April 25, 2009

"You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming."--Frank Shorter

I've seen this quote a lot on various marathon sites. My problem is that I forgot just how much hills and humidity suck when running, let alone throw a marathon into that combination. I fully expected Nashville to be a challenge. I hadn't trained as hard as I did in the last cycle and Nashville is a hilly course. What I did not expect was for the weather on race day to be 85 and humid. This race was like Chicago, but with hills. I think I'd rather know the bad stuff is coming rather than start with ignorance. I guess I've got a bench mark to solve that problem now!

I was doing alright in the first 5k, I was running 10 minute mile splits, even with the hills. By mile 5 I had taken my shirt off because it was so damn hot. I began to slow to an 11:00/11:30 av up through the 10 mile mark...and then I started to slow down and things started sucking. By mile 13 I was starting to hate the world and by mile 14 I was on the verge of an asthma attack (and tears).

So, I did what any sane person would do. I called my own personal superhero. That's right, I sat down on the curb in the middle of the Country Music Marathon and called Julia. Thank God she answered and talked to me. I was distracted enough to focus on answering her questions. It was good that she talked me through it. I'm not even sure what she said (sorry, Jules!), but it kept me going. I walked until mile 15 and then started with a 60 second run 60 second walk (ah, the Jeff Galloway back up plan!). I really couldn't take running the up hills at this point, but I figured, I just have to finish.

I stopped at an aid station and asked for some Vaseline and a hug (I'm not kidding). The water stops were sparse and using hose water because they were out of bottled (at least there was water). I just wanted to be done. I was so hot, I felt like I wasn't even sweating any more.

By 19, I checked my phone and saw Julia had sent me the Chimpanzee Riding on a Segway (bababababa!) and that cheered me up. I had 2 very serious revelations at this point; 1) I do not want to run a marathon in July unless it's somewhere in the Arctic circle, and 2) I need to find the Chimpanzee Riding on a Segway song for my iPod. (I'm serious! It would be good to run to!)

I finally finished in over 6 hours for my worst marathon time ever. I was also sad that I got my ass kicked by a biggest looser reject (by 15 minutes). I guess I should be proud that I listened to my body and didn't try to kill myself. Someone did actually die at this race running the 1/2 marathon. He was only 26 and had a heart attack. I finished what I started, and did it safely. I did not have a major asthma attack. My IT bands hate me right now as does my anterior tibialis (thanks Matt, Mindy and Melissa for teaching me the name of that muscle--I still hate it!)

The positives are that I finished. I got a medal. I can cross Tennessee of the 50 State Challenge List. And the last one...I never have to run this race again!