BOOM! I ran a MAARAAATHOOOON and lived to tell about it! :)
Summary
Distance - 26.2
Time - 4:27:15 <3
Pace - 10:12
Pre-Race & Travel
I don't think of myself as a newbie to running very often these days, but the thought that I'd only traveled to one other race so far snuck up on me pretty quickly! But there are some "nothing new"s that you just can't avoid. Luckily, I had Wednesday and Thursday as final working from home days. Thursday was perfect; I went in to work for only a couple of hours, collected a slew of final hugs, and was off to a new chapter. On the home front, I made my lists, and checked them twice. In hindsight, I could have planned a little better for the other-than-race-day weather. Shorts for a river cruise in October works in Atlanta; in Chicago, not so much. Bill dropped me off at Michele's and the morning went as well as can be expected. We left her house early; all of the anxious energy was better spent meandering an airport than starring at each other across a kitchen table. Leave it to us two goof balls, though. By the time I boarded the plane, we had literally brought each other to tears laughing about a dozen times. Especially when the Southwest airline attendant made an announcement: 'this is an overbooked flight. we are requesting two volunteers to give up their seats.'
And that's when the fight started!
Nooooooo, Michele, nooooooooooooo! hahahahahahaha
Expo
The city of Chicago proved to be extremely intuitive to navigate. All you had to be willing to do was spend a good bit of time on your feet. (OOPS). We made it to the expo at a perfect time. It was for certain a BIG race expo, but very manageable after the Friday morning rush had passed. I loved All. The. Nike. Gear. and spent almost as much as I had on the bib (OOPS 2, but no regrets. Must have 1st marathon memorabilia!). We were shleping our bags, but still managed to make some friends, take some photos, and enjoy ourselves. That's typically not me at race expos. I've been to 3-4 others now, and at all of them, I have been overwhelmed, grumpy, and just ready to leave the entire time.
The shuttle return, and walk to pasta dinner were just as easy. Unfortunately, all of it made us a bit tired, and late for dinner. But there were other stragglers, so it ended up just perfect. :)
Two days to D-day. Well deserved hydration. ;) And some seriously yummy deep dish pizza!
One Day to D-Day
Like with Friday, we put another long, but very fun day on the books Saturday. Saturday morning really helped me with my mental game. First stop on the agenda was to head to the inaugural Chicago 5K race to cheer on a handful of us that were tackling it. We learned how to use transit, and saw some of the cool CHI downtown.
After the race, we were due to head over to the shake out run hosted by 'Run, Selfie, Repeat.' I've been following this girl's blog for about 6 months, and its hilarious. If you can only get in one run-related blog, you shouldn't be reading my verbal diarrhea. Go laugh with her! D-list run celebrities are the best, so I knew I had to make it over to the Westin. Originally, there was interest from the pack; in the end it just ended up being Michele and I. But I was VERY glad I dragged us over there anyway. In fact, probably my favorite two miles of the ENTIRE race weekend! More easy transit learning (oooooh, bus = less walking). And some SERIOUS free swag for about 100+ total (mostly female) participants. YEAH!
Hashtag #100selfies meets Run, Selfie, Repeat .. and as expected, it was EPICALLY hilarious! :)
And not just was this an awesome opportunity to chat up women who'd come to run the Chicago Marathon from all different areas of the world, but the run itself gave me SO MUCH mental game. I had **no** priorities. We started at the easiest of paces, and pretty soon, I felt like flying! (Pro tip reminder: let the pace come to you!) Unfortunately, it was FREEZING, so there was very little chance of joining the #sportsbrasquad. On the other hand .. I did say this was the PERFECT event, and one does warm up pretty quickly! ;) At the pier, almost all of us ditched the layers, and a movement was born!
Gorge!
And ... serious swag! The hat has a zipper for keys. The tee says, "My other Shirt is a Sports Bra."
Oh and now I am D-list famous in this video:
(Cameos through 3:15 in video)
The day only continued from there: we tried to schedule some off-of-our-feet time by doing a river architectural cruise. A few of us went out to dinner after that, too.
Ooohhh. (Kinda Eeeeewww.)
Aaaahh.
Mmmm.
