Five months of training finally paid off!
Mike and I traveled to Duluth to run in Grandma's Marathon last Saturday. So much trainng had gone in to it - I was a nervous wreck! What if something went wrong? I'd been having foot problems, or what if a shoelace broke, or what if one of us got food poisoning and couldn't run?
As I stood at the starting line with 9600 other runners, it was quite an inspiring experience for me. As we were towards the end of the lineup, several people around us had "first marathon" shirts or body paint, and the anticipation in the air was contagious. 9600 people who had all trained for months in preparation. Some would finish, and some wouldn't but nearly everyone would push themselves to the limit before the day was over. I guess it's a testament to the human spirit and will - I'm not sure what it is exactly, but I definitely felt inspired and in awe.
It took us 6 minutes to reach the starting line, and we were carried along with the momentum of those around us. I owe it to my darling Mike for pacing me in the beginning, or I may have died by the end. Through all our training runs he's paced me early and pushed me at the end. Sometimes I wimpered in to the finish beside him, hating every step of the way.
We both felt great - at the halfway point we could still conquer the world, but before we finished the heat set in and killed us both. Those last 3 miles were the worst for me, and in spite of internal encouragement, distraction, and chiding, I couldn't even make myself run the last mile. But as I approached the finish line and the announcer said, "45 seconds to be under the 5 hour mark," I dug deep and finished strong. Ohhhh - I can still feel the exhaustion!
My actual chip time was 4:53:16.
Afterwards they gave us a carnation, a medal, a t-shirt, a solar blanket, and an all-you-could-eat buffet of bagels, fruit, yogurt, and ice cream. We ate as much as we could, and then headed to the massage tent, only to be told they were out of time :( we changed our clothes, hid in a tent through some pouring rain, and watched the awards ceremony. It's amazing to think that people finished in less than 1/2 the time I did. In fact, with my half-marathon time from a few weeks ago I would have to wait until I'm 65 to be competitive!
So now, I'm taking a break from running. The pool will be nice for a while :) And then, when I start to run again the plan is to do a couple half marathons and really work on speed. Then I won't have to run for 5 hours the next time I do a full marathon!
Wow.
