The Marathon, part one

On marathon day, I woke up at 4:52am and heard the sound of a steady rain hitting the roof.  Not good.  I was just hoping that the rain wouldn’t be too heavy and that it wouldn’t last for the whole morning.  I moped around a little bit about the rain, and then decided to just get ready and try and not worry about it too much.  I had a few mini blueberry muffins and a glass of milk.  Got dressed in my “Finishing = Winning” shirt (I was hoping the words would actually sink in and mean something) and Gary and I headed off to where the bus would pick us up near Somers Hall.  

We were the last two people on the bus before it left for the starting line so we didn’t get to sit next to each other.  I had been warned that the bus ride would seem like it took forever, so I decided it would be best to start up a conversation with my seat mate.  Grandma’s was his 2^nd marathon.  He was also a bit injured and I decided that maybe more people are running injured than I realized.  That helped my morale a little bit.  We discussed how childbirth was much like a marathon, except that the intense pain of childbirth could go on indefinitely and with a marathon, one can pretty well guess how long it’s going to take.  He said that if I could birth children, that running a marathon would be easy.  (I doubted it since my unmedicated childbirth with Oliver only lasted 45 minutes…  NO WAY I’d be done with a marathon that quickly!)

Gary and I got off the bus at 6:18am and stood around waiting with everyone else for about an hour before we headed to the starting chute.  We took some photos, stretched, got nervous, people watched, port-a-pottied, and got our bags into the gear check garbage cans while we waited.  The white flag was flying which meant that there was a risk of hypothermia.  We saw a group of people who all had matching t-shirt on.  They were running with Monty who was running his 100^th marathon.  I can’t even imagine…

Gary helped me put on my bracelet.  The day before, I asked people on Facebook to volunteer to help me stay motivated during the marathon.  I took one of the pace bracelets from the expo and on the back of it, I wrote a person’s name for each mile.  I planned on taking one mile at a time and thinking about one person for each mile.  I had new friends, old friends, family members, co-workers, neighbors… It was great! 

As we waited in the starting chute, I started to notice the masses of men who were going off to the side of the road to pee.  I don’t know if it’s the nurse in me or what, but I find it incredibly gross when people do that sort of thing.  Emergency?  Fine.  But when there are literally hundreds of port-a-potties across the road, I find it a bit disgusting.  I had heard that it would be a common occurrence along the race course though, so I tried not to focus on that.

There was music playing on loudspeakers.  When “Chariots of Fire” began just before the race start, I had to laugh.  I think everyone equates that song with running, but I had found a video online that had the song playing in the background while it showed some women finishing an ironman race.  They were so tired at the end, they had fallen down and ended up crawling to the finish.  At that moment, I was really hoping that I would be able to cross the finish line standing up.  

The train went by us and sounded its horn and I guess that was the start of the race!  It took us 5 minutes to get up to the starting line and then… WE WERE OFF!

The first few miles went by wonderfully.  Our pace was good, less than 10 minute miles.  Our goal was to just stay ahead of the 5:00 pacer.  Gary had a bracelet on that told us the mile-by-mile breakdown of where we should be and we were easily ahead of schedule.  People were chatting and joking.  Gary started talking about running the London Marathon.  And I was thinking that maybe it would be fun.  We got to the first water stop at mile three and we grabbed a quick cup of powerade, just for good measure.  The Two Harbors HS Pep Band was playing “Louie, Louie” and it brought back memories of my own pep band days.  I was enjoying the course, a few little hills, but nothing unbearable.  Trees all around us.  The rain had stopped.  It was beautiful!  Cloudy and 50 degrees—perfect running weather.

I started looking around for people I knew at mile 5 near Knife River.  I think I saw someone from my work and I called out her name, but either it wasn’t her or she didn’t hear me.  We got some more powerade/water and continued on our run.  There was a nice little string quartet playing inside a shed on the side of the road.  It was funny to watch people head off into the woods on the side of the road to pee.  Girls running further up the side than the guys.  I decided to wait for a port-a-potty that wasn’t too crowded.  Besides, it couldn’t hurt to wait in line and stretch at the same time.  My hip was starting to ache a little bit.

