Official time: 3:45:10.27. Split time for the first half 1:53. Split time for the second half 1:52:10.
So for this race report I will first talk a little about Friday. I arrived at the expo at about 3:00, but wasn't expecting Marion, whom I was meeting there, until about 4:30. So I got my packet and perused the booths (and got an ice cream cone), but otherwise just sat around in an area they had set up for the speaker, so as to avoid wearing out my legs with excessive walking around the expo. During this time I ended up visiting with the race announcer. He asked about me so I told him my age and that it was my first marathon. He asked if I had a time in mind and I just smiled, so then he guessed that I was trying to go sub 4:00.
At 4:00 I listened to a talk by Dane Rauschenberg about the marathon course. After that I waited a while more and then Marion, who had gotten stuck in traffic, got there. We got her packet and went through the expo. I bought a pair of gloves for $1, which was fabulous because I hadn't brought gloves and was wishing I had a pair that I could wear at the start and then discard when it got warmer. I also met Kelli at the expo.
A little later, Marion and I went to dinner with Lori and her husband and another couple who are friends of Lori's. Then we went back to Lori's house and visited for a while, and then went to bed a little bit later than we should have.
I slept fitfully, waking up several times during the night. When my alarm finally went off at 4:15 I got up and said out loud to myself, "This is it." We all got dressed and tried to eat something, then Lori's sweet husband drove us to the start so that we wouldn't have to ride the bus. We were also picking up another runner that Lori knows and giving him a ride to the start. It was a little tense for a little while because we got a little bit later start than we had intended and then we had trouble finding this other runner's house. But we finally found it and made it to the start in time. Lori's husband dropped of Lori, this other runner, and myself at the marathon start and then took Marion to the half-marathon start. It was cold at the start, but not too bad. I kept my ratty old hoody on instead of putting it in my drop bag, but then took it off just before the start of the race because I thought it would be hard to take it off while running. I tied it around my waist and ditched it after 2 miles. I suppose I could have ditched it sooner, but oh well. They had pace flags to help you line up in the right place, and so I lined up about half-way between the 8:00 and 9:00 flags. That worked out well because most of the people around me at the start were going about the pace that I wanted to go.
Now I will give you a break down of the miles with comments where I have them. These are Garmin miles, not mile-marker miles because I had auto-lap set on my Garmin. I probably should have turned it off and just hit the lap button whenever I got to a mile marker, but oh well.
1 - 8:48
2 - 8:39
3 - 8:23 - Warm-up over. Time to pick up the pace just a little bit.
4 - 8:20 - I think it was around here (or maybe it was a little later) that I came upon a woman who asked me what pace we were going because I was wearing a Garmin and she wasn't. We were going about 8:20 and she said that was the pace she wanted and it was about the pace I wanted, so I ran with her for 2 or 3 miles. There was also a guy she had met at the start of the race who was running with her and was kind of pacing her. He had just run Boston, so he wasn't really racing this race. It was nice visiting with her, but after a few miles we came upon a very mild incline and her pace started dropping off, and so I left them.
5 - 8:15
6 - 8:21
7 - 8:26
8 - 8:29
9 - 8:37
10 - 8:26
11 - 9:51 - I had a port-a-potty break during this mile and that's why it was so slow. When I came out of the port-a-potty I saw the two runners that I had run with before up a little ways, and so I ran a little faster and caught up with them. But they were going too slow for me so I left them and did not see them again the rest of the race.
12 - 8:25 - I met Rad who was struggling with her IT band. She asked me my blog name as I passed her because I was wearing my FRB singlet, so I ran with her for a little bit and we talked.
13 - 8:30
14 - 8:40 - The start of the only significant hill.
15 - 8:38 - I got an encouraging text message from my husband at the start of this mile and I responded with the number 15.
16 - 8:38
17 - 8:42 - I've been wondering when the promised downhill would start and then I remembered that it was after the dam. Oh good, I could see the dam up ahead.
18 - 8:24
19 - 8:38
20 - 8:31
21 - 8:32
22 - 8:24 - At the start of this mile I sent my husband another text message that said 22.
23 - 8:08 - Hmm, got going a little faster here, I guess.
24 - 8:42 - As of the start of this mile everything was further than I had ever run before since my longest training run was 23 miles.
25 - 8:15 - I decided to try to pick up the pace the last 2.2 miles. It was hard but I knew I was within reach of my BQ time but it was going to be close so I figured I would push it in order to avoid blowing it by just a little bit. At this point I thought about all the people who were pulling for me (thank you all) but, no offense intended, I decided that I was doing it for me. It was hard at that point, but I figured that this was what I was training for and there was no point in saving myself for anything.
26 - 8:16
0.2 (but my Garmin says 0.39) - at 7:53 pace. - I could see the finish line and people were saying things like "4 more lights to go" or "3 more lights to go." I was wondering whether their count included the current light (because they were stationed at lights) or not. But mostly I was just trying to get to the finish. I was really digging deep by this point.
The announcer that I had met the day before was standing on the finish line with a microphone making comments. As I went over the finish line I pointed to him and said, "See, I told you I could do it." So then just after I got over the finish line he came over to me and said, "Talk to me." I told him my name and reminded him that we had talked the day before. And then he said into the microphone that it was my first marathon and I had qualified for Boston. At least that's what I think I heard him say.
So I got through the finish shoot and did not see Marion standing right there nor did she see me. So I went over and got some water and food and ran into Sasha. I talked to him a bit and then asked him if he knew where Marion was. He pointed her out for me. At this point my calves were seizing up, so Marion had me lie face-down on the grass and she massaged by calves. Thank you, Marion!!!!! It really helped.
A little later Lori finished. We hung out for a while and talked with Kelli and Kellies and then went back to Lori's house, where Lori's husband made us eggs, hash browns and toast. A little later, Rad and her husband and darling children came over to Lori's and we had strawberries dipped in chocolate, watermelon, cookies, and root beer floats. Yum.
A huge thanks to Lori and her husband who were wonderful hosts and do so much to make this a great race for me. I really appreciate the company, the place to stay, the ride to the start, and the great food and service after the race. It was great having Marion stay there as well and so much more fun going to the race with Lori and Marion than it would have been to just go by myself, run the race, and then leave by myself, which is what I would have had to do without them. A million thank yous to Lori and Marion!!!!
And thank you to everyone who has encouraged and supported me in this endeavor. Now I've got to figure out what to do next. Rest for a while, I guess. I'll keep running over the summer, but I might cut back a little and work on some other things. | 