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Thursday, January 22, 2015

The Marathon: The Wait, The Race & The Aftermath

The Work Week - The Wait

The week leading up to the marathon was pretty typical. I had work, and the daily routine with Ryan and the girls to keep me busy, and Mandi was back at work and keeping my mind and body occupied with easy lunch runs. Then Friday came. Friday was different because there were no more work days left before the Marathon. It was just Sat, then the race. There began the butterflies.

Saturday - The Day Before

Saturday was hectic, and anxiously frustrating. The girls had gymnastics, so I was going to take them to that to allow Ryan time to go mountain biking. I figured since I was already over on the 5 side, I would head up after to pick up my race bib. The expo was up at the start/finish off the 78 in Carlsbad, which was pretty far and a pain that I would be driving up there twice in one weekend. But hey, this is my big marathon, gotta do whatcha gotta do. So I head up with the girls after gymnastics and hit a stupid amount of traffic. Not due to anything in particular, just regular old weekend suck ass traffic. Getting off on the 78 I see that there is more, horrendous traffic waiting to get on the 5 south. I decide even though going back on the 15 is about 8 miles longer, it would probably save me time in traffic. Meanwhile I go in, get my race bib, shirt and jacket. The jacket was pretty freaking awesome, and I was very stoked about that. Nice touch that the bib had my name on it, and the chip was in the bib, instead of having to keep track of a separate one and put it on my shoe. I bought some energy blocs, and tried to get out of that tent of madness without trying to lose the girls in the process. In looking up the traffic on the way home, I see that there is a massive accident on the 15 south, so unfortunately the lesser of two evils is a crap-shoot. I choose the 5 and hope for the best. Finally, after 3 hours of traffic and crowd surfing just to get my freaking bib (remind me next time to just pay the $20 convenience fee if its that far away), I'm finally home. We get together the girls stuff, and get ready to take them over to Cheryl's. Meanwhile we are also waiting to get our new TV delivered (the old one decided to scream at us and display green lines of abhorrence every time we turned it on). They finally get it to us and once kid free, the preparations begin.

I had a big list of things to remember that I had been compiling over the week, including a change of clothes, after race pain meds, ice for my knee, etc. Organized, clothes and bags all set up, it's time for my last supper. Adam had been sweet enough to switch shifts to have Sunday off, and came right from his Saturday shift to our place. I made buffalo tacos, (what else???) and took a shower, and we all went to bed to try to get as much sleep as possible.

Sunday - The Race

After much discussion the night before, it was decided that the alarm should be set for 4am, and we should try to leave as soon as possible once we were ready. We left shortly after 5:15am and arrived at about 5:45am. Ryan and Adam got the bikes ready (they would be tracking me along the course by bike and keeping everyone digitally connected and updated). At about 6:00am we headed over to the start line. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but there were very few people compared to the half marathons I had run previously. I found out later there were just over 1,000 participants in the full marathon, compared to the over 6,500 participating in the half marathon. Needless to say it was not crowded, no need for organization into waves or corrals. So I hung back at the end and Adam and Ryan froze their nuts of waiting with me in the darkness before dawn until they released us, a good 10 min later than the scheduled start time of 6:15am.

I had decided to run with my belt pack, which worked out because I just attached the bib to it. But it was a little bulky with the energy blocs and my phone. Plus I had my throwaway long sleeve, short sleeve and gloves over it all, so I felt awkward, and probably looked it too. And predictably, less than a mile in, I had to stop and readjust everything; tighten the belt pack since it was bouncing up and down and pulling up my singlet, detach the bottom two pins, pull the singlet back up and pull the throw away clothes back down over it. Ugh, great start. Not too much longer the throw away clothes gone, I was into a groove. I had decided to only run with my cadence/metronome app, since I was afraid Strava would drain my battery and I figured it would be best if I didn't know my mile by mile pace to tempt my brain to push me faster than my body wanted to run by feel.

By the 4th mile I had started to feel my knee a little bit, so I knew I was in for a tough run, but I was feeling strong and my effort was easy so I tried to go as easy on my knee as possible. Miles 4-9 headed up Palomar Airport Road (PAR), the only significant hill of the run. I knew that I really need to conserve my energy on this leg, since it was still so early in the race. So I started eating a bloc per mile and just took it easy paying attention to my effort. Made it up and back down, finding a running buddy around mile 12 who noticed my metronome and asked what I had it set at. Turns out his pace matched mine really well and we tracked each other off and on the rest of the race. He was an older gentleman. He told me the Carlsbad was his first marathon about 3 years ago, and this was his third one, giving me encouragement that I seemed to be doing great for this being my first. By this time the marathon runners had really thinned out, and there were only a handful of people at any given time within a 15 foot radius. I had seen the front of the marathon pack (a group of young stud muffin men) headed back on PAR while I was still going up, some bit after them I saw the 4 hour pacer, and on my way back down I saw the last few stragglers struggling to stay in front of the cut off time. I knew I was staying some bit ahead of the 4:15 pacer, so I knew I was on track to finish between 4-4:15.

