"A marathoner is a marathoner regardless of time. Virtually everyone who tries the marathon has put in training over months, and it is that exercise and that commitment, physical and mental, that gives meaning to the medal, not just the day’s effort, be it fast or slow. It's all in conquering the challenge." --Mary R. Wittenberg, president of NY Road Runners Club
I found these two quotes online while searching for inspiration on starting this particular blog. Like many of my own life decisions, I really couldn't pick just one! These two quotes say a lot about what the marathon meant to me. After training and experiencing my first 26.2 this weekend, I can definitely relate to both.
A marathon is absolutely dramatic. From the first day of training to crossing the finish line. You put a lot of hard work into one race. Months of sweat, blood, and tears. Motivation, frustration, and plenty of satisfaction along the way. All of that is quite dramatic. Enough said.
A marathon is competitive. I am a competitive person. There are many different types of runners. People running at various paces and levels of experience. Everyone wants to finish. Some people want to win, some want to PR, and some just want to survive. During the first half, the marathoners ran amongst the half-marathoners. There were half-marathoners zooming by me as I was trying to pace myself for the first half. It took a lot for me to resist keeping up with them. I had to keep reminding myself not to speed up, keep my pace. Or else I'll be hurting during the last half. The marathoners were far and few in between among the sea of half-marathoners so pacing myself at the beginning with other marathoners was quite a challenge. I wanted to look better and faster than some of the runners around me, but I had to remember that we weren't at the same level. I was going double the distance, don't push it. I think during this race, I was mostly competing with myself. Fighting the urge to speed up, but pushing myself so I could finish.
A marathon has camaraderie. Throughout the race, I would occasionally be running along side another person going a similar pace. I had a couple conversations during the run. The first conversation was about the weather. We had such great weather, but it was windy. And then the view. Such beautiful views of the ocean. It was breath-taking. It was cool to share that with others runners. During miles 14-17, I paced with another runner who was in the same boat as me. It was her first marathon and her training only brought her to a maximum of 22 miles as well. She had done some triathlons before so we discussed that for a while. We talked a lot but we never shared each others name. That's okay, it helped keep my mind off the pain. I ended up going ahead of her because she had to stop at a water station. "Can't stop. Won't stop." When the course would come back around I would see my new friend running the opposite way and we high-fived each time. It was pretty awesome to have that extra support along the way.
A look at my goals for the race:
- Finish the entire thing --- check
- Run the entire 26.2 miles --- check
- Complete it in 4 hours and 30 minutes --- Ehhh... close enough.
The hills were my enemy. The course was much more hilly than I expected. Who knew that an island would be so hilly! When the race went into the second half into Middletown, it was brutal. The hills really slowed me down. Brought me to an 11-12 minute pace. The downhills were nice as I was able to stride and buy some time. If there weren't any hills, I think 4:30 would have been much more possible.
I did have to stop, just once. I stopped at a water station to refill two water bottles. Other than that, I kept on going. I grabbed sips of water at most of the water stations and a banana at ~mile 16. The banana was an awesome idea! I was a little leery of having a banana during my run as my training did not include bananas mid-run. The added potassium was just what I needed at that moment and I really felt the positive effects of the nutrients from the banana. It was a pleasant surprise.
Marathon Tips:
- Lay out all your race stuff the night before. Make sure your GPS watch and iPod is fully charged. (AND don't forget your sneakers the morning of! Haha, I almost did!)
- If you're used to carrying hydration with you, do it. I carried my fuelbelt with 4 8-ounce bottles. Three bottles had water mixed with Accelerade in it, and one bottle for plain water. I also grabbed water and gatorade at stations along the way.
- Pace yourself in the beginning. It's easy to get caught up in the adrenaline and excitement from other runners around you. If you don't pace yourself in the beginning, you will be hurting in the end.
- Don't push yourself during the taper down weeks. The taper down is important. It may make you feel like you should be doing more, but don't push it. My taper down consisted of short easy runs. The shorter runs tempted me to run faster. I ran faster, and developed a shin splint on my left leg a week prior to the marathon. The three days prior to the race, I did not run. My shin started to heal but I was still worried. I didn't feel it much throughout the race, but I am definitely paying for it now.
If I ever do another marathon again, I am happy to have a time to try to beat now. I am very competitive with myself and my goal would be to shave a considerable amount of time off my first race. I ran 26.2. I know I can do it. Just have to fine-tune some things. I'm still not 100% sure that I want to run another marathon... It's a lot of work.
This'll keep me motivated to train. Did you get to keep the aluminum looking space blanket?
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