Bass Pro Conservation Marathon

November 6th 2011

Before the Race
For the first time all season I went to bed at a reasonable time.. and it felt very weird, so I decided to wake up a little early to help offset the weird feeling. The first alarm set on my phone went off at 4:00am followed soon after by the digital clock alarm I set for a back, and then third back alarm I set on my watch started going off. All three with different sounds... all three.. Very annoying. I shut off each of the alarms and pulled myself out of bed to begin my usual race morning rituals (bathroom, race outfit, double tie shoes, make sure time chip is affixed securely, bathroom). As I got into my truck at 4:40am my amazing girlfriend called me!

Normally I like to get to a race around 30 minutes before the race start, however, I really wanted to make sure I didn't have to hassle with parking, so I got there a little more than 2 hours early. Well, I definitely did not have to hassle.. because the only other people there when I arrived were the people in charge of the race. So I kicked back and chatted with Alexis on the phone waiting for the race to come.

RACE
The announcer called for the competitive runners to go ahead and line up, so I made my way to the start. The race started and I darted out a little too quick (I'm so used to racing 5ks) I tried to slow my pace to a more appropriate marathon pace, but I still went out way too fast. I ran the first mile in 6 minutes.. I was aiming for 7:15. I knew this would happen and I thought I had adjusted my pace accordingly.. but apparently even by the 3 mile I wasn't into my set pace, because i crossed the 3 mile 18:48... and again around 6 miles I was around 40 minutes. I have been warned time and time again about going out slow, and I knew I needed to go out slower than what I felt comfortable with, but for some reason i just couldn't get my body to slow down. By mile 9 (61 minutes)I was getting closer to the appropriate pace.

Around mile 5 I turned my ankle pretty badly but kept on going and it worked itself out fine. Around mile 8 I started to get very hungry! I greatly desired to sink my teeth into a big fat juicy burger! Unfortunately all I had to indulge my appetite with were sport beans and I grabbed a packet every time the aid station had one! I forget where I was but it was within the first 9 miles that I was startled by someone loudly shouting my name! My physiology professor was out in his front yard cheering me on! I was going to tell him that when he saw Brad he needed to tell him to catch up to me (but I didn't think to say it soon enough).

I hit a perfect half marathon time that was right on track to qualify me for Boston. 1.29.. The only problem was I could already feel the fatigue hitting me. So I put it in my head that I would run the race 2 miles at a time, I would forget about the rest of the race and focus on 2 miles at a time(every two miles was an aid station). So I ran 2 miles, walked a little bit so that I could actually drink the water or powerade (unlike the past aid stations were one resulted in me missing the cup completely and knocking it out of the volunteers hand, or splashing the water at my face which in return got about 9/10ths of the water on me and not in my mouth) and then started back up with the running.

As I approached mile 20 I became a little nervous (last and first marathon I ran, Mile 20 consisted of me having an entire leg cramp up suddenly sending my face first into the asphalt. Then walking, running, jogging the best i could for the last 6 miles, with muscle cramps every time i tried to run/jog). Mile 20 passed just fine, although my fatigue was getting worse and my butt was on the verge of cramping. Every now and then I would feel great and was able to move at a good pace, still within an attainable BQ (Boston qualifier).

I was still going fairly well till I reached mile 23! My foot and hamstring cramped and I ended up walking for probably 3/4ths of a mile. I am extremely ashamed of this!!! When I hit Mile 24 I grabbed an orange and then got my feet moving (slowly.. but moving). If I hadn't walked I probably would have been pretty close to a BQ. As I rounded the last corner I sprinted (probably not an actual sprint, but it felt like one to me).

I finished 4th in my age group (1st was only 6 minutes ahead of me! that is less than a mile!! Imagine if I hadn't walked that "less than a mile"... URG.) 3rd place was 3 minutes ahead of me. I placed 25th overall for the whole marathon with a time of 3.26.33 (16 minutes slower than my goal) So now it is time to start training for the Run for the Ranch Marathon and kick some butt!!!