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Comments: The first 2-3 miles it was just crowded and I spent a lot of time trying to find a space to run in. Ian was behind me maybe for the first half mile and then suddenly he was ahead of me. I kept him in my sights until the first fluid station. A total clusterf*ck here as there was like a million runners all trying to get water/gatorade and they didn't have it set up at all - trying to poor one cup at a time with 50 hands all grabbing at them. I needed a drink so I fought for several seconds until I got one. Ian wisely sailed by and that put a pretty sizeable gap between us. I felt great for the first 8 miles. Half of this marathon takes place on my regular training run route so at about mile 6, I was on my own usual turf. Saw Dave at about mile 8-9 at the big party at Main and Chapel. At mile 10 (around where my house is) I started to have some stomach issues. Abdominal muscles cramping up and I needed to pee. It was a bit humid out and I was sweating heavily and perhaps not taking in enough fluids. I didnt want to wait in line to use a porto so kept running til I came to one that didnt have a line. Finally got that biz taken care of but my stomach didnt feel good. I started to take walk breaks at about mile 15 and from there I began to struggle a bit. Got out to downtown East Hartford and the 4:30 pacer ran past me. At that point, I thought hey I could still do 4:30 if I can hang with this guy til the end. Ummmm... yeah... no. I hung for a bit but had to keep taking walk breaks so he eventually left me behind. A while later the 4:45 pacer passed me. Tried to hang but eventually got dusted by her as well. By mile 20, I really wanted to be done. At this point we were running along the river. From here on out it was an absolute struggle. My legs felt fine, but my stomach muscles and my hips were screaming. Felt like I couldnt breath and my HR had fallen in spite of my effort. I fell into a walk run pattern and tried to just focus on the next time I might see my husband. He had been riding his bike between Hartford and South Windsor finding Ian and me on the course. Finally saw him on the bridge coming back into Hartford at around mile 24-25. One mile or so to go and it felt like one hundred. At this point I just wanted to be sure and keep it under five hours. Felt like I wasnt breathing any air in-just running on empty. Finally made the turn to the arch and just held on til I crossed the line. Long, long walk to the end of the chute — really thought I might not make it. Dave was there on the other side of the fencing prolly wondering if he was gonna have to jump over and pick me up off the ground. Finally got to the end and got my medal that weighs like 10 lbs. and saw Ian sprawled out on the grass. He finished about 8 minutes ahead of me! So happy and proud for him! What would you do differently?: As I said. Probably not the smartest thing to take on a marathon at this point in my season after an IM, and 2 HIMs, an Olympic and a whole lot of training. But, doing this with Ian was awesome. And, I am glad I finally got to run the full Hartford marathon. I have been spectator for several years as it goes right by our house and I have always wanted to run it. I will definitely run it again and have a much better outcome. But, not next year...  Post race
Warm down: Painful legs for quite a while when I stopped running. Tried to keep moving around to work out the lactic acid. Got some food and water. Hung for a bit, but it was freezing. What limited your ability to perform faster: This could not possibly have been a good performance for me given all I have taken on this season and not being properly trained to run a solid marathon. I'm happy to have finished and to feel as good as I do 2 days later. I now feeled compelled to run a solid marathon at some point before I kick. :) Event comments: I always enjoy the HMF events and look forward to taking this marathon on again when I am trained for it. I think it could be a BQ for me some day. Last updated: 2009-09-14 12:00 AM
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United States
Greater Hartford Marathon Foundation
52F / 11C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 1768/2287
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 67/95
Up at 4:45. Made the coffee, fed the dog, drank a Boost, made oatmeal with yogurt, walnuts and banana. Woke up my son so he could get ready to go. Sherpa got up, loaded his bike into the car and headed to Hartford.
Preface: I signed up for this marathon NOT because I thought it was a good time for me to try and PR a marathon race or run one at all for that matter, but because my son had made up his mind to do this in the late Spring, early Summer of this year. I told him I would do it with him if he trained for it and took it seriously. Well, he did. So I did. Two weeks again, I strained my calf so had to lay off running for few days. I got some free PT from a good friend and eventually, it healed enough for me to get a couple more short runs in pre-race.
Warm up consisted of walking from the parking garage to the race site to the portos and to the race start. We did a little stretching but mostly just hung around in the chute waiting for it to begin — taking in the sights and people watching. Standing there waiting for the run to begin, I knew it was going to be a tough morning for me but I was hopeful that my big run base would at least get me to the finish in 5 hours or less. Mostly, I was just excited to be there with Ian and excited for him to do this thing!