Really don't want to have a race recap so this will be short & sweet.
Number of Finishers: 1,884 Number of Females: 763 Number of Males: 1,121 Average Time: 4:12:25
overall place: 1594 out of 1884 division place: 116 out of 149 gender place: 597 out of 763 chip time: 4:54:38 pace: 11:15 half: 2:17:37 mile 20: 3:38:39 gun time: 4:56:10
Not sure what happened. It seemed it was all mental. I was prepared, trained well all summer and then once I got out there about mile 9-10 it started going downhill.
Or maybe it wasn't mental:
Was it because I didn't eat pasta the night before and instead eggplant paramasean?
Was it because I didn't sleep well and was tossing & turning cause of it being stuffy, hot & noisy in my hotel room?
Was it because I didn't eat much the morning of the race? (no microwave to heat up my oatmeal)
Was it because of the cold weather?
Was it because of the 10-15 mph winds that were coming at us from the west and then from the south?
Was it because of the age of my shoes and that I've trained for 2 marathons in them?
Was it because I didn't eat enough while I was running?
Or most importantly was it because I was too full of expectations of myself?
But I found myself walking when my mind told me to walk, not when my body told me to walk. I just couldn't fight through anything or any feeling. I just couldn't win. I kept telling myself, what are you doing walking, you feel fine, you are fine, so pick it up. And the odd thing is that I would pass people when I was running who were also running. So that's when I knew my pace was fine but then I would just stop and walk. My breathing was fine, my mind just gave out.
My cell phone also died at about mile 12. I had it in my sports bra and when I opened it up the display was all wonky. I turned it off and when I tried to restart it, wouldn't turn back on. Put it in my SPIBelt at that time which made it bounce even that much more. It didn't help though, it wouldn't turn on at all. I was actually afraid that my friends were going to leave thinking that they missed me. I was so worried! I let it dry out until after work and it seems to be fine now. I've got to get a cell phone holder pronto.
All I know is that having great friends who support me before, during and after the run makes up for this. I am loved, people care for me. This makes up for any disappointment that I gave to myself. I had 5 friends show up to support me at the end and throughout the race (Kevin & Jess, Jesse & his gf Katie and Luke). I had another Lakefront Marathon runner in my NITRO running group and his wife and a husband of another runner cheer me on at the end. I had a guy who sat next to me on the bus to the start cheering for me at the end. All of these people made my horrible time disappear. As a running friend who I met at my first 1st marathon said to me on Twitter; "Having to stop at mile 11 and fight the other 15 miles is truly remarkable. While I know you wanted a better time you should be very proud!" He's right. It's just a time. I am one of 1,884 that finished that day. 2,750 signed up total. That's nearly 900 people that didn't show up and/or drop out.
To everyone that affected supported me while I was in training for this marathon with their words on this blog, on Twitter, in person, through email, I really appreciate it. Even a Good Luck helps. That definitely takes the sting out of this. It always has been about the little things for me.
I did bring my camera with me (no video for you lucky people out there) but I'll post the pictures when I'm feeling a bit better about things or tomorrow, whichever comes first!
And so now for the evidence. Don't mind the heartrate. I don't think it was on correctly and that's why it spiked at 200. Yes, that means it was 99%! Unless that was just a sign that something was going to go wrong, not sure. Those 2 stops were porta-potty stops. Second one wasn't really needed after all.
Well, there it is. What I'm going to do at 8am on Sunday, October 4, 2009.
I'm heading up to Madison on Friday night to hang out with my friends, Kevin & Jess. Then Saturday around 1pm, I'll be leaving for Milwaukee to check into my hotel room on the far west side of Milwaukee. Grabbing my packet before it closes at 6pm. Then will be eating somewhere. I'm thinking the Milwaukee Ale House. It's not that far from the packet pickup downtown.
Sunday morning has me waking up early, eating and then driving down to the runner parking area. I should find this Saturday night as well. The race organisers has buses available for runners to take them to the start nearly 26 miles north of Milwaukee.
I'll be hopefully finishing around 12:30pm and then trek my way to my car and driving back to the hotel to shower. I'm going to request a late check-out (normal is at 1p). Hopefully, no one has my hotel room after me that Sunday night and I can leave around 3p. Then over to Madison again to see Kevin & Jess and show off my hardware and then back home!
