P.F. Changs Rock 'N' Roll Arizona Marathon - RunMarathon

Before I launch in to this I want to say that I am completely, absolutely, 100 percent happy with my performance yesterday. I couldn't have asked for a better first marathon, but I have a list of things I learned that I would do differently. For those don't know I have had some ITB Band irritation for about the last two weeks. It was sore and hurting from my first stride yesterday, along my left hip and for some reason on my right side I had this pain shooting up from my heel with every step. left foot ow, right foot ow. This was all I was thinking about for about the first five miles. I was thinking : Man this is going to be a long day, how am I ever going to make 26 miles. BUT, I was so determined to beat this race no matter what my body was saying, no matter how long it took, so from the beginning I new quitting was not an option and early on I was taking it mile by mile.

Miles 1-6 were in very familiar territory, along my regular running route and right by my house. I was concentrating on just pacing, well and not too fast. The 4:!5 pace group was right by me early on, but I wasn't going to try and stick with them as much as I wanted to, I knew it wasn't smart. After six I would pass the mile marker and starting repeating the next number in my head, seven, seven, seven, until I got there. I was holding pretty consistent ten minute miles. Miles 6-10 the aches and pains had become normal and I felt like I had found a good rhythm, tried hard not to concentrate on 16 more miles and just get to the halfway mark.

Miles 10-13 were not great, not too bad, and I finally got to tell myself : "It's all down hill from here!" Most people say of their marathon experiences :"It's a 20 mile warm up for the hardest 10k of your life." Well my hardest miles of the race were honestly 13-18.

Miles 13-18 was all about just counting the minutes- 10 minutes= a mile. Repeating the number in my head, knowing I was getting closer. Mile 14 or 15 the 4:30 pace group passed me by and I thought I was loosing it fast. I felt horrible at this point and was wondering how/when I was going to finish the race. At mile 16 one of my co-workers was there (cheering someone else on) and she saw and waved and called to me. That was nice. After 16 I started telling myself I could go 5 more minutes then walk, one more mile then walk. I got to 17.5 doing that and finally decided to stop and walk. BIG, MISTAKE=HUGE! Walking hurts ten times worse, but your mind convinces your body that it will feel better. I walked for five minutes to the next aid station where there was also a med. tent. I got some tylenol there, they give you the third degree for a couple of little pills, but I convinced them I was fine, they gave me my little red dot and sent me on my way. GREAT VOLUNTEERS ALL AROUND. Getting back to running, those few strides hurt, bad, but once I got running it felt like I had found my rythm again!

Miles 18-22 were all together pretty smooth. I had found my second wind, even though my pace was slowing too about 11:00 min miles. When we turned onto Mcdowell, it was like, bam WIND, that lasted for about a mile, mile and a half that was not fun. I passed Kim at about 21 or 22, she was pacing a friend and i stopped to say hi and we chatted a minute about the marathon she ran last week.

After mile 22 my mind started saying: WALK. AND i knew that walking would hurt so I put it off until about mile 23 and I stopped to walk for about 3 minutes. It wasn't as painful this time, but it still hurt! I got going again and told myself it's a 5k, you've got this, no stopping now! Found my pace again and I was off. I actually picked up speed into mile 24.

Mile 24-26.2. I started seeing Tempe come into view, and it was nice because i again knew exactly where I was and where I had to run to. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, pace felt great. The last 10k was soooo much easier than the 10k from 12-18. I was passing people left and right, but praying for an aid station. I wore my fuel belt and my nutrition was great throughout the race, but at this point it was getting HOTT! The last 40 minutes i would take water and just dump it over my head. Mile 24-25 i was praying for that. I finally got to the last aid station and got cooled down a bit.

The last mile was good the stadium came into view and I was so happy. Even though I was feeling good, I was never happier to see the number 26. I was coming to the line and the announcer called my name. I crossed the line at 4:41, only slightly upset that it wasn't 4:40.

Happy with the performance, but feeling I have more, and faster marathons in me! AND either I somehow missed it or there was no beer at that finish line. Only gross cytomax!

Nutrition wise, I stuck with my sports beans, one packet every hour.

I ran the best race I could run on this race day. The things I would do differently really involve training. I think that last 20 miler two weeks out, really tore my body up and brought on these little aches and pains that were still with me race day. I didn't have a long enough recovery between that run and this race. I will rethink that a little bit for the next one. Also, I should probably actually do some speed work. Next marathon I am bringing my own tylenol, so I don't have to stop at the med tent.

walked through the maze of people, ate some chips and an orange, downed some more water. Walked a up to Mill ave and 3rd street to catch the train. OH MY GOD! Packed into the train like sardines, literally no breathing room no personal space everyone smashed against each other. THIS WAS THE WORST PART OF THE DAY! Luckily the people were all really nice. There was a couple beside me that had come in for the race but not actually run, and luckily they were very sweet. Because, about two stops in I got that fuzzy in the head, gonna pass out feeling, accompanied by the I'm going to hurl in like two seconds feeling. Not wanting to puke on the train full of people, I told the guy I was feeling bad all of a sudden and he was totally cool about it, but luckily, I just sat down (on the floor, no seats available) and one of the runners on the train gave me one of their ice packs and about one minute later i was okay. SO thankful I didn't get sick. I think that it was just entirely too hot in there and we were all standing and it was literally only ten minutes after finishing the race. I didn't sit down and give my body time to chill and catch up. Thankfully at 44th st most people got off the train and the rest of the way downtown was smooth sailing. I knew those trains were going to be packed, but could not have imagined that!


My body was beat up from some of the training and i really feel like that had a huge impact!


Enjoyed the experience and it still doesn't feel real. It was one of those things that I was looking forward too and planning for for so long that it doesn't seem like it really happened, but it did! SMILE!