Wednesday, December 5, 2007

My First Marathon


This is the email I sent out to my running group chronicling my first marathon. It was a fun experience. I did learn some things from this though...I do enough just to get by. Period the end. I want to become a better, faster runner. A more organized, disciplined person. I can do this, but I have to be willing to change my life. I had an "epiphany" while driving the kids back from swimming lessons today. I have to be willing to change every day of my life and have to be willing to make those changes because I want to live that way. Not just that I want the different results because the results are a really long way away. I have to realize that the training is what the marathon is all about. Not the race. It's a lot like a bride preparing for her wedding day. The small details and all the work boil down to one day, one race and (if you do it right) just a few hours. You remember the neat details but that time goes by so fast, even if you run a stupid long time like 6 hours and 2 minutes. And to be perfectly honest, I'm proud of that time because that's what it took to get to the end. But I could have done better. Every missed workout or run, I was agreeing at that moment to running a slower time. I'll have to remember that every time I hear the siren song of the bed.

So this will be my chronicle of my journey. Who knows where it will end up but I'm committing to really try this time.


A long long time ago...
Ok really back in 2003, I promised my little sister I'd run a marathon with her...to get out of that marathon...oops, I mean, I had to drop out because I found out I was expecting our first child. (For anyone who doesn't know me and my sense of humor, that was totally a joke!) The next marathon rolls around, I again promised her I'd run it...I find out I'm once again, expecting. Yes, yes, I know...timing children to get out of running marathons is not very nice. I was able to run the 2006 St. Jude Half 10 months to the day after I had our daughter. My eyes are set to run 2007 Nashville's marathon; I'm going to run this one...Arghhhh! I got elected onto the board of an organization and officers training is marathon weekend. (I swear, pinkie swear and promise, it was just bad timing!) My sister thinks I'm all talk at this point and I'm starting to agree with her. Ok, time to put words into action.
After running the Firecracker 5K, I was invited to run with Debbie, Ruth and Rosie, since I couldn't run with Brian on regular training days. (Someone has to watch the kids) Those ladies are my heroes. They made me accountable and goal oriented. I was going to at least do the Half again, but could I do the Whole Thing?
My dear friend Kelly calls from Texas. Her niece, 7 year old Caroline, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer so rare St. Jude doesn't even have a protocol for treatment. It was St. Jude's first case! Well that knocked me off the fence. I'm running the Whole schebang and Kelly's running it with me. And we're running it in honor of Caroline and raising money for St. Jude. We managed to train separate but together in 2 states but me made it to Saturday!
Sat. 5am - Alarm goes off, Brian stays in our nice warm bed, but I've got things to do, COFFEE to drink. I made sure to watch the trailer for the Marathon Movie, I was ready! Pulled toys, sippy cups, diapers, etc together and then bundled kids into the car. Thank goodness I had mostly prepared the night before or I'd still be at home now trying to get to the race...
6:40am - Picked up my sister and she drove us to the Peabody. I was dressed warmly so I stripped off extra clothing to leave in the car, much to the enjoyment of the traffic outside the Peabody, haha!
7am - Our timing was perfect. Enough time to enjoy the moment, not enough time to work yourself up. Debbie & I swapped "how much we NEED our morning cup of joe" stories! My friend Kelly from TX found me, but not before she found Brian. My "sweet" husband told her I was too sick to run and that she'd have to run with him! By the time she turned around to see me chatting with Debbie, she was in tears! Natalie took some fun pictures of all this. I love the group pictures as well. Thanks Natalie! I made sure I didn't get worked up about this race before now by simply not thinking about it...seriously...someone asked me if I was running the Half or the Full. I totally blanked and said, "the Half". Brian just laughed at me and said yes, I was running 2 Half's!!! What can I say; Denial is a wonderful thing!
We got outside and all my nerves about the weather vanished. IT WAS GORGEOUS! I had been so busy just getting here that I don't think I noticed it was so beautiful until that moment! Fall is my FAVORITE season!
8am - The race began and we did the "marathon shuffle" up to the line for about 15 minutes. Brian, Kelly, Debbie, Bill, Robyn and Me. Then we're off. Brian, Bill, & Debbie were in front by the first walk break. It didn't take long to figure out, we needed to go slower, so we said goodbye. I LOVED turning onto Riverside and seeing the huge crush of runners, the river, the bluffs; beautiful!
My family was at mile 7 with the kids. Virginia Grace gave me hug and Adam, my big 3 year old "marathoner", ran with Mommy for a while. I loved seeing the elite runners pass us on North Parkway. We yelled and cheered for them then turned into the park to continue on. The first 10 miles went quickly. Kelly, Robyn and I cracked jokes and practically skipped to the Half/Full split. I will remember to my dying day the nice man who directed us through the split saying, "the real women run this way". Funny what makes your day. We waved the long fair-thee-well to the half and noticed how quickly it got quiet! Brian told me last year but seeing it was extremely funny.
Mile 14 - 15 We settled in. Conversation spaced a little as we started to feel the mileage. Robyn helped all of us by sharing peanut butter pretzel sandwiches. After 4 hours of jelly beans and gels, you just feel the need to scrub the film off your tongue. The pretzels started a wonderful conversation about food and what we would be eating after this was all said and done...which, unfortunately for Robyn and Kelly, caused me to break into song! God help me, I started singing that stupid camp song..."A Pizza Hut, A Pizza Hut. Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut" God Bless them for just laughing and not killing me. I got a little punch drunk!
Mile 16 - 19 We were tired. It was warmer than anyone wanted. I started thinking about how much mileage was still left to run and I began to realize how hard this was going to be. But mile 19 or 20 was coming and Kelly's family would be there with Coca-Cola's! That thought alone kept me going.
Between mile 19
IT WAS THE BEST COKE I'VE EVER HAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mile 19 - 21 After my coke I felt so good! I could have run the whole race! Except for East Parkway...That is the world's most slanted street and my knees HATED it. I got a pain in the outside of my knee that every time it hurt I felt like I needed to throw up! At Mile 21, I had to change something, so I asked Robyn and Kelly if we could change from 3/1's to 2/1's and that helped for a while. Halfway through 22, Robyn had 2nd wind and she ran on ahead. Now the knee hurt every time it hit the ground and I was close to tears. I kept telling myself, I've had 2 kids...this is no worse than labor...then I realized, while I could get away with it during labor, it is not socially acceptable to scream epithets during a marathon... I was trying to decide whether I should tell Kelly to go on ahead of me because I was going to have to walk it in. Marathons are really really hard.
Mile 23 - Mark was a saving grace. He asked how we were doing. I told him where it hurt. ITB!!!! He said walk up the bridge and we'll stretch it out. 5 minutes of stretching later and we were back on our way. Not completely healed but not hobbled either. This was still a possibility.
I had to stretch again at 24 and God Bless Her, Kelly stayed with me. Slowly but surely, the finish line pulled us in. Mark showed up again at 25.8 and rode with us to the end. We turned into the stadium and they announced our names, Brian and Adam were at the finish line. Along with all our friends (We were the last of Mark's group to haul ourselves over the finish line) My heart never felt so big! I finished. After 6 hours and 2 minutes, I finished. Thank God! I could finally stop running!
Thank you to everyone for letting me go on and on about this! It was a great experience! Team Caroline raised a total of $18,976.00. I will run another!
Lo