Things I need to do this week
Make an appointment on Monday for a massage. Check, made one for Monday at 12:15p. Figured that would be good. She had openings on Sunday afternoon but I know that after a nights sleep I'll be hurting even more.
Wash my running clothes. Did that on Wednesday night
Pack my running clothes, food (oatmeal, sports beans, PowerBar Gel Blasts) water bottle belts, shoes, hat, Garmin, etc. I sure hope I got everything!
Print my confirmation email and pack it away. Gotta do that tonight still!
Try not to be nervous as all hell - so far it's half & half.
After my marathon
Take my new shoes to my running store and ask them about the narrow vs normal width
Not run for 2 weeks, then start up again in the 3rd week to prepare for a 10k race at end of October
Here are the outfits that I could possibly wear. Yes, I have 3. I haven't decided what. I know it's gonna be shorts and sleeveless shirt. I'm leaning towards the compression shorts though. I have my arm warmers just in case I need them. Heh, it would be funny to wear them in this marathon as I wore them in the last two as well (December & April)!
Weather as of 5:15p tonight, forecasted for Sunday in Milwaukee, was 59 degrees and partly sunny. Rain on Saturday & Monday but nothing on Sunday. Will I be lucky this time around?!
Um, what else?
Oh, I think I'll be Twittering again using TwitterFone. I did back in April and at one part, I gave up calling it in and instead just started typing it out. But I'll do the same this year, so if you want to follow along, go check out my Twitter page. I'll post something at 6, 12, 18 and 24. And maybe something between those as well. I'll carry my phone & camera with me as well, so you can count on pictures and maybe a video in my race recap! My pace I'm hoping will be around a 10:00-10:30 pace. (10 minute will get me 4:22 time)
So that's it for now. Next time you'll see me, will be on the flipside of yet another 26.2!!
I don't think I'll be running in another race in Missouri. No offense to the state or anything but it's seriously NOT conducive to me running at all.
Key points
A half I can pace on my own, my stats prove that much! 3 sets of 2 miles I ran the same time in!
I ran through shin deep water that was ice cold!
I started passing people at the end of the race, amazing feat. I blame the walking up the hills.
I still managed to come in a decent time even though I walked. Maybe there's something to the whole "walk-run" thing after all!
My friend Rob is totally awesome for putting up with me and this crazy running notion of mine!
I have 2 videos about 10 minutes each of the race down below the stats.
I drove over to my friend Rob's house on Thursday from southern Illinois to Columbia, MO. It was about a 4 hour drive.
When I got in, he gave me a booklet of a festival that Columbia was having called Roots 'n Blues 'n BBQ. I was going through it and I saw an advertisement for a half marathon. I got all sorts of excited reading it! I immediately got online and was looking up information. Then I saw the price. $60 and then a $12 late fee. Ouch. For a half marathon?? So decided not to do it.
The original plan was to run 8 miles on the Katy Trail while Rob biked along with me. I am in taper mode after all and my marathon is only next weekend. Another reason not to do the run, it's all hills and I don't need to injure myself with only a week to go!
Next day, I was in the shower and was thinking about this race again. How cool would it be to say that I did a half marathon in Columbia with my best friend watching and cheering me on? They did have a 10k option and I could do that but I'd rather do the half.
So I get dressed go out and look at Rob and say, I think I really want to do the half. :-) We find out where we can go sign me up since there is no race day registration and head on down there. They only charged me $10 for the late fee. And I wasn't guaranteed a shirt since I was late. I had to go pick up one after the race. I also read after I got my packet that there are no medals but instead a finisher's glass. Hmmpf.
Rob and I decided to have a chill night on Friday night and since I needed to carbo load, we ordered some fantastic pizza, cheese bread and watched 3 movies that evening. It was fantastic! Got everything all laid out and prepared that evening as well. I'm pretty lucky that I had a good arsenal of stuff to bring with me these days!
Up early at 5:45a since the race began at 7am (!!!). Walked out the door and it's pitch black and raining. Not just sprinkling but good sized drops. Craps. Rob said that he heard it waking up, but I didn't. I grabbed my sweatshirt to wear while we were waiting around. It was kinda cool about mid-high 50's.
Gee, does any of this sound familiar?? A reminder of my St. Louis Marathon back in April.