I was not prepared for the absolute chaos that was ahead of me as we merged for a few miles
with the half marathoners. On one hand it was nice to be around people again as the marathon course had become quite lonely the more spaced out we all got, but it was unsettling to be suddenly surrounded and difficult to maintain my pace weaving between them all. Then practically as soon as it started it was over and us marathoners continued down our desolate road of more miles while the masses of halfers turned around to head back. The very bottom was mile 18 and that's where the real effort began. Luckily I had friends and family all along the course cheering me on (Thank you Mandi, Dustyn and Rubins!). I got to 20 and I thought, "Ok, I've trained up to this many miles, you need to figure out how to get through these last 6 miles". I was already in quite a bit of pain; my feet, my
knee, my everything ached and just wanted to dive into a big hot tub for the rest of eternity... but no, I had to just. keep. running. The last 6 miles I used every mental trick I had to keep myself going, talking myself into doable chunks of distance. "Ok, just get to 22 miles, then you only have one campus loop left. You have done that loop a million times with Mandi, you can do one more with your hands tied behind your back!" "Ok now you are at 25 miles. Just ONE more mile to get through!" "Ok you made it to 26. Just .2 left." "Just around the bend is the finish line, you got this!" All along the way, I got more and more emotional as the pain and my effort increased, and the closer I got to the finish. There were a few signs that I saw along the way that in any other circumstance, would have been laughably cheesy. But being completely physically and emotionally drained out there just trying to get through those last miles with no other option, these signs just choked me up. "When your legs can't run anymore, run with your heart". GAH, just typing those words bring tears to my eyes. By the time I
crossed the finish line I was an emotional basket case, tears of sheer joy running down my face. I crossed at about 4:07 so I knew I had not met my stretch goal of under 4 hours, but at that point, I was so happy to finish with a decent time there was no room for disappointment. I knew I had given it my all and wasn't capable on that day of any more. I limped to retrieve my finishers medal andgoodie bag, and saw Meg screaming at me. I ran into her arms and just sobbed uncontrollably. We met back up with Ryan and Adam and spend the next hour trying to get out of the mall parking lot.

Eventually we made it to the Bressi Ranch Pizza Port to celebrate with friends and family and let me tell you that pizza never tasted so good. It was a gorgeous day and I had done my work for the day so time had come to relax and bask in the San Diego sun.

The Days Following - The Aftermath

The next day I was in serious pain. My left knee and right ankle were totally miserable, so between the two I was hobbling like a 90 year old woman. Luckily it was a holiday otherwise I would have had to call out sick. I rested, my mom brought the girls back and I prepared to get through the next day. I had an appointment with my massage therapist and I didn't think there was much that he would be able to do, since my knee was not muscular, and neither was my ankle from what I could tell. In fact I was afraid I might even have a stress fracture. But I went in and as always, he blew me out of the water, coercing all my muscles and connective tissues back into alignment. I was amazed when after the massage was over, I stood up and felt absolutely no pain bearing weight on my knee or ankle. Luckily no lasting damage done, just some really pissed off and inflamed tendons. As this has been an emerging injury that has just gotten worse with the higher mileage I asked his professional advise on the cause. If you go online to sort out the causes of "runner's knee" you get a million guesses and nothing definite, as body mechanics are very complex and generalities only get you so far. My best guess was perhaps under developed glutes (it seems to be a common cause for many people). I was surprised when he told me that no, actually all of my lower body muscles (glutes, hammies, quads, etc) were all extremely well developed and plenty strong. However, the weakness in my body is my short torso, and my swayback (hyperextended lumbar spine), which prevents the repetitive force of  running to be adequately distributed all the way up my back and spine. Instead, it stays in the lower back, and my hips tend to come out of alignment very easily, which of course leads to all kinds of other issues, which I had experienced over the last year. He suggested that just a little bit more core work to build those deep abdominal muscles and lower back muscles would be able to support and distribute the force of those extended miles better than they were now. And like a sign from above, RunnersWorld posted this article: Fast Abs It listed some great exercises to build the core, as well as injuries that can occur when you don't: "Without a stable core, you can't control the movement of your torso as well, and you risk putting excess force on your joints each time your foot lands. This can lead to pain under the knee (known as "runner's knee"), patellar tendinitis (a sharp pain in the bottom of the knee), and iliotibial-band tendinitis." Well I think I have my answer, or at least a very good place to start!

So while I'm not planning or signing up for my next full marathon yet, I know that is where I am headed, since breaking that 4 hour mark is the next obvious goal to set. There is much to do before then though. First and most importantly is to give some time back to my family who has been so patiently giving of themselves so I could take more for this accomplishment. Ryan needs to get back to regular mountain biking, and the girls need some mommy snuggles. Next is to ease back into running without injury, taking heed of what my body tells me and incorporating more core work. I have the other two half marathons this year in April and August to complete out the Triple Crown. Maybe in a few years I can convince Ryan and the girls to let me train for another full. :)