I MADE IT!!!
By Sarah. Filed in Marathon Training Posts |
I made it!!! And it went ok! The whole weekend was awesome too. Friday night we (Dad, Matt and his girlfriend Jess, Simon and I) went to Outback for dinner (salmon and veggies for protein!) and had a good time. Simon and I also stopped by our friend Kyle’s birthday party and then were in bed early to get ready for the trip. The 7 of us (My Aunt Sue (we call her Choo Choo), cousin Paul, Matt, Jess, Simon, Dad, and I) piled in the family van and were on the road by 9. By 9:31 my dad had swerved off the road over the rumble strip (as Simon noted). We played setback, stopped for a few quick bites, took a nap and were in Philly before we knew it! We stopped at the Expo so I could pick up my Bib and donate my old sneakers. Of course no one told me I was supposed to pick up my tshirt then too so I don’t have a tshirt (I’m still devastated)! After the expo, we checked into our hotel room downtown, checked into my family’s hotel room by the airport and headed to my mom’s aunt’s house to see some family. We had a really nice, although too short visit and it was really special to be in the house where my mom spent so much time. I was having flashbacks to childhood (when we used to visit a lot) and it was so nice to see them. We then drove to dinner in the italian district and ate at Marras. There were 15 of us! My cousin Jay, his fiance Megan and their baby Maddy came, my brother, Jess, Dad, and Simon, my older brother Rob, his wife Judith and their kids Zane and Alex, and my friends from college Amy, Beth, Jenny and Vickey! It was so awesome!! I felt completely supported, and was so happy that so many people I love were here to support me!
Race day.. woke up at 5:45 and started to get ready. My stomach was acting up (obv) but I got dressed and Simon and I were picked up by my friends Jared and Katie (both running!) and Jared’s parents. Simon forgot his phone and the room key in the chaos but I panicked and he came with me even though he kind of needed these! We piled in, drove a mile or two, and walked up to the corals. We didn’t know before, but they release the different groups in waves. Katie and I were in the purple group and didn’t end up starting until about 7:20. Which was good for me because I needed to make another trip to the port-o-john, luckily I brought tissues.
I think I mentioned that my friend Katie decided to run with me, even though she is much faster! She hurt her foot during the training process and also decided she’d just like to have a buddy which really worked out for me! We tried to start out at a slow/steady pace because we were nervous of over-exerting ourselves in the first half. We were going for negative splits but that didn’t quite pan out! We were pretty solid at a 10 minute mile pace for the first 7 miles. We stopped to take a pee break around mile 9 (?) and the only other walking took place when we grabbed water/gatorade at each stop. We tried to run and drink in the beginning, choking ourselves, and then decided to just walk a few paces and drink! We did drink at every water stop and chatted almost the whole time. At the half-way mark we were at 2:16 (a 10.5 pace) but I could already feel it. The course definitely wasn’t flat! There were some pretty serious hills! I imagined the race was going to be mentally grueling and in the last few miles I’d have to psyche myself into it. It was more physically challenging then I imagined, but the mental part wasn’t that tough. By mile 15 I could feel the pain in my hips and thighs. By 18 I pretty much wanted to cry. We got to the 20 and I was sure I was going to have to crawl the rest of the way. We stopped for a 30 second stretch break and got going again. They handed out brownies and I realized I had to get home somehow so we started running. I took two other 30 second breaks to shake out my legs, while Katie checked her blackberry and ran backwards leaping. She could have probably finished in under 4 hours, ah!
Kate and I saw my four friends from college, Simon, and her sisters/friends from home so many times throughout the race! The girls all made signs (some pink and sparkly, some with ‘You are making me feel fat’) and screamed their heads off. We stopped for a few quick hugs along the way and decided we were going to enjoy this marathon instead of killing ourselves the whole time. At about mile 25 I saw my family and my brother ran with me from 25.2-25.7 or so which was really awesome. He has bad ankles so couldn’t do the whole thing but it was a really nice distraction! Then around 25.8 the girls and Simon also started running behind us so we had a back of 6 chasing us to the finish line! They veered off around 26 and let us cross the finish line, but it was so freaking hysterical. I couldn’t even complain the last mile because I was laughing too hard! The crying started at about 26.1 but it wasn’t too bad. It was tears of joy that I have such a wonderful support system, tears of sadness that someone was missing on that day, tears of pride that I just had accomplished something pretty fantastic, and tears of exhaustion. I hugged Katie and thanked her so much for going on this part of the journey with me and was tackled by friends and family. It was an incredible incredible day and experience and I am so thankful that all of this happened.
Pictures on the next post!
