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Big Sur here I come
I finally decided to make an attempt at the marathon. My roommate and I signed up for the 2005 Nike Women’s Marathon in California.
Starting out I really had no idea how to train for a marathon. I have done tons of 5K and 10K races, but I usually never trained from them just ran them and did well. So I picked a plan off the Internet and decided to give it a try. As a nurse it is really hard to stick to a training schedule that is made for people who work 9-5 jobs. So I had to tweak some of it and give it a go. I believe my longest run for the prep was 16 miles about 3 weeks out. I learned right away this was not enough at all. I believe my first problem was my regular runs were too short 3-5miles and then a weekend long run. My second problem was our summer heat. 90 degrees plus days and that I worked the 3-11p.m. shift so early morning runs were out. I had never thought about nutritional changes for races as well.
So to California we went, I also brought two other friends who would be our cheering section. We left four days before the race to do some sight seeing. Also not a good idea since we walked all around San Fransisco rarely taking transportation. Race day approached and my feet we tired and I was tired. I woke up at 4 a.m , luckily our hotel was right on the start line. The a.m. routine was initiated, eat, bathroom, decide what to wear, layers etc. Finally we went outside to the 20,000 other runners WOW. A dark sea of excited runners, eager fearful and 95% women. I have never been around that many women in my life. The starting gun went off it took me 15 minutes to get to the starting line but I approached it with delight. Weaving through the many walker/runners at the start taking in my surroundings. A nice trail through the city and down to the wharf. Surprisingly not too many hills. I believe the first hill was around mile 10 and it was an ascend to golden gate park. Excited to see the Golden gate bridge I rushed up the hill only to see fog and overcast. Big downer. At this point a made an observation at the number of runners who were participating in Team and Training. I realized that a large majority of the people running were doing this charity event. I then felt slightly isolated because I was not wearing the esteemed purple jersey. Oh well I needed to get over it. I then in passing noticed the first place runner coming down the stretch. How sad to know I was not even close to the end. Pushing on my calves and shins began to cramp and ache and I could feel little pebbles in my shoes that were like razor blades to my feet. i believe this was mile 16. I was hitting the wall. Although the coarse had a lot of entertainment. Chocolate, cookies, a sock changing station, even a place you could call people and report how you were doing in the race. All of this was not enough to deter me from the pain and fatigue I was experiencing. I pushed on, a slow crawl walk looking stride and watching the knots in my calves get bigger and hurt more. Finally a mile marker in sight i realized i was close to the finish and picked up me stride. yes I saw it the finish. a huge orange banner with a large cheering crowd and yes firemen in tuxes with the little blue boxes with white bows. The box every women knows Tiffany’s and Co. It was our “finishers medal” A one of a kind necklace you could only get for running this race. At last I could stop and get off my feet and relinquish in the fact that yes despite the complete unpreparedness I have finished the marathon. I was now that 1% that toed the line and crossed it finishing in 4:33:56 1183 place overall, 156 for my age group.
Would I do it again yes would I train better yes. Was I hooked of course. I was now a Marathoner!
