The night before the race was the mandatory expo and packet pickup. While I’m not thrilled that in order to receive your jacket, you need to spend 20 minutes walking through clusters of people and vendors attempting to block your path to get you to try their product, it does make it convenient to pick up last minute race gear.
I bought 5 GU gels (3 blueberry pomegranate Roctane and 2 lemon limes) along with a new headband, belt (to hold the gels) and 26.2 t shirt to wear after the run. I accept the fact that I fell into the very trap that I explained above and spent too much money.
To give some background on the race itself, it’s the 9th annual Akron marathon. In addition to the full marathon, runners have the option to run a half, or participate in a 5 person relay team with various amounts of distances covering the marathon. The course itself is amazing for any Akron citizen because it takes the runner through the entire city to see some of the attractive landmarks such as the Towpath, the Sandrun train, Stan Hywet hall, Goodyear, and U of Akron, just to name a few.
Because the race itself attracts a wide range of runners, I was lucky to know many people running in one of the three races. Knowing that I was “required” to be gluttonous in my carb intake, I had a lovely spaghetti dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse with some co-workers after the expo was complete. I must say, talking with people who would also be awake at 5:30 am the next morning and getting pumped for the marathon was a great pre-run activity.
Now, waking up the day of the race and getting mentally prepared knowing that ALL of your morning will be spent running non-stop is a little intimidating. That’s how I felt at 4:45 Saturday morning.
Driving downtown was an expected stressor seeing as most of the roads were closed off and there were 15,000 other people trying to get to the same area. At a little after 6am we finally were able to find a parking lot that wasn’t on the map that was in walking distance of the starting line. We fueled up with some last minute breakfast and put the tags on our shoes and away we went.
I wish I could convey the excitement going on, but it may be one of those things that you just had to be there for. There was music blaring over the speakers and thousands of runners of all shapes and sizes preparing for the start. Some people were laughing, some were doing warm up runs, some just looked uncomfortable standing in an extremely long line for the bathroom. The weather was chilly, but the rain held off so that was more than I was expecting.
After what seemed like forever, Hal Higdon (one of the most notorious marathon runners and whose training plan I followed this time) gave a speech that I could barely hear, a prayer was said, the national anthem sang and the bell rang.
Being that I am a slow runner, they had anyone projecting to run under a 9 minute mile line up on the main street, and the rest of us on a perpendicular street. When the bell rang, it was 5 minutes until the “blue runners” (aka slow ones) were allowed to begin. From here, it was 2 more minutes until I reached the starting line.
From here, it starts to blur. The sun came up just as we ran the first mile over the downtown Akron bridge. I could already see the fastest runners on the other bridge heading back for the one loop I mentioned earlier. I didn’t run with headphones and just either focused on running or made continuous jokes to my two good friends at my side.
There were highschool bands, choirs and dancers alongside of the road cheering people on. There were some people passing, some people slowing down and some walking but for the most part, everyone (the half and full marathoner) was pretty good about staying consistent pace.
When the half marathoners broke off at mile 10, I was still feeling confident, although I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a small part of me that was envious that their running was coming to an end and mine was far from over. We headed down into the tow path and into the valley and up sandrun. For whatever reason, this part did come easy to me (much easier than 2 years ago). Maybe it was because I made a conscious effort to train on that hill or maybe it was because I knew what was to expect (for anyone who doesn’t know, Sandrun is pretty much a 3 mile steady up hill climb)
Also, it was when they started handing out gel packs. I had my 5, then took one from all 4 stations at the race. That’s a lot of gel packs…. Might explain some of my energy toward the end.
At mile 20, I could see my apartment!
Two years ago, this was a horrible realization that I still had over an hour left to run. This year, I still felt good and the miles were still flying by.
Four miles later was a slightly different story. We entered back downtown and the course is straight. I still had an amazing amount of energy, but I could feel my quads and knees start to buckle and tense up. I shortened my stride and had to think about every step after that. Any change in pavement (i.e. brick roads) created a painful twinge in my legs. People kept cheering how close we were, but that truly does become the longest part of the race.
When I saw the stadium and 26 mile flag, I got one last boost of energy, but even so didn’t realize how long .2 miles could possibly be. This sounds a little cheesy, but crossing the finish line this time was an overwhelming sense of accomplishment that I didn’t get last time (probably because I had absolutely no energy left then). I got a nice little shove from behind from a guy who forgot to stop after crossing the finish line and just about knocked me over because my legs could barely keep me upright, but all in all, amazing.
I got an awesome metal, but it was so heavy that it made me hunch over.
Sitting down in the stadium afterwards never felt so good and drinking the beer they provided never tasted so disgusting.
I was really lucky to have so many people to run with and people look for me to finish. I can definitely say with confidence that it makes a difference.
So what now? Well, my feet are tore up and my quads still feel on fire whenever I walk down steps, but the experience was amazing and memorable. Before Saturday, I was convinced I would never train for a distance run again. Now, I’m not so sure.
Either way, I look forward to some resting time, getting involved in some other activities and not worrying about the delicate balance of my diet.
After a couple weeks, I plan on running again on a much smaller scale. Doing another half before the year is out sounds appealing, although I’m not sure how far I’ll take that. I think I’ll just try to work on my 5k times and maybe compete in a few local races before it gets too cold.
I was going to delete my prior post, but I think I’ll leave it up.
Again, congrats to Adam and Liz for completing the 13.1 miles and a big congrats and thank you to my running partner Sarah for putting up with me for the entire 26.2 miles!
No comments:
Post a Comment