Colorado Marathon Race Report – Part Two

When we left off last, Tara and I were starting our marathon journey down the canyon. We parted ways as we had different time and pace goals.

With the pre-race night I had, I had no clue what I could or would bring to this race. I expected the best, but was prepared for the worst. The temps were about 30 degrees, the air was crisp and cool and the sun was just starting to emerge through the canyon. We were running to the east, so the sun warmed our faces. I had on my cheetah running skirt to make me think I could run fast. I had asked for and gotten this skirt from Running Skirts for Christmas specifically for this race. I only wore it once during training to make sure it didn’t chafe in all the wrong places. It didn't. And no, I never soiled it.

Here was my strategy going into the race - it wasn’t rocket science: Run the first two miles 10-15 seconds slower than race pace (8:40). Pick it up after that and maintain between an 8:30 and 8:40 pace for the remainder of the race. I wore a pace band, and set it for a 3:45 marathon to give me some wiggle room.

I was good for the first mile and took it slow.

Mile 1: 8:49

Mile 2: 8:27 (well, I kind of broke my rule on this one).

Another marathon rule I had was to drink at every aid station, alternating sports drink (Heed during this race) and water or drinking both. I stuck to this for the entire race with the exception of miles 24 and 25 when I couldn’t have given a shit, I just wanted to get to the finish. I had decided I would take a Hammer gel every five miles.

Mile 3: 8:28

Mile 4: 8:21

The sun was starting to really shine through now. No one on the course was talking. It was extremely peaceful with only the sound of running shoes on pavement and the white water flowing in the river only feet from the road.  I was completely and utterly in the present moment. I had decided to hold off on any music until at least the halfway point, and was very glad I did. There are so few moments in life when we are simply present. When we are not worried about much of anything, are not multi-tasking, are not distracted. We are just taking in what is before us. I did not know if I would make it 26.2 miles. I did not know if I would meet any of my goals. I did know I could put one foot in front of the other.

Mile 5: 8:19 – vanilla Hammer gel

Mile 6: 8:18

Mile 7: 8:22

At this point I decided to take advantage of the downhill and bank some time. I knew that these miles would be my fastest because once we got out of the canyon (about mile 17), it would flatten out and there would be some hills. I checked my pace band every mile and knew I was at least 2 minutes ahead of a 3:45 marathon. It was good to know I had a cushion if I needed to slow down later. I started to pass a girl and she said “Geez!” I asked her what was wrong and she said, “Well, if anyone passes me I look at their legs and if their legs are strong and toned like yours, I decide it’s okay for them to pass me.” Then she added, “But, I AM NOT GAY!” Her being gay was the last thing on my mind. Like I would worry about a lesbian hitting on me at this point anyway. She told me she was running her first marathon and wanted to break four hours. I told her she was WAY on track to do this. We would run together until about mile 18 when her husband jumped into the road blaring a trumpet. Made me totally crack up. I lost her. I hope she met her goal. I love runners.

Mile 8: 8:27

Mile 9: 8:22

You think about a lot of things while you run. Now I thought about Lucky and the fact that he would have his eye removed in the morning. I cried a bit. Lucky has the must stunning, big, beautiful brown eyes and it killed me to think one of them would be gone. I kept thinking about that quote that “the eyes are the window to the soul” and it broke my heart. I tried to file the sadness away, but sometimes it overtook me.

Mile 10: 8:17 – vanilla Hammer gel

Mile 11: 8:30

Mile 12: 8:11

I thought about the fact that I was nearing the halfway mark. I got such a mental boost when I thought I was coming up on mile 11, but it was really mile 12! At this point I knew Ken had started the half marathon and was on the same course. It gave me some comfort knowing he was close by. I hoped he was having a great race. What I didn't know was that he had blown out his calf at mile 3 and had to hobble the remaining 10 miles.

Mile 13: 8:07

Half marathon time: 1:49 – right on track for a BQ!

First marathon girl and I whooped and hollered as we passed the halfway point. There is something so mentally uplifting about knowing you are halfway. I had just congratulated myself for not having any poop emergencies when I had an unexpected squirt in the skort. It would be the only one for the race, but at the time I got a little freaked. It was so surprising I actually yelled out, “Shit!” And it was.

Mile 14: 8:04

Mile 15: 8:20 – Tried to take a chocolate Hammer. It was like tar. Threw it away after gagging

Mile 16: 8:32

As we came out of the canyon the sun was in full force. Mile 17 was the first point where we saw spectators. My only marathon experience was the Rock ‘n Roll Phoenix which had thousands of spectators and entertainment every step of the way. This was such a different experience. Seeing those people cheering me on as I cruised by was incredibly invigorating. I felt like I was flying.

