My First Marathon (and blog post)

On Saturday I ran the Whistlestop Marathon in Ashland, Wisconsin. All the details are below for anyone interested, but here are the highlights. Marathons are long. They make your legs tired, and it really helps to have a cheering section.

So here are the rest of the details...

One week before the marathon I was recovering from the 24 hour flu bug and really hoping that it wouldn't make too much of a difference that I missed my last long run. Once we got home from Utah I started to regain my strength and even did a couple short runs during the week. I kept checking the weather in Ashland and every day the forecast seemed to get less and less appealing. On Monday the weather was calling for rain/snow and windy. Since I have a hard time committing to anything I hadn't officially signed up and I thought that the weather was turning into a pretty good excuse not to run. Why should I sign up now if I know that the course is going to be muddy, wet and cold? After talking it over with Becca I realized that this was really going to be my last chance to run a marathon this year and it was either now or wait until after winter. So on Tuesday I went out and ran in the rain to get over that mental barrier and came home and signed up for the race.

We drove up to Ahsland (4 hour drive) on Friday evening. We got there just in time to pick up our packet and watch them take down the last of the tables for the pre-race spaghetti feed and fish fry. Oh well, I had heard a lot about carbo loading but wasn't too sure about fish fry loading. Either way we weren't too worried about missing the feed since we had loaded up on carbs that afternoon on our way out of Maple Grove. Definitely love having an excuse to carb load.

Picking up my race packet I felt like it was the first day of school and I was finding out my class schedule. The trouble was when I started looking through my packet I noticed this bright green paper with a lot of big bold letters. The paper described in detail how this year the course had experienced a lot rain and had a number of soft spots throughout the trail. In addition, the unseasonal cold weather meant that there was a much greater risk of hypothermia. Awesome.

Morning of Race

Sure enough we woke up to 30 degree weather with snow on the ground and wind at 20-30 mph. At least it wasn't raining and the sky was clear.

Luckily I had brought all of our warm running gear so I bundled up in my thermals, running shorts/shirt, wind jacket, running mask, hat, headband, gloves and we headed to the starting line.

After a few detours we eventually go to the start with 4 minutes to spare before the gun went off. Thank goodness for chip time. I managed to make one last bathroom break, but didn't get much of a warm up or stretch in before the gun went off. I guess you probably don't need much of a warm up for a marathon, but for me that mentally kept playing with my mind during the race that I needed to stop and stretch. Right before the gun went off a huge gust of wind swept through the starter's chute and blew snow all over us. That was kind of like splashing water on our face before jumping into the pool. A nice hint of what was to come.

Miles 1-8

The first mile of the course followed a nice paved road before it turned into the rail-trail that was made up of packed limestone gravel.

I started out the first mile at a very conservative pace and crossed the first mile marker around 11:30. What was surprising was how quick people started to shed all of their warm gear. I saw people dumping their gloves, hats, jackets. All I kept thinking was how we still had a long 5 hours before we were getting out of the weather and it seemed a little early to start shedding. I actually ended up keeping all my gear on and never felt overheated. The first 8 miles were awesome. I felt great and everyone was very chatty. I felt relaxed and like I was just out on another long run. I ended up stopping around mile 3 to adjust my shoelaces and eventually caved into the thought that I needed to stretch and stopped around mile 6 to stretch my legs. I also walked through every water station because I just can't figure out how to run and drink out of cup without choking myself.

The best part about the course was that Becca could see me 6 different times! Every time I saw her it was a huge boost of energy. She saw me at mile 4.75, 9.9, 13.7, 16, 20, and 24.

Looking back it was around mile 6-8 that I probably felt the best. At one point I started thinking about why I was running, the journey that Becca and I have been on since the beginning of the year, my girls and everything suddenly felt a lot more emotional than I imagined. I felt light and like I was running effortlessly. Around 1hr 15 min into the race I also decided to gulp down my first GU. This only seemed to add to my running state of zen because I gulped down the chocolate GU and I immediately felt like I was eating warm gooey brownies. The part of the trail I was on was covered in a light snow and looked like a winter wonderland. as I slurped down the GU I felt like it was Christmas and I was eating warm brownies with the family. That was for sure the part of the marathon when I felt my best.

