After running the 2010 Tulsa Run, I decided now was as good a time as any to run a half marathon. The Tulsa Run is 9.3 miles and a half marathon is 13.1. It's only 4 miles more, and if you can do 9, you can do 13. I also was banking on the fact that I could very well get burnt out on running and training and I needed to take advantage of the momentum. See, I have a history with running and marathons...
My last semester in college I actually decided to train for the Oklahoma City Memorial MARATHON, yes full marathon (26.2 miles). As an education major at OU, my last semester was full with a teaching internship, and a graduate class. I was also the coordinator for the Norman area Perspectives on the World Christian Movement class, as well as in leadership with my church, AND dating the boy who would later become my husband (and later become my ex-husband but that's a whooooooole 'nuther blog post!), SO it goes without saying I was pretty busy that semester. Suffice to say I bit off more than I could chew and had a bit of a nervous breakdown in the middle of my second 10 mile run, and didn't engage in ANY form of exercise for about 6 months after that! Since then I've secretly wanted to redeem myself, so I'm trying to do it the right way, slowly building up to that Mt. Everest of goals, the marathon. One day we'll get there!
Here's my journey on November 21st. After RUNNING to make it to the starting line on time, here I am, totally feeling like a fish out of water. The marathon crowd is TOTALLY different from the Tulsa Run crowd. It's hard to describe, but if you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. Feeling a little nervous...here we go!
And a few miles down the road, it was time to start in on my run mix. I needed it earlier in the game than I needed it for the Tulsa Run.
That was at about 3 miles. A lot transpired between this and the next picture. Like 7 miles. I had several mind warps (or mind fucks if you wanna know what was REALLY being said in my head) during this race, and I psyched myself out a lot. I was nervous about chaffing (never chaffed in my life until I ran 10.5 miles in training, so I knew I would in the race), about using gu for the first time (which you're not supposed to do), about taking my time to stop and stretch, about the weather (it was warmer and muggier than expected and not the most comfortable weather for long distance runs). But the first real one was hitting the 15k marker and seeing the time. The Tulsa Run was a 15k and I ran it in 1:35 this year, and by the time I made it to that mark, I was about 10 min behind my time. Little discouraging, but I ate my gu, downed some water and kept going.
That picture was on Riverside, which is always a refreshing view. That means, though, that I was already past 10 miles. Mind fuck #2 happened right around the 10 mile mark when the route came back to the east side of the river and turned onto Riverside. I saw a man on the ground receiving cpr from another race participant. The terrible tragedy is that this 27 year old man, in incredible physical health, passed away. It was a freak thing apparently, an unforseen heart condition and he died from cardiac arrest. It was certainly jarring to see that as I ran by, and I felt panicked, not knowing quite what to do. I heard someone on the phone calling for help, and saw an official race volunteer assure another runner that an ambulence was on its way, so I just kept going, and said a little prayer for the man in peril.
Thankfully, I knew encouragement was down the road. The furthest I had run in training, and in my life was 10.5 miles, so I asked my brother to meet me on the route at that point. My brother, the best big brother in all of history, rode his bike, with folding chair in tow, and raced along, meeting me at several different points on the route. It meant so much to see him, my Marc, and others I hadn't expected, to cheer me on. About the time I saw Jesse, I had Def Leppard on the run mix, got a hug, a drink, dropped my long sleeved shirt, got a hug, belted out some lyrics and got on my way. I was definitely feeling the longevity of the race at this point.
Yeah, that face is partially because I was attempting to get a picture of myself while running, and also because I was just wanting to get to the finish line. Not completely out of juice though. And here comes mind fuck #3: seeing all those people pass you on the other side of the road, knowing they're that much closer to the finish line than you are. I think it's pretty fitting that the picture is warbled because at that point, that's how you're feeling for sure. Come mind fuck #4: seeing the 17 mile marker for the MARATHON participants.
Several miles back, the marathoners split from the half marathoners and we were running on our own. At this point in the race they've joined back up with us, or will soon. Even though I KNOW I'm not at 17 miles, I'm still thinking, "Shit! Where the hell am I? And where is the goddamn turn around?!!" You start looking around you and making sure there are others with red bibs on (showing you're a half-marathoner), so you know you're still on the right track!
Thankfully this was just a couple of minutes before I reached the turn around. "Ok, I can do it," I'm thinking, "just about a couple of miles left. I can do this." About this point in the race I saw my dear friend Brandi on the other side of the road, about to reach the turnaround herself. We hugged and cheered each other on, and I felt energized. At least enough to keep going to the end. I stopped for a quick stretch and got on my way.
Mind fuck #5, I hear sirens wooping, see motercycles go by, then a bicyclist with a flag ESCORTING the guy in the lead for the MARATHON. Yeah, I still have at least a mile and a half to go to finish the 13.1 miles, and he's sprinting past me about to finish 26.2 miles. Seriously?
At this point I just want to FINISH, and I pass a sign that says, ".2 miles to go - how's that detour feel now?" And I thought, "DAMN GOOD!! I can do 2/10 of a mile! Shortly thereafter I came to "Hard" by Rhianna on my iPod, saw Marc for the last time before the finish line, kicked it into gear, and sprinted across the finish line, singing, "I want it all!"
It felt good to finish. It felt good to get my medal and know that I did it. I did it because I can. I was a little discouraged with my time and discouraged that I was so nervous and ended up not performing as well as I could have just because my brain was in the wrong mindset, but I finished. I finished! And not being satisfied just means I go for more. I'm hoping to run the half marathon in the OKC Memorial Run in May of 2011, the one in which I intended to run the full marathon back in 2004. Maybe one day I will, but for now I'll just focus on perfecting the half, and staying motivated in general. Haven't done much (or any) exercise since the run, so I'll have to start by getting back on the band wagon!
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