How I Ran 26.something Miles and Lived

It took a marathon to bring me out of blogging hiatus. That, and a day off from work...and maybe Damien Rice too.

Anyway, I did it. I am a marathoner!!! I wish I could put into words how amazing/fun/wonderful/awful this experience was. But I can't, which means you just have to go run one to know what I'm talking about.

I should probably say that I wouldn't recommend for anyone to go about running a marathon the way I did. My longest training run was 18 miles 15 miles with 3 miles of walking afterwards. I can probably count all of the training runs I did on my fingers. Maybe even one hand. I was running this marathon coming off by FAR the worst half marathon I have ever ran. Race day I made a huuuge rookie mistake, only I'm not sure you can call it a mistake when I was fully aware of what I was doing. I ran wearing something i hadn't trained in before. And not just any something...I ran wearing shoes that had never been on a run with me (Just fyi, I ran in Brooks Green Silence).

So how did I get myself to cover 26.something miles in 5 hours and 49 minutes? It started at the expo...

After a long drive to Dayton, OH, John and I made it to the expo in time to hear the last half of Dean Karnazes speak. I've done a lot of reading about him and was excited to not only meet him in person but to have him sign my bib as well. Also, a lady was at his presentation who had 20 stitches in her leg because she was ATTACKED BY A SHARK a week prior but wasn't going to let that stop her from running the marathon. I am so lame.


He's really workin that visor


The real excitment started when Mark Cucuzella spoke. He's a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force, a doctor, an elite runner, and just a really smart guy. John had attended one of Mark's running workshops before but this was my first time seeing him. He spoke about a lot of things I already knew, but he said a couple things that played a HUGE part in getting me through this marathon. The first thing was, "If you get to mile 13 and you feel like you wanna go faster...don't." I thought about this a lot in the beginning miles when John and I were running painfully slow. The second thing he said, and the one that stuck with me most was "RELAX." John and I repeated this to each other several times throughout the race. Mark made me feel like I actually could finish this race if I just take it easy and "enjoy the journey."

Race day came and I was a little less confident than I was the previous night but still determined to finish while having the best time possible. It was cold that morning but the sunrise was b-e-a-utiful.


Walking along the flight line (where we would finish) to the start.

Awesome.

The official plane of the marathon was a B-2. Now, I don't know anything about planes, nor do I really care so long as they don't fall out of the sky, but this plane? jet? (see, I really don't know what I'm talking about), was really cool. I can't figure out how to get the video of it flying over on here but just picture some crazy huge bird coming from the distance. It's pretty slow and it's not until it's gliding directly overhead that you can hear the not-so-loud sound that it makes. That's what it was like.

And...then we were off. John and I planned to run at a 12 minute per mile pace and take a quick walk break every four miles until mile 16 when we would assess and reevaluate if necessary. It was really fun listening to everyone's conversations and joking with other runners. John and I did a good job keeping each other in check as far as pace went. I was having the best time. I do want to note one man who passed us as we were running up an on-ramp. He was going at a pretty good pace and ended up finishing somewhere way in front of us. He was walking. The whole marathon.



Man in gray shirt.

Somewhere around mile 8 the course leaves the Air Force base and goes through town. There were TONS of people cheering, playing music, holding signs...I felt like I was in a parade.

I could not wipe the smile off my face. I told John several times that I cannot wait to run another marathon. This was the most fun part of the race. It went on for a couple of miles.

 

Somewhere around mile 11 or 12 things went from easy to require some effort. I remember telling John that I still felt really good but I knew the worst was coming. That's kind of a scary thought. But we kept chugging along. We deviated from our game plan at mile 13 when we stopped to use the bathroom and took a walk break to eat half a banana. When we made it to mile 16 my legs were hurting but I knew I could run another 4 to mile 20.

 

We hit 20 miles in just over 4 hours. At this point I knew I wasn't in good shape but tried to stay positive. By mile 21 things were pretty ugly.

 

Hell?

We were doing more walking that running. Up until this point I thought I had escaped the marathon beast but it got me. Every step was painful. I hate to sound like a wimp or overdramatic but man it was an awful, awful time.

 

By mile 25 my spirits were higher but I still didn't know how I was going to make it another mile.

 

 

Somehow we made it back to the flight line. It was very surreal and I wish I was a better writer so that I could describe the feeling. To go from agony and really questioning how you're going to make it to..."oh...we made it."

 

Finish line ahead

Finishing was THE BEST! All my pain went away and I ran as fast as I could. Some high ranking man shook my hand, said, "welcome back," and put my medal around my neck. I think I'll remember him forever.

 

Marathoners!

I am in awe of this experience and of all the support John and I recieved from friends and family. It was a great feeling to get back to the car see all the texts I had recieved. Despite those last 6 miles, I know I will run another marathon.

 

For now, though, I am taking a break. I went for a run last week a realized it's the 3rd run in the last 2 years that hasn't been a training run for some future race. I am looking forward to running for fun again, assuming I can stop signing up for races (I have already signed up for the Iron Girl Half Marathon in April and have another browser window open with my partially completed registration for an 8k).

 

So that's that! I ran a marathon and lived through it. And loved it. The end!