The big, sadistic run party took place on Sunday, December 9th, 2012. That's right. For some reason, back at the end of the summer, I let my husband talk me into voluntarily torturing myself for 26.2 miles to complete my first marathon ever.
We got up at 4:30 in the morning, ate a quick breakfast, gathered our running gear, and dropped Maddy off for a day of fun with friends at 5:30a.m. Talk about some amazing friends to be willing to get up at 5:30a.m. to take care of Maddy so we could go kill ourselves.
We arrived at the American Airlines center right on schedule to drop Tammy off to catch the bus for her relay. They changed the course from Fair Park to the Dallas Convention Center this year, so we were worried about parking but it all went great. We exited the freeway without spending more than about 5 minutes in traffic and came off practically into a parking lot right in front of the convention center. We went into the Convention Center to do our pre-race rituals and to meet Rachel who was running the first leg of the relay. Around 7:30 we begin to file out of the convention center and into our designated corrals. The race began promptly at 8:05, though we waited for 12 minutes to get to the start line because we started way in the back.
After crossing the start line it was run run run. I felt absolutely amazing the first 13 miles. I was kind of sad I wasn't doing the half this year. I know by the way I was running I could have easily done a sub 2:00 half----but that wasn't the goal this year. The goal was to run twice that distance. After we hit 13, I was still feeling good and moving well. Then we came to mile 17. That's when I started wondering what in the world I'd gotten myself into. The day was incredibly warm for doing a marathon. It was 64 degrees when we started and humid. I think the heat and humidity sapped me a little faster than I expected. We had been steadily and consistently fueling up on water, gatorade, and shot blocks, and had started on our protein bars at the halfway point of the marathon, so I was feeling good energy wise, but my knees were starting to hurt though I'd taped them up with K Tape.
At mile 19 they had the Cliff Shot stop. Those things are so gross and gooey but I gladly tanked up on one as the dumb guy with the microphone blared at everyone for 2 miles around that they had made it to mile 19. "You've made it to the wall," he kept yelling. "Thanks," I thought irritably, "but I'd like someone to tell me I've made it THROUGH the wall."
Between miles 20 and 21, I had the joy of being served Gatorade by the Dolly Parton Cross Dressers who volunteer at the water station on the Dolly Parton Hills section of the course. If you haven't seen these guys, you haven't lived. Really.
Through miles 22-24 I was thinking: I can do this. I can do this!, but I was starting to wonder. Again, my energy was good, but my knees were hurting so bad. Actually, my legs were just starting to feel numb and paralyzed. I was barely getting my feet off the ground and I knew I'd fallen off my 10 minute mile pace that I'd maintained through the first 17-20 miles of the race. Aaron was hurting too. He was having cramps in his quads and calves. As soon as one cramp would let up, another would show up in another place in his leg. I could see the cramp in his calf as he continued to tough it out over miles 23-24.
Finally, we hit mile 25. At this point I was hurting so much and knew I was so close that I kind of started hyperventilating a bit. It was weird. A guy ran past us who was having cramps in his calf. As he ran by he gave a loud roar of "AAARRRRRRRRR!" as he continued hobbling toward the finish line. I started laughing. I couldn't help it. I told Aaron, "If he has energy to yell like that, he's definitely making it to the finish line." The man continued to limp along in our vicinity and we'd periodically hear him give a great roar of frustration and pain that was always quite humorous.
Finally the finish line was in sight. My hope had been to run a sub 5 marathon. I was ecstatic as we crossed the finish line at 4:30:40. Let's be honest. This is the time I had secretly hoped for because of how I was running in training, but I didn't know if I'd be able to do it with adding 6.2 miles onto my longest training run of 20 miles. I definitely felt very emotional crossing the finish line. We got our medals. (I'd been imagining getting my medal and giving it to Maddy for about the past five miles to keep myself going.) Then we headed toward the food. What a trek that was!
Before I continue the narrative let me mention how encouraging Aaron was the entire race. He was hurting so bad himself but he kept cheerleading me and running, even though he wanted to walk, so I wouldn't quit. At many of the water stops he told me to just keep running so I wouldn't break my pace and he would go get the gatorade or water for me. He also ran at my pace instead of his pace. If you aren't a runner you don't know what incredible self-sacrifice it is to run at someone else's pace. It is killer.
