Med-City Marathon - RunMarathon

My strategy was to run the race as if it were a 20 mile run, plus a 10k at the end. So I was going to take it nice and easy the first 20 miles, then try to get in the mindset of "it's just a 10k" and really push the last 6 miles.

I was feeling really good right from the start, and had to be very very careful that I wasn't running too fast. My 3:50 pace would have been 8:46 miles, but the first mile I ran in 8:30. I really had to talk myself into slowing down and thinking about all the miles I had ahead of me. So I made an extra effort to slow down, but the next couple miles were still too fast! I had a hard time keeping myself slow because:
1) there were a bunch of half marathoners who were running much faster and I kept getting passed
2) I felt so good that a pace like 8:30 felt like it was really slow
3) the weather was perfect and the hills were just right and the first half of the course was something that I could really let loose on and just RUN

So I struggled with keeping my pace in check the entire first half. I kept checking at each mile where I was with the pace bracelet and I was going too fast for even a 3:50 pace! I knew that it was too good to be true but it was just SO hard to slow myself down! I walked through every water stop (about every 2 miles) and drank a full cup at each one.

Mile 7 I stopped to pee at a portapottie, and then had a gu at the next water station.

Coming into town I was still feeling really good. I crossed the 13.1 point at 1:54:17, which was just barely ahead of my planned pace of 1:55. I had done a good job of slowing down from miles 10-13, so as I headed away from the half way point I thought I'd be good to go.

The next two miles my pace was right on. I stopped to pee again at mile 14.5ish, then had my second gu at the water stop at mile 16. Getting back up to speed after that took a little longer. Hmm. My legs weren't exactly hurting, but going the same pace seemed to take more effort than before. I saw Jessica across the river around this time and we both started hooting and hollering at each other. That was a nice pick up for me. I didn't really have anyone to run with because there was no one at my pace. Whenever I passed someone I would job next to them for a bit and try to strike up a conversation. Some people were more interested than others, but no one was really at my pace so I didn't have any running buddies. So I did a lot of thinking. Thinking about work, thinking about Soren, thinking about my upcoming trip to NY, thinking about everything EXCEPT running. Then my little bubble would burst b/c I'd see a mile marker, and I'd have to check my pace against the clock and focus on running again.

From mile 15 on I started losing time against my pace. I had a wicked side stitch that had me worried for awhile. I thought "boy this sucks, I hope it doesn't stick around." I just ran through it and kept rubbing where the stich was and eventually after about two miles it went away. Thank GOODNESS. But still, each mile got further and further away from the time I should be hitting. I didn't really panic or anything, just kept the thought in my head that I would have to run the remaining miles at such and such a pace to break 4 hours. And I kept telling myself, "Get to 20 miles and then all you have is a 10k." Thinking about it that way helped a lot, mentally. Pretty soon the elite men were running past me on their way back into the finish, so I yelled "Looking good! Oooh, lookin REALLY good!" to all the ones that struck my fancy. That was more to keep myself entertained than anything else.

Miles 18-21 were not so pleasant. I no longer felt good. But I kept chugging along, stopped to walk and drink at the water stations, and had a gu at mile 20. A mile later was the turn around, and I said to myself: "Okay, you're on your way back now. You're in the home stretch."

A lot of runners were slowing down at this point so I passed quite a few people. By this time my legs HURT. It wasn't a throbbing foot hurt that I usually would get on my 20 mile training runs, it was pain in my quads. They were tight and each time I hit the ground they would yelp a bit. I just focused on keeping my pace under 10 miunte miles, because that's all I needed to break 4 hours.

Mile 22 I passed Jessica, who was still on her way out to the turn around, and we gave each other a high five and I yelled and yelled at how great she was doing. I tried to be as happy and enthusiastic as possible but I was hurrrting.

Mile 23 was a water stop and I took my time walking through it. Ouch. Stopping to walk now hurt more than running. I thought maybe stretching out would help, but that proved to just be too painful. Plus I wasn't very sturdy, so balancing to stretch was too hard. Getting myself back up and running after that little break was really difficult. My quads were hurting like they'd never hurt before. My knees were painful, but my quads were what hurt the most. It was terrible. But I just said "3 more miles! 3 miles is nothing!" and kept going.

Passed more people and tried to give some encouragement to everyone. We were also running against the people who were still on their way out so I tried to say something nice to everyone. Some people looked like they had a loooong couple hours of running ahead of them. I was glad that I was on my way back, that's for damn sure!

The last three miles I just tried to focus on how close I was to finishing. I was in more pain than I'd ever been before- more than my half ironman for sure. This was a different sort of pain than I'd ever felt. It was like someone took a cheese grader and ran it up and down the tops of my legs.

I knew that I would come in under four hours as long as I kept moving, so that was a big motivator for me.

With maybe .8 to go, I caught up to this guy in a bright green shirt. I said something totally lame about how great it would be to finish, and we started talking. It was his first marathon too. It was nice to have a little friend at that point. He kept up with me the whole way, and at the 26 mile mark, he sped up a bit and looked at me to follow. At this point I absolutely could not move any faster so I said to go ahead.

Coming into the finish line I was hit with a lot of emotions. I was glad to be done, I was hurting, I was SO proud of myself, and I was thinking about all that I had to do to get to that point. I crossed the finish line with a big shit eating grin on my face and had to really make an effort to keep myself from crying. It was pretty emotional. Plus my legs were killing me, that was enough to make me cry, haha! They put my medal on me and I thought "hot damn, so that's what a marathon is."

Not a damn thang.

Someone handed me a bottle of water and pointed me to the tshirt booth. I grabbed my super ugly but oh-so-awesome finisher's shirt and hobbled over to the med tent. As soon as I shuffled in there were like 5 medics around me asking if I was alright, haha. I think they were incredibly bored. Better that they are in need of work than have too much to do though, right? I asked for "the two biggest bags of ice you can give me." They were great, offering me a bed to lie in and asking all sorts of questions about whether I was alright. I knew that if I sat down I probably wouldn't want to get up to see Jessica finish. So I hobbled back out of the tent and onto a section of grass in the shade. I collapsed, more or less, onto the ground and threw the bags of ice over my knees. Jessica came in under her goal of 4:30, so that was great to see. I screamed my head off for her.
Then I tried to get up off the ground. TOTALLY was not happening, hahaha. My legs wouldn't work! So I had to roll onto my stomach and push myself up with my arms.
Hobbled back to the finish line to meet up with Jess, then the two of us hobbled back to our hotel (it was only two blocks away) where I proceeded to call/text TONS of people to let them know I ran a marathon in under four hours.

We showered (getting myself into the shower was quite the adventure), changed into clean clothes, and head straight to DQ for blizzards and cheeseburgers.


Never running one of these before! It was a big learning experience.


This was a great race. The course was beautiful, it was organzied, the volunteers were great. I learned a lot during this race, both about what my legs can do and what they can't do, and also that I'm one tough cookie. I've never played so many mental games with myself. I am very proud of myself. This was the first of many marathons for me, and I'll never forget it!

6/36 AG
25/118 women
116/291 overall