A Beautiful Letdown
Marathon #4; Marine Corps Marathon Fall 2007; Time 4:24
As I wrote a ‘special’ edition to the Chicago Marathon, I don’t have to write too much about training. Other than, I had a great few weeks of tapering. Because the Chicago Marathon was my final 18-20 mile run before taper time, I was nervous going into this marathon feeling like I had tapered for too long as that last long run turned into run/walk (more walking in the last 5) as the Marathon was shut down.
Taper Time was the usual mileage, but what made it better than others is the final few ‘long’ runs. Rachel and I went out to Palos hills for a 12 mile run in the hills, and my final Saturday morning run was with about 10 of the girls I ran with in CARA.
So what makes this marathon a Beautiful Letdown? There are two parts 1) The Organization of the Marathon and 2) The fact I was 6 seconds slower than the Madison Marathon meaning no P.R.
First: The Expo. There were nice, cute, flirtatious Marines giving you all your race stuff. That would be a beautiful part, the letdown would be- the Expo seemed a little jumbled and cheaply thrown together. I was expecting, since this is a big marathon like Chicago, the Expo would be just like Chicago’s. However, there weren’t as many vendors, and the layout was just mushed together.
Going into Marine Corps, I was torn as to how I should approach this Marathon as 7 days later I’ll be running yet another Marathon. I decided I’d run it how I ran the Tampa half in January, starting off easy and then picking up momentum if I felt good. This worked for the Tampa half as I ran it in 1:54 something like an 8:45/mile pace unfortunately it wasn’t the case for this marathon.
At the starting line, Rachel and I waited to start with a group of the ACS runners, however, all running different paces, we quickly lost most. So as planned, Rachel, Alison, Kristin and myself ran together. The first 8 miles is what I knew to be the horrid hills. I felt great running them- like I trained on the treadmill enough to master them and feel great. In this time, I got to actually talk to Krisitn rather than just knowing her through Alison. If you go back to my “Because we can” blog, Kristin would have been the person I wrote about running 3 marathons last fall while in in radiation. She still is my inspiration, but less as a cancer patient pushing beyond ‘normal’ limits to run she is more just your every day crazy runner.
The crowds were great, the sites were great, what was another letdown was the Water. They were too far and few in between AND they seemed to place the first few in the most narrow spots where you HAD to slowdown to near walking, tripping over other people to get through the area. At least in Chicago if you choose to skip the station you can stick in the middle and blow right through it. …though as I said the water stations were too far and few in between, grabbing water (sometimes 2) at every station was a must. Once we’d get trough the water stations, I had a cowbell I grabbed at the starting line to pass off to Jen at one point (she wanted one and they were out at the expo), so everytime we’d get through a water station, I’d hold the bell high and ring it to get Allison, Kristin and Rachel all back together. I found it amusing!
Around mile 11, I felt strong (though it was only mile 11- foolish me) so Alison told me she would stick with Kristin if Rachel and I wanted to go ahead. So we did. Around mile 13 I took my first food (Jelly Beans) and finally saw Jen- I gave her the cowbell and by mile 14 I put my music on. Both Rachel and I felt strong as we passed the 4:15 pace group around mile 15. Unfortunately for me, this was short lived. I took a gu around mile 16 hoping it’d replenish my energy, and that lasted until about mile 20 as we were getting onto some highway heading back to the Crystal City area, I decided I’d walk on that ramp that was a hill. As I was slowing down I told Rachel to go ahead. Now I became totally dependent on my music. I told myself- an hour, just give it another hour of your all. Since I was still strong around mile 15, I decided I wanted to P.R. and I could do it …and maybe even shave a whole 10 minutes off my last marathon. I got excited too soon for something that became my biggest letdown.
The course had too many repeats of the same area where you could see the people before you and after you as you weaved certain areas. And, at mile 25 you could see the finish line and the HUGE hill you have to conquor to get to it. Well, that last mile was a slow mile. My thoughts of once maybe getting a 4:14 finish turned into 4:17 and then 4:20…if anything I just wanted to P.R. even if it were in seconds. As my legs tend to do, I nearly tripped over my foot on a cramp up the hill and a new feeling I’ve never had, I thought I was going to get sick on the course! So I took the hill slow and once the turn to the finish line hit I tried picking it up without pushing to being sick, and I crossed that finish line 4:24:32….six seconds slower than my current P.R. (Now I know they measure these races profesionally, but my garmin finished me at 26.5 miles ….hmmm).
You can imagine I was pissed, and I knew I had to walk as much as possible after to break down the lactic acid- as I have to recover quickly for NYC- but couldn’t get to anywhere to really walk. The final let down was how disorganized the finish line was. Jen called me right after I finished and she was on the spectators side so I went over and chatted with her. She had great words of encouragement and I was so glad to have here there. Then I saw Alison and Kristin- and great news- Alison got a P.R. J. Lastly I wanted to find Rachel, but it was so chatoic you couldn’t get passed the food to get over to her. I never got my “finisher’s coin” that is a special part of the Marine Corps marathon as we just got too frustrated with the lack of organization we just wanted to get back to Rachel’s hotel and shower. So..by 4pm we finally got there.
Though Sara says “Let next week be the week you PR” …I’m not thinking that’s realistic. If I were a pro at back to back marathons…maybe, but I just plan on crossing that finish line! And as for DC…well, it’s just my Beautiful Letdown! I’ll deal, and as Rachel shared all her times with me, her new PR of 4:15 has come with time and dedication, after NYC, I still have 45 more states to work towards more PRs (and I guess I can't PR everytime).
