Wow...it's been WAY too long since I have blogged about my running. I have not stopped running, not in the least bit. After last year's fail at the Toledo Marathon because of my IT Band issues it's taken almost a full year to recover and jump forward to the present and I just completed my first marathon!!
What have I been up to:
* Last spring I started to run with the HFCRC in town....actually I was one of the first members. We met every Wednesday evening for a group run then we started to run on Saturday mornings for our long runs. We also have been training together for this marathon and have met during the week, 5am usually, and also will do/have done speed work at the local track.
* Last year I ended with running my 4th Half Marathon and my 3rd time running the Chicago Half in September. The race was hot I did not drink enough and I did not PR....but it was a fun race and I ran it with a bunch of my girl friends from the HFCRC.
* This past January I completed my first Trail Race which was 9.2 miles on snowy, icy and SUPER hilly trails. I finished just fine and will probably do it again next year to better my time.
* At the end of December a bunch of us signed up for the Illinois Marathon and began to train for it. This winter turned out to be a very cold, snowy, icy season and most of our runs, sans maybe TWO, were run in very chilly weather on snow and/or ice. There were 9 of us all together who trained but Z was my main partner and we would run all our weekend long runs together.
ILLINOIS MARATHON
Training for this marathon went really smoothly. I missed a few midweek runs but for the most part stuck to the Hal Higdon Novice1/Intermediate 1 plan and hit all my long runs. I even PR'd with a 1:48 half marathon that we ran together as our club. My 20 milers both went great and I finished STRONG with both of them with negative splits. My knee (except for the half marathon day) pretty much held out and after some work with Dr. Bozo I didn't have nearly as much of pain as I did last training....I prayed each run and was so thankful that I didn't have any IT issues. I would get sore a bit after long runs but nothing out of the ordinary and nothing that prevented me from running the next day.
I also brought my handheld water bottle with me on runs and put a tablet of GU stuff that Z gave me and we took GU salted carmels and they always proved to be enough. BUT we trained in cold cold weather, with layers upon layers, running most long runs with frost on our eyelashes and on our clothes where we were sweating. So of course, the weather for the marathon was SUNNY and got up to near 80! Normally this would be fine, but we were so used to running in cloudy cold weather, our sweating was all off and our hydration was out of whack too.
RECAP
Friday we all arrived in Champaign. We had a nice pasta dinner and then headed back to our hotels. Z and I played cards a bit then got to bed early. We hydrated all day and felt ready. We got up at 5am, got dressed, had a banana and some breakfast bar then headed to the race. We had some coffee and bagel, walked a bit and went to the bathroom. We found some of the group then headed to the correl. Our goal was to run 3:50 but start with the 4:00 - haha what a joke!
Miles 1-13 The course was great, winding roads, pretty greenery, we felt strong. We were averaging between 8:30-8:50 as we normally did in our long runs. I kept saying we should slow down and we did a bit. The first part of the course went through Urbana. Then towards mile 13 we re-entered Champaign in which we started in the downtown area. I felt Z dropping back but I felt strong and did not want to lose time. He had been having knee issues so I thought maybe he would DNF so I kept on trucking...as I got farther away from him I realized he had TWO of my GUs. Oh well I thought, they are giving them away at some mile markers so kept going. I was so thirsty. I had my waterbottle but I was thirsty for plain water.
Miles 14-20 I was mentally challenged. I saw Tabitha and was excited so I figured I could run with her. But as I did I started to feel tired and I had to walk. She passed me up and I said good bye. I was still ahead of the 3:50 group so I felt encouraged. But at this point I had started to walk then run which I HATED as I never felt or trained or planned I would do that. I calculated my time and figured that if I kept running at that point I would still run a decent 4 hour marathon. But mentally I was beat up and now that I started walking, I was cramping. So the rest of the race went walk/run walk/run. I made a few friends: a girl my age who had done ultras and said this weather was awful and her hopes of a 3:45 were shot, her and I would run/walk and encourage each other; a young guy who took his shirt off and said he had bad leg cramps too and wanted to run a 3:50, we basically finished at the same time; and an older gentlemen that agreed it was a rough day to run.
Miles 20-26 I didn't realize how long 6 miles seemed. At this point I just didn't even know if I could finish. I didn't know if Z was behind me somewhere or if he bailed and would be waiting for me at the finish. I didn't see Carrie or Meg the other two runners that would have been behind me. I figured that the faster runners were already done. I told myself I could run the rest of the way but honestly I ran/walked until about 24.5 and MADE myself run the rest of the way. I couldn't walk across the finish line. Soon, I saw the stadium and couldn't believe I was going to be done. I crossed the finish line in 4:20:05 and I was SO disappointed in that time. I forgot to mention that before I hit mile 20, the 4 hour pace group passed me. I could have made it in 4 hours! UGH
As I finished I found Mark who had come to cheer us on, and Gavin. Gavin actually finished 30 seconds slower than me and he was on course to finish in 3:40 -he was pissed too. Even our faster runners, Joel and Bauer, finished slow for them and Priscilla, still doing amazing 3:43, missed BQ by 3 mins. As I looked for Z, Mark said that he saw him on course still and we looked up and saw that he had crossed mile 20 - he was still out there! I was glad. Soon, I saw him cross the finish line and went to him and gave him a big hug. It certainly wasn't the finish I envisioned, us crossing the finish line side by side and meeting our under 4 hour goal. But we both FINISHED and we still went through this together. Soon later Meg crossed and then we found out that our friend Carrie had to go to a medic for irregular heart beats...turns out she had hydration issues but still she finished in over 6 hours.
I learned from this race that determination will get you places but also the Marathon is a true humbler of the human nature. Z and I had such great long runs that we failed to realize what a difference the weather would put on our hydration and how changed our carb only diet really impacted us as our bodies were not used to it. It was a tough, gruling but awesome experience. I need to redeem myself and actually run a full marathon, no walking. I will do one again next year, maybe this year, but definitely next year. I know I can do better, I know that I am a strong runner....and I am so proud of Z, our group and me for this experience.