D-day morning & Start Line
The nerves kicked in after dinner Saturday night. With nothing else on the agenda, it was now less than 12 hours to go time. After arriving at the hotel, I quickly came up with a reason to take a walk. Avoidance tactic / alone with my thoughts time. But the prepping on return went well: we'd gotten something for breakfast, knew where to grab coffee, Gatorade, and water first thing in the AM. We laid out all of our stuff, and then tried to get to sleep.
The long days served me well in the respect of putting me straight to bed. I was calmer than I expected to be, felt very well-organized, and knocked out after just a couple of pages of the book I was reading. But I didn't completely avoid an anxious night all-together, either. I woke up a few times, and then had a dream that I had already run the race, and was at Riverside with Harley casually running. We were discussing how odd it had been that we hadn't seen each other at all the entire race. Imagine how mad I was when I woke up and realized I still hadn't done it. Hah.
The morning pre-race went great though. I woke up to the foretasted nippy ~50 sunshine that had been predicted. The singlet and shorts would have been scary, except that the Shake Out run had taught me just how easy it was to warm up in sunny (if windy and nippy) Chicago. I did appreciate Angelina's accidental contribution to my attire: a pair of red cheapo gloves that got me through mile 1.
We had plenty of time to eat, meet up with the others at our hotel, and head to the race. We got in some great pictures.
But WAY faster than I expected, I was standing at the corrals getting ready to ... oh shit .. run a marathon!
Even hundreds of miles from home, I get to start my big race with buds from the Atlanta Track Club! *^_^*
Harley's Miles
Joking around, taking pictures, *gun shot* and BOOM. Time to go! I'd been prepped to avoid my GPS watch these first few miles. Per all accounts, the pacing would be very unreliable with the buildings. Unfortunately, this lack of feedback combined with newbie excitement and tapered legs = misbehavior! I had planned to set out with the 4:25 pace group. But I didn't realize that too quickly enough, we left them a way's behind. I also didn't realize that my bud Harley would run a very ambitious first half. (whether on purpose or accidentally, I'll need to ask at a next training run). I think he thought that, like with his indicator, if he just stayed in front of Judy, he'd be doing great. ;) Unfortunately, I was trying hard to stay with him, so we both got our monies' worth! LOL. These early miles were by far the most entertaining. I looked at signs (and a dozen plus guys peeing off the bridges??? lol!). The Chicagoans were A-MAZING. And the shirt stenciling was hands down the best use of $20.00 EVER. Every "Judy" motivated me and brought a smile to my face. Harley and I started the 26.2 interesting facts per mile game. (He still owes me like 20.2 of them!). The only unsettling fact is that we'd soon left Angelina and the pace group behind us. Harley. and. Judy. had. LEFT. Angelina. Behind. Them.!! Don't panic, don't panic. Its going to be okay. She's a negative split runner. But ... aaaaaahhh, Why. Am. I. Running. Ahead. Of. Angelina!?!?!?! Is that lap pace that begins with an 8 a real thing, or is it the buildings??? These thoughts all race around in my mind. I continued to just do what came naturally, but for sure hoping the price to pay later would not be too steep. (Hint: there was a price. It was a bargain, and I think one I was bound to pay, regardless of the 1st half pace).
Chicagoans crack me up! :)
The Ice Ice Baby Mile
By about mile ten, I start to feel some of the wear and tear. The flat and cool that made the first 10 miles flash before my eyes now feel a little redundant and boring, and a bit warmer, respectively. This was a good hint that Harley is just trying to kill me, so not exactly sure when, but by now, I've let him go. We make it into a street of row houses, and this I mark as my "2nd wind" moment (or also: Am I delirious? moment). Vanilla Ice Ice Baby plays, and I am just having SO MUCH FUN (or panicking) that I start singing along. Loud. The runners around me laugh, and take it up too. "STOP, COLLABORATE AND LISTEN. Ice is back with my brand new edition. Something grabs hold of me tightly, flow like a harpoon daily and nightly. Will it ever stop? .. " I am typing all of this from memory and could go on for two more versus. During the race, I did. It was so fun! *^_^* Everyone was laughing; at me or with me .. whichever. ;)
Angelina's Miles
13.1 eventually came, and with it, the dawning that I *still* had a whole half marathon to go. The warning tips shared in past months flashed in my mind: don't go out to fast. If I had a nickle for everyone who'd said that to me, I'd be rich. I'd better start running this thing like a responsible runner. Or was it too late? I could feel the lack of breaks, and the pace now for sure. Per training runs, this was very early to feel this way. All of these thoughts might of gotten the best of me, but .. some time around here I saw Angelina. And we ran together for maybe a mile, and I ran with her as anchor up in front for maybe another. And that for sure helped me to re-calibrate myself and upped my mental game again for a while.
