MS Blues Marathon race report

Well, I don't even know what to do with the idea of not running marathons.

Remember this guy? Charles in Charge from my St. Louis Marathon? And how he got me to the closest I've ever been to a 4:30 marathon? Well, I ran into him again in this race. And he was pacing another group.

Luke & I took the train down to Memphis Thursday night. They say that the night before the night before your marathon you should get the most sleep you can. Unfortunately, that was that Thursday night. I tried to sleep on a train. Yea, I got 2 hours of sleep, then another 2 hours of sleep. That was it. Poor Luke went up to the observation car and slept on the floor! Then we both napped for an hour or so when we got to Dad's on his couch but it wasn't great.

Drove the 3 hours down to Jackson. Checked in, dropped our stuff at the hotel and decided to walk to the expo. That felt great since so far we've been travelling for nearly 24 hours at that time.

Met Andrew from Twitter at the expo. So we walked around a bit, picked up our goodie bags which had a harmonica and a pair of Elvis sunglasses complete with sideburns. (The race was happening on his 76th birthday.) Picked up our shirts; they were not tech shirts and not soft cotton at all. I will definitely be adding that one to the race shirt quilt I'm making.

Walked around the booths. Luke nearly bought a pair of calf compression sleeves. Shirts were only ones too big for us. Nothing too good there.

We left for our pasta dinner reservation. I had looked up on Yelp a good Italian place and found this one, made online reservations. We were 10 minutes late, and got seated 20 minutes later. Still had some really good bread with olive oil, penne pasta and a southern beer.

Met back up with Andrew at a nifty looking olde tyme bar for more chatting and more beer (I allowed myself 2 the night before a marathon!). Stayed until 9p, where we went back to the hotel and crawled into our king size bed and slept very soundly until 5:45a. We did not want to wake up. For once I slept well the night before a marathon! No tossing and turning.

I choked down oatmeal. I couldn't choke down my half bagel. I only ate a bite out of it. So wasn't hungry! I drank some water. Got dressed and scooted on out of the hotel for our 7am races. We ran down the half mile to the start/finish since we had gear to check and needed to find that. Searched high and low. No sign or banner. Finally found an official near the start and he pointed us to the right direction.

Got Luke out there to the front of the pack. I went to the back and then I realised, dude, it's chip timed, I can start whenever so I headed back out to the other side of the fence to get a shot of Luke starting! Video too! That was awesome!

Then I scooted back around the fence and I started myself. I took off like a demon. I set my Virtual Partner on Garmin but my legs weren't listening to it or my mind. And I blame the hills.

They say that this course has rolling hills. What I took that as is it has a rolling hills throughout the course; maybe like one a mile or so. Not that it has constant rolling hills with maybe 2 miles TOTAL of flat land. I'm not kidding. In the first three miles that both Luke & I ran on we had 6 hills to contend with. The start was on a downhill portion of a hill! I heard someone behind me say that you don't know how hilly Jackson is until you run it. I chimed in saying I think we already ran up 17 hills by now.

I guess about Mile 2, Charles and his pace group came up to me. There were a lot of runners with him, I was seriously overtaken by them. I was trying to slow myself up by this time. I saw his name on the back of his shirt. I heard him talking. Then I saw his stick. 4:15 pace group. I asked him if he paced St. Louis a few years back. He said he did. It was the same guy! I told 2 women with him that this guy helped me out. They said I bet he came in right on time. I said, I looked up his time later, he wasn't a second over 4:30 that's for sure. I decided to stick with the 4:15 pace group for as long as I could muster. That's right, you heard me.

So really nothing too big to talk about but the hills in this course. The hills are the ONLY thing that matters in this course. The hills, oh my, the hills! To look at the elevation chart, you will not understand how bad this was because while you think running 26.2 miles is daunting (or not so) trying running 26.2 with constant rolling hills!

By mile 7 I was starting to feel my hips ache in front. By mile 14, we dropped everyone. It was just Charles and I; picking up random people here & there and then losing them again. We talked and talked and talked. I wasn't hurting breathing wise. It was all legs. It was nothing but a legs course. By mile 16, I was dropping behind Charles on the uphill but catching back up to him on the downhill. He was lucky enough to always stop to walk through the water aid stations.

At the top of one hill, I was behind him and said I can still see you. And he said good! I caught up with him once and I said "If I ever lose you for good, I just want to say thank you in advance for taking me as far as you did." I didn't get that opportunity to thank him in St. Louis (though I did see him afterwards but didn't think he knew I was in his group). I did see him looking behind him twice to see if I was still around. I told him I was still here but I refuse to come a second over a minute behind him. He said ah, you're going to finish in front of me. He really had the confidence that I was going to do that.

I remember the first hill that nearly killed me and made me WANT walk (but I didn't) was 19.87. I remember that because there was nearly just a 10k left and now's the time in which I die and lose all forward momentum? Hitting the wall at Mile 20. I was not catching back up with Charles at this time. He was slipping through my fingers. I just couldn't hang on. He went around the corner and that was that. It was a straight away after that for a while and I could still see him in the distance, up each hill, thanks to his neon yellow shirt. That was so soul crushing.

I was hurting definitely. I think a little worse than Rockford. I walked up my first hill at 20.71. I just couldn't do it anymore. According to my Garmin, I was 14 minutes ahead of my pace that I had set. So I wasn't too worried and seeing that number definitely lifted my spirits, even with Charles long gone!