Took only about a 20 minute drive down there and found a decent parking spot thanks to Rob looking that up the evening before. Walked on over to the start and while I was in the port-a-potty I heard it started to rain harder. Walked out and sure enough, it was coming down harder. Fantastic. Rob & I gathered & huddled underneath a walkway to protect us from the rain. Soon it was time to head on over to the start line.
They did have pacers in this race so that was awesome. I saw one holding up an inflatible hand and it said 1:30. Whoops. WAY too fast. Walked back and saw the 1:45 and then finally the 2:00 guy. He also had 2:00 written on his back in big numbers. I knew I wanted to stay with him but if I lost him, no biggie. A half I can pace on my own, a full marathon, I can't.
I had brought my water bottle pack with me but decided at last minute that I didn't really need it since it was pretty cool. I wanted to practice wearing it in a race if I decide to wear it in Milwaukee. I also handed over my sweatshirt to Rob, hugged him goodbye and he walked away.
We were standing on a hill and the rain you could see was just coming down in streams on the road. I already knew this was not going to bode well. I did see Rob after I passed the start and we waved at each other again.
I was going pretty even keel the first few miles of the race. Wasn't pushing it or anything. Ran up a few hills in those first few miles as well. Again, not a good sign for what was to come in the rest of the race. But my breathing was. I saw the 2:00 pacer well ahead of me and again wasn't too worried about it. The first mile was running through the campus of University of Missouri, where Rob teaches and even past the stadium where they play football.
Then we started to head out of town, south. And down the steepest bloody hill I've ever seen. I kept running but I ended up kinda galloping down it. That's what people were commenting on it anyway (in the video). That 2nd mile I ended up going 8:46! Right after this, I saw lightning in the sky. That I was surprised to see. I thought I saw it back in first mile but thought maybe it was just someone's flash. But this was definitely NOT mistaken. It was in the sky as I was running down a hill.
Then we hit up the trail. Not quite sandstone like the one I run on but gray stones but it wasn't pebbles either so that I was glad. Then it started raining harder. Not pouring but I was definitely getting wet. Even running under the trees of the trail didn't help things. I started to get worried about my Garmin at this time. Again, remember St. Louis and how Phil died after that race?! I kept my hand upside down to keep the rain off of it but not sure how much that was helping. Rain was dripping off of my hat by this time and hitting my hand with my camera in it too. Nothing was soaking it up anymore.
On this trail we ran around a very pretty lake. Got some good pictures. That was when mile 6 marker was upon us. Halfway there! I ate my jelly beans at this time so I was able to get them out of my hand. Also when the leaders were looping back on us. And when we hit the biggest UPHILL I have seen yet on this course. I'm not ashamed to say this. I walked up it (in the video).
At mile 8 I saw Rob. He manged to find me on the way! Which was a very lovely surprise! I didn't know he was gonna be there! After we parted ways, the lady beside me commented on me bringing my camera. I said yep, I have on the past 3 halves and past 2 marathons. She asked me what marathons I've done. Told her and then said that I have one next week. Wanted to know where that one was at and told her Milwaukee. I said because of that, I'm not looking to do anything special with this one. Just run it, especially since I come from pancake flat northern Illinois. We talked a little more and then I put in my earbuds again and we played leapfrog for a while but then she took off and that was OK by me. It was all subdivision running on this part so we had more spectators since they were just standing outside of their houses. I also noticed right before I saw Rob that it had stopped raining all together! YAY! 2 more hills, 2 more walks.
Then after 9 miles, I ran back down that hill and was totally picking up a ton of speed. I passed a group of girls (in the video). At the bottom of the, took a turn and back up another hill. This one was shorter but a lot steeper. I again walked it but even that was difficult!! The gaggle of girls passed me yet again (in the video).
Right after 11 miles, we got on the main road and I started passing people again (in the video). Not sure how that was happening. I told myself that I needed to wait until after mile 12 to start kicking it. Needed to make sure I had enough in the tank for that. Off the highway and down to the Katy Trail again but we ran into a problem. A fast moving current in the tunnel we had to go under. The amount of rain that Columbia had that morning flooded the tunnel and we had to wade through it. It wasn't just a tiny stream. This was to my shins. And it was ice cold water. Halfway through my feet and ankles were numb and pins & needles. Coming out of the water, I started running again and they HURT so bad!!! (DEFINITELY in the video)
I had realised by this time that my Garmin watch was off by a few tenths of a mile. So by the time we reached the 12 mile mark, my watch was saying 12.2 miles. And it kept going higher and higher. I really started gunning it once we got off the trail and onto the city path along the river. I passed a few people (two I had to squeeze through the middle of) and one I told him twice that I was coming up on his left so he wouldn't drift left as we made a slight turn.
