Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Philadelphia Marathon Recap!

This was just nuts.

My first marathon I ran in 5:44:56.

This marathon, I was hoping to sub-5, I was praying to hit 4:45...never in a million years did I expect to run what I did....

4:25:32!

I feel giddy, stupid, over the moon....I don't know...it was a perfect run.

The morning of the race I woke up at 4am. I hate waking up, even for things I'm excited about. I think I swore several times as I tried to hit the snooze button...I am really not a morning person...I would have killed for a mimosa. Tall boy had KT taped my knees the night before, and the people had taped my foot at the expo. And I wore the damn DEVIL brace (more on that later!) so I was locked and loaded.

I met up with Jenn (@purpleshoe and dailymile fame) and we headed to the start. It was freaking cold outside! I do not like to be cold. I was freezing my boobies off. I hate being fucking cold. I do not do well in the cold. I’m a crabby, crabby girl. I contemplated wearing pants, but Jenn kept saying “By 10:00 it will be 50!” When we were huddled up trying to keep warm pre-race, I was seriously doubting my sanity! I looked up and thought I recognized someone. I did a triple take and realized it was my sister! She totally surprised me. The night before I had talked to her and she said she had a brunch date with her friend the next morning so I really wasn’t expecting her. I mean brunch = mimosas, I’m no fool, I know my place! It was the best surprise and she did my hair for me!




Time seemed to move by slowly as we waited. After a last minute emergency pee stop (out by 7am on the dot!) Jenn and I grabbed hands and made our way to our corral. I knew she was way faster than I, but I thought I could maybe hold on for the first 6 or 13.1 miles. As we were waiting, a feeling of calm joy came over me. I started to smile. That smile hardly left my face for the next 26.2 miles. And then we were off!





Miles 1-6 passed by in a blur, seeing Tall Boy and Jocelyn was amazing! I wanted to skip and dance, I couldn’t believe how much fun I was having.

Mile 1 - 9:24
Mile 2 - 9:32
Mike 3 - 9:29
Mile 4 - 9:52
Mile 5 - 9:48
Mile 6 - 9:19
Mile 7 - 9:42



Initially, I was having a bit of a tough time adjusting to Jenn’s pace and dodging people in the crowd. It was like navigating Times Square at Christmas. Move people! By mile 8, I decided to let Jenn go and run my own race, I was wasting too much energy negotiating the crowds trying to keep up and I worked too hard to blow it now

Mile 8 - 10:08
Mile 9 - 9:46

At mile 10, the BRACE OF DOOM started to make its presence known. Yes, I had applied about a gallon of body glide and Vaseline, but part of the metal on the inside of brace started to cut into my leg. BAD. I knew I couldn’t keep going with this pain. I would ultimately be forced to stop. What to do? I could risk taking off my knee tape, but what if it didn’t stick? I looked down at my gloves and I totally MacGyvered that bitch up! I took the glove and put it around the stay of the brace, alleviating the pain! I felt like a damn genius. (If you look in the photos you can totally see the glove!)

Mile 10 - 10:20
Mile 11 - 9:48
Mile 12 - 9:47
Mile 13 - 9:55





I spotted Tall Boy and Jocelyn around the halfway mark. It was so much fun seeing them, I think I jumped around a little bit! I also passed Jenn around this point too, she told me she had been throwing up, I tried to run/walk with her for a bit, but I had to push on. I am so proud that she made it! Most people would have walked off the course at that point.

Mile 14 - 10:14
Mile 15 - 10:11
Mile 16 - 10:40
Mile 17 - 10:22
Mile 18 - 10:25








I saw my sister and tall boy around this point too, right before a big hill. They really helped me keep going. This stretch was particularly tough. On this course there are not one, but two points where you go out and back. This stretch was endless. I kept shouting “Where the F is the turnaround?” When I got there it was a little pole in the middle of the road. A pole. Seemed so anti-climatic, so I did a little dance to make it a bigger deal then it actually was.

Mile 19 - 10:08
Mile 20 - 10:40

I had a bit of a freak out at this point. I knew I was making really, really good time. I did some quick math in my head and realized I could finish in 4:23…I had to stop myself from thinking that way. My plan this whole marathon was mile by mile. Just run this mile; just make it one more mile.





Mile 21 - 10:20
Mile 22 - 10:23


At this point, I knew I was lying. Here is an actual conversation I had in my head…
Me – Just one Mile
Me 2 – Liar.
Me – no really, you can totally walk after this one mile…
Me 2 – Why are you lying to me…
Me – fine, I’m lying, but come on, just run one mile, you can do it…you can run one mile!
Me 2 – Fine, but you owe me…

Mile 23 - 10:14
Mile 24 - 10:17

At mile 24 I overheard a couple say, “Look at Jenna, she’s smiling!”

Mile 25 - 10:20

At 25.5 (Garmin mile), I became exhausted. Just tired. I wanted to go to sleep. And remember that brilliant glove-brace idea I had? Yeah, well, it pushed the brace out to a weird angle which left me with a giant painful blister on the inside of my foot. Oh, it hurt so bad. But I knew I had to keep moving….Keep moving….I couldn’t stop smiling….

Mile 26 - 10:24

This was it, I felt strong, I was picking people off, I was passing people, I saw the finish line! I couldn’t believe it….my face hurt from smiling….I just kept pushing. I raised my arms above my head and I crossed!

Mile .44 - 9:07





Total time 4:25:32

What the hell!!!! I was torn between wanting to cry, wanting to dance, wanting to lie down and take a nap, wanting to drink a beer….I saw tall boy and Jocelyn running over to me! I got my medal. I got a space blanket (I love those and they ran out at the San Diego Marathon, so this was my first one!) I felt like a rock star. I was so happy. I begged for help getting my brace off….my cut was bad, pretty nasty, but the blister was huge! I begged the medical tent people to pop it. They would not. I begged for ice for my knees. The guy handed me two ice packs and looked at me. I looked at him. He looked at me. Finally I asked for the plastic wrap stuff to put it on and someone came over to help. Then I made it back to the finishers area for a banana (heaven!) apple juice, a pretzel (oh yes!) and chicken broth (genius!) and my amazing crew had bought me a seltzer (better than vodka!)

Overall, my experience was amazing! The crowds yelling my name and tall boy and my sister being there was unbelievable. Words cannot describe (although I sure as hell used a lot of them here)

I feel like a rock star....





(photos are from jocelyn at http://highheelrunner.blogspot.com/)

6 comments:

  1. Congrats on a really awesome race. I love how you really enjoyed yourself the whole way and just got it done, knee and brace be damned! Just nice to see and hear a really happy story all around!

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  2. your amazing. i'm SOOOOO proud of you!!!! you rocked it and totally ran fabulous! i loved tall boys tweeting while you were running- i was oh so thankful! :) great great job & hopefully we can run a race together someday!!!! xoxoxoxo

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  3. I love the fact that you're pace stayed strong the entire time and that you had fun.

    Congratulations!!

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  4. Jenna - awesome effort!! Even the brace couldnt keep you down. You are a rock star :)

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  5. You're awesome sister!!! I love you. So glad I was able to be there to watch you rock the race!!

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