Marathon. Been there. Done that.

So here I am in my first ever marathon. This is the White Rock Marathon in Dallas to be precise. Can you see me in this video? Ha! Yeah right! The race was organized in waves according to our estimated finishing times. I was in group "N," as in the 14th letter in the alphabet. There were 22,000 runners that day. I'm way back in the back beyond camera view.

So really, here I am.

My results are below.

This race was a once in a lifetime experience for me. Thanks Kevin for helping me make it happen! We have so many great stories that came out of training for this race and just as many surround the event itself. And thank the Lord we're not too worse for wear. For posterity's sake, I'm going to give you the blow-by-blow of the race day. Several funny/absurd/interesting things happened that I don't want to forget. So here we go!

Early Wake Up Call
Kevin and I both woke up at 5:00 am the morning of the race. We got dressed and I put on my new tights that I bought especially for the occasion. My plan was to wear tights with shorts on top, a long sleeve wicking shirt, a short sleeve wicking shirt, arunning jacket, and then a trash back on top. I had also planned to bring my water belt (with Gaterade), my stretchy bib holder with bib number, and my electronic chip already tied to my shoe the night before. We left Kevin's uncle's house at 5:30 after I crammed down about 5 rice cakes with jelly. Thanks Alan for driving!!! We had a few comments in the car about "why are we doing this again," and "why are we here," but I've heard worse. :)

The Wait
We got to Fair Park about 2 hours before the race, so we hung out in the car and stayed warm for a bit. We watched people in shorts get out of their cars and jump up and down as though they were warming up (I'll say it again: 2 hours before the race). After hanging in the car, we decide it's finally time to brave the crowds and make sure we knew were we were supposed to wait. This includes my 20 minute wait in line to go to the bathroom where several nice ladies were sharing their kleenex. Thank goodness more toilet paper arrived just before I stepped into the stall. We were originally going to meet with other family members who were running the relay, but we quickly realized that it wasn't going to be feasible. So then we hung out for a bit in one of the staging areas (in doors) until they started making announcements outside. Then Kevin and I split up and I went looking for sign "N" and waited with my group.

The Race Begins
I didn't start the race until an hour after the starting gun went off because of the staggered start. The "elite" group went first, then group "A" then "B" then "C" and on an on. Keep in mind that the temperature was in the 30s-40s around this time. So I'm trying not to waste too much energy, but I can't help but shiver and waste energy. I felt the need to go to the bathroom about 30 minutes into to wait, but I was afraid I'd miss out on the start. So, I made some nice conversation with one of the ladies waiting with me. She said that this was her second marathon, she ran one in Austin, and she was hoping to just break 6 hours. After hearing this, I decided to make my way to the front of the pack as we got closer to the start. No sense in having to pass a lot of people. Right before my group got to the start (like 5 minutes before), I found an empty port-a-potty. Impeccable timing.

On the Road
Minus the wait in the beginning, this was one of the best organized races I've ever seen. Every aide station had Gatorade and water. People handing out the drinks would often encourage me by name (it was on my bib). There's nothing better than hearing your name in a race! Some guys at one aide station all dressed up like women. They must have had at least 10 to 15 different bands playing along the way, most of them playing in people's front yards. Some people held up generic signs encouraging everyone. Others were more specific. One said "I love holding up signs!" Another one said, "Because Running 26.3 miles Would be Crazy." In big races like this, some runners also wear interesting outfits and unique t-shirts. I passed one girl diressed up like a carton of french fries and on her back it said something like, "At 100 calories per mile, you'd have to run 26.2 miles to burn off 2 large french fries from MacDonalds." I told her that I thought she was making a great statement. I saw several women with tutus. Not sure what that was about. Saw a couple of interesting wigs too. Several people saw my t-shirt and assumed it was my team name or something. Nah. It's just a local running club. :)

My friend.

At about mile 10 I felt the need for a bathroom. And low and behold, a port-a-potty appeared on the left side of the road. Only one person was in the bathroom, so I waited a bit. While I waited, I looked around at the houses in the neighborhood and caught my breath. Then it just dawned on me that this wasn't a racing pit stop. This was set up for construction on one of the houses. Ha! Oh well.... Had to get the job done.

As expected, the first 13.1 felt better than the last. My left foot started to hurt a bit like I expected during the last 8 or so miles, but everything else hurt just the same in the end. I had just enough Gatorade and honey along the way that I never felt like my legs were cramping. I have a feeling it might have something to do with the formula of Gatorade they used too (Pro Endurance). I felt pretty good, and I even sprinted towards the end and across the finish line after I saw Trina, Kayla, Brian, Cheryl, Kevin, and Seth. Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better marathon experience. I didn't meet my goal, which was to finish in under 5. But I'm not so sure it's worth it to train for another 6 months just to chop out 2 more minutes. I'm pretty satisfied.

After the Race

Medals and bibs looked like this.

This guy put a "finishers" medal around my neck and said to me "This is it. This is what you've been working for," or something very similar. I would have cried I think had I not told myself that I wouldn't cry just earlier that morning. It was a pretty emotional experience. But first things first, I went to the bathroom. Then I picked up my finishers t-shirt, some oranges (they gave me two, but I took 4), and then I went to find my family. Kevin gave me the biggest hug! I think that was what I was waiting for; the medal was just a consolation prize. I'm only sorry that our family of relay racers missed the buses to the hand-off points! But now they're all inspired to run their own marathon. And I'm sure glad they were there and could cheer us on.

After the race, I was sore. I walked dreadfully slow. But I didn't have any collapsing issues. We took a nap after the race and ate with abandon. Alan made the best tacos I've ever tasted. Ever. I can still taste them. With their beefy, corn chipy, tomatoey, lettucey goodness. I must qualify this statement, though, by saying that I think Alan could have made us oatmeal and we would have been in heaven. Kevin had more strength than I did after our nap so he packed up our supplies and drove the first section home. I was so very thankful.

The trusty travel mobile.

Day after the race
I felt pretty good! A little sore, but not too bad. Kevin's usually more sore than I am, but my worse days are usually the day of the run. So I made sure we had plenty of food. And we did nothing. Not a thing. The whole day.



The week after

I got the worst cold I've had in years. But we hear that getting sick after a marathon is pretty typical. I've still got symptoms, but at least I'm back at work and I'm able to run a bit again. My athlete's foot is back again, so that tells me two things: (1) yes, my imune system is fairly low (2) still haven't gotten rid of the nasty fungus that Kaiya shared with us last year at the exact same time. Lovely. Yet another reason for me to be thankful for the marathon experience, and yet never do it again.

Two weeks later
I ran two miles on monday in the 9s. Felt pretty tired still, but it's mainly because of the sicknessessess. Then yesterday I ran 2 miles in 16:06. That's an 8:03 pace. Wahoo! I'm looking forward to working on more speed rather than distance. I think I've got distance down. :) Unfortunately, Kevin's now sick with a cold. So I'll repeat this for his benifit: "Yet another reason for me to be thankful for the marathon experience, and yet never do it again."

Future
Not sure what we're planning on doing next in terms of exercise. But for now, we're going to relax! We're done! We did it! Been there. Done that.