< A funny fellow runner!
Here I am running my first marathon ever. It was an awesome experience. That smile on my face was there almost the whole time I ran. I have been running regularly since January of last year. In 2011, I completed 3 half marathons and 1 5K. I haven't improved my race times, but I haven't gotten any worse either, so I thought I'd push for the next goal--a marathon.I felt like I had done enough training before hand. I got up to running about 35 miles per week and tried to run at least one interval workout and one hill workout in the weeks leading up to the marathon. I don't run with a Garmin and don't run too often with anyone else, so it's just me out on the road. I do read blogs and get inspired by what other women are doing and running, but I don't have too much else to guide me, so I was hoping that running a marathon would be a good test of what I can do.
I went into the race hoping to run a sub 4:30. However, if I was feeling good, I'd try to aim for 4:15. The week before, I started to hear reports of heavy rain for the marathon. That made me nervous. I've run in rain before and it's not bad, but a cold rain for 26.2 miles didn't sound fun. I was praying for a break. The expo on Saturday was totally rained out. It was outside and it was miserable for the runners and vendors. They were giving out all kinds of goodies and were really good sports about it, but it was pretty horrible. We went out to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Forage in Silver Lake. I realized after we ate that it was right along the race course. When we got home, I started panicking about the weather and went out trying to find more rain gear. I ended up getting a hat.
Saturday morning: Got up at 5 AM, ate my shake and a Gu and got ready to leave. I was driving my sister-in-law and a few friends to the race. It was fun not to be doing this alone. We set off on the eerily empty freeways of LA to arrive at Dodger Stadium. It started backing up about 2 miles before the exit. I got as far as we could to the front of the line before we edged into the line. We finally made it to the stadium at about 7 AM and found a parking space. We all needed to use the facilities and I thought we had plenty of time before the 7:24 start time. We ran and ran to find the port-o-potties and they were all the way up the hill. We jumped in the first line we saw and it turned out to be the slowest line ever. We were still in line when they were singing the National Anthem 20 minutes later. We finally finished and I hopped into the open corral. I thought I was somewhere near the 10 minute pacers where I wanted to be, but it turns out I was about 10-15 minutes behind them.
The weather was gorgeous. The sun started breaking through the clouds as we began running and the air felt crisp and cool. I let myself go at an easy pace and told myself to settle in for the long haul. It was amazing to be running through Downtown LA and past restaurants and places I love. We went from Dodger Stadium, through Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Silver Lake, and past so many landmarks. It was fun to run by the sights and hear everyone cheering. The crowd support was great.
I ran with a hand held water bottle which wasn't too bad. It was good not having to stop for water. My husband and son met me at the halfway point to exchange bottles. They also had a few video screens along the route and family and friends could send you messages for free. My sister-in-law surprised me by helping my son record a message for me. His little face and voice popped up for me at Mile 6 right before I ran through Silver Lake. I almost cried. It was such a sweet surprise.
I ran by myself the whole race. There were a few people I kept running around, but I wasn't really running with anyone. I could tell from my times that I was running the race I wanted to run, just a bit under 10 minute miles.
10K 1:00
20K 2:00
30K 3:00
40K 4:02
Finish: 4:14
I felt really good the whole time. I remember reading Dorothy's words of Mile-Posts about how the real race starts at 20 miles. I kept pacing myself, drinking sips of Nuun from my water bottle and eating Gu chomps. I never felt tired, my legs didn't feel sore and I felt great the whole time. By the 20 mile mark, I was feeling a bit tired, but I took hear that I was almost finished. I was done with my water bottle, so I dumped it at about 21 miles. After that, I just took cups of water from every water station I passed and just kept my mouth wet. It helped keep my mind off of being tired until the end. I was also looking for the last hill that everyone was talking about. I never really found it. I think they were talking about a little underpass we run through at the Salvation Army compound. Anyway, the end is either flat or inclined down for about the last 4 miles. I used that to my advantage and tried to really push it at the end. By my last 1/2 mile, I realized that I could get a sub 4:15, so I gave it all I had and pushed to the end. I finished with the wind off the beach nearly blowing off my hat. It got really windy by the end of the race. A race volunteer came up to me and walked me over to the medal and food area even though I felt fine. I must have looked worse than I felt.
I was on cloud 9 and couldn't believe I had finished my first marathon. It was such an amazing experience.
One thing I would change is that I would have given out my bib number and tracking info to more people. It's a lot of fun to track runners as they run.