I kept thinking of Luke throughout the race. How surprised he would be if I came in that early. Would he even be at the finish line? Will he be up in the hotel (it's on the last 0.5 of the course) and won't come down until 11:30, since I told him I'll probably finish between 11:30a and 12p.

I was making faces by Mile 22. I was grunting and groaning. Mile 25, Superman passed me. But I was still on time to make a PR. Would I do it? I ran past the hotel. No Luke outside. I knew the last little bit was all uphill since that's what Luke & I ran that morning. I was hurting bad.

I saw the the 13 mile sign for the half marathoners. No 26 mile sign for me to kiss my hand and slap. :-( Then I saw the metal chutes for the marathoners. Crowds around it. Then I see him. Luke. My scream was more like a loud voice. He didn't look up. He was looking down at the ground, walking on the sidewalk, away from the finish line. I dragged a deep breath in, yelling LUKE!! He looked up. I smiled & waved. He was shocked, I could see it on his face. He smiled. He turned and looked at the finish line time. He turned again to me, shocked more.

I turned away and concentrated all I had on making it up that final damn hill. I tried to push it before I saw the clock flip over to 4:20:00 but since the finish was uphill, I had nothing left in the tank. I crossed the line, hit my Garmin and threw my hands over my head and nearly lost it emotionally yet again for the fifth time crossing that marathon finish line. I was stopped. A medal was put over my head. Then I was handed a water bottle with no lid. Two people stopped me so they can cut my chip off. I was wobbling all over the place. Saying thank you to anyone that was around. The lady was nice to open up the space blanket and put it around me while the guy cut off my chip. I kept apologising saying I didn't want it to fall off. I was still wobbling, couldn't stand still. The medal was so big, it was heavy around my neck.

Then I had to find Luke. But first Charles found me. He called out my name. He said Congratulations! I still couldn't talk to him, I was so choked up. All I could do was smile with tears in my eyes. Then Luke found me, I just started crying soooooo hard. I pointed at Charles as he walked away and I said "It was him. I ran with him in St. Louis for a 4:35. I ran with him today for a 4:19:27!!" Charles was looking behind him as I was talking and smiling. Then I hugged Luke. Luke was so surprised. I just didn't know what to do. If I should smile or cry or both or sit down or lay down or scream.

I called Charles over for a picture. I love this guy!

I had someone take a picture of Luke and I. Luke was wearing his medal and his bib and the race t-shirt.

We chilled around the finisher's area (they had peanut butter & banana sandwiches, ala Elvis' fav food!!!) and then headed back to the hotel for my shower & off back to my fathers. Went out to a nice restaurant in downtown Memphis. Didn't get to show Luke any of Memphis at all. Then we caught the train at 10:40 pm and arrived in Chicago at 9 am. Both Luke & I are very extremely sore. The outward part of my thighs the most.

Here's the Garmin Connect info. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/62721128

Pictures from inside the race. http://picasaweb.google.com/lcbarron/20110107MSBluesMarathon

And how did Luke do in his very first half marathon? He placed 9th overall and fifth in his age group with a time of 1:23:55!! The top two places are in his age group so if they don't count, then he got 3rd! I'm sooo super proud of him!! All he wanted to do was come in under 1:30! He crushed it!

Oh and Charles the Pacer? He finished in 4:14:56. I was less time behind him than I was in St. Louis!

Notes:

• It was a chilly 32 at the start. Yet I wore shorts, my calf compressions, sleeveless shirt and my arm warmers & gloves. My hands were freezing and didn't warm up until Mile 5 or so. My thighs were red and eventually stopped hurting as well.
• I was hungry during the race yet again! I ate PowerBar Gel Blasts; three at Mile 6, three at Mile 12 and three at Mile 20. I actually ate pepperoni pizza that had all the meat picked off of it after the race (no cheese only pizza). Oh and I also choked down a gel in the race when they handed them out; I think that was Mile 7. I swallowed it with water, I tried not to taste it.
• Charles allows us to walk through the water stops, which helps us reset. I would have done that anyway.
• Charles tried to help me with the hills. He said lean into it. I managed to stay with him with one of the later hills doing just that but it hurt me too much by that time. I think what he does is speeds up through the hills and then slows down on the downhill to save the quads.
• At one of the aid stations, the Gatorade was not diluted enough. I coughed and choked on it. Way too sweet. That was also in the second half of the race. After that I took water with a cup of Gatorade.
• It felt like I was getting a hotspot on the bottom of my right foot from my sock bunching. I kept my toes moving to try to straighten out the sock but no avail. Luckily no blister or hotspot afterwards.
• I ran with absolutely no music again this marathon. This time I didn't even bring it with me! I was totally fine without it too.
• I thanked the majority of volunteers & cops out there again. When they say "Thank you for racing today!" it gives a little spring in your step. Towards the end of course, I couldn't talk so I just waved and nodded.
• Luke was totally impressed with the hospitality of southern people. He couldn't believe how nice everyone was to strangers!

So there it is. Do I continue with marathons and see where the next one leads to? After all, you see the elevation chart. I can run that in 4:19?? What could I have done with a flat marathon! I'm already thinking of Mardi Gras in New Orleans in Feb or Little Rock in March!! Oh how I wish I could do those! Or do I just take a year off and go with my half marathon time goal of under 2 hours? Now I definitely feel like I could make that no problem!

I really believe the saying is true: You do run better in your 30's! Let the decade commence!

Categories: MS Blues Marathon