Reflections on my first Marathon
Friday, December 14th, 2007To continue, it was cold and foggy with a misting rain. The pace runner did an excellent job of keeping everyone reigned in and appropriately paced at the start. That has always been one of my weak points, and I doubt I would have done as well if it hadn’t been for the group and support given early in the race.
The first through middle of the race went well. I lead the pack some and would move ahead slowly to be ready for the next bathroom break. I kept chugging the water and Gatorade at every stop. I felt good and by the half way point, was sure that I was going to finish (a real concern given that I had never attempted the distance before this).
At around the 14-16th mile, I wasn’t able to get ahead of the group before I had to take a bathroom break. I had begun to take small walk breaks during the running section and knew when I stopped that I would lose them and wouldn’t be likely to make up the time. By this time we were well into the lake part of the run, and it was cold! The wind was coming off of the lake and it cut through the clothes I had on. I could feel it sapping my strength and by the time I got back on the course I was in a ‘dead zone’ with the nearest runners hundreds of yards ahead and behind. This was some of the most mentally challenging part of the race for me. I had trained alone but didn’t always accomplish my goals. I knew that I had to keep running to make it off of the lake section because the cold kept threatening to cramp me up. I was able to see the pack for the next 3 miles, but they kept slowly pulling ahead.
After leaving the lake, I felt warm again and my spirits improved immensely. Just after the 19th mile marker, I took a shot of Sapporo beer from a group of college students and started picking up the pace a bit. That is, I started running longer between walks again. About this time I noticed that the tongues on my shoes had begun to slide to the side and that it caused the tops of my feet to feel less good than when they were as they should be. I hurt, pretty much everywhere by now. I have never had much trouble with chafing or blisters and the cool weather helped keep me from having any problems that day, but muscles and joints ached.
A little after mile 22 I slowed dramatically and struggled to keep any running at all in my pace. It was stamina as much as muscle or joint ache that did it. I couldn’t really run fast enough to be faster than walking and I wasn’t too proud to walk fast rather than slug it out. Then I overheard someone talking about run 50 steps, walk 50 steps as a way to get rid of cramps and I didn’t see what it could hurt. My goodness, it was wonderful. I was able to keep my walking pace high and still do some running. By the 24th mile or so, I had begun to run for longer stretches again and, while not fully recovered, wasn’t feeling like I wasn’t going to be able to run over the finish line.
Ah, the finish line. Did I mention how cold it was? Well, after the 24th mile, the crowds started to pick up again. There wasn’t a ‘band every mile’ given the weather, but on mile 25, there was a good one still belting it out. It was sometime around here that I hit my watch funny or something and stopped it. I had started it with gun time so that I would know where I was in the race, and I knew that I crossed the start around 3 minutes after gun so I was keeping up with my chip time in a rough sort of way. I didn’t have a pace list or anything, I was just doing the math as I got the craving. I remember looking down and seeing that I had a little bit more than a mile to go and it was 5:30:XX by the gun time and thinking that I could possibly break 5:45:00. I then remember looking and seeing that it was 5:30:XX by the gun time and thinking that I had about half a mile left and I could break 5:40:00. Seriously, that went all the way through the math part of my brain before the other half said: wait a second, something isn’t right.
I can well remember seeing the 26th mile marker and tears coming to my eyes as I realized that I had done it. The actual finish was around a corner, and I jogged most of the way to the corner and rounded it before slowing to a casual walk for 45 seconds to a minute before running to the finish line. There was no way that I was not going to try for a good marathon finish picture. Even had I known that I was that close to breaking 5:45:00, I would have done the same thing. I hope my picture comes out ok. I left my hat on because my hair is at a fluffy stage and I couldn’t imagine having to Photoshop the picture to keep Heather from laughing every time she passed it in the house. 
I enjoyed the experience and will do it again. I want to train a bit more for the next one and actually have a negative split. I am now going to shoot for something crazy by 2010 like running with Bo rather than just in the same race or on the same course. He has qualified for Boston and just keeps knocking down the miles. Seriously, Bo has been a great inspiration and I wouldn’t have attempted this without his support from afar. Heather has been an even greater help by facilitating my crazy Larry running times and the gear purchases and dietary peculiarities. But the greatest reason for my continued exercise is the name of the blog, running for Schroeder. I am determined to keep my self healthy enough to see him graduate from college and marry and have a family of his own. And if he waits as long as I did, I have quite a wait ahead. Links to pictures when they finish with them, here is a link to my results.