Turtles Can Run

Ten months ago when I started this blog one of my goals was to run a marathon and today I can say “I did it, I ran a marathon!”

Going into marathon training I had two main goals:  finish in under four hours and not to get injured.  I used the Smartcoach from Runner’s World to get a plan. and I stuck to it most of the time.  I ran most of my runs faster than it recommended and sometimes I ran a little more distance.

I won’t bore you with all the training details.  If you want to see a log of my runs you can check out my profile on Dailymile ( a great site to log your workouts, plus a great community of athletes to give and get motivation from).  I do want to mention that as the months went by I got faster and when it came close to marathon time I knew that if the weather was perfect (mid 40′s at the start and still in the low 50′s by the end with low humidity) and I didn’t get injured along the way I should be able to run a 3:40-3:50 marathon.  But of course the chances of it being a perfect day were very low.  The weather in central Texas is very unpredictable this time of year.I had been watching the forecast for 2 weeks and it did not look like I was going to get my ideal weather.  Race day was supposed to warm ( mid 60s at the start and close to 80 by the finish), those temperatures don’t seem to bad until you hear that the humidity at the start was 98% and it stayed pretty close to that the whole race.  I will just tell you up front that I do not do well with humidity.  Everytime I have tried to do a tempo run or speedwork in humid conditions it has been a big fat failure ( high heart rate, hard time breathing and slow leg).  Knowing the weather I should have decided Saturday  to just stick with my goal of 4 hours but I had already told my friend I was going to try to pace for 3:40 and I stuck with that plan.

Race morning.  I ate my mini bagel, banana and orange juice.  Geared up in my summer weather running outfit of just a sports bra and short compression shorts.  Sneakers of choice: Brooks Launch.  Caught up with the shuttle and met up with my friends and we were on our way.

I lined up in corral 4 with my friend and we were off.  The plan was to try to stick with the 3:40 pacer.

At the 5K mark:  right on pace .  I felt fine at this point, I felt like I could keep this pace for a long time ( I was wrong).

At the 10K mark: right on pace. I felt like I was in a good groove at this point.  The pace didn’t feel easy but it wasn’t that hard either.

My cheering squad

At the 15K point my pace slipped a little but I still really close to the 3:40 group.  The heat was really getting to me and my chest was starting to feel tight and  hurt a bit.  I knew that my heart rate was too high for too long, I’ve experienced this before. I knew I was going to have to slow and do what I could on my own, maybe try to speed back up when I felt better.

At the halfway point I was only 23 seconds behind what I needed for a 3:40 but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to pick the pace back up,  the temperature was only getting hotter so body wasn’t going to be able to push to hard without me collapsing along the way.  I had to make a decision and I decided to just try to make it under 4.  In order to do this I had to settle into turtle pace and stay there no matter how much it hurt. So I did.

The rest of the race. I ran the rest of the rest at a slow but steady pace 10- 10:30 min/mile.  This may sound easy but all the effort I put into the first half of the race really burnt me out so I really had to work hard not to slip into the 11s. If I wasn’t alone or if I had brought my Ipod I think I probably could have run a bit  faster.  But that was not the case, all I had with me were the pain and my thoughts.   I kept talking to myself telling myself to keep going and I did.  The last 8 miles really hurt.  Every step I took was a big effort but I just kept chugging along. And when I came to the hill at  mile 26 I knew it was almost over so I tried to pick up the pace a little and I am glad I did because I got to the finish like with only 9 seconds to spare. My finish time was 3:59:51.

All done!

Fueling during the race.  I stopped at every aid station for cytomax or water and had gu every 5 miles.  I felt that worked fine.

What I learned.

Running a marathon hurts, it really does.  It hurt more than I thought it would.  This quote came to mind: “The marathon can humble you”- Bill Rodgers. It certainly humbled me.  I cried at the end and felt like crying from mile 24 on.

Reset goals for inclement weather.  I have read this a million times and yet I still went for my ideal weather goal on a horribly humid day.  Big mistake.

Run your own race.  I was planning on running with my friend, so I didn’t have a good back up plan.  Like bringing music to help motivate me/keep me on pace/distract me if I ended up alone.

Do more of my training runs alone.  This may seem like a weird one.  I love running with my friends but I learned that I do need to practice running well on my own and getting into the right stride on my own.  I will still run with friends just not every run.

During the last few miles of the marathon I said to myself, “I’m never doing this again”.  But after having a couple of days to mull it over I know I I will.  Maybe someday my blog’s name will change to Turtles Can Run Boston.  That is my next big goal.  I know it may take a few tries but I’m going to do  it.

I wanted to give a big thank you to my husband and my kids.  They have been super supportive through my training and were there with bigs signs and loud cheers on race day. I also want to thank all of the ladies I run with, you’ve helped me run faster and further than I thought I could.  Last but now least I want to thank all of my friends who read my blog, that I tweet with on twitter and that I interact with on Daily Mile.  You all offer me constant motivation and inspiration.

Results

Video of me finishing . Bib Number 8149

Filed under: Races