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Comments: The start of the race was like any other. Crossed the start line and the first three miles were lined with almost a solid wall of spectators and well wishers. I actually did not even see the first two mile markers. I was cruising along feeling great when suddenly I noticed the Mile 3 marker. I was going at a decent pace but still holding back. I didn’t want to make the same mistake I made from last years marathon and go all out for the first half and have nothing for the second half. I firmly stuck to the Galloway running method keeping a 2:20/1:00 ratio. At mile six I noticed that I was starting to really pass people. The crowds were starting to thin out a little and the actual race had begun. The adrenalin of the start was wearing off and now it was about fitness and endurance. I kept it up till Mile 10, up to that point I felt physically fine. I continued to hold myself back, I could feel my neck and should tightening up on me. It made me mad to go from loose and relaxed to tight and unable to move in a matter of minutes. I could hear a chopper overhead but of course with such limited movement I could not see it. I attempted to view it once but that move almost put me on the ground. Miles 10-12 things started to go down hill for me. I don’t really know what happened but suddenly all my energy was out of me. My hip actually felt great but now my knees were hurting. I decreased my running intervals down to 1:30 and that seemed to help some. I got my speed back up and was cursing along until Mile 14. At that point even running 1:30 spurts seemed to much for me. I slowed down my pace but resolved to keep moving. The five hour pace group caught up with me and I attempted to run with them for a bit. That lasted for about half a mile but I just couldn’t keep up. My mind was willing to go but try as I might I just could not seem to get my legs to swing though for those long strides that I’ve been using up to that point. My run turned into a jog and my walks turned into a shuffle. At mile 16 the 5:30 pace group passed me. Again I tried to keep up and again I just couldn’t. I was so mad! I had trained my heart out, gone through five months of physical therapy, obsessed over my nutrition and hydration plan and now it was all going to waste. I had given up my goal of finishing in five hours but knowing I had to cross in six hours instead of eight like the year before I knew I could not afford to stop and feel sorry for myself. So keep moving is what I did. As I crossed Mile 18 I must have looked bad. As I crossed an aid station one of the medics ran with me asking if I was okay and if I needed anything. I simply shook my head and said that I wanted to finish on my own. After a quick pat on the back he sent me on the way. I was eating my gels and my chews as the miles passed under my feet. I could notice a definite increase in my energy levels a few minutes after the gels. The last six miles were by far the worse. I was still moving but at a slow pace. I had switched things up and was jogging for one minute and walking for 1:30 until I felt that I could jog the 1:30 then walked for one minute. By now my hip was hurting but it was more like a dull overuse ache and not a total muscle failure type of pain. At Mile 22 it seemed like I was not going to make it in time. I gel provided by a helpful volunteer provided good energy for a but at Mile 24 I was so tired. I stopped for a few seconds and almost instantly my leg muscles tightened and my Italian/Scottish/Irish/English blood kicked in and I kept going simply by being hard headed and to stubborn to give up! At Mile 24 I took a chance and glanced at my iPod to get the time. I had 35 minutes max to travel 2.2 miles. It was game on for me. I started to but more effort into my step refusing to acknowledge the pain while running for all of one minute before rewarding myself with a 1:20 walk. At Mile 26 I was at the top of a hill and I could see the finish line at the bottom. I still had some time but as I gazed down at the finish with the cheering crowds I got mad, just plain PISSSED OFF MAD!!!!! I was suppose to be here an hour ago! My neck and shoulders were in so much pain I had almost no movement to my upper body. My hip was sending signals of pain up and down my body. My knees felt swollen and wobbly with no strength. I felt like all my hard work was for nothing. I stared down that finish line and said “To hell with it!” I didn’t care about the damage I may be doing to my body by pushing past the pain, I didn’t care about how weak my legs felt. I was mad enough to forget about listening to by body to guide me. I came down that hill at the fastest speed I managed all course. I think I crossed the finish line with a pissed off scowl etched on my face. What would you do differently?: Prehaps not exerting so much energy the day before would have helped me have a different outcome. That being said I still set a new PR of 18 minutes from my previous marathon.  Post race
Warm down: After crossing the finish line I got my finishers metal and my Mylar heat blanket which felt amazing. As usual my gut refused to allow me to eat any solids. I did manage to down a few bites of bread and a few sips of chicken broth with I found to be far to salty for my gut to handle. I collected my sweat bag which turned out to be just as easy as dropping off. The bags were arranged in a line between groups of numbers against a fence. A group of volunteers were on one side, all I had to do was go to my number group and a helpful volunteer got my bag. I hobbled my way over to the changing tent were I collected my race shirt, but on my compression socks and pants. What limited your ability to perform faster: Met my mom, son, and friend a few minutes later than headed out to my car at a very slow and painful “walk”. On the drive back I kept rehashing what went wrong. Was it the nasty and