Podium Finish

Last two weeks of training went something like this:

Two weeks to go:
Ran a few times pretty easy, played tag with my cross country team (for an hour and a half!), "long" run of 13 miles (around 45 miles total)

One week to go:
Ran a few times really easy, two miles at marathon pace on Thursday, 4 miles easy on Saturday... and the marathon (16 miles before the race plus 26, 42 total)

I was so busy with work that I didn't make it a priority to post anything.. plus there wasn't much to report since we were tapering anyway. The biggest struggle for me was that last week. I didn't wear a watch at all because I was forcing myself to run slowly... I just didn't want to know my pace. I also had a hard time with the whole carbo-loading thing, but I sucked it up and did it anyway. Three days of almost no running and what felt like constanty eating. I thought I would enjoy it a little more but nope.

So.. the race. I really couldn't be more happy with how it went. I was really worried because we found out it was going to be a high of 82, and it was going to be a challenge to stay hydrated. After the first two water stops I actually stopped to take a few cups of water and I walked through them to make sure I got enough fluids. I stopped a few other times to take orange slices and gels and say a few word to my family (my fans). I noticed that I quickly caught up to the people I was running with before the water stop. Eventually I would catch up to the people I was running with and pass them. There was a water stop every two miles, and I was completely focused on my water stop strategy for the entire race.

I went through a bad patch from miles 11-13, and I was starting to worry because my race plan was not quite working out the way I had hoped. I was supposed to average 7:00 for the first 8 miles, then drop it down to 6:50 until mile 18, then run 6:40s for the last 8.2 miles. My pacing was pretty erratic all the way up until the halfway point, although I ended up coming through in 1:31 and some change which was on pace. After the next water stop I decided to stick with my 6:50- 7:00 pace until I felt better. Fortunately I worked though it and was able to pick it up on a downhill section. I started passing TONS of people. I was constantly picking off people from miles 14-16 toward the end of the Mohawk River trail. When I came out of the trail into the city of Cohoes around mile 16 one of the race officials told me I was in sixth, which was a surprise to me. When I looked ahead I saw two women in the distance and I got really pumped. I ended up running a 6:30 mile, followed by a 6:40 and picked off a bunch more people. I went through a few brief points where I got worried I was going to hit the wall, but I powered through it. My last mile was a 7:14 and I sprinted the last .2 miles. Only two people passed me in the entire second half even though I technically slowed down to a 1:34 half.

So, yeah I wish I had broken 3:00, but I'm happy to have stood on the podium in my first marathon. I'm also really excited to run another one. I wish I could run one again this weekend! But of course, we have to be smart and take a little down time and start training again for a spring marathon. We decided to run the full marathon at Shamrock instead of the half marathon... so stay tuned for Keep it Simple Part Deux!

Pee Man & The Marathon

This past weekend was a great one. We were able to spend a lot of time with the family doing all sorts of fun things. Mollie will write about the marathon first, because with her amazing finish, she deserves the first post. However, I need to mention one of the weirdest things I've seen.

This disgusting event occurred at the start line of the race. Mollie and I are lined at the start, with only one row of bodies in front of us. We ran up about 3 minutes before the race started to grab our spot. To my left, I've been eyeing this man who had ridiculously short shorts on, was built as though he was a 50+ year old man who has run his entire life and had a beard and sunglasses on. I don't know what type of top he had on because he was wearing a black lawn-trash bag over his entire upper body with a head hole cut out and his arms by his side coming down out of the bottom of the bag (that's not the weird part). He was hopping around, shifting his weight, legs moving to keep his body warm, not an unusual start line activity. At this point the most disgusting event occurred. I looked to my left with my head facing forward, as not to look like I was staring, and watched the man take an empty water bottle, put it up the right inside short leg and then I watched the bottle magically fill with a liquid that resembled apple juice. My God, this man was peeing in a bottle. I immediately thought to myself, well the race is going to start in about 1.5 minutes and the porta-potty line is long, so "you gotta do what you gotta do". With no hesitation, like it was an everyday action, the man removed the bottle from under his shorts and lifted it toward his face.

At this point, standing about 4 feet away, I was staring straight at him, with my jaw dropped. He took that bottle and pounded all of its contents. He took that pee straight to the face, people. I could not believe what I just saw. I started saying out loud, "That guy just drank his pee!" I repeated it over and over again, grabbing Mollie and making her look. She was not happy with my distracting her from her pre-race focus, but I could not help it. I didn't ask for this distraction either! I was just eye-raped by this pee-drinker! Gross! We both watched the guy put down the bottle on the asphalt, nonchalantly, and take off his trash bag tuxedo. Holy crap that was nasty- he clearly wasn't hydrated. After that interesting event, I had about 30 seconds to get my head straight, focused back on the race. Then, a countdown over the p.a. rang out- "5-4-3-2-1-hoooorrnnnn"- the race began...