two cities race report

picture lisa took @ mile 18




The Good

i finished!

i'm a marathoner!
chip time 4:30:06

gun time 4:30:35

409/741 total

142/299 females

26/56 30-39 age grp

avg. 10:19 pace

splits:
10k 57:34 (9:17)
1/2M 1:07:16 (9:45)
20mile 1:09:44 (10:06)
10K 1:15:29 (12:10)
time back 1:29:46
not sure what time back is??

so i guess if you add
those first two...
then that is my
half marathon time
2:04:50 *new PR

The Bad

Since i got sick on wednesday
i had been downing tons of vitamins, airborne, inhalers,
afrin, sudafed, tylenol & doing nasal rinses.
i was really congested and my breathing was not normal.
i just prayed it would get better by sunday.
had a great night's sleep on friday-9 hours.
dranks tons of water and continued carbo-loading.
sat night...didn't sleep great...took afrin before bed..kept waking up.
sun morning up at 5...got dressed...ate...and debated about taking any meds...
and if i decided to take any...which ones.
i was really worried that any of them would raise my heart rate,
but i was pretty congested and couldn't breath great anyway.
decided to take my inhaler and the afrin.

left the house at 6:10...drove down the street to pick up my neighbor Kristina who was running the half.
not much traffic out...got there pretty fast...parked and walked over to the start.
headed over to the portapotties.
there were so many potties, and no line.


about mile 2



walked around a bit to see if there was anyone i knew

and stretched a little bit.

went potty again...just to be safe.

then got in my corral...

talked with another gal who was also runnning alone until the start.

kept telling myself to go SLOW.

i didn't know how my breathing would be..

told myself to keep it about 9:30 or so.

i had already given up on my "a" goal when i got sick

my "b" goal was to go sub 4...



and realistically wasn't too sure about that either.

i found a 4 hr pace band that had time allotted for 2 warm up miles around 9:30

so i went with that thinking i'll start slow and if i feel good..i'll speed up

well, right off the bat my HR was high...160's...not good

(usually is in the 140's for the first mile and

 then stays pretty constant in the low 150's)

(on my 22 mi long run....i ran 22 miles @9:30avg pace @avgHR152)



about mile 4



i should have known right then...to slow down...

but in my head i kept thinking about my 22 mile run

and i didn't want to go slower than 9:30

i saw mom and dad at mile 1...waved to them

a little ways down were the hoffman's..

about mile 2 was rich and ryne

rich & ryne showed up again at mile 4

so nice to see everyone. gave me such a lift.

feeling ok at this point, but i knew my HR was high,

but foolishly, i thought it would come down.

 so we're running along this trail towards old town clovis.
about mile 5, i see drew's 2nd grade teacher.

old towne clovis- about mile 8

9:25, 9:07, 9:18, 9:16, 9:12 (miles 1-5)

got into old towne clovis and there were tons of people. lots of people cheering.
saw rich & ryne again about mile 8...
rich knew i was off my sub 4 pace and kept
asking if i was ok.
just kept saying yes...and smiling.
but deep down i knew.
HR was too high...still in the mid 160's.
(miles 5-10) 9:27, 9:24, 9:30, 9:32, 9:21

about mile 11

i'm still smiling, trying to get my breathing under control.
there was a girl in pink that i was runnning with in the beginning
and her and i were staying close to one another...
i just kept telling myself to stay with her.
i remember getting to the halfway and they were calling times.
2:04...is what i thought i heard.  i was thinking ok...
just keep this pace and you'll come in with a respectable time
about mile 14.5 i hear tons of cheering...
my sister, Lisa, her husband, Chris, their kids, my sister, Ally, and her kids, and my mom were all there cheering for me. so exciting!!
(miles 11-15) 9:35, 9:27, 9:38, 9:35, 9:33

mile 16 is where you round the corner and head down a long stretch of road called friant.  it seems to go on forever. and this is when my ipod died.


The Ugly

about mile 18...everyone was there again...rich & ryne, shannon, drew, chris, mr. & mrs. sly, jeff and katie, all the kids, and lisa is running at me with her camera. she got a great picture of me. the last one that i was probably smiling in. because after that...the wheels started to come off.  i remember looking down at my watch and looking at my HR still in the mid 160's...and thinking that it's been over 3 hours with my HR that high.

about mile 20 is when i saw the 4 hour pacer on the other side of the road. and not long after the 4:15 pacer came up behind me..i thought to myself...try and keep up with him...but nope. no way.

about mile 13



(miles 16-21) 9:47, 9:52, 10:20, 10:57, 10:40, 10:33

from mile 21 on was pretty much miserable.  i walked for a minute and then would try to run again. my legs were just tightening up...my heart rate had dropped alot...was in the 150's now.  i had followed my hydration/fueling plan, no problems. taken all my gu's and my salt tabs, and i was drinking tons.  i just kept at it. even if i walked...i tried to do it fast. and 21 is when the hill started.  it is a gradual hill that lasts for about 2 miles. pretty much power walked up the hill.  at mile 23 my HR was down into the 140's. just kept doing the run/walk thing.  kept telling myself, if i keep walking...its just gonna take longer. and i kept thinking...don't let the 4:30 pacer pass you.  make it in under 4:30!  everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. at about mile 25 i hear someone calling my name.  it was my friend, kristina...she came to find out where i was.  she saw the 4:15 pacer come in and worried about where i was.  she grabbed my hand and tried to get me to run.  i did for a minute or so...and then said i couldn't....she walked with me that last mile holding my hand the whole way, until i got to the chute. and she told me to run up the chute, so i pretty much mustered up everything i had and ran that last .2 and as i started to run i saw the 4:30 pacer pass me. bummer.

(miles 22-26) 11:35, 11:23, 11:53, 13:07, 13:55

running up the chute

saw mark and kym and connor cheering for me,

then i saw rich, ryne, shan, & drew.

and finally...i crossed the finish line.

after that the only thing i could think about was finding a place to sit down.  i got my medal, sweatshirt and then stood in line for breakfast of scrambled eggs, potatoes, fruit, & sausage.  couldn't stomach eating any of it. tried a bite of the scrambled eggs and almost threw up.  then i saw kristina again and she told me to sit down...so we sat, and she called rich and told him where we were.  she went and got us our ice cream/brownie sundaes.  they tasted SO good.  chatted with everyone at the end.  rich kept saying i looked as white as a ghost, and i was freezing, so my lips were nice and blue.

we left pretty quickly. walked out of the park and across the street to the cars.  the kids wanted to come with kristina and i, so we meandered over to where we thought the car was...and rich found his car.  kristina and i could not remember where we had parked the car...there were so many buildings over there and TONS of cars. so we called rich and had him come back to look for the car.  he found it in two minutes, and we were all on our way home.



almost to the finish line



got home, dranks tons of water and had a nice warm shower.

rich ordered pizza and waited on me :)  such a great guy. totally took care of me.

ready to rest for a few days...but i'm sure by the end of the week i'll be running again.

haven't decided on my next race yet...but i'll let you know.