The food/ race shirt area was the worst planned thing I've ever seen. They made us walk through the tunnel, then loop around and walk back through the other way. Then into the convention center, up an escalator and FINALLY to the food area. I'm sure it wasn't that long of distance, but asking people who've just run a marathon to walk that far to get to some nourishment is completely ridiculous. Aaron was really feeling light headed and dizzy and I was so afraid he was going to pass out on the escalator and fall down it backwards because I knew I didn't have the strength to catch him if he fell. We made it, however, and I had him go sit down while I got all the food. We were able to meet up with most of the relay runners and see how they did. I think we barely beat the relay teams. The first team done crossed maybe a minute after we got across the line so that felt pretty good to beat them.
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After we ate and rested a bit we got our finisher shirts and headed back to the car. I was so glad that we'd parked so close the the center. Tam and Rachel had taken the train home when they finished their relays so there was no one who could have gone and picked us up if the car had been farther away. We headed out to pick Maddy up. She was happy to see us but had had a great time playing with her friends. I gave her my medal and she immediately ripped it off and threw it on the floor. So much for my rose colored fantasies. Ah well.
Our amazing friends provided an amazing early supper for us sore, tired, ravenous runners. We headed home after eating. Maddy passed out on the way home and never woke up til the next morning. We showered and then I ate a huge plate of spaghetti and bread. I can't remember eating like that since I was a teenager. It's slightly revolting to think of how much I ate in a 3-4 hour span. I passed out on the couch watching football. Aaron had to wake me up to go get in bed at 8 p.m. We were worn out.
Amazingly, I haven't been too sore or had any really bad effects from the race. My left knee and leg hurt pretty bad yesterday, but I just took Advil all day and today it just feels normal after working out kind of sore.
Will I do a marathon again? I don't know. Overall it was a good experience, but the training time required is really a huge chunk out of everyday life. Who knows, maybe I'll get the bug again next year. For now, I'd like to just sit and not move for several days except to eat and go to the bathroom, but with a three year old, that is not possible.
We got up at 4:30 in the morning, ate a quick breakfast, gathered our running gear, and dropped Maddy off for a day of fun with friends at 5:30a.m. Talk about some amazing friends to be willing to get up at 5:30a.m. to take care of Maddy so we could go kill ourselves.
We arrived at the American Airlines center right on schedule to drop Tammy off to catch the bus for her relay. They changed the course from Fair Park to the Dallas Convention Center this year, so we were worried about parking but it all went great. We exited the freeway without spending more than about 5 minutes in traffic and came off practically into a parking lot right in front of the convention center. We went into the Convention Center to do our pre-race rituals and to meet Rachel who was running the first leg of the relay. Around 7:30 we begin to file out of the convention center and into our designated corrals. The race began promptly at 8:05, though we waited for 12 minutes to get to the start line because we started way in the back.
After crossing the start line it was run run run. I felt absolutely amazing the first 13 miles. I was kind of sad I wasn't doing the half this year. I know by the way I was running I could have easily done a sub 2:00 half----but that wasn't the goal this year. The goal was to run twice that distance. After we hit 13, I was still feeling good and moving well. Then we came to mile 17. That's when I started wondering what in the world I'd gotten myself into. The day was incredibly warm for doing a marathon. It was 64 degrees when we started and humid. I think the heat and humidity sapped me a little faster than I expected. We had been steadily and consistently fueling up on water, gatorade, and shot blocks, and had started on our protein bars at the halfway point of the marathon, so I was feeling good energy wise, but my knees were starting to hurt though I'd taped them up with K Tape.
At mile 19 they had the Cliff Shot stop. Those things are so gross and gooey but I gladly tanked up on one as the dumb guy with the microphone blared at everyone for 2 miles around that they had made it to mile 19. "You've made it to the wall," he kept yelling. "Thanks," I thought irritably, "but I'd like someone to tell me I've made it THROUGH the wall."
