I'll jump right in here: The first couple miles were fine. I was actually pretty proud of myself - I didn't want to run any sub-10 minute miles for this race. My goal was to go slow at the beginning and not feel like crap at the end. (I achieved exactly half of this goal - the slow part!!)
I made the turn and started the first loop and caught my first glimpse of Preston! My heart
rate strap had never synched with my Garmin (and yes, I turned it on when I was far away
from people, so it is just on the fritz), so I took it off and handed it to him - no reason
to chafe if I can't even get data out of it!
After that, it was basically just 3 hellish loops. As I was coming in on the first loop I
yelled to Preston that I couldn't believe I still had 2 to go - that's how crappy I felt.
One good thing did come out of the race, though. The aid stations were set up every 2nd
mile, which corresponded to a loop turn-around. The first and second aid stations I took
Gatorade. The 3rd, 5th, and 7th I took a Honey Stinger gel with water, and the 4th, 6th,
and 8th I took an Endurolyte pill with Gatorade. The end result was zero leg cramps at the
end, and no GI distress. So, I think I may have finally found my magic marathon nutrition
combination!
Back to the race: I stayed sub-11 miles until I was through 13, walking only the aid
stations. At 13 I was struggling, so I started walking once per mile, and my miles started
getting slower and slower. I'd be all proud of myself, that I was still running, and I'd
look down at my pace and see 12:30 when my body really felt like it was doing 10:30! It was
mentally a very tough last 5 miles. Very tough. At 16 I was really hurting. Physically
hurting. I made a new deal with myself that I could walk every half a mile. I wasn't
comforted that everyone left out there with me looked to be struggling as mightily as I was.
And it was HOT by then. When I got into my car, which had been parked in the shade in a
garage after the race, it read 76 degrees. UGH! Preston said a lot of people were
complaining. I passed a guy within a few 100 yards of the finish line who said something
about the pain almost being over. This is the first race I've run where I really actually
was in pain. Wow - I don't have any words for that.
I couldn't see the finish line until the very very end, so it felt like it would never come.
I just kept shuffling along in some kind of loop-continuum. But it did finally come, my
Gramin reading 18.78 miles. I got my medal and my (lame) cotton T-shirt, but couldn't find
the water. I do hope the race director rethinks the set-up of the finish line amenities,
which were nice, but confusing! (And it isn't like most of us have just tons of brainpower
when we've been running for 3.5 hours!!)
I'm not sure I'll do the warm-up series again... I mean, I would, if I were training on my
own for sure - supported long runs and all of that. But for training with a
group, the schedules didn't always mesh well, and the first two were on the terrible hills
(though I will do the Houston Half again - medal and really nice tech singlet), and the last
two shorted finishers either a medal (25K) or a tech T (30K), both of which I'm coming to
expect for my money and for races that long... to be fair, I won't be doing San Antonio
again either, til they cough up a tech T.
This turned out to be my last long run before the marathon. I'll elaborate in a later post
on that...
So, 18.6 miles in 3:29:03. I'm sorry this post feels so fragmented. My feelings about the whole race are rather fragmented. I ran it, it was long, I struggled, I finished, and that's pretty much all I've got, other than the nutrition goodness that came out of it.
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