nearly debilitating cramp in my neck and shoulder? Did I shiver so much and so badly yesterday that I blew through all my reserves and despite my attempt to carb load it was not enough? Was it getting sick before the race that was my undoing? Was it a combination of all of the above? I’m still very upset over my poor performance on that race. While it is a simply beautiful race course and the volunteers were exceptional I left with a bitter feeling. What a crappy way to end a race season. Event comments: Some of the volunteers where handing out banana halves and orange slices at various parts of the race. It was so nice to have something else in my stomach besides gels and chews. I had to laugh at some of the different signs that people came up with. Some of my faviorate were: 26.2 miles? I thought you said 2.62 miles! A guy dancing around in a pink cardboard computer with writing on the screen: C://26.2 miles….. Does not compute… Does not compute… Does not compute… Your almost there….well not really! Marathon is for the insane, that’s why I’m standing here! I loved how the water/fluid stations were organized. Each station was comprised of six tables; three for Poweraid and three for water. At each table there was on volunteer on the outside filling cups, a second volunteer was on the other side and handing cups to a third volunteer who in turn handed the cups to the runners. The end result was that no one had to wait at any station for the drink of their choice. There were enough fluids that at mile 19 I was able to refill my water bottle. Last updated: 2012-06-08 12:00 AM
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United States
Twin Cities in Motion
35F / 2C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 8614/8779
Age Group = 30-34
Age Group Rank = 3597/3685
I arrived at my parents’ house in Wisconsin on Thursday night. I planned on taking a small vacation and also do a race. This would also be my son’s first organized race. Friday was a day of rest for us. It was so nice to be back in my childhood home. It was so cozy. I lounged lazily in a comfy chair with a glass of red wine in hand. The dog was stretched out in front of the fire while my son was tucked comfortably in my mother’s arms. It was a picture perfect setting, perfect Americana.
That night my mother and I cooked a homemade meal, and I mean truly homemade. The bread was made all by hand, the noodles were also made by hand and rolled out. Soon the house was filled with the wonderful smells of home cooking. My son played with the dog outside and his laughter filtered though the house. At that point in time my life was perfect, I had no cares, no worries, I was so happy.
My friend of 26 years came over for dinner with her girl. Her daughter and my son played happily in the living room as the adults discussed logistics for the next few days. The end of the night came to quickly and soon were tucked snuggly in bed.
Saturday morning rose bright and cold. It was just 35 degrees and windy. It was going to be a cold one for my son’s first race. After a 40 minute drive into St. Paul we made our way to the state capital to the race area. Of course St Paul is like any other large city which means that constructions is a constant. We ended parking almost a half mile way.
My poor boy soon got cold and I of course wanted him to be comfortable for his first race. So with one quick movement I had him in my arms then settled on my shoulders. Now it is important to remember that he has recently gone through another growth spurt. Within one block I was feeling all 43 pounds of his weight wiggling on top of my shoulders.
The thin long sleeve running shirt and wind pants soon proved to be not even close to keeping me warm. I was shivering almost uncontrollably while trying to balance my kid. I could not get to the heated tent fast enough! I dropped my son and mom off at the kids’ activity tent while I got my boy registered for his race and got his number and shirt.
All this was done much sooner than I had expected leaving us with almost three hours to spare. For two of the hours we played in the activities tent as my boy collected free prizes and various toys from the different vendor. With one more hour till race time my body ached from the shivering. I had managed to make sure my kid was warmly dressed and so was my mom but with the wind blowing though the tent I really didn’t feel the heat. I tried to stay in the center of the tent and around people using their body to block the wind.
Fifteen minutes to race time we made out way out to the race course. He would be racing 50 yards on grass. My mom went to the finish line and I accompanied him to the start. There out in the open the shivering really set in. Being in the 5 year old group he would be the last group to go. Soon the cold and the strong biting northern wind sucked the heat right out of my body. Within seconds I was shivering so badly I must have looked like I was having a seizure on my feet. No matter how much I tried to move and keep my arms tucked close to my core I could not stop shivering. When the wind came in gusts I though for sure my shivering would take me right off my feet. All my muscles ached from the constant and rapid contractions of shivering I felt exhausted.
When it came time for the 5 year olds to run Toby stepped up to the line and was roaring to go. The start horn sounded; before I knew it he was halfway down the field. His long lanky legs were covering an impressive amount of ground with each stride. The parents simply walked behind the kids allowing them to run freely. The crowd cheered them on just as they would do in the adult races. All to soon it was over. He tore across the finish line with a HUGE smile on his face stretching from ear to ear. A race official give him his first official race metal and he as beaming with pride. When he saw me he practically jumped into the arms yelling “I did it Mommy, I did it!”
