"The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed."
- Jacqueline Gareau, 1980 Boston Marathon champ
(Adapted from an e-mail, since I'm too lazy to rewrite from scratch)
To begin, my flight to San Diego was a total nightmare. My flight was initially delayed 30 minutes, or so I thought. Probably 45-60minutes given the amount of time before I . Then we get up into the air, head to CA for a short trip. Well, it seems to be taking longer than expected. The plane keeps tipping to one side. Passengers note that we're flying in circles. The captain comes on to tell us that, yes indeed, we're circling. We're on a hold because the weather is low in San Diego, but once the ceiling lifts, we can go in. We continue to circle another 20 minutes until he says we've been okayed. So we continue on to San Diego. Drop elevation. Go through the thick cloud cover so we can see the city. And just as we're approaching....we suddenly veer up at a 45 degree angle into the sky, accelerating rapidly through and above the clouds. At this point it evens out again and we start circling once more, this time above SD and the ocena, rather than the desert. The captain waits a solid 15 minutes until he comes on and explains that the window closed and that we have to go another airport.That's because we're almost out of fuel and can't continue circling. So we started flying to Ontatrio, CA. While its a quick flight there, we sit on the landing area for 30-45 minutes. Just sitting. I call Bex, who has sent a half dozen text messages and voice messages since I'm an hour late to pick up at this point. She's really good about it, thank goodness, and says to just call her when I get in. So we sit around some more, the plane full of people going to the marathon - all in a panic. They said that there is no race-day pick-up, initially. Someone calls the convention center to talk to the marathon organizers who reassure us that they might stay open a little later than 5pm at the Expo, since a lot of planes were being diverted or last resort, we can go to the "Solutions Tent" race morning at 4:30am. (Thank god, it didn't come down to that since I never would have made it.) With everyone relieved, we get refueled and finally take off to return to San Diego. I'm not sure how, but we seriously didn't land until 3pm.
I ended up taking a taxi to the convention center and Bex came to pick me up after I'd gotten my stuff, since she'd run home.
The expo was huge and exciting, kind of like the Boston Expo. I got my race bag and a cute t-shirt that I actually paid for. I picked up some Clif Bloks for free, which was awesome, since I'd bought like one at REI earlier in the week. But many more will carry me into the future. Yay for free nutrition! Anyway, the weirdest/funniest thing in my bag was this ghetto box of Mac 'n' Cheese. As if I'd want to carboload the night before and be totally unprepared - until I looked in my goodie bag!
Anyway, after Bex picked me up, we sorted through our bags and then went to a place called Souplantation for dinner with her husband and the girls. Zoe decided that she immediately liked me, and made me hold her hand everywhere, was hugging my arm at dinner and talking to me constantly. It was really funny. She's 5. Later on that evening while we stopped at the grocery store, she tells me that she really likes new people, because new people like her and are really nice to her. I asked what about the old people? And she said no, because old people have know her a long time and don't like her as much. Ha. Apparently new people like her because they don't realize what a little troublemaker she is! After we got home from dinner, she made me sit and watch Enchanted with her - until I had to go to bed.
We got up at 3:30, so we could go to Jackie's house before 4, where we met Jess who was driving us in. We got our names drawn on our arms and got all prepped to go.
The ride in was fine at first, but once we hit the exit where the parking lots were we just sat. Jess started freaking out at the end because her gas gauge was on empty and we were literally just idling, wasting gas. We didn't get to park until 5:45am. We ran/rushed to the shuttle buses, peeing quickly first in the portopotties by the line.
Then the shuttle buses took forever, so we didn't arrive at the start area until 6:15am, where we had to quickly check our bags at the gear check (they use UPS trucks to take them to the finish line) and get into our corale.
The spectators were crazy with all kinds of fun bands, cheerleaders dressed in costumes, like these guys in drag..
Bex ended up falling behind us at mile 9ish. She has an IT band injury and it started killing her. She ended up holding back to run with a couple of people from her triathlon club. So Jess, Jackie and I continued on.
We managed to get some blurry photos around mile 10.
Their friend Allie met up with us at mile 13 to run the second half. By mile 15/16 I told them to run ahead, since Jackie was going for a faster time today. I probably could have kept up if I'd really pushed myself and their support would have been key at the end, but...with ten more miles to go, it didn't seem smart. Allie's fresh legs we were pushing us harder than I had trained to go.
I did okay up until mile 20 where I hit my wall. Between 20-23 miles I jog/walked. I was feeling really nauseous from the water/drinks/shotbloks but also crazy thirsty. That's when my legs really started to ache. Just overall fatigue. My feet were totally free of blisters and stuff. Just a pounded soles. Oh and my calves/feet started getting cramps. That was awful. Running while your feet have a charlie horse and are contorting. Ugh. I also was having serious chafing on my left armpit. I'd used bodyglide and snagged petroleum several times at the mediical aid stations along the race to see if that would protect/lubricate. It didn't help, but after a while, I just kind of blocked out the pain. Once I hit the 23 mile point, I knew it was only a 5k left, so I mentally forced myself to run the rest. The last 0.5 miles was hell though - after we entered the MCRD. I knew it was so close, wanted to go faster, but even when I tried, I tired out so quickly. Because of my little walking/slowjog stint at the end, I lost a ton of time. I didn't make my goal of under 5 hours, let alone the 4:40 time I trained for. I came in at 5:09:13.
Approaching the finish line:
I'm happy that I finished, but a little disappointed with the fact that I gave up when I hit the wall. I thought I was mentally stronger than that, able to run through the pain. I guess the good thing is that I will be able to easily get a PR on my next marathon.
After the marathon it took us like 2 hours to get out of downtown since the onramps to the highway were blocked off and traffic was insane. We ate at Souplantation again after dropping Jackie home. I ended up changing in the restroom there, in spite of being yucky. I just needed out of those race clothes.
I ended up going to a hotel that night, which Bex dropped me off at. The Westgate Hotel. It was all posh with European staff. I was just grateful my room had a semi-bath tub. I collapsed in it!
My armpit took a lot of damage during the race. I stopped for vaseline multiple times from the aid booths. It made a small difference. I'd applied BodyGlide before the race, but it was brutal by mile 16 or so. I mean, you can see how its all pussy and swollen and bruised right where it was hitting the edge of my top. Ugh..
I forced myself to go out to dinner, but ate quickly and came home to my luxurious king bed which was soooo fluffy.
In the morning I ordered room service and lazed about as long as possible.
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