I'm no stranger to running. In the distant past, being high school, I was involved in Track and Field; in addition to throwing shotput and discuss I also ran the 4x400 and the 800 (half mile) and I wasn't to shabby I might add... but those days are long gone. Now I run for distance. Over the past few years I've ventured into some 5Ks and 10Ks and always enjoy them and even post on Facebook about how the races go.
Last year a friend of mine noticed my posts on running and laid down a challenge. I guess it was just more of a question, but my response made it feel like a challenge. She said, since we're both runners, why don't we pick out a marathon to do together. Not that we live near one another and can train, but just knowing that you're committing not only to yourself but also to someone else makes the commitment that much more solidified. After we came to an agreement that this would happen, I came to the realization that 26.2 miles is about 20 miles farther than any other run that I'd completed. haha. Seriously; it's easy to do that math but when you really ponder those numbers it's a bit sobering to think of what it will take to stretch that 6.2 of a 10K into a 26.2 of a marathon. Wow; I had much work to do.
Being that I like to be prepared, I figured instead of jumping straight to the full marathon I should probably take baby steps and do a half marathon first. Note that I said "I like to be prepared", not that "I always am prepared"; there's a big difference in those statements and one that would play out when race day final came along. Is this foreshadowing my intent to be prepared but ultimately not being ready. Haha; you bet it is.
Having decided to do a half marathon I quickly jumped to sign up for Kiawah since it's both close and a nice location. Unfortunately it was already full so I looked to my second choice and signed up for the Myrtle Beach Half Marathon. Actually paying the money was a second commitment; no turning back! The next step was the training routine. I won't bore you with the details, but I did take some time to research plans that already existed and used those to craft my own 24 week plan. It was laid out in Excel, I printed and hung it both at work and home. I didn't stick to it 100% in the early goings, but I was pretty close. Long runs were on Saturdays and just before Thanksgiving I put in my longest run ever: an 8 miler. I felt good having finished that and knew that before race day I would have not only put in a lot of miles but I would have also done a few runs that are even longer than the 13.1 required for race day... or so I thought.
Thanksgiving presented problems; kids were out, tons of food, and plenty of justifiable reasons to NOT put in my miles. That would not have been so bad had I jumped back in it after Thanksgiving, however with my schedule with the kids and work and my love for fatty foods (not to mention Christmas) I often found reasons to either not run or to just cut the longer runs off very short. I found myself in late January having slipped totally away from the running schedule all together and realized that I would not be "ready" for the race, but that I'd be as ready as possible. That being said, my longest run in weeks had been 4.5 miles... Wow; not even close to the needed 13.1 on race day.
The race was to be held on Feb 19th and on Feb 5th I committed to do at least 10 miles. I strapped on the GPS watch and started running, constantly looking down at the watch to see how far I'd been. In the interest of brevity, I'll tell you that my body wanted to stop at 7, but I pushed through mentally to finish the 10. I have completed it without walking. Although those last miles were quite slow, I knew that I could push another 3 miles out on race day. Over the next two weeks I had a few 2-3 mile runs and one 4.5 miler, but I was saving up the rest for race day.
We made race weekend a big weekend in Myrtle, but I didn't let that take me away from why I was there in the first place: to finish the race and push it as much as possible. I set a goal for myself to average 8:00 minute miles (which comes out to just under 1 hour and 45 minutes). It should be doable, considering that during my 10 miler I averaged 8:15 with hills and no competition. Myrtle Beach is flat, and there would be plenty of people to help push me. So what happened?
After hours of sleep, on race day I got out of bed at 5:00 to get ready to run. I caught the shuttle and the excitement was building. Tons of people, including two women using this race as their Olympic Trials qualifier, were ready and awaiting that gun shot to start the race. My iPod was loaded, my watch was on and ready to be started, and I was as ready as I could ever be... that is unless I had actually trained as intended! The gun fired and I took off like a bat out of hell. I didn't sprint, but plenty of people were pushing it so fell right in with them. It was interesting because I kept a balance of pushing and holding back enough to not burn out too quickly. The pace that kept for for the part of the race made me so happy. My watch tells me my mile splits for each mile and as those would pop up I was doing the math in my head as to how many extra minutes I had "in the bag" just in case I fell apart at the end. That way I'd know how slow I could go and still make my overall goal. I'll post my splits down below, but just notice that I kept up one hell of a pace for about 9 miles.
Between the 9th and 10th miles, as I knew it would happen, my body began to give out. I was ill-prepared. Oh shit; what now? What do you mean, "what now"? You push and push until you can't push anymore. I can't tell you that I kept the great pace, because in fact I did not, but I never walked, I kept pushing and I finished the race. It was amazing at how slow I was near the end and that was with pushing with all my heart and even becoming light headed as I started the 13th mile. I just knew how good I'd feel upon completion of the race and knowing that I pushed through mentally. Guess what? I was right. It was such a good feeling. Although my legs were about to collapse, my knees and feet hurt, and I was hydrating as fast as possible, I had such a feeling of contentment and achievement. It felt great and I fully intend to do another very soon.... before I move on to the 26.2!
During the two days since the race, I've been hobbling around with sore legs like a little old man, but in just 48 hours I'm already beginning to recuperate and I'm feeling pretty good. I can't wait to get back out and hit the pavement again.
Without further ado, check out my splits and get a good laugh as you see my slight decline in the first 3/4 of the race, followed by my rapid decline during that last 4 miles. haha. I get a kick out of it and will use that as motivation to do better next time!!!
Mile 1 - 7:00
Mile 2 - 6:55
Mile 3 - 7:00
Mile 4 - 7:15
Mile 5 - 7:10
Mile 6 - 7:22
Mile 7 - 7:31
Mile 8 - 7:34
Mile 9 - 7:55 ( the last mile under my goal pace)
Mile 10 - 8:17
Mile 11 - 8:44
Mile 12 - 9:04
Mile 13 - 9:38
Extra 0.1 - at an 8:01 pace.
After all was said and done: my official race time was 1:42:23, averaging 7:54/mile and I came in 270th out of 3115 people. I'm very happy and looking forward to the future!
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