Marathon mom

It's a life goal of mine ... to run the marathon.

Last October I started training and ran 5 miles, my longest run since before both boys were born.

About two weeks before m-day (marathon day), I started experiencing pain and swelling in my ankle. It wasn't going away entirely so six days before the run, I went to the doctor for x-rays. I wasn't going to run, if it meant doing permanent damage. Luckily, I got the a-ok from the doctor that it was just tendon damage and that he didn't know if I would finish and it could be painful, but I could run. So lots of anti-immflamatory drugs later ..

It's the night before the marathon, I planned on getting to bed very early so I would be well rested for my marathon debut. I started out good and was in bed by 9:45pm. Fifteen minutes later, Simon started yowling. She is siamese cat, and a siamese yowl is a pathetic sound. I figure she misses Neechy so I didn't want to be too hard on the cat. Went out to the stairs where Simon was sitting and shooed her down the stairs. This went on until 11:30pm, and finally Bob had enough of it and went downstairs to convince Simon to be quiet. Ahh, almost midnight and I'm finally getting to sleep. Not exactly the way I wanted things to go.

Then at 2:30am, I wake up with an upset stomach. Great, now why is this happening? I went downstairs to eat a granola bar, maybe I was hungry. I didn't really eat very much the night before at the pasta pot luck that the Operation Bootcamp training team put together. Well, the granola bar didn't help. As the hours wore on, it got closer to 5:00am (wake up time), and my upset stomach got worse.

The babysitter was late, and we were finally out the door. Almost immediately my stomach issues were gone. So I guess I had a little bit of anxiety? You think?? As I was going to sleep, I kept thinking "at this time tomorrow, it will be over!". Maybe not the best thing to be thinking!

The race started at 7:00am. It was cold, but at least it wasn't raining. There was a chance of that. I didn't mind the cold too much, I got to wear my blue nylon jacket that has a big pocket in the front that is good for holding gloves, energy gu packets, and whatever else I wanted to carry. I've worn the blue nylon jacket for all my training runs and bootcamps, it's like a part of me by now.

My goal was to just finish, however, I anticipated completing the marathon in 5 hours or less. I started out with a 9:45 min/mile pace for the first 6 miles. A little faster than usual for me. Must have been all that adernaline. It was amazing, the people, the runners, just the whole thing. Between 6 miles and 20 miles, my pace was held steady at 10:30 min/mile which is more like my speed.

Then at 21 miles, I started to feel a little something in my foot/ankle. By 22 miles I was sure it was going to get worse before it was over. Mile 23 was very painful and lots of walking, then at mile 24 I decided to just suck it up and run the rest (and just block the pain!). My pace was 12:01 min/mile for the last 6.2 miles.

As I approached the finish line, the time on the clock read 4:58, just under 5 hours! I couldn't believe it! And that was the time on the clock, my actual time was 4:40:15. I'm very happy with that time, especially considering that I walked a considerable distance at the end (the time could've been 4:35 or less without the injury!).

Bob did very well too in the half marathon. His time was 1:52 which averages out to a 8:35 minute/mile (amazing!). He was experiencing a lot of pain too, but running was less painful than walking for him! He is just a glutton for punishment sometimes.

I've also have to note the beer stop during the race! Right before going into Piedmont Park about 22 miles, there was some folks out with beer and offering it to the runners going by. Not many people were taking them up on the offer, but I did! Boy, did that beer taste GOOD!

Another funny that I have to share. On the way back home after the race, Bob and I were going to the Peachtree Center Marta station. This Marta station is under Peachtree Center and there is a super long steep escalator that you take. Well, I got on the escalator and in my exhausted condition didn't trust myself to stand, so I just sat down for the long ride down. The people coming up the escalator were laughing so hard at me, the running girl in her sweats and medal just sitting on the escalator for the ride down. One woman commented that she wished she had her camera!

Now the question is ... am I going to do another marathon? There's a good chance, I really enjoyed this one, despite the ankle injury and hills. (Did I mention that this course is one of the hilliest marathons out there!) Maybe I can get my time under 4:30? That would be a good goal.