When race day came, I was pumped,
and that feeling got me through mile 15, but then 15-26.2 were the hardest of my
life. I remember stopping at mile 23 and telling my friend (and inspiration to
run), Erin that I was done. I told her that 23 miles was far enough for
me. Well, being the good friend that she is, she told me there was no way
in hell she was gonna let me stop. So I carried on.
The last three miles were the worst
miles of my life. EVERYTHING hurt, I couldn't even TOUCH my arms without them
aching. I remember thinking I may literally fall on my face during a downhill
stretch and having to lean back as if I were on water skis. I crossed the
finish line promising myself that I would NEVER do that again. My body was
KILLING me, my toes were unrecognizable, BUT, I had NEVER felt more proud. That
struggle was the hardest thing I had ever endured and I made it. It wasn't
pretty, 5 hours and 45 minutes of UGLY, but I did it. I ran a marathon.
And during that race, I learned I could
do anything I put my mind to.
Well, five years later, the pain and suffering didn't seem
as bad, and I started talking with my friend Emily about running a full.
We had been running a lot of half’s, they were getting pretty easy. So in
August we committed. She decided to run Disney in January (against my
good sound advice) and I was gonna do the Rt. 66 in Tulsa in November. We
agreed to train with each other for each run. She would run more than she
needed to before mine, and I would run more than I needed to after.
"As long as I'm not injured" I keep telling her.
Another GIANT first for me happened
this time around. I finally became an early morning runner. I've ALWAYS
wanted to be the person who works out before work, but I don't sleep that well
at night, so I had written myself off. However, E talked me into trying
it. Before I knew it, we were running by 5am (or before) 3-4 days a
week. Now, don't kid yourself, I woke every morning cussing E in my head,
but I was always thankful for her determination by the end of each run.
So, run by run, week by week, we progressed...
We had a TERRIBLE 15 mile run. We
both whine. A lot. But this day was way worse. I was crazy sick. E
was just not feeling it. We both felt at mile 2 the way we feel at mile
11. It was just awful. This was the only run that I rounded up on
my watch. We got back at 14.95 and I was like "that's good enough." I
ALWAYS finish, but not that day. It sucked. However, we decided to use it
as motivation rather than being discouraged. We decided that if we can
run through THAT feeling like THAT, then we could do anything.
A few weeks later my back went out.
Not too bad, but I had a half on Sunday and so I was in my chiropractors office
on Thursday. Since I have the best chiropractor in the world, he said
"no worries, you'll run Sunday, you'll PR." And you know what?
We did. I was a little worried at first b/c my back DID hurt, and by the end I
was no longer speaking to Emily, but instead just trying to hold back my
groaning. But despite the pain, we finished.
17 was next. We were TOTALLY sick
and tired of running the sidewalkless streets of Shawnee, dodging cars, and men
in street clothes at the back of the airport, so we went to Norman. My
brother told us about a great route that had as much without sidewalk as Shawnee has
WITH. 17 ended up great! We finished with a Guinness and a little
shopping.
Since 17 was so great, we wanted to
do the same for 20. So we did exactly the same things we had been for
every long run. Burger and a beer the night before, PB sandwhich in the
morning, coffee for me, spark for E, beans along the way. Gatorade from mile 10
on. The only problem with our 20 was the 25+mph winds that were seriously
blowing us over! But we made it, only 7 minutes slower than I had
hoped. We finished that run with some dark beer and pizza.
The next few weeks it got COLD. Now, I HATE HATE HATE
cold. I would TOTALLY rather sweat than freeze. But once again, I let E
talk me into crazy. Josh bought me some cold weather running gear, (knowing
I'd never actually buy it for myself) and we dove in. Now, the first day
E made me run in cold, it was COOOOLD. Crazy winds at our faces. NO ONE
else was even running that day. Not even
the die hard iron man people. It was
THAT cold. But there we were. I was sick (yes… again), we were COLD, but we
did it. So, at this point I was running in the dark, in the COOOLD, so early
that E saw a shooting star one morning… (yes, that was the day I realized how
nuts we were…)
Saturday was pretty darn fun. We were nervous about the temps, but feeling
confident it would be dry. We did some expo shopping, burger and a beer (of
COURSE) at a pub, and even stopped after a Walmart run to see my brother for a
bit since he was playing across the street from the store. After enjoying a beer at Winstar as well as
the OSU game, we headed back to the hotel, had some hummus, and more football
then went to the room to get ready.
Like two hours later, we had all our gear set to go and we got to sleep. I woke two hours later, around 2am, and again at 5am, and decided to just get on up. I was ready to watch the weather. Still looked dry! So we got dressed in our running clothes and our FANTASTIC matching sweat pants we got at Walmart to throw off during the course. We looked like Barney and friends….
When we got downtown we were almost hot from the bus ride, thank
GOODNESS, because it was C.O.L.D. Temp was 18 with wind chill of TWELVE (I heard). By the time we started both feet were totally
numb ,and I was seriously worried about losing TOES over toeNAILS. But by the
end of the first mile my right foot had feeling, by the end of 2, my left, then
by 3 we ditched our Barney gear. Unfortunately, when our shirts were over our
heads, Lindsey got away from us. We
spent about 4 miles trying to find her, until we got a text saying her knee was
too bad to finish. (she had an unfortunate incident involving a mouse early in
the week…) So, we took off. Stopping
only long enough to walk and drink some FROZEN water. Seriously, I kept getting ice stuck in my
throat, and the drinks were so cold that it made me cough SO hard each time.
BUT, I knew despite my freezing cold face, that I was losing fluids, so I kept
pushing them.
