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The shirt was kind of a miss for me this year, I thought it looked like a basketball
and another friend thought it looked like a spider web. Now the medal...it totally delivers every year!
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The Jolly Mountain fire was particularly concerning. Even though it was west of the starting line AND we were running the opposite direction I was worried about the air quality come race day.
After running during some Orange air quality days this summer I knew exactly how horrible that would, be as well as dangerous and I don't even have asthma.
BUT morning of it was perfect running weather with clear skies!
Dennis and his wife Linda (it's Tradition!) drove up with me the night before so that we could get settled and be up bright and early because the race had a new improved earlier start time of 7:00am
(In past years there was an early start at 7:00 am for the runners who expected to finish in over 5 hours. The rest of the field started at 8:00 am.)
I think they changed it because it's been so hot on race day for the last several years. It's meant scrambling at the last minute in order to change the start time so that the runners can take advantage of cooler weather and be safer overall.
I like the change. 8:00am always felt strangely late to start a marathon.
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Can you see me? Nope? I'm right by the should of the 3rd dude in blue. I have a knack
on being able to miss photographs.
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Another change was a concerted effort to keep runners from parking at the starting line because...?
I dunno. They threatened to disqualify runners who did park there. I have no idea how they planned on enforcing that and based on the number of cars that morning a lot of runners felt the same.
We started at 8:00am sharp!
That 100 meter flip around will never stop cracking me up:)
I was also super excited to wear my One80light.com headlamp. It's awesome! 180 degrees of illumination and it makes me look like an angel:) Put and end to tunnel vision and feeling like you're going to trip over something.
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| That headlamp rocks! |
I knew better but I wore a long sleeved shirt over my tank top because it was a little chilly that morning. By two thirds of the way through the tunnel I was sweltering and that shirt GOT TO GO!
There's a 2nd drop bag pick up when you exit the tunnel so that runners can drop their head lamps and any other gear that they don't need anymore, so I had the chance to get rid of the offending shirt and my headlamp. The volunteer was awesome and packed my bag for me so I didn't lose time.
That's when I accidently turned off my Garmin...which I didn't realize until a couple of minutes later so I ran the rest of the race not knowing how far off my watch was from Gun Time. (I found out afterwards I lost 1:20).
Speaking of Garmins...I did manage to remember to charge mine for a change, BUT I forgot that Michaela had been pushing random buttons the week before and changed the display data. I don't know how to adjust that issue during a run without deleting the current run. So for the duration of the race, I didn't have access to my overall average or mileage. Go me!
This was a weird race for me.
I've been having trouble with my race nutrition and ended up only eating at mile 3 and mile 9. Normally I eat something every 3 miles, but I really just wasn't hungry at all. I worried that I was going to bonk hard in the latter miles, but I still really didn't want to eat...so I didn't.
I also forgot my salt tablets. I drank Gatorade at each water stop to make up for it. It worked out OK I think.
My hydropack is wearing out and I can't seem to get the straps balanced so that it doesn't chaff my shoulders or even better...bounce around and fall off one shoulder the ENTIRE race.
I think this was the cause of the extremely painful neck and shoulder muscle cramps I had around mile 8? I wasn't sure I could run an entire marathon with that going on, but they went away when I decided to ignore them. The story of every run ever:)
This course really is just gorgeous, so it was pretty easy to distract myself until the issue went away.
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| Bridges Catherine! We run over like three of them. |
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| It looks like this, for pretty much the entire race. |
It was the PERFECT day for running. 60 degrees, with a bit of sun peaking out...The air was just fine despite the odd pocket of smoke.
It makes me so mad at myself, that because I didn't train right I couldn't take advantage of the absolutely PERFECT racing conditions.
It really is infuriating to know that you ruined something because you didn't suck it up and get the work done.
I DID get an amazing race photo though, so that helps ease the sting a bit:)
I saw the race photographer coming up so I decided that since my time was in the tank I was going for the jump shot.
He missed it the first time.
So I jumped again and BAM!
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| Photo credit: gccphotography |
It's so perfect.
I'm looking right at the camera, I'm not sticking my tongue out or making a weird face or anything!
Pro tip: Keep your knees together and kick your feet out to the side. It's both slimming AND you don't look like your legs got cut off.
My friend Randy said "Awesome photo! Although that looks like a prelude to you falling on your face in spectacular fashion."
Because he knows me all too well. I didn't fall, but I did get a rock in my shoe:)
Dennis was awesome and got some finish line photos of me and fetched me little Dixie cups of Coco Cola? It wasn't gross, so I don't think it was Pepsi but I hardly ever drink soda pop and taste buds go all weird after marathons. It really could have been anything brown. Whatever it is, a little bit of cola does wonders after long runs. I have no idea why.
Linda was awesome (it's tradition!) carrying my stuff and doing all the driving for us.
They were BOTH awesome putting up with my wandering away multiple times because I saw someone I knew and because that's what happens after someone runs a marathon. You either sit down and discover you will never be able to stand back up again, or you end up wandering around like someone with short term memory loss.
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| My G.U.T.S Ragnar Ultra ladies! Shelly and Larissa! They both crushed the race! |
I really can't stress it enough. It sucks to run a marathon (or any race really) under prepared.
You miss opportunities to do your best which eats at you and everything is harder. You also end up sore for more days than you should be. And when you're bedroom is upstairs that adds up.
I couldn't pull a BQ this time, finishing in 3:41:30
It kind of cracks me up that next year that time would get be a BQ AND a cushion. Go birthdays!
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