Just before mile 6, we had our little pit stop and stretched.  It took about 5 minutes but we were still a few minutes ahead of the 5:00 pace team, so we were ok.  By the time we got to mile 7, we had a few more minutes of cushion time.  I was doing well looking at my bracelet and thinking of stories and memories of my motivation volunteers at the start of each mile. 

Things continued on just fine for a few miles.  My hip was starting to hurt more, but we kept going.  Gary kept pushing me to keep going.  We weren’t going incredibly speedy so we were able to talk quite a bit.  We grabbed water/powerade at miles 7 and 9, walking through the stops and then running again.  The pattern was working nicely for us.  

By the time we go to mile 11, the pain was starting to get more intense.  I told Gary that we should have a conversation about what would happen when I needed to drop out of the race.  He decided to just ignore that and pretend like I never said it.  He suggested that we stop at the first aid vehicle, but I dismissed that idea because I was worried they’d make me drop out.  What else could they do?  I didn’t want to lose too much time.

When we got to the midway point at mile 13, I was re-thinking my decision.  We got our drinks and then I ran over to the first aid tent and asked if they had any ibuprofen.  They opened up a big bottle and poured a few into my hand.  Being a good nurse, I asked the dosage and kept track of what time it was so I would know when it was safe to take more.  We were still ahead of the 5:00 pacer, phew.  My 13 mile motivation volunteer has suffered a lot of health problems, so I used her as motivation to just keep going.

Shortly after that, I saw a big sign with some generic names on it and I was thinking, “I wish I had a commonly spelled name so I could have my name on a sign.  We’re never going to see a sign with our names on it.”  Well, not more than a minute later, I saw a big red sign that said my name on it!  We ran over to the opposite side of the road and found Kris and Jon Mallett enthusiastically calling our names.  It was absolutely great to see people we knew.  Kris gave me a hug and denied one for Gary because he looked too sweaty.  (Ha ha!)  And then they sent us on our way so that we didn’t lose too much time.  It was a great energy boost that I definitely needed.

It didn’t last long, though.  By mile 16, I had stretched and waited while Gary took a bathroom break and then I headed over to the medical tent to see if they had some Tylenol for me.  It was way too early for more ibuprofen, but I needed something and I was hoping the Tylenol would help.  It was right about this time when some woman was badly singing hymns on the side of the road and her buddy was a little further along with a big bullhorn telling me why I should repent my sins and ask for forgiveness.  I’m sure they meant well, but at that moment, I remember distinctly thinking that I would like to just punch them.  I said to Gary, “Do you think that anyone really cares about what they’re saying at this moment?”

To make matters worse, during our pit stop the 5:00 pacer went ahead of us.  

I think that was the beginning of the end for me.  Until that moment, I felt like I could still hit my goal.  But after the pacer passed us, I felt somewhat defeated.  We could still see the red and white balloons bobbing up and down in front of us, but I knew that the pain in my hip wasn’t going away and catching up to that pacer seemed impossible.  Still, if we could keep her in our sights, maybe, just maybe, I could get my goal.

Back to the course, Gary reminded me that we were only a few miles away from hopefully seeing the kids and that cheered me up quite a bit.  Of course, seeing them is also quite emotional and I started thinking about how I didn’t want to fail myself by not being able to finish the race.  It’s hard to run when you’re crying, so I had to pull myself together really quickly.  

We continued on as best we could, but I had to stop and walk more often than I wanted to.  The hip pain was never ending and at times it was a shooting, burning feeling.  (Those were the times I decided it would be best to walk and not run.)  We got to mile 18 and I remember seeing a girl with a purple shirt that we kept playing tag with.  I decided that I wanted to beat her to the finish.  Every time we’d walk she would catch up to us, then we’d run and get ahead.  But we kept running into her.  I told Gary my plan and he did a great job of telling me when she was getting close and we’d start running.  

Beginning with mile 19, the water stops were set up at every mile.  Before the race, we had talked about stopping at every water stop and walking through them, and we definitely kept that philosophy.  I was also stopping at least one other time in the mile between water stops.   We were running on London Road now and there were a lot more spectators.  But I was getting to the point where I just needed to focus on the task at hand and not care too much about the random people on the side of the road, so I didn’t pay a lot of attention.