Here's the story from my weekend in D.C. and the running of the National Marathon. Jonelle and I flew out on Thursday and stayed the night with one of her friends. On Friday, we went to breakfast, picked up our packets, and then took a trolley tour around D.C., had a pasta dinner, and then back to our hotel. Saturday was race day! Sunday, we went to church, sat in the sun, and then headed to the airport. It was a fun girls' weekend!
Before I left, my amazing husband gave me some beautiful pre-race support. Since 3 hours, 35 minutes was my goal time, Brian surprised me throughout the day with roses - 1, 3, 3, and 5 - and notes with each.
This is actually after the race, but here's a picture of the big sign out front.
Here's a sign Jonelle and I walked by on Friday and ran by twice on Saturday.
At the expo on Friday, they had some contestants from The Biggest Loser.
This is a picture of Jonelle and Washington Monument from sightseeing on Friday.
Here's a picture of the Capitol Building which we passed multiple times during our run on Saturday.
The weather was amazing and flowers were in bloom! I love daffodils...they remind me of home.And now for race day...
(Warning: It's a long story...I think it might be longer than my birth stories.) :)
On Saturday, I woke up at 4:45am, just before our (four) alarms were set to go off at 5:00am. We got ready and I ate some bread and yogurt and had some water and two Ibuprofen. We headed out just after 5:30am to catch the Metro with a bunch of other runners. It was chilly so I wore pants I was planning on getting rid of anyway, my throw-away jacket, and gloves over my my regular running clothes.
We warmed up a little, stretched, used the porta-potties, I ate a banana, and just tried to keep warm! Around 6:50am, I ditched my pants and listened to the National Anthem. Around 6:55am, the pacers finally showed up so we moved our way through the crowd to the 3:35 pacer. I tried not to get emotional as I realized this was the culminating moment of my 16+ weeks of training. I had the next 3 hours and 40 minutes to achieve my goal.
When we started running, it was pretty crowded. There were 2,322 marathoners and 6,249 half-marathoners that finished, so more than that were there at the beginning. The 3:35 pacer was doing around 9:30 min/mi for the first mile because of the crowds and this concerned Jonelle and me since we needed to keep a consistent pace of sub-8:27 to qualify for Boston. We didn't want to have to sprint later to make up so much time, so we tried to move around people to get a more steady pace. So much for our trusty pacer!
Between mile two and three, Jonelle was ahead of me and going faster than I wanted to go, so I hung back and tried for the next couple of miles to keep an even 8:13 min/mi pace to achieve the 3 hour, 35 minute goal time. At mile 3, I ditched my gloves, downed a GU and some water.
Shortly after mile 4, there was a turn-around, so I was able see where Jonelle was and give her a wave. At mile 5, I took a drink of Powerade as I jogged through the water stop. I wanted to try and conserve some energy early on, but it's so hard to walk during a race!
Sometime after mile 5, I ditched my jacket. At mile 7, I walk/jogged through the water stop again as I took another GU and drank some more water. I think just as I started running again - it's kind of a blur - the 3:35 pace group caught up to me. This was a good sign, because I definitely didn't want to be going too fast. I ran with them for a while, but I wasn't fully committed to running with them since they were trying to make up for lost time by going faster than an 8:13.
At mile 9, I walk/jogged and drank some more Powerade. Since the pacers don't walk, they got a little ahead of me. I considered trying to catch up, but I figured I would save my energy for the end and I'd catch up - and pass them (or so I thought). After all, I was only a third of the way to the finish line!
At mile 11, I drank some water and took another GU. My stomach was starting to hurt - I'm not used to consuming so much sugar on a run - so I decided to nix the Powerade and focus on water, but keep consuming GUs every 4 miles.
One of very few times I spoke (besides saying, "Thank you," at every water/GU/Powerade pick up) since I split off from Jonelle, was around mile 13. As the half marathoners split off to go in to their finish line, I said, "Great job half-marathoners!" And someone said, "Great job marathoners!" back to me. I thought to myself, "Yep! Here we go! Halfway there!"
At mile 13.1, I walked, grabbed a GU to stash for mile 15, took some Ibuprofen and Tylenol (whatever came out of my bag, since I was in a hurry), drank some water, pulled out my iPod, and thought to myself, "Okay, this is all about me now." At this point I was super pumped. The crowd of runners had thinned, I was rockin' out to my music, and I felt completely confident that I was going achieve my goal with flying colors.
The next little bit is a blur, but I'm sure I drank some water and took my GU at mile 15. A couple of times I remember thinking about crossing the finish line, calling Brian and telling him, "I did it!" and every time made me get emotional, so I had to stop thinking about that. Sometime around there, I remember coming down a hill, seeing the Capitol Building in front of me, listening to my music, feeling on top of the world and thinking, "This ROCKS!" It was a great feeling. I was having the time of my life!
