Marathon to Marathon - RunMarathon

I ran the Lincoln Marathon 6 weeks ago in about 5:27. I wanted to beat my time today, and I REALLY hoped that I could break 5 hours. But we woke up at 4:20 a.m. to thunder, lightning and pouring rain. It did not look like a good day to PR.

We made it to the Storm Lake (had to stay in Cherokee, IA which is about 30 minutes away because there were no available hotels in Storm Lake) at about 5:30.

The race was supposed to start at 6 a.m. It ended up being delayed because of the lightning. It finally started at 7:30, but we were told it was probably going to start raining again and we were pretty much going to be running in the rain. I had been expecting this because I checked the weather (yay for weather.com!) so I had bought myself a hat to keep rain out of my eyes.

When the race started it was kind of cloudy but you could see a bit of the sky. It didn't look very ominous at all. I thought about wearing my rain jacket, but I decided against it because the temp was in the 60s which is just a little too warm for a jacket of any kind. Anyway, I had planned on running with a fanny pack. I hadn't practiced running with it at all, but I needed something to carry all my stuff in and that was really the only thing I could find around the house. I wanted to carry my phone in case I got lost or something bad happened, and I wanted to wear my iPod because since it was a small race I thought I might get kind of lonely. Plus it carried my Cliff Bars and Gu gels.

After the first 3/4 or so of a mile with the fanny pack, I had to take it off. It was just bouncing around on my hips. I couldn't cinch it tightly enough to be snug against my body - it was as tight as it would go and was still loose on me. If that doesn't make a person feel good, I don't know what will. :) So I handed it to my trusty husband, took a Cliff Bar out of it, and went on my merry way without my electronic devices (other than my watch of course).

I was feeling surprisingly good. I thought I would be off because of the late start. I had eaten breakfast at like 4:30 a.m., and didn't start running until 3 hours later. Plus there was kind of some stress about the delayed start and if we were going to get to race at all.

I made it to the halfway point at about 2:27, and I knew that 5 hours was in my sights but it would be close. I figured that I would be slower on the last half. I just kept running my race. I didn't worry about trying to go slow or conserve energy or anything, I just ran the way that I felt...until mile 20, when I forced myself to keep running even though I didn't really want to. :) For the first 20 miles I just walked at the aid stations, which were every 2.5 miles. The last 6.2 miles I walked at aid stations and sometimes at the mile markers too...or just any other time I felt like walking. :) Not the most organized strategy but hey, it worked!

I crossed the 16 mile marker right at 3 hours, so I figured I had 10.2 miles to cover and 2 hours to cover it - definitely doable, but again I knew it would be close. I just kept trucking. Around mile 18 my quads started to really cramp up, and my left achilles tendon was hurting pretty badly. My feet started to hurt too, which is normal but just not comfortable!

At mile 25 there was a bugger of a hill - I mean this thing looked like a mountain to me! I was seriously huffing and puffing and I'm sure I sounded like an elephant trying to get up that thing. It was miserable.

Somewhere after that point in the city of Marathon there was an aid station. I asked the guy working it how much further til the end, and he said "About a half mile". I looked at my watch...and it said 4:56 and some change. I knew at that point there was no way I was going to make my goal. I considered walking, which I really wanted to do, but something inside of me said "well...he might be wrong about the distance". Obviously, he had to have been wrong. When I was two blocks away from the finish a couple that was out walking shouted to me that I was two blocks away, and I made my best effort at sprinting in. I didn't even look at my watch anymore at this point, I knew it was going to be really close. My husband was at the finish yelling "Dig deep! Find another gear!" And I did. If you notice on my mile-by-mile log, I ran mile 25 in 13:23 and ran mile 26 plus the .2 miles in 13:52...so I covered .2 more miles in 30 seconds more. I was hurting really bad but I did it. I made the decision around mile 20 or so that no matter what my time was, I was going to be proud because I had been running really hard and pushing myself the whole race. But I was so happy to be under 5 hours that I could've cried. I almost barfed at the end of the race but I didn't.

I wouldn't do anything differently. This was a perfect storm of circumstances that I think helped me:

1. I slept AWESOME the night before the race. I slept like a brick in our little tiny motel room. It was rockin.
2. I was very well hydrated before the race. I made it a point for several days to drink a lot of water, and it turned out well for me.
3. The temperature was in the 60s and 70s. My optimal running temp is in the lower 60s/upper 50s, so it was warmer than I would have liked, but it was really not too bad.
4. I brought my own shade, i.e. a hat! This was the first race that I'd ever done with a hat and it worked awesome. It kept the sun out of my eyes and off of my face. When the sun gets on my face I just wilt like a flower. I just don't do well in direct sunlight and heat. So to have the hat was I think a huge benefit and I will definitely continue wearing one in the future.
5. There was a decent breeze on the course. I love to have a breeze when I'm running, again because i have a tendency to overheat and a breeze really helps with that.
6. I drank Gatorade at every aid station. Normally I stick with water and gels, but this time I only took 1 gel and part of 1 Cliff Bar. The rest was gatorade. I also drank water of course too.

I was initially concerned because in the past week I've spent a TON of time on my feet. We were watching a 1 year old for a day, and so I was carrying him around all over the place and changing diapers, making baby food, and all that good stuff. One day I volunteered to make dinner for a family, so that was a lot of time on my feet. Plus all kinds of cleaning and stuff to get ready for the baby to come over, and getting clothes washed etc. for this race. But I guess it wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it was!

Sat down on a chair, and grossed myself out with all of the sweat that was dripping off of me. I've never felt so disgusting in my life.


There were definitely some times on the course where the wind stopped blowing and it was still, and the sun was shining. I got really hot at these times. But that was really not in my control. Other than that, I would say nothing really limited me at all.


Really good race. The volunteers were super friendly, and at the end we all got free lunch! Some of the aid stations were themed, like the Surfin USA station and the Girl Scouts station. This race was not as lonely as I thought it would be, there were people around me all the time until the last mile or so even though I think only 200 or so people participated. The finisher medals were REALLY nice and classy. The t-shirt was kind ugly but what are you gonna do? :)

Big shout out to my husband Brian for being my support, driving us, and giving me water and Ibuprofen and carrying around all my crap for me. Oh and also getting me the stuff I needed after the marathon when I really did not feel like walking anywhere at all. :)