Rock 'n' Roll Marathon - RunMarathon

The race started out great, a little loop around Balboa park then headed downhill into downtown. When we were about 3 miles in we say the elites going back up through town, they were already about 6-7 miles in and they were FLYING, pretty cool seeing that. The run through downtown was awesome, great flat pavement and great sites (Petco park, USS Midway, Gaslamp district).

Then we hit mile 7… ugh this is when we turned onto the 163 freeway for about 3 miles. The freeway was concrete, extremely banked and pretty hilly. Most of the time the rightside of the road was higher than the left, which really messes with me because my right leg is longer than my left. Throughout all of my training my hips have never hurt, however just a mile into this road my hips and back were killing me not good. By the time we got off the freeway I knew I was hurt and I was just hoping I could run through it.

We passed through the halfway point around 2:23, still pretty much on the perfect pace. The race had really flown by up to this point and it was hard to believe that it was figuratively, NOT literally, all downhill from here. Unfortunately it was downhill for my legs as well. Everything was going pretty well through miles 13-17 but I could tell my legs, back and hips were not going to be able to maintain the pace. I knew at this point that I could not keep up with Jen much longer as much as I was enjoying using her as a pacer. I had to really force her to go on without me but I knew that she was have a very special day and I did not want to hold her back at all. I was going to finish just not as fast as her. I had to slow down and respect my body at that point. So after saying goodbye to her I began the rest of my race.

From there I took a minute to reformulate a plan while waiting for the porta-potty. Basically decided to do a 3-2 run walk interval through to the end. Unfortunately as soon as I started walking it hurt worse than running. So my plan quickly became to run for around 10 minutes then I would have to stop and massage my lower left calf and my upper right calf. At about mile 20 I started to feel really good so I picked up the pace and immediately my left calf locked up… lovely. So I fought with my body some more through to mile 21. After that my body really began to cooperate and I was able to run the last few miles, it felt so wonderful coming up to the outside of the Marine Base and knowing how close I was. As I rounded the final corner it was so exciting to see the finish and cross it knowing I had left it all out on the course.

Got the cold towel and milled around for a bit looking for Jen found her over by gear pick up. It was so wonderful to see her and I was so proud of her as I knew before she ever showed me her watch that she had made it in sub 5. We hung out for a while discussing the tribulations of the last 8 miles then headed back via an equally grueling 4 mile walk back to the the B&B




This marathon endeavor really started out as a “favor” to Jen. I know that running a marathon has always been a dream for her and it really wasn’t for me, I didn’t think I was built to run a marathon and the training really intimidated me beyond belief. Throughout the training and the race I began to see the draw towards the magical 26.2 distance. The training really presses you push your body to and beyond its limits and by the time you are ready the body is able to run for distances previously not thought of. Then during the race you are forced mentally push through obstacles and challenges that seem insurmountable, but by then end of the race Jen’s dream of running a marathon had been fully transferred onto me and I couldn’t have been more proud to have finished