My Garmin ended up saying that I ran 13.54 miles in 2:08:49. I forgot to stop it as soon as I crossed the finish line. But since this race was chip timed that's OK. The official time was 2:08:37. It seems I keep getting slower in my half marathon times. But again, I must remember, I'm not used to hills nor was I actually wanting to break any time barriers!
I got a free meal ticket. They had Rock Star energy drinks, brisket/pulled pork (I gave Rob the sandwich), coleslaw, frozen bananas. It's funny because as we were standing around eating, the sun came out. If they only held it an hour later, 8am instead of 7am, the race would have been very pleasant. I got a shirt as well and also a finishers pint glass.
We heard the 10k results. In my age group, 3rd place ran 56:11. I very well could have had a chance in placing!! Though of course, I have no idea cause of the hills.
All in all, it was a very good race. I am really proud of myself with the time & the hills. And I'm very glad to have a friend that was willing to hang out for 2 hours while I went out and ran. And also very glad that we got to share in this experience too!
Videos I included duration of the clips so you know when you can skip over them. Sometimes I talk in the clips, sometimes I don't. Both videos are pretty long, almost 10 minutes each. Sometimes I don't exactly have the most steady hands while I was running. Sorry for that. Even I was getting sick watching the swaying! But seeing the people pass me as I'm walking up the hills are impressive!
Columbia Half Marathon -- 1st half
Columbia Half Marathon -- 2nd half (also with the water in the tunnel, this is a Must See)
Well, I figured out my headache from yesterday. It was a caffiene headache. Didn't have anything but water all day Saturday at the Air Show and then woke up Sunday with a headache. After 5 Advil (2 pills, then 3 pills later) wasn't doing anything, had a Mt. Dew on the way to St. Louis and that seemed to do the trick! Was able to attend the Cubs game at Cardinals without a headache! And what a great game it was! Another close scoring game that this one went into extra innings and top of 11th, Cubs managed a 3 run home run which made it 6-3 and we held on to the that and won the game! Good thing I took today off after all!
And so I slept in quite a lot this morning since we got back around 1am. Finally headed out there to Rend Lake around 10am. As you can see below, the difficulty is 4.2 out of 5. And then when I started the humidity was 92% and a temperature of 67 degrees. So the below numbers were after the run ended. But it didn't matter cause 67 degrees and 92% is pretty much the same as 81 degrees and 69% humidity. All I know is that I was soaking wet well before I was done and I didn't even dump any water over my head.
I saw loads of wildlife; 2 fawns that the spots were slowly fading away. 3 groups of turkeys, one was on the pavement path that I was running on. About 10 of them went right and 1 went left, soon they realised that the one went and the others quickly turned around and crossed over the path again to meet up with that one. I thought it was weird, usually majority rules but this one that went left must have been the leader. Lots of spiders on the path, wully bullys, hawks, and even a nice gnat flew into my eye on the first .1 mile. That HURT bad. Took me a minute to get that thing out of my eye.
I did walk a lot towards the end but that was because of the hills and heat. The sun had started coming out and was warming things up quite a bit. I can only hope that Milwaukee doesn't have any humidity for their marathon otherwise I'm toast. My miles weren't that far apart in times so I guess that's good. I did pause for a bathroom break in mile 8 so that's why there's a 2 minute gap.
After the run, I went down towards Rend Lake to get into the lake. But unfortunately, since I wasn't at a beach it was muddy and my shoes were laden with mud pretty quickly. But I got down to the shoreline and dumped water on my arms, shoulders, head and my legs (which also got my shoes & socks wet). Felt soooo good.
Speaking of shoes; I wore my old shoes on this run. No burning feet. So yea, I think I'm going to take my shoes back up to the store that I bought them from and ask them if they are in fact narrow cause I know for a fact I ordered a narrow. I hope they can tell cause the info under the tongue doesn't say anything about it being narrow (like a width size or anything.)
Now my brother and I will be going out on a Harley ride and then hitting up my favourite Mexican restaurant and will be eating my 1300 calories that I burned back!
