Amy Runs A Marathon

If you missed the drive, the expo, and the days leading up to the marathon, you can get caught up here.

After bringing just about every piece of running clothing that I own, I'd settled on shorts and my green tank which had been my outfit for most of my long runs during training.  I kept my throw away sweater on until the last moment and handed it to the BF.  It was 13*C (55*F), cloudy and breezy, but no rain.  I had two Gus in my pocket and 2 stuffed into my handheld.  I was ready.

The BF stayed with me right until the gun went off, and thank goodness - I was a pile of nerves and he was making me laugh with silly advice.  At the gun, he took this video:

The gun went off and it was a slow walk to the start.  Crossing the start line I felt really emotional and almost started to cry.  I couldn't believe I was doing this!  I managed to pull myself together and focused on the crowd, the scenery and my pace.  I had my iPod turned off because I figured the first few kilometers were going to be crowded, and I was right.  We started right behind the provinicial parliament buildings and did a loop around the block before heading down Government St in front of the famous Empress Hotel.

Source

Km 1 - 7

Just before we got to the hotel, I spotted the BF off to the side.  He missed me, but he got these photos of the start of the race:

I quickly realized that I'd put myself too far back.  I was slow, but not that slow, especially at the beginning.  Without being too aggressive, I slowly moved my way up as we ran up Wharf St. with views of the harbour and turned the first corner along Johnson to loop around downtown.  This was mostly slightly uphill, but I was feeling comfortable with my pace.

The first 3K went by quickly.  My plan was to run 3K, walk a minute for water, run 2K, walk a minute for water, run 2K, walk 2 minutes and take a gel and some water.  This is the way I'd done all of my long runs and I knew I could get to 30K fairly comfortably following this schedule.  After that, all bets were off, but at least I'd have the first 30K down.  After 3K I didn't feel like I needed a break and there was a downhill coming up, so I waited an extra 500 metres til the end of the downhill for my first walk break.  I didn't really want to walk for a full minute, but I wanted to stick to my plan.  After about 45 seconds I had to start running again.  I just couldn't help it!

Another 2K and we were in a residential neighbourhood.  There were lots of supporters out cheering, and one house had Chariots of Fire playing on a loud speaker!  After another 2K we were into a loop around Beacon Hill Park.  As I ran in, the leaders were heading out.  Man, they are fast!  At this point the road narrowed as runners were going in both directions.  I had planned on turning on my music at this point, but because it was still pretty crowded, I kept it off and just enjoyed the run and the comments from the sidelines.  There was a lot of crowd support through the park as the tail end of the half marathon was also looping through in the other direction. 

At 7K I took my first scheduled Gu.  My right shoe was too tight and my foot was falling asleep.  I've had problems with this in the past, and once I start getting that feeling it can be very persistant.  I quickly got off the road and loosened my laces.  Luckily, that solved the problem.

Kms 8-14

The next 3K I was feeling great.  We were coming along to the ocean front.  There was a wind, but it would gust up for a few moments and then die down, so it wasn't too much of a problem at this point.  We were running along Dallas Road - beautiful homes on the left, Ocean on the right.  It was cloudy, but still no rain.

At 10K it was time for another walk break, but I could see a bit of an uphill coming and decided to save the walk break til half way up the hill.  The road was wider again and the crowd was starting to spread out a bit, so I put my music on at this point.  1/4 done.  5 more kilometers and I'd see the BF for the first time.

At 10K, I checked my Garmin.  58:33.  I was going at a faster pace than I had planned, but I felt great.  I tried to slow my pace down a bit, but it was a struggle.  Every time I checked, I was going faster than I wanted to, and I'd slow down for a bit, but somehow I kept sneaking up to a faster pace again.

The course had a strict 5:30 cut off, so around here we started seeing the marathoners that had gone out at the early start at 6:30am.  My favourite was the guy with the "Screw Cancer" shirt.  Indeed!

Kms 15-21

The BF was waiting for me at the 15K corner as planned.  It was great to see a familiar face and smile!  He told me I was looking strong and snapped these pics:

Around this bend was a long, steady downhill.  At the bottom was a man in full kilt attire playing the bagpipes.  From there we were back along the water, and the wind was now gusting from behind.  It was around this point that I started feeling an achiness in my hips/glutes.  Nuts!  I wasn't even half way yet.  I was otherwise feeling strong, and stuck with my plan, run 3K, run 2K, run 2K with 1 minute, 1 minute, 2minute brisk walk breaks. 

It was around here that the leaders started passing in the other direction and there was lots of cheering.  I pretended everyone was just cheering for me and kept going.  I was still feeling good, but was looking forward to the walk breaks a bit more.

The sun was starting to come out, so it looked like we would be spared a downpour or even showers.  It was still windy, but not too bad on the residential streets.