Mile 17: 8:29

Mile 18: 8:06

I’m not a big Rod Stewart fan, but I have always loved the song Forever Young because of the message contained in the song. This was playing in my ear as I cruised by the spectators. May the good Lord be with you down every road you roam. May sunshine and happiness surround you when you’re far from home. May you grow to be proud, dignified and true. And do unto others as you'd have done to you…

Mile 19: 8:19

Mile 20: 8:21 – banana Hammer gel

There was a big ass climb called Bagel Hill between miles 19 and 20. I saw an aid station at the top and was concentrating on that. I powered up the hill. I had given myself permission to grab a drink at the aid station and walk through, drinking, until the trash can several feet away. It was mentally good to know I could take 10 seconds rest walking at each aid station if need be.

At mile 20 I had a great boost when Jill appeared to cheer me on and run with me for a bit. She really lifted my spirits – told me all the things everyone wants to hear at mile 20: “You look great!”, “It’s all downhill from here.” “You’re almost there.” Thanks Jill, I needed that!

Mile 21: 8:20

Mile 22: 8:50

Mile 23: 8:38

At this point, I had to dig deep. Everything below my waist hurt. I started to feel sick. I knew it was only three miles to the finish, and I knew that I had trained for this very moment. Here is where my mental strength would need to take over my body. I expected this to come and when it came, I was prepared. I dissociated from my physical body in a sense. I told myself I was tough. I told myself that nothing would keep me from my goal. I reminded myself that I was running towards my mom, dad, husband and kids who were at the finish line. It was Mother's Day. I teared up. I knew at most I would only be running another 25-30 minutes. I knew I could do anything for that amount of time.

Mile 24: 9:08

Slowest mile of the race and most challenging. I clung onto two girls beside me who were going for a similar time goal. This was the point at which a volunteer was trying to balance three feet of stacked HEED cups and just happened to let them fall right in my path. I was not in the mood for this and had to hurdle them to avoid falling. Freaking A!!!  I told myself I could slow down until mile 25. Then I agreed with myself I would pick it up for the rest of the race. Yes, I was talking to myself at this point.

Mile 25: 8:35

I knew I had done it. I knew I could walk the rest of the way (but I wouldn’t) and still make my goal. I started yelling “YES!” and a huge smile took over my face.

Mile 26: 8:29

I saw Ken, my biggest fan, at the 26 mile mark. I have never been so happy to see anyone in my life!! He yelled, “Go baby go. You’ve got this! Run to the finish!” I turned the corner and saw the FINISH line sign. It was SO close.

.2 mile: 8:10

I sped up, searching the crowd for my parents and kids. I saw them on the side lines and cheering me on. Sam took these photos:

I crossed the line and fell into my dad’s arms, sobbing. Then my mom’s. It came gushing out.  The stress fracture, the missed marathon in November, the weeks of training, the love and support of family and friends, Lucky.

    

Final stats: 3:42:36/ 8:28 pace/ 8th out of 70th in age group

And…I shaved 21 minutes off of my one/only marathon time (4:03 - 17 months ago)

Then reality set in and in perfect Shut Up and Run style I started to feel sick:

I knew all those gels wanted to get out via the colon. I headed to the porta potty and some guy in line said, “Cheetah girl! You were really kickin it at the end.” I said, “…and I got my Boston qualifier.” He started screaming, “Cheetah girl is going to Boston!” I love runners.

I knew we had to make it home and make it home quick. I spent the afternoon in bed and on the toilet. Who cares? One of the best days ever. By 5pm I was up for a margarita.

And at 7:30 the next morning Lucky got his eye removed.  He is fine. He still has one beautiful brown eye. He is one eyed and three legged. And he still has an erection.

Thanks for reading about my journey. Running is so much more than physical. It is about accomplishment, determination, discipline and success. It makes me a better person.

Let's Talk Shots

Question of the day: do you ever lose the remote, cannot find it, then realize you slept with it in your bed all night? I'm pretty sure we didn't spoon.

It is 8:26 a.m. in Longmont, CO. It is 19 degrees outside. I am waiting for it to be at least 65* before I run. Well, let's get real, I'd settle for 25*. It does look frosty, yes?

Thanks for those who asked about my foot. It was, as my friend Clair says, "talking to me" a bit last week after a speed workout. It hurt the same way it did with the stress fracture, so in my very rational way I sobbed and cried and decided I would never really run again because I would never heal from this injury.