Marathon #4; Marine Corps Marathon Fall 2007; Time 4:24
As I wrote a ‘special’ edition to the Chicago Marathon, I don’t have to write too much about training. Other than, I had a great few weeks of tapering. Because the Chicago Marathon was my final 18-20 mile run before taper time, I was nervous going into this marathon feeling like I had tapered for too long as that last long run turned into run/walk (more walking in the last 5) as the Marathon was shut down.
Taper Time was the usual mileage, but what made it better than others is the final few ‘long’ runs. Rachel and I went out to Palos hills for a 12 mile run in the hills, and my final Saturday morning run was with about 10 of the girls I ran with in CARA.
So what makes this marathon a Beautiful Letdown? There are two parts 1) The Organization of the Marathon and 2) The fact I was 6 seconds slower than the Madison Marathon meaning no P.R.
First: The Expo. There were nice, cute, flirtatious Marines giving you all your race stuff. That would be a beautiful part, the letdown would be- the Expo seemed a little jumbled and cheaply thrown together. I was expecting, since this is a big marathon like Chicago, the Expo would be just like Chicago’s. However, there weren’t as many vendors, and the layout was just mushed together.
Going into Marine Corps, I was torn as to how I should approach this Marathon as 7 days later I’ll be running yet another Marathon. I decided I’d run it how I ran the Tampa half in January, starting off easy and then picking up momentum if I felt good. This worked for the Tampa half as I ran it in 1:54 something like an 8:45/mile pace unfortunately it wasn’t the case for this marathon.
At the starting line, Rachel and I waited to start with a group of the ACS runners, however, all running different paces, we quickly lost most. So as planned, Rachel, Alison, Kristin and myself ran together. The first 8 miles is what I knew to be the horrid hills. I felt great running them- like I trained on the treadmill enough to master them and feel great. In this time, I got to actually talk to Krisitn rather than just knowing her through Alison. If you go back to my “Because we can” blog, Kristin would have been the person I wrote about running 3 marathons last fall while in in radiation. She still is my inspiration, but less as a cancer patient pushing beyond ‘normal’ limits to run she is more just your every day crazy runner.
The crowds were great, the sites were great, what was another letdown was the Water. They were too far and few in between AND they seemed to place the first few in the most narrow spots where you HAD to slowdown to near walking, tripping over other people to get through the area. At least in Chicago if you choose to skip the station you can stick in the middle and blow right through it. …though as I said the water stations were too far and few in between, grabbing water (sometimes 2) at every station was a must. Once we’d get trough the water stations, I had a cowbell I grabbed at the starting line to pass off to Jen at one point (she wanted one and they were out at the expo), so everytime we’d get through a water station, I’d hold the bell high and ring it to get Allison, Kristin and Rachel all back together. I found it amusing!
Around mile 11, I felt strong (though it was only mile 11- foolish me) so Alison told me she would stick with Kristin if Rachel and I wanted to go ahead. So we did. Around mile 13 I took my first food (Jelly Beans) and finally saw Jen- I gave her the cowbell and by mile 14 I put my music on. Both Rachel and I felt strong as we passed the 4:15 pace group around mile 15. Unfortunately for me, this was short lived. I took a gu around mile 16 hoping it’d replenish my energy, and that lasted until about mile 20 as we were getting onto some highway heading back to the Crystal City area, I decided I’d walk on that ramp that was a hill. As I was slowing down I told Rachel to go ahead. Now I became totally dependent on my music. I told myself- an hour, just give it another hour of your all. Since I was still strong around mile 15, I decided I wanted to P.R. and I could do it …and maybe even shave a whole 10 minutes off my last marathon. I got excited too soon for something that became my biggest letdown.
The course had too many repeats of the same area where you could see the people before you and after you as you weaved certain areas. And, at mile 25 you could see the finish line and the HUGE hill you have to conquor to get to it. Well, that last mile was a slow mile. My thoughts of once maybe getting a 4:14 finish turned into 4:17 and then 4:20…if anything I just wanted to P.R. even if it were in seconds. As my legs tend to do, I nearly tripped over my foot on a cramp up the hill and a new feeling I’ve never had, I thought I was going to get sick on the course! So I took the hill slow and once the turn to the finish line hit I tried picking it up without pushing to being sick, and I crossed that finish line 4:24:32….six seconds slower than my current P.R. (Now I know they measure these races profesionally, but my garmin finished me at 26.5 miles ….hmmm).
You can imagine I was pissed, and I knew I had to walk as much as possible after to break down the lactic acid- as I have to recover quickly for NYC- but couldn’t get to anywhere to really walk. The final let down was how disorganized the finish line was. Jen called me right after I finished and she was on the spectators side so I went over and chatted with her. She had great words of encouragement and I was so glad to have here there. Then I saw Alison and Kristin- and great news- Alison got a P.R. J. Lastly I wanted to find Rachel, but it was so chatoic you couldn’t get passed the food to get over to her. I never got my “finisher’s coin” that is a special part of the Marine Corps marathon as we just got too frustrated with the lack of organization we just wanted to get back to Rachel’s hotel and shower. So..by 4pm we finally got there.
Though Sara says “Let next week be the week you PR” …I’m not thinking that’s realistic. If I were a pro at back to back marathons…maybe, but I just plan on crossing that finish line! And as for DC…well, it’s just my Beautiful Letdown! I’ll deal, and as Rachel shared all her times with me, her new PR of 4:15 has come with time and dedication, after NYC, I still have 45 more states to work towards more PRs (and I guess I can't PR everytime).
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