I'm a marathoner :)

So my story starts while back. Back in first year LF (a friend of mine) entered the new york lottery and tried to convince me to enter with her. At the time I had never run more than 7 km, and the thought of a full marathon "No way, I could NEVER do that!". So the years went by, I discorvered I was more capable than I thought. So I sent the tentative goal that I wanted to do a marathon before the age of 25, realistically knowing that this fall would likely be when it happened. (My 25th birthday is next month!)

I started thinking about it about this time last year, and did a couple of half marathons and 1 tri in the spring and early summer. I ramped up my training for a month and a bit, but then it was off to africa to go and visit my sister. I didn't register for my race until I got back since I wanted to make sure I got in my long runs I needed. I had to adjust my training schedule, originally I wanted to have 3 runs of 20+ miles and to peak at 50 miles/week (mpw). But life and vacation got in the way and I only got in 1 20 miler and peaked at 48 mpw. (I got in 3 really long ones, a 28K at altitude on crazy hills in africa, and then a 30K and 32K run when I got back.)

So fast forward to the past few weeks, as you all know, I'm a grad student and preparing for a conference that is in oh, 24 hours, the incredible stress and long hours at work allowed the cold I had been fighting for 4 weeks finally took over last week, but surprisingly, I didn't notice it too much during the race though. I did adjust my goals this past week because of it though, I originally wanted 4:30, but I realized with the combination of my slacker training and my cold that I really didn't care about my finish time. At all.

Saturday morning I was up early and off to the expo (2 hours away). I met up with a woman I know from a running message board (AR), and we met Kathrine Switzer - first woman to do a marathon, and she signed my bib "To Laura who honours ME with her debut, Go Girl! - K. Switzer". So cool. And she really understands. She wrote of the front of my bib, upside down so that when I needed motivation during the race, just had to flip up my bib I went out for lunch with AR and her family to applebees. I got the "Two Cheese" Chicken Penne, Yum! (note: it was supposed to be 3 cheese, but I asked for light on the cheese ).

It was then back tracking 45 minutes to my Aunt's and Uncles house for dinner and the night (Also met up with my dad there). We had a nice little visit and I excused myself to go to bed, and actually slept pretty well. I woke up once at 4:30 and literally sat bolt upright, and had to check my watch to make sure I hadn't overslept.

I got up at 6:00, got dressed, ate, and tried my darndest to go to the bathroom (number 2) for a the next few hours, but wasn't able to go. Never a problem for me before a race! Ended up popping a couple of immodium and hoping for the best (I know, too much information ;)).

So the race started (after chilling out at this cool Art Gallery in Buffulo for a couple of hours), My dad and his girlfriend were back from breakfast and saw me in the shoots, and just on the other side of the start line.

I lined myself up near the 4:30 pace bunny not really caring if I kept up or not, and for the first mile I ran with them, but the split had me in at 9:30, oops! I slowed it down a bit and got the next few splits

1mile 9:30
2 - 10:07/19:37
3 - 10:22/29:59
4 - 10:16/40:15
And that is where I stopped watching my splits , got a couple of them...

Was throught 10K around 63 minutes, 15K somewhere around 1:34-1:36, Through the half at 2:16:37 (Had to go potty - Finally! - right before the half point ) And just kept going. From the half point to the finish line, only 2 people passed me. I was picking off people the entire way. I probably passed 50 people along the course. as soon as I passed one, I'd find a new one to pick off.

I can't give you any splits for the rest of the race. I knew 4:30 wasn't happening, so I just ran my own race from this point in time. How many marathons or races, are you guarenteed a personal best for???

My legs started to get tired around the 18 mile mark, but I was fine until the 20 mile mark. Just after EK and Burger were on the side and that boosted me for a bit, definitely good placement girls!. A few minutes after that, AR showed up, she was doing her long run after her hubby finished the half (shes doing New York in 2 weeks and is so getting her 3:40 goal!) and was there to pace me in for the last 5 and a bit miles. She was amazing. I wasn't good company and very quiet, but I can honestly say, I never hit the wall, I never felt like I couldn't finish, she kept my mind occupied. At the water stations (which I was walking through - and had been planning to walk through), she would introduce me to the volunteers and get them to cheer me on, and she kept two steps in front of me to block the wind. I can't say the miles flew by, I was in pain, but I never felt like I couldn't finish.

(EK and Burger were there again about 1.5 miles from the finish. They were a hard pair to miss :)). At 5K out, my quads started to hurt, and with a mile to go, my calves started to cramp up and I needed to stop to stretch them. They still hurt to the finish, but I kept going. I even managed to pass "the guy in the blue jacket" in the finishing chute . Everytime I passed someone, AR would sing "another one bites the dust".

Finished with a huge grin on my face, and the most amazing feeling of accomplishment somewhere around 4:39:45?? In my excitement i forgot to press stop Am I disappoint? Heck no! I'm so proud of myself!!!!!

Conclusions:
1) I'm not doing another marathon for a few years. Not because of the race, but because next time I do want to go for time, I do want to train properly, and I do want to give it the effort it deserves. Not splitting time with triathlon and multisport.
2) for now my goals are to get my half marathon time down (much easier to train for with multisport) and get my tri distance up.
3) I'm a marathoner! Yipee! I CAN do it