain was in my legs.

So, there you have it.

I'm a little disappointed in my time. I thought I would do better. But... It gives me something to work on in the (far distant) future. And now I know what to expect.

At this point I just feel like my legs weren't used to that kind of running. All those little runs I did during the week just didn't prepare my muscles and joints for that kind of torture and by mile 23 they let me know. My aerobic abilities didn't even get pushed to their max I don't think. My mind was still good, I was ready to sprint that last mile if my legs would have done it. So, I will keep all that in mind for the (far, far, distant) future. :)

Maybe more strengthening would have been helpful. I KNOW a running partner would have been helpful (especially on those long long runs). And, experience is definitely helpful.

Now, I will consider this a real success if in a week, I get up, get on my running clothes and keep running. :)

This is it

In about an hour I will be strapping my children into the car and driving away from home towards St. George.

OH. MY. GOSH!

Biggest problem. I would be nervous taking my kids on a two day vacation anyway. A two day vacation where I'm going to come as close as I ever have to killing myself. I don't know. When was this ever a good idea? Ok, So it was a slightly better idea when I had a partner in crime (my neighbor) to keep my mind from thinking about everything too much.

I'm worried about being too tired to function or enjoy. I'm worried about next to no sleep. I'm worried about bored kids, hungry kids, tired kids, sick kids, grouchy husband, being sore, being sick, being tired. Oh, did I mention that?

I don't do well when I"m tired.

Oh well, I got a massage from a friend from High School who is a massage therapist. It was nice. My hamstring is now sore, but at least not strangely tight. I'm not as worried about it anymore.

My stuff is packed now and I'm just waiting for my oldest to come home from school and my husband to come home from work and we will go.

OH! MY! GOSH!