wwlani's Real Dedicated and Down to Earth - FULL (Page 4)

Sprint Pool Triathlon: Swim: 400 meters (.25miles), Bike: 6 miles (9.6K), Run: 2 miles (3.2K) on april 23rd and my main goal is the Robert J. Aaron Memorial Triathlon

Olympic Distance: Swim: 1 mile, Bike: 22 miles, Run: 6.2 miles (10k) on June 11th.
If all goes well there are a couple of others I may consider but I am concentrating on these two right now.

So sorry it wouldn't let me post the link so here's the RR,
Houston Marathon Race Report-First, let me start with I dedicatedly trained for this race for months. Spent much time preparing and getting strong enough to accomplish a marathon. Planned every mile, every detail, etc. Unfortunately, so much of life is not plannable! Like a tweaked hamstring early in training, an Achilles ache later in training, pneumonia 3 weeks before your first marathon and most certainly race day weather!
My morning started early in order to get in my very important breakfast, but that didn't happen. I started the morning throwing up and unable to eat anything. Strike 1. I got ready as planned and headed downtown, about a half mile walk with thousands of other marathoners,very cool! I hit the port a potty and chatted with some sweet ladies from Katy and we talked about running and my little names pinned to my spibelt. They were so nice, they were doing a walk/run so I left them and worked my way up in the start line. Settled in a few hundred people behind the 4:45 pace group.
Once the start gun went off, we slowly made our way forward and settled in to a slow run, packed with way too many people. It was nuts! We were like sardines,bumping into each other,swimming around each other. I use the word swimming b/c that's what I did yesterday. The humidity was 98% and 70 degree at the start. Strike 2. Keep in mind that I had been training in 0 humidity and 20-30 degree temps. This was unideal, to say the least!
I told myself that I would try to run a 10:45 pace for the first 2 miles and then reevaluate if I could pick up my pace to a 10:15-10:30 (goal pace). HA I looked down at my Garmin and saw 11:15-11:30 and I was huffing and puffing so I couldn't figure out what was going on. I refused to go any slower and thought that I would eventually hit my pace. I was honestly struggling at mile 2. Strike 3!
The first few miles, I was struggling to get to my pace. Around mile 5, I remember thinking screw your pace Kara you may be struggling to finish this! I was strongly considering quitting the race b/c I was struggling, so I let my 4:30 dream go and still thought I could hit a 4:45-5:00 finish. I continued on trying to keep an "easy" pace but I was struggling for every mile. There was never a moment where I thought, oh yeah I could do this all day long. So I went with my mental strategy of just run for 10 miles, then I hit mile 10 and said just run for 10 miles and I'll walk at mile 20....I made it to mile 11. Took my first walk break unrelated to an aid station. This is very telling. The Half Marathoners turned off at mile 9 and I nearly joined them. If it hadn't been my first race I probably would have, honestly. At some point I realized that I would not make any time goal that I thought I would and decided to just enjoy the race as best I could and try to finish in 6 hours which is the time cut off. I made sure to high five the kids, take any food offered to me. Spectators were great, lots of funny signs. A priest threw holy water on me at mile 16, I stopped and asked him to get me a second time just for good measure! It didn't help! I remember thinking few things have ever come easy for me, why should today be any different.
As the race wore on, the pain drastically increased. My feet, Achilles, and legs hurt so badly by mile 9!!! Houston is a concrete race and it took it out on me. I had side stitches from mile 11-15. Somewhere around mile 16- the run/walk ladies from the port a potty passed me and cheered for me and I got a bit of a second wind. This was also when I tried to fall in with the 5 hour pace group, I lasted about 1 mile. LOL I met a lady from Amarillo and tried to get her to join my running group. It was so nice to have a group of people for a few minutes. By mile 18, every muscle from my stomach and back through calves was cramping- badly! At mile 19.5 there was a station with frozen cherries or cranberries, orange julius's and MASSAGES. The temptation was too much for me. I had to stop any way, I always tape my feet before a long run. BUT due to the rain all day long my shoes were soaked and the tape had come off and worked it's way into a ball,the blisters were too painful. So I decided to take off the tape and get a massage. That was wonderful.
Mile 16-26 was a mix of running and walking. Honestly, walking was just as or more painful than running. I hate life at this moment. In fact, I've decided that I will not only NEVER run another marathon. I am NEVER running again period!
Mile 20- station had gummy bears, cookies, AND beer! I remember someone once having a goal of drinking beer by noon and b/c of race conditions they went ahead and had beer on the course so I thought, screw it how can this possibly make my day any worse? So I had my FIRST beer. Amazingly, it actually made me feel better and I started running again. It was short lived but it was nice to have good run. Then the cramping came back.
Everything’s a blur at this point. I had my second beer somewhere in this time, it also made me feel better and was the best beer I've ever had!
Mile 21- lady says "guys run these flat parts, you got one more hill, run the flats, walk the hills" Thank you to that lady, it was enough to get me going again.
Mile 23- Older man beside me says "come on it's only a 5k, we can do this right?" So he and I started running together for a short period of time, he didn't last long.
Mile 24- I started crying like a baby...not from what you might be thinking. I was literally crying from the cramping. My left quad was cramping, and it kept stopping me dead in my tracks. I cried from pain and frustration and from the fact that I still didn't know if I would finish the race at all and the only thing keeping me in forward motion was that I would not be able to take a shower!
Around mile 24-25 one of the ladies from the port a potty caught up to me again and we ran together and though I don't know her name, I love her! We challenged each other and ran the last mile strong and finished strong! I looked for my fam and saw Walt but not the others. It made me so mad b/c I thought they had left me b/c I was so slow that they gave up on me! Turns out they were there with signs and everything but I missed them.

