This is my last post to my "First Marathon" blog. If you've followed my blog you'll know that technically this is my second marathon, but I took a Mulligan on the Oklahoma City Marathon because it went so badly for me. So here I was today, 6 months later, lining up for my second first marathon.
It took me 12 months of training to get here. I had not been a regular runner before last October. This was supposed to be a one-time "turning 50" goal, but I discovered that I loved running (because of my new friends in The Runners Edge), so I'm sticking with it.
Below are the statistics of what I did to make it to the starting line. These numbers are really low compared to what a serious runner would do.
- Total training runs: 139
- Total miles run/raced: 963
- Total hours running/racing: 180
- Half marathons: 3
- Full marathons: 1
- 5K runs: 3
- Running injuries: broken wrist, shin splints, Morton's neuroma, bloody nipples (ouch), and one toe nail lost, all of which are healed, except for the neuroma.
A total of 8,050 runners lined up for the full marathon, half marathon, 5k and relay, about 1,800 of which were doing the full marathon. The starting corral was completely packed. I don't know when I've been so excited and nervous about something as I was for this race. The people next to me were very friendly. There was a woman from Atlanta running her 11th marathon, and a man running his first 1/2 marathon.
I'm not going to give the blow by blow on my race. The first half was very enjoyable. My split was 2:22:24. It was great seeing spectators I knew along the route: Lisa Flemming, Julie Hurley, Ron Honeyman, Coach Valdez, to name a few. My wife and daughters met me at mile 18. The big surprise was seeing my sister-in-law and niece at mile 21: Lauri, Lane, Evan, and Grace Williams, and Sarah and Chris Green. They had driven in from Fort Scott and Topeka for the race. Seeing them and their home made support signs could not have come at a better time for me.
At mile 4 I found myself with a three minute deficit, and knowing the course was downhill or flat from miles 4- 12, I decided to try to make up the deficit. I ran five of the next six miles below goal pace. In hindsight this was probably not a very smart thing to do. The funny thing was that I never made up those 3 minutes. I guess I was too slow in the aid stations and offset my gains. All I know is that I paid for that transgression after mile 12.
My humorus memory from the race was that there was another runner there from The Runner's Edge who I passed at mile 3. He was running at a very even pace, and I running at an uneven pace. He never noticed passing me at the aid stations, but I always said hi when I passed him after the aid stations. At one point he exclaimed "How are you doing that?!" I think I was driving him a bit nuts. I must have passed him half a dozen times. It was funny.
My best moment of the race was passing through Westport where a band was playing. I don't recall the song, but I synchronized my pace to the beat. I was feeling strong and was practically bounding to stay in time with the music. It was fun. I stayed on that runners high down Roanoak Parkway to 47th street. I opened up my stride on the descent and was running effortlessly. I felt like I could run forever, but that definitely was not the case.
The second half didn't go as planned. I began losing speed with every mile. By mile 20 I was really dragging. My worst mile was 22, when I walked the hill from Gilham to Paseo Blvd. Beyond that I adopted the run a mile, walk a minute strategy and just tried to get the finish line one mile at a time, finishing in 5:09:28. Not what I wanted, but I'll take it. I'll have to wait until next year to break five hours. It will give me something to work towards!
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