Look at this one... I'm like 6 inches off the ground - with BOTH feet! :)
Me and my cutie patootie husband!
So here's the brief race recap -
I'll be honest... I didn't give the race much thought going into it. After the Ironman, I signed up feeling a totally failure and thinking that maybe this would make me feel better. As the month passed between IMLOU and the Columbus Marathon, I drifted further and further away from wanting to run a marathon. I did three long runs - a 13, a 16 and a 20. Between the long runs, I didn't do much. I was checked out. Multiple times I thought about pulling out of the race or even changing my entry to the half. I didn't feel like I was in the shape that I wanted to be in for a marathon or in the right mental state.
With that being said, Saturday was totally calm for a prerace night. I didn't think much about it. We ate some pasta and chicken because that's what we do before long races, but that was it. As I laid down for bed, I started to cry. I was flooded with emotions of the fact that I gave up in Louisville. It's easy for the mind to forget the bad of the day. I don't forget how I felt, but I was just overcome with a sense that I gave up before I was ready and that I possibly could have made it to the finish (in retrospect, I don't think I could have but who knows). I eventually fell asleep, but the 5:30 wake up came early.
We drove to the race site and parked at the start. It was EMPTY. I figured with 15,000 runners, it would be packed. The start and finish are about 4 locks from each other and I think 14,900+ runners decided to park at the finish! Tom and I sat in the care for a while then I realized I needed to pee so we made our way to a portojohn and then sat back in the car. No need to waste energy trying to stay warm. About 7:10 we got out of the car, used the potties again and then made our way to Coral 2. Nightmare... it was packed and they weren't letting anyone in until the race started. People had gotten into the coral but then stopped so there was a huge backup. Someone informed me not to worry about it because our times wouldn't start until we crossed the line. Thanks... but we'd be starting behind the 4:45 pace once we got in. I wanted to start around the 3:45 pace. Ugh. Tom suggested we leave the coral line and move up a bit and try to hop the fence. It worked perfect... tons of room and we were able to join our pace people!
The race started right at 7:30 and we immediately fell into our pace. People were passing us left and right (which is common, we know that, but we are better at pacing ourselves than a lot of people right out of the gate). We didn't have a Garmin on, but could check our times and splits at the mile markers. It was crowded, but the miles ticked by quickly. We hit the 10k spot in 54:28 which was fine. I stopped to pee right before that so even with the stop, we were running a good consistent pace. The course was crowded until about mile 12.9 because the half marathon ran with us to that point and then broke off. It was a nice relief when they split though... much less crowded. The crowd support was awesome the whole day! My feet were starting to burn (some weird new thing that's been happening... I think I need new shoes!) and Tom was complaining that his knees were bothering him. Half way there though ... I knew we'd be fine.
We hit the 13.1 mark at 1:56:06. We had slowed a little, but were fine pace wise. We were eating and drinking and hadn't put our MP3's on yet. Around mile 16, we decided to use the music for a pick me up. I had started to slow. Tom kept running ahead and catching up. Around mile 18 I told him to go. I would gut it out, but I knew that I couldn't maintain the pace for a sub 4 like he could (he's a tough cookie mentally... me, eh, I'm a soft batch when I start to hurt). I hit mile 20 at 3:03:32. I made a pact with myself to run to the aid stations, walk while I drank, stretch if I needed and move on. I wanted to PR... or break 4:10 if at all possible.
Oh but my feet were burning. Bad...
Miles 20-25 were slow. I stuck with my plan but knew that my walking and stretching were slowing my pace. The last 1.2 miles took forever. The crowds were awesome. I saw Meredith and Dave, Brooke and Chris, my mom and dad, Stevi. Everyone was screaming. I knew I had done it... despite my lack of wanting to do this marathon at all, I PRed. I ran the last .1 miles with the biggest smile.
I didn't break 4 hours (which I thought I could this year), but I was super happy with the results. Tom had a great race and I'm so glad that he didn't wait for me... he got his sub 4. I'll get mine... maybe next year, maybe way in the future. I'm not worried about it.
For now, my legs hurt like a son-of-a-gun. Much worse than after my first two Ironman races or any half Ironman. But I have a sense of accomplishment and the disappointment from the whole Ironman thing this year is just a distant memory.