Now that it's all said and done, as I reflect on my experience and realize that I am capable of more than I thought I was. I can't express what a feat it is to have finished yesterday, honestly not an exaggeration that EVERY mile was a struggle and a hard fought battle. I can consider why that is, and ultimately it's just one of those times when stuff happens. I had to make lemonade from lemons. I'll be very honest -my mind went to some dark places and at times I had given up but thinking about the people most important in my life really kept me going when all I wanted to do was quit. Also, knowing so many were tracking me kept me going b/c I was going to be humiliated! LOL

Raul_T - 2011-02-04 1:25 AM Hey Kara....congrats on your marathon! I very much enjoyed reading the race report. I envy people like you and Lisa and Tiffany and the others who have done marathons an half marathons. I live about 45 minutes from White Rock Lake. As a kid I use to fish out there all the time....at that time I lived about 10 minutes from the lake. I watched as they built the paths and spruced up the area. However, I have yet to walk, run, or ride out there.... Kara, Lisa, (I specify you two because yall are here in Texas) and anyone else, you have to let me know if you plan on coming to the metroplex to do any tris or runs. Everyone have a great weekend! Stay warm and dry. My daughter has a soccer tournament in Austin this weekend, so we'll be headed south as long as it doesn't get snowed out!

Thanks Raul!  Everytime I go to DFW area I run White Rock Lake, I love that place!!!  We don't have anything like that and I am so jealous of it!  I'll let you know when I come up next, I go up there pretty often so if I do some races up there I'll give you a shout!  We're all snowed in here today!  We've been dealing with no snow but -30 temps!!!  Now, it's actually a warm 33 degrees but the snow is coming down!!!

Lori- I bet chipping ice is the best workout of all, though it doesnt sound fun at all!!!

All- I got in an awesome spin class on Wednesday (took it pretty easy on intensity since my legs are still sore) and I got in an awesome half mile swim yesterday! I've decided since it has been so long since I have gone for a swim, to start out SLOW and work on form only.  So, for the first time EVER I swam breathing every 3 strokes and breathing on my left side! This is a major milestone in my swimming and I am stoked that I was able to do that.  I feel pretty hopeful for my swimming this season, I think if I can master the 3 stroke technique then I will feel more confident and hopefully conquer my disabling fear of the OWS.