I was so proud of my boy! He ran so fast and smoothly he seemed to be a natural runner and he loved it too. We made our way back to the car with my shivering almost out of control. Thankfully I didn’t have to carry my boy on the way back, I don’t think my muscles could have handled it.
I was soon warm in the car and on we were on our way to the marathon expo to get my race packet. While walking around the expo I noticed that a huge knot was forming in the muscles that encompass my left shoulder. I soon was unable to move my head without pain, if I rotated my neck to much the knot would pinch a nerve that caused so much pain that I was almost taken off my feet. This was not good, running not being able to move my shoulders and neck freely would hinder me severely. My only hope was that a night of relaxing would loosen the knot enough to allow me to run the next day.
After a few hours spent walking around at the science center which was next door we headed back to my moms place for another wonderful home made meal and to carb load. It was to bed early for me but as usual I had a hard time sleeping. I seem to always have trouble getting to sleep a night before a race. The knot and pinched nerve in my neck and shoulder had not let up making the night that much worse for me. Finally drifted off to sleep listening to the crackling of the fire and the breathing of my son.
Sunday morning was just as cold as the morning before. It was a cold 33 degrees and the wind had not let up. I stuck to my usual pre race routine. After a hot shower I got dressed in tight running shorts, a long sleeve gray base layer and a blue running singlet. For traveling to the pick up area I also donned a pair of warm pants that I slid over my shorts. Quickly mixed a bottle of ZYM and loaded up with two gel packs and two chew packs.
For this race we parked near the finish line close to the state capital then were bussed to the start line near the Metodome. The lot parking was charging $10, of course I’m far to cheep to pay cash so after a few minutes of driving around I found a spot on the street. I’m convinced that I was just plain lucky to find a spot only one block from the lot parking. Don’t really know how so many other people had driving past that spot and not taken it.
After standing in line for the bus the warmth of the bus was welcome. My seat mate and I got to talking and we found that we had a lot in common. She had a large tube of Bio Freeze with her that she allowed me access to in an attempt to resolve the knot in my muscles. The cooling sensation instantly made the muscles feel great and for the first time in almost 24 hours I was able to freely move and relax. We chatted for the short ride while I ate my usual race breakfast of a Cliff Bar and 12 oz V8.
Spent close to an hour just walking around inside the Metrodome. I had my sweat bag that was given to everyone with me as well. A sweat bag is a bag that is given to the athletes that they can put what ever they want to have available to them at the finish line. I quickly got shed my pants so my legs could get use to having the warm air on them before I braved the cold weather. Got my timing chip in place and the race belt and fluids in place.
I was a little worried about doing the bad drop, I’ve seen everything from total chaos to perfect organization. My worries were soon laid to rest. The drop area was roped off with multiple rows of large bins with clearly marked number ranges on them that correlated with the bib numbers. As I approached the area a volunteer took my bag making a note of my run number. She quickly deposited it in the correct bin and that was the end of the process. I was outside for less than five minutes to complete the entire process. I high tailed it back into the warmth of the Metodome.
Made my way into the restroom being extremely thankful that I didn’t have to deal with dirty nasty Port-A-Potties that I normally have to contend with. I was not, however, expecting to get sick while in there. Really don’t know why I got sick so suddenly, it hit hard and I felt miserable. Oddly enough after being sick I felt great. It’s like I was fine then BAM sick, then fine again. No clue what that was all about but I was happy it was over so fast.
The call for race start in 15 minutes was made suddenly there was a mad dash for the door. It struck me funny that everyone else had the same idea as me, to stay warm and dry as long as possible. What was really stupid though is that with four sets of doors and a little over eight thousand runner’s only one door in each set was unlocked. It defied logic to have only four doors open for eight thousand plus people to get through.
Finally got through and was met with a blinding sun and temps that had warmed up to all of 38 degrees. Getting into the correct start corral was another adventure. I was slotted to be in corral two and they did not have numbers on them. I just guess and was pleased to learn that I managed to find the right one on the first try. Must have been luck.
We heard the start gun go off for the wheelers then a few minutes later the gun sounded for corral one. I had to laugh as I watched people shed their outer layer. It looked like shirt missiles being shot into the air. From all over the crowd shirts, gloves, and hats of various sizes, colors, textures, and places were launched into the air on a one way ticket to the side lines.
From there volunteers picked them up to be washed and donated to the local homeless shelter. It’s a fun way to give back to the local community. I for one was not willing to part with any of my gear so I kept it all firmly attached to my body.