Lady in Teal's Miles
After I lost Angelina, I followed the lady in teal. And then the blue line, and then my watch and the mile markers. Miles 14-16 were for certain a mental struggle. How can I already be feeling this way? What is my real average pace? Am I anywhere near my 4:30 goal for real, or is my watch messed up? I think I am ahead of goal, or I would have seen the 4:25 pace group .. right? At mile 16, I did another rally / re-group, because it was easy to simply think of the 4 miles standing between me and 20. I made a deal with myself: get to twenty and run/walk some of the final 10 or 5K if you need to. That helped me. Some. The next bit of help came from the support team. Peachtree Rex and Mike were standing right around the 20 mile mark. I didn't think I'd see them again; they were following their fast wives. So I'm very lucky for this boost. You CANT WALK if you just saw friends cheering you on, right??!! I held on to that logic until about 22-23.
The Devil's Miles
The last 4.2 were the hardest thing I have ever done!!! (two natural labors included!!!). "Last 5K" usually motivates me to just leave it all on the course. This time, I apparently already had! The other issue was that I had no goal now. And no friends. If anyone else had been on the course with me then, I know my body was capable. I had fueled perfectly, hydrated great. Nothing hurt. Cardio was fine. My right ankle bothered me a tiny bit now, but I figured I'd gotten stepped on at some point. (It felt like the slight burning of a cut; more on that later). But nothing important.
So nothing major .. but I was hot, tired, my legs were heavy, and I just didn't have any mental game left. The total elapsed time showing on my watch helped me better calculate my time, so with each physical mile marker, I could do the math. I kinda began to see that maybe, just maybe, if I kinda sorta did the math right .. I had A GOOD AMOUNT of time in which to run this last 5K. Like .. 13 min miles would be acceptable GOOD AMOUNT. Great, but ....... so what keeps me moving at sub-11 min pace now? Not a damn thing. I fell back on 5 run walk intervals, which helped tremendously. (if bruised my ego a tiny bit), mainly because finishing under 50% goal trumped running even more careless, and messing 4:45 up at such a late stage. Later on, I heard from friends that they'd taken potty breaks and what not. For whatever reason, that comforted me out of my guilt quite a bit.
The five little red dots do sing to me still: there will be a next time, there will be a next time. LOL.
The Finish Line
THE FINAL MILE! This was pretty awesome. I rallied. They marked every 400 to the finish, which made it SO motivational. I'd wished I had left something in the tank, just to fully make use of the markers, but I truly hadn't. (Or couldn't access it, really... I'm sure if all of a sudden, Amy or Kelly Roberts or Bolt or someone had been running up ahead of me, I could have gotten there .. but anyways, this is just what happened, not what could have). Instead, I used a last run walk interval (talk about ego bruising, I walked at least a minute in the final mile .. boooooOOOOOooo .. but more importantly .. this helped me kick as hard as I could at the end, and I MADE IT!!! I REALLY MADE IT. I had totally HIT my 10% goal of under 4:30!!!!!!
Of course, the only thought in my mind then was: NEVER AGAIN. lol. (I had alternated between the polar opposite thoughts of: never again, and "never do I want to be in a place where I can't do this" at different points in the race). At the finish line, I was positive I was a one-and-done-er.
That lasted 55 minutes. *^_^*
In part, I can attribute the feeling to the outcome. I raced this like Singleton or Finest. Max it out, and make it hurt, come what may. This wasn't Wonder Woman. This was make it hurt. I probably gave up a few minutes to the newbie mistake of going out too fast. In hind sight, 4:25 pacers, or Angelina really might have been the best person to run the first 1/2 with. But would I have been able to maintain and/or surge like she can to protect the 4:30 late in the race? Probably not. I guess that's why people do more than one of these: to answer questions like that.
Yes, I cried. It was weird to be all alone in this moment, and the emotion hit hard when the lady gave me the medal. So much for no crying in running!