The BF was there again just before the half way mark.  We'd found a spot where he could park and walk about a kilometer back and forth to see me at 15K, 20K, 27K and 32K on the out and back course.  He had a gel ready for me, but I didn't need it as I'd been able to pick up an extra one from an aid station.

At half way I checked my Garmin again. 2:02:06.  I knew I was still going too fast because at this point my pace was not far off my best half marathon pace and I knew I couldn't keep that going for the rest of the race.  I was still feeling the ache in my glutes, but it wasn't getting much worse (yet), but now my big toe was starting to hurt. 

This was new as I've never had a blister on my big toe before and wasn't expecting it.  There wasn't much I could do, so I tried to not pay it much attention as I went down another long downhill before the turnaround. 

Kms 22 - 30

My first 3 - 3K chunks had felt great, now it was starting to feel tough to go 3K without a walk break, even with the big downhill.  There were now lots of people going in the other direction and it felt like I would never get to the turnaround.  Even though I was past halfway, I wanted to be heading towards the finish line instead of away from it!

Now it was time to go back up that long downhill I just coasted down.  The glutes were telling me I couldn't do it.  I broke the hill into chunks and ran/walked it.  A lot of others were doing the same.  When I got to the top I stepped off the course to try to stretch for a couple of minutes. 

At 27K I passed the BF again.  This pic shows that I was starting to get a little wooky.

I stopped for a minute to stretch some more next to him.  He was worried that he wouldn't make it back to the finish if he met me again at the 32K mark as we planned.  I told him that I knew I would take longer to finish the last 10K, but he didn't think he'd be able to park and wanted to see me cross the finish line. 

The next 5K are a bit of a blur.  I was feeling really emotional again and almost started to cry.  My legs were fading, but I was still able to talk myself into sticking to my plan.  The bagpiper was there again.  I don't remember much else.

At 30K, I was still holding onto my overall pace.  30K split:  3:00:11

Kms 31 - 42.2

At 32K the BF was there again. 

It was great to see him again, but I was pretty distracted by something else:

Oh, hello Wall.  Nice to meet you.

Hrm, you are not very friendly.

It looks like you're going to be sticking with me for a while.  Let's make a deal:  Forget my 3K, 2K, 2K plan.  You let me run the downhills and the flat bits, and I walk up the hills.  Sound good?  Good.

Suddenly this "flat" course felt very hilly.  This course that seemed to only have 2 downhills on the way out seemed to have an awful lot of uphills on the way back.  I.  Was.  Dying.

I felt like I was shuffling more than running.  Every song on my iPod annoyed me more than motivated me.  The wind was now coming straight on and felt like it was pushing me backwards.  Even the crowd support started to get to me.  When someone yelled, "You're almost there!" with 8K to go, I wanted to strangle them.  8K seemed like forever.  But then there was 7K, then 6, and then 5K.

At some point I passed this guy who the BF had seen earlier on:

I heard somebody say that he walks the marathon every year in full army gear.

I had walked enough that my pace was way down, but I realized that if I could just keep running the flat parts, I could finish in under 4:30, something I had secretly hoped I could do, but had not even mentioned to anyone as I didn't think it was really possible.  After all, it was only a year ago that I ran my first half marathon in 2:25!

At 3K someone called out another, "You're almost there!"  And I knew I was.  I almost cried (again).  There was only one more little hill.  I wanted to walk so badly, but just kept running.  I wanted to finish knowing I'd given it everything I had.  I kept saying, I can do this.  I can do this, until it became, I'm doing this, I'm doing this.

1K left. 

800m.

A guy on a bike was calling out to the crowd to cheer more.  This was fine.  Then he started calling out to runners to run faster.  If I'd had an ounce more energy I might have pushed him right off his bike.  All I could do was focus on the next bend, then the next bend, then the next bend.

400m.  I could hear the finish line, but I couldn't see it.

200m.  The finish line was finally in sight.  I couldn't even look for the BF.  My eyes were focused on the finish line. I heard them announce my name, but I couldn't even raise my arms as I crossed the line.  I think I managed a smile.

Finish line pics coming soon....

What I did RIGHT:

• I carried my own handheld.  This let me take breaks when I wanted/needed to, and keep going through the water stations.
• I brought my own Gu.  There was only one aid station with PowerBar Gels in Vanilla (blech!) and Strawberry Banana and they were out of Strawberry Banana on my way back.
• I kept my music off for the first 10K. 
• I ran my own race.  There were people I passed and who passed me, but I didn't try to keep up with anyone.

What I would do differently next time:

• Not much in the race itself.  Maybe pass off the handheld for the final 10K?  Anything I would do differently would be during training - more strength training, one more long, long run, miss fewer runs, and not do a 3 hour hilly hike 7 days before the marathon!