Well, I'm sure you can guess what happened next... I started to doubt. It may have been the heat I wasn't used to (it was 62 degrees when we finished) or it may have been the distance my legs have only run a handful of times. My legs were getting tired and I was feeling thirsty and I was starting to wonder if I could sustain my pace - and this was before I even hit the 20-mile marker! I kept telling myself, "It's mine to lose." I was more than halfway there, I was in a good position time-wise and all I had to do was keep on keeping-on.
At mile 17, I had grabbed a GU to carry and had some water, so I took a little walk through at mile 19 to consume that GU and drink some more water. The 3:35 pace group kept getting a little further ahead, but I knew if they were in my sights and the 3:40 pace group didn't catch up to me, I was okay.
At mile 21, I grabbed another GU to carry and drank some more water as I walk/jogged. Anytime I tried to walk though, my legs were feeling so tired, it was pretty much harder to walk than run. It was almost like they were numb when running but started feeling weak when I would walk. At some point, I also took a corner and felt a pop/tear/something where I always get a blister on my right foot. It was hurting, but what choice did I have but to keep on going? The 3:35 pace group got a little bit further away from me, but I could still barely see them.
Around mile 23, I took my last GU and drank some more water. Shortly after, there was another turn around and I saw Jonelle again. The 3:35 pace group had caught up to her and she was running with them. I thought that was a good sign. I had totally planned on pushing on faster when I had 5k left (aka: mile 23), but it was all I could do to keep on pace so I was really doubting I could catch up to the 3:35 group. I knew I just couldn't lose more than a couple minutes over the last 3 miles or all would be lost.
Somewhere between mile 24 and 25 I caught up to Jonelle, which I hadn't expected to, so it actually perked me up to see my friend! However, Jonelle was having a really hard time feeling like she was going to pass out. I ran with her for a little bit and tried to keep her motivated which helped motivate myself. There were a ton of hills at the end (note to marathon course creators: don't put hills at the end of a 26.2 mile journey!) and we were both feeling lied to about the so-called "fastest looped course in the country." We had agreed before the race, that we were both basically on our own for this one so when she told me to go if I had something left, I did. As I ran forward, I said, "You better make it!" I so wished there was a way to make her run with me, but a marathon is a personal beast.
As I got closer to the finish, and up another hill (grrrr...), with people shouting, "You're going to make it!" I thought to myself, "I know I am! And I never, ever have to run a marathon again!" (And I kept thinking, "C'mon Jonelle, c'mon Jonelle...") I tried to speed up, but what felt like "speed" was merely maintaining. Finally, I saw the finish line - it still seemed so far away - and I sprinted as much as I could. I crossed the finish line at 3:38:07 (chip time; 3:41:06, gun time). Mission accomplished: I had qualified for the Boston Marathon! I only had 2 minutes, 52 seconds to spare, so I kept hoping Jonelle was right behind me. She came across at 3:39:39 with 1 minute, 20 seconds to spare. So we cut it kind of close, but our goal was to qualify and we did!
After that, we got our medals, heat sheets, water, food, and then started consuming. Jonelle was not doing well so she sat down while I called Brian. After a little bit, I looked back and Jonelle was lying on the pavement, so I got off the phone with Brian and walked her to the medical tent. After resting, getting some water, eating a bit, and getting a pill for nausea, she was doing better.
At some point I noticed blood had soaked through my sock and shoe (which are red, at least) where a blister had apparently popped. I'd never had that happen before! I was also sore from chaffing under my arms...another first.
We waited around for a while for the results to be posted so we could verify we had indeed qualified for Boston, but it was taking too long so we just went back to the hotel. That was tricky actually, because somewhere along the course, my SmarTrip card for the Metro fell out of my SpiBelt (although I didn't lose anything else). Luckily, another runner took pity on me and gave me $1.65 to get to the hotel.
When we got back, we both got super stomach sick (other runners probably know what I'm talking about) so we spent the next five hours trying to recover in our hotel room. Finally, around 5:00pm we got some veggie pizza and bread sticks delivered (we weren't feeling up to going out). A while later, after our stomachs had settled down, we went in the hotel hot tub to relax for a bit. After watching some TV, and not being able to find the BYU game, we finally went to bed.
Here are my unofficial stats (although they shouldn't change much once official results are posted):
Division Place: 19 of 219
Sex Place: 81 of 809
Overall Place: 510 of 2,322
Again, my time was 3:38:07, making my overall pace 8:20 min/mi (which actually dropped from about 8:13 min/mi at the 20 mile split). The Boston Marathon is Monday, April 18, 2011 so we'll see where in life we are at that point! I know I said I never, ever have to run another marathon, but now that I'm thinking clearly, I realize I can run one more, but this time I don't have to worry about my time. But, then again, I'm sort of competitive, so we'll see... :)
After I got home on Sunday, Wes modeled my medal. He was a fan. :) One of the highlights of my trip was talking to the kids on the phone. It's so fun to have actual conversations with my kids - even Sydney! Plus, it's always nice to hear you're missed!
A HUGE thank you goes out to everyone who gave me words of support and encouragement as well as congratulations via text, Facebook, blog comments, calls, cards, etc! It means SO MUCH to me! Thanks for believing in me!!!