The 27th Mile of Horror
If there is a participant survey, I will tell Chicago Marathon 99.9% amazingly wonderful beautiful things about my AMAZING first marathon ... and then I will rant for .1%. And that rant will be all about the 27th mile! Major sadness #1: VIP spectating section means that there are no friends at the finish line. You cross the finish line, and if you didn't run with anyone all the way to the end, you are alone. Dead and alone. Getting the medal perked me up. Getting a beer perked me up. But the rest of the time, I was walking dead. And so was every other person I saw. You couldn't stop. There were people expecting you to 'keep walking.' No benches, no bleachers, no river. And the walking went on for about 133 miles. (For Realz. 133. No kidding. Okay maybe kidding. But I'm still pretty sure it was 133; the map is wrong). The gear pick up was even further (Alaska, I think). And then everything bottle-necked at a "lawn" party on greens the size of a windowsill spice garden.
See this ...
Only slightly less terrifying than this. #terminus
(And I know enough thanks to Flying Pig that none of this "horror" has to be QUITE so bad. So its not just the 26.2 talking. I mean, 80% the 26.2 talking. But at least 20% room for opportunity. @chicago, not sayin', just sayin')
Surprisingly, after a serious mini collapse on the "lawn," Michele and I realized that we had to walk to the subway (or shell out $100 minimum for a bicycle carriage .. talk about price gouging!!). But we did it, and that actually helped me a lot. After getting some food in me, I didn't even feel like I needed to nap. Shower, yes. Nap, no. I prepped for next morning's departure, and we were done!
DONE! SERIOUSLY, GLORIOUSLY DONE!
Monday - Friday Post Race
I was surprisingly not too broken the next morning. My quads were talking. My ankle felt like maybe it had a bit of chafing on it (I hadn't fully examined it yet). But for as much as we lamented ALL OF THE STAIRS on route from hotel to airport, we took it all like champs. Even the day after, I dared to start my job IN HEELS. After waking up and shooting for the gym! Badassery right there!! (Only one problem: I was planning to swim. Someone failed to mention that there is no pool at the downtown LA Fitness. I walked 1.5 miles on the treadmill in a bathing suit and t-shirt dress. LOL!). At work, we took a two hour tour, with MANY, MANY stair cases, and yes it made me tired, but not un-doable at all. So far, there was really no serious crash at all.
Wednesday brought a bit of concern. I tried again for the gym, this time with intent to run 5K before work. I started. It hurt. I stopped. I figured I was making excuses, not in my element, being lazy because I was alone, etc. I started again. It hurt. I stopped. Walked 1.5, and went to work. This day, at work, I did a ride along in a big truck. HONK. HONK. Lots of in and out of the delivery truck (two stairs for 5'0 me to get out) and lots of walking. Also lots of burning at the ankle. :/
Thursday: no attempt to do anything. Good, too, because learning my new schedule, and getting all excited about my new position really wore me out. Getting a bit nervous, but trying to keep it in perspective: its probably just a strain, not a tear, otherwise it would always hurt; you just ran a marathon, you don't NEED this week. AND "you're starting a job this week, who do you think you are, Wonder Woman?"
Friday: ankle felt much better. Hopeful that after 5 days rest, I'll be feeling well enough to run a mile or two tomorrow. (that's all the time I have; I actually scheduled).
Lessons (not committing to Lessons for Next Time ;) )
I am sure I will add to these, but I am surprised that my learning list was MUCH longer at Pig than in Chicago. In short, I went into this feeling "dangerously confident," knowing I had built a really solid 13.1 base, and knowing that my time goals were at least within the realm of possible, and did not require me to all of a sudden be a different runner.
The one thing would probably be that: you will walk around and hang out, and do stuff with friends. Might as well incorporate that into training. Don't always pop a rest day in before long run. Don't always stop walking after one. Put off recovery lounging a little longer each time, so that you are ready for the beast that is post race "party" time.
Also: marathons do not get you "ripped." Before next Fall, must do that, and lose some lbs, in some other way besides cardio. I loved being as prepared as I was, but this is a must for next time.
Up Next
Fingers crossed that I can still tackle the 10 miler in good race form. The goal, if race ready, would be ... stop me if you've heard this one .. 9:08 average pace. (1:31:20). As hilly as this course is, That will be tough, but if I don't have it for 10 miler, its not going to happen this year for a 1/2. So might as well try and see if I have it!
Summary
I am so thankful that I have running, and the Atlanta Track Club, and all of my run friends, in my life. I feel healthy, powerful, and just amazing for having tackled this goal. Life is absolutely all about moments like these> *^_^*