Like already stated, I had planned on running this race like
we had ran our training runs, which involved a restroom stop half way through.
The plan was to split from Emily when she turned to finish the half and go to
the restroom. So, 12ish came and Emily
had to go. She asked how I was, I said “Fine. Feel great.” She told me she would try to
meet up around 20something to finish with me.
I told her to get warm if she needed to and not to worry about me if it
was too hard. I was REALLY feeling good.
Split happened. I
finally turned on my music and started MY challenge. Alone, in the cold for
13ish more miles. I passed the
restroom. No need to stop. There was a point that I felt tightness in my
knee, but I think it was my compression sleeve up to high or something. I
adjusted it and kept going. The course
was pretty hilly, but hills don’t really bug me. I run hard up and get the feeling of flying
going down. I got so lost in this
run. I KNOW I accidently sang (or
rapped) aloud a few times… people looked at me funny. Who cares.
They most likely couldn’t REALLY hear me over their music (or at least
that’s what I tell myself).
The next think I knew I was at 15. Still no need to stop. Then around 18 there was
BEER in little Dixie cups. PERFECT! It was like heaven in a cup! I grabbed one
and actually ran AND drank it. It was the BEST PBR I have EVERY tasted AND it wasn't FROZEN. After
that I had a giant surge of energy! I
continued on while telling myself to take each stretch “one water station at a
time.” I continued to walk just long
enough to get a quick drink through these, reminding myself that I HAD to take
in calories/electrolytes and of course the fluids, and since I was still
coughing my lungs up after every sip, I had to slow. BUT, every time I took back off I felt
amazing.
I looked down at one point at I was running a 8:50 pace. Next
thing I knew I was at 20. TWENTY ten minutes sooner than I had ever dreamed,
especially in the conditions, I mean, there was ICE on the ROAD in parts. I sent a text while I ran to Emily telling
her my location, and she told me she was waiting at 21.
Well, THAT was there so fast! Next thing I knew E and L were
running behind me. L ran for as long as
her poor knee would let her, before going back, but E ran on with me as planned. I wasn’t
much company at this point, we normally talk and talk. I was doing
ok, but I was digging deep and losing myself in lyrics and beats. I was also replaying every encouraging
message that had been sent to me. I
remember feeling so thankful for ‘Coach Chrissy’ who told me that I just need to
give it all I can, and others who had expressed their faith in my ability to
complete this. In fact, I was in such a
good place, that my thoughts when the
girls joined me were, “I kinda don’t need the company like I thought, they
should just get warm.” But then mile 24
came…
Miles 24-26 were tough, although, my pace hadn’t
slowed. In fact, it stayed no slower
than 9:40. By this point, I was having to only take little sips at the water
stations b/c I was coughing so hard due to the cold/frozen drinks. At mile 24 I told Emily , shocked, that I could walk in and
get my goal time. Of course, I have good friends, she said “no” and we took back
off.
Mile 24.5 I got nauseous. I really considered puking in a trash can. But I held on. THIS was when I needed Emily. My music was too loud to hear her, but we have ran HOURS together, I knew what she was saying. Using her fingers/hands she was telling me what my route was, she waved a straight/left turn/25. Then at 25, she gave me more signals. I just nodded. I was having to close my eyes while I ran to avoid puking. The whole time just thinking “this is FANTASTIC! This didn’t get hard until the last TWO MILES! And even HARD, I’m not SLOWING DOWN.”
Anyway, 25.5ish came
with a killer hill. I only remember a
guy holding a sign that said “this hill is your bitch” and thinking “yeah it is”
and I took off up it. Emily made some
gestures again about a turn or two, and the next think I knew my watch said
26! I tried to hold it up to her, but I’m
not sure I actually DID… I saw the FIRST people I knew on the side line right
when I got close to the finish, it was Elizabeth Carroll and friends. I took
this opportunity to turn off my music and take it in. E split off so that she didn’t ‘re-finish’,
told me to meet at gear check, and I took off.
For the first race finish EVER I didn’t feel like I may fall over after I cross the line, I heard my name announced, people were cheering, and I was just staring at the clock thinking “how the HELL did I just do THAT?” I crossed the finish, and paused my watch at 4:25. 4:25. 35 minutes faster than my goal.
I walked stunned through the finish corral, getting my
silver blanket thing (maybe someday I’ll learn the name of those), someone
handed me spaghetti, which did nothing but remind me of my need to puke, I wondered
on out to gear check to find my friends looking for my bag that the gear check
people couldn’t find. By this point I
was shaking so hard and my tummy hurt so bad I was honestly kind of
worried. After a quick pic, Lindsey gave
me her clothes and sent me to Spaghetti Warehouse to change while they looked
for my bag. Have I mentioned I have great friends?
In the restroom I realized why I was SOOO cold, I had sweat
through three layers of clothes! I was
SOAKING wet. I also found my toe
bleeding through my socks, which excited me because it was my first bloody
sock! Anyway, I got changed and took off.
We got to the hotel, got in warm showers, got food, and headed home to
the bad weather.
Overall, I’m still amazed. Now, I KNOW 4:25 (4:29 official)
is NOT warp speed or anything. Hell, it
doesn’t even qualify me for jack. BUT, it was more than I ever knew I could get
out of myself. Remember, my legs are so
short that I take two steps to most everyone’s one. I like to joke and say that
I really run twice as far as the rest ;).
But seriously, running a marathon… there is nothing like it. It tests
your endurance, your mental strength, you willpower, your dedication, and
commitment. Completing the training is impressive, but completing the race is
AMAZING.
So what did I learn during this race? I learned that I want more AMAZING.
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