Once I calmed down and took a few days off, I tested it on Saturday with a six miler. I brought my phone and was fully prepared to call Ken to come rescue me if it started acting up, but it didn't. The run was slow (9.08 min/mile), but I was absolutely pain free. My POA (Plan of Action) now is to eliminate speed work for the time being, to only run if it doesn't hurt and to see the doc on Friday. This injury thing is very tricky, but I will say I've learned a ton about listening to my body and taking care of myself throughout this process.

Sometimes I do odd things like visualize the bone fusing together and the site being fully healed. Do you ever want to be better so badly you start to employ these tactics?

On Saturday's run I was treated to some new songs I put on my iPod. I am a big fan of listening to the 30 second sample on iTunes and if it has a good running tempo, I'll buy it and load it on (without having heard the full song). On Saturday this brought a surprise to my virgin ears when I heard this gem of a song, "Shots" by LMFAO. It starts like this:

If you not drunk ladies & gentlemen
Get ready to get f^%#! up
Let’s do it, Ha Ha

Ok, I'm rolling with that. But then it goes to this:

The ladies love us
when we pour shots
they need an excuse to suck our c%$#

And I'm getting a bit put off. You guys know I'm not a prude but, I mean really. Is this the stuff people really listen to?

Then we got to this point:

The women come around everytime I’m pourin’ shots
Their panties hit the ground everytime I give em shots
So cups in the air, everybody lets take shots.
If you feelin’ drunk put ya hands in the air & If you tryin’
to f&^% put ya hands in the air
Now say “I’m f%$#!ed up”

I know that listening to this song is not supposed to be an exercise in analyzing the culture of our society and how it's sunk to new levels. But when you start talking about doing shots and pulling down your pants and you know that our middle schoolers (and younger) are listening to this stuff, doesn't it give you pause? It did me. After all, this song is #57 on iTunes, so people are buying it. At least good girl Taylor Swift is still beating it by a mile.

Maybe I'm in an uproar because I have kids who might hear this stuff at some point. Even if we don't allow our kids to listen to it, there's a pretty good chance they'll catch wind of it out in the world somehow. I certainly don't pretend that hearing this song is going to be the one motivator for them to do shots and pull down their panties, but if our pop culture is promoting these things, and these people are supposed to be our icons, what then?

On that note, let's talk music. I got an email from some folks who are working with the London Marathon. They are trying to come up with a soundtrack for the marathon (which will later be available on iTunes) and want our help to make it a global exercise. They want runners to submit their favorite running songs. If you'd be so kind as to let me know a couple of your favorite running tunes ("Shots" anyone?) then I'll submit a list. C'mon play along.

Well, it's 29* and I can't put it off any longer. Do you like the green shirt? It was on clearance and it's almost St. Patrick's day. Do you like how I can never take a picture and look normal?:

Drinking: Old coffee

It's BAD News

Thanks dear blog friends for all of the well wishes, prayers, etc, but dammit, it didn't work!!

Diagnosis: Stress fracture of the cuboid bone. Who knew there was a flippin' cuboid bone. It is a rare place to get a stress fracture - my sport's medicine doc has only seen two in the past ten years. Go figure. He also said he saw the start of a second fracture in my heel. WTF???


My foot literally started hurting a week ago. I had not the slightest pain before then. Go figure again. But when I look at my runs before the pain started, here is what I see:

Friday: 11 miles, easy
Sat: off
Sun: 18 miles, hard 8:36 pace
Mon: 6 miles, moderate
Tues: yoga
Wed: 6x800 speed work. 800s=3:30 (foot starts to hurt)
Thurs: off
Fri: off
Sat: off
Sun: Half Marathon Race, 8:53 min/mile (foot KILLING me the whole way)

And of course the week before that I was racing in Oregon. And the week before that another half marathon race.

Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised that I got injured?? I also realized that in the past 13 months I have never taken a break from training. Oops. Probably not the smartest.

So San Antonio Marathon is out. No BQ'ing for me this year. I think you can qualify straight up until Feb 2010 (as long as the marathon has room), but not sure if that's in the cards for me or not. Anyone want to buy a bib for SA?

Here's the thing: As a new runner, I don't see the big picture. People who have been running for years have probably had injuries, have recovered and have come back stronger. I have only been running for one year. I've never been injured. I don't have the confidence to know that 1) I won't lose everything I've gained over the past year 2) I'll move past this injury and run distance again. It's kind of like getting pregnant and not believing you will ever get your body back to where it was originally.

So since most of the blog world seems to be injured right now, or recovering, or trying to not get injured again, tell me your success story about your big comeback. I really need to hear it.

Oh and hey, I still ran a 1:58 half marathon with a stress fracture, 85 degree temps and a strong headwind. That's gotta mean something.