Miles 9-15

As I neared the half marathon point I was consistently running around a 10:10 mile. I got to the 13 mile mark and saw that my time was around 2hr 15 min. I still felt good at this point and was starting to notice that I was consistently catching up to people in front of me. By this time the cold was starting to wear more on me. I was extremely glad that I had a mask to protect my face from the wind, but it was still chilly.

When I ran by one of the water station one of the volunteers was shouting, "cold water!" and all I could think of was how that was the last thing I wanted. Some of the water actually had ice in it which didn't help at all with the core body temperature. Around this time Becca actually started passing me water that we had in our car that was luke warm. Much better.

Mile 16-20
These were the miles where I started to notice a dramatic change. At mile 16 I met up with Becca at a water station. This water station, though, wasn't protected very well by the trees so the wind was particularly strong.

I was starting to feel a sharp pain in both my quads telling me that my body was starting to get mad at me. I tried to lift up my left leg to stretch when a sharp pain shot through my hamstring that made me feel like I'd been shot in the back of the leg. I thought for a second that my leg might tighten up so much I might not be able to run again. So I decided to ease back into my stride and take off again. From that point on the pain in my quads gradually increased. The trail had a lot of parts that were packed pretty well, but some parts were like running on a beach. After 16 miles my quads were starting to wear down. I passed mile 18 and surpassed the longest training run I had completed. I always heard that running 20 miles in your training doesn't really help you physically but it's more of a mental advantage. Well, I never ran a 20 miler but out there on the course I was wishing I had just to have that mental edge.

Mile 21-24

By mile 20 I knew that I wasn't going to be able to push myself at a consistent pace for the last 6.2 miles. A couple miles earlier I had found myself running by two other runners. The one guy eventually dropped back and it was just me and the other runner. She explained that she was hoping to finish in 4 1/2 and I mentioned that I was just hoping to finish. That little bit of small talk did wonders to help keep my mind focused away from my quads and instead on just keeping a steady pace.

At that point every step hurt. My lungs and heart felt great, but my quads really did feel like someone was taking a meat grinder to them. Even when I knew I only had a little over 3 miles left it might as well have been a half marathon. I had no idea how long 26.2 miles really was. Those were some lonely miles.

Miles 24-26.2

By mile 24 the course was starting to show signs of coming into the small town of Ashland. By this point I had lost my pacing buddy. My legs were shutting down and I was starting to get worried that if I stopped I wouldn't be able to start up again. I was trying to dig deep, but really didn't have anything left to give. Thank goodness I saw Becca at mile 24. I pulled my mask down and tried to mumble to her that I was spent. She gave me some water and said she would see me at the finish. I don't know how I got through the last 2.2 miles. I wasn't really running but was more shuffling and hoping the legs wouldn't completely freeze up. Somehow I managed to make it through those last couple miles and crossed the finish line with a chip time of 4:38:26:2. I'll take it.

Post Race:

Becca was there to catch me at the end. There's no way I could have made it with out her support. She was my inspiration. I love you Babe! We walked around for a minute and got ourselves out of the cold. It felt so good to have finished.

I had no idea how hard the marathon was going to be. I did not respect the distance and certainly did not train long enough to be prepared for the distance. Even though I had been running all summer it wasn't until after the Ragnar about 8 weeks ago that I decided to start a dedicated training program. No wonder I couldn't find any good 8 week marathon training programs online.

My legs are still very sore, but all the joints feel strong. My toes got pretty beat up, but they really didn't hurt at all during the race. I got some nasty blisters but they have been healing well over the last couple days (WARNING: not for the feint of heart - click here if you want to see them) . Overall I just can't believe I actually ran a full marathon. I keep recounting to Becca all the different details of the race and what a crazy, emotional, challenging, rewarding experience it was. I've also already found myself searching for the next marathon challenge next summer.

Since we had to leave pretty quickly after the race, Becca decided to throw me a little after party to celebrate with a few of our friends on Monday. It was awesome to feel everyone's support and the cake was delicious. Definitely a good reason to run one of these again.