Between miles 20 and 21, I had the joy of being served Gatorade by the Dolly Parton Cross Dressers who volunteer at the water station on the Dolly Parton Hills section of the course. If you haven't seen these guys, you haven't lived. Really.
Through miles 22-24 I was thinking: I can do this. I can do this!, but I was starting to wonder. Again, my energy was good, but my knees were hurting so bad. Actually, my legs were just starting to feel numb and paralyzed. I was barely getting my feet off the ground and I knew I'd fallen off my 10 minute mile pace that I'd maintained through the first 17-20 miles of the race. Aaron was hurting too. He was having cramps in his quads and calves. As soon as one cramp would let up, another would show up in another place in his leg. I could see the cramp in his calf as he continued to tough it out over miles 23-24.
Finally, we hit mile 25. At this point I was hurting so much and knew I was so close that I kind of started hyperventilating a bit. It was weird. A guy ran past us who was having cramps in his calf. As he ran by he gave a loud roar of "AAARRRRRRRRR!" as he continued hobbling toward the finish line. I started laughing. I couldn't help it. I told Aaron, "If he has energy to yell like that, he's definitely making it to the finish line." The man continued to limp along in our vicinity and we'd periodically hear him give a great roar of frustration and pain that was always quite humorous.
Finally the finish line was in sight. My hope had been to run a sub 5 marathon. I was ecstatic as we crossed the finish line at 4:30:40. Let's be honest. This is the time I had secretly hoped for because of how I was running in training, but I didn't know if I'd be able to do it with adding 6.2 miles onto my longest training run of 20 miles. I definitely felt very emotional crossing the finish line. We got our medals. (I'd been imagining getting my medal and giving it to Maddy for about the past five miles to keep myself going.) Then we headed toward the food. What a trek that was!
Before I continue the narrative let me mention how encouraging Aaron was the entire race. He was hurting so bad himself but he kept cheerleading me and running, even though he wanted to walk, so I wouldn't quit. At many of the water stops he told me to just keep running so I wouldn't break my pace and he would go get the gatorade or water for me. He also ran at my pace instead of his pace. If you aren't a runner you don't know what incredible self-sacrifice it is to run at someone else's pace. It is killer.
The food/ race shirt area was the worst planned thing I've ever seen. They made us walk through the tunnel, then loop around and walk back through the other way. Then into the convention center, up an escalator and FINALLY to the food area. I'm sure it wasn't that long of distance, but asking people who've just run a marathon to walk that far to get to some nourishment is completely ridiculous. Aaron was really feeling light headed and dizzy and I was so afraid he was going to pass out on the escalator and fall down it backwards because I knew I didn't have the strength to catch him if he fell. We made it, however, and I had him go sit down while I got all the food. We were able to meet up with most of the relay runners and see how they did. I think we barely beat the relay teams. The first team done crossed maybe a minute after we got across the line so that felt pretty good to beat them.
After we ate and rested a bit we got our finisher shirts and headed back to the car. I was so glad that we'd parked so close the the center. Tam and Rachel had taken the train home when they finished their relays so there was no one who could have gone and picked us up if the car had been farther away. We headed out to pick Maddy up. She was happy to see us but had had a great time playing with her friends. I gave her my medal and she immediately ripped it off and threw it on the floor. So much for my rose colored fantasies. Ah well.
Our amazing friends provided an amazing early supper for us sore, tired, ravenous runners. We headed home after eating. Maddy passed out on the way home and never woke up til the next morning. We showered and then I ate a huge plate of spaghetti and bread. I can't remember eating like that since I was a teenager. It's slightly revolting to think of how much I ate in a 3-4 hour span. I passed out on the couch watching football. Aaron had to wake me up to go get in bed at 8 p.m. We were worn out.
Amazingly, I haven't been too sore or had any really bad effects from the race. My left knee and leg hurt pretty bad yesterday, but I just took Advil all day and today it just feels normal after working out kind of sore.
Will I do a marathon again? I don't know. Overall it was a good experience, but the training time required is really a huge chunk out of everyday life. Who knows, maybe I'll get the bug again next year. For now, I'd like to just sit and not move for several days except to eat and go to the bathroom, but with a three year old, that is not possible.
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