Dallas White Rock

So I slacked off the past couple of weeks on the blog, but taper weeks aren't all that exciting anyway.

The marathon FINALLY arrived on Sunday. Hava and made the trip up to Dallas on Saturday in a caravan with Thon, Venus, Amy and her husband Perry, Carrie and her fiance Shawn, and Richard and his wife Stephanie.

We headed to the expo right when we got there and got our packets, etc. I bought a new gel belt to hold the plethora of nutrition I needed for the race. They say not to try anything new before a big race, but I felt pretty safe with the belt. Hava also bought some stuff, and we even got some free Clif Shot block flavors, Margerita and Pina Colada!! I thought they tasted pretty good (from the free samples), and they had extra caffeine and sodium in them.

I was feeling pretty good about the race. My legs felt good, I was in good spirits, and my running buds (Thon, Venus, and Amy) were all feeling positive that we were going to all have a good race. The goal was 3:30. I felt this was reachable, but only if everything was perfect. Otherwise, I knew I'd be happy with a PR, which would be anything faster than a 3:44 marathon.

We had a nice (but slightly cold) dinner at MoMo's on Saturday night. We only could get the patio tables, but they were somewhat heated by gas heaters. Richard was nice enough to let me use his jacket even though all he had was a short sleeved shirt. What a guy!

Race morning was cold, but also slightly humid. This wasn't the greatest sign for me, because even when it is pretty cold, the humidity seems to effect my ability to regulate my temperature. Thon was completely in the zone since we drove up, but as we were walking to the race he loosened up a little bit and cracked a smile or two. We did our last minute prep in the port-o-pottie's, and it was about time to start!! Richard, Stephanie, and my lovely Hava had plans to see us in 5-6 different areas and cheer us on.

We started with the 3:30 pace group. I felt really good, but I told myself I would fall back as soon as I felt like I should slow down. Well, that didn't take too long. After 3 miles, I decided that if I was going to make it, I would have to take the pace to an 8:15-8:30 average. So I slowly lost sight of Amy, Venus, Carrie, and Thon. It didn't bother me, because I wanted to run my own race.

The miles went pretty quickly at first, I definitely felt the humidity, but I got water at every water stop and continued to eat nutrition every 3-4 miles. Our cheering squad was excellent and reliable, they were there to cheer me about every 4 miles. It was so great to see Hava's smiling face...it kept me strong. Around mile 13 I ended up passing up Venus. She looked like she was struggling (which it turns out she was, I'll explain later). I said a quick hello, and kept going. By mile 15, a few little doubts starting creeping into my mind. I was slowing down a bit, reading 8:30-8:40 minute miles on my watch. I wasn't feeling horrible, but also not feeling strong. I told myself to stay strong and not stop, and most importantly not be a big wimp. The biggest mental game that kept me going was continuously telling myself that all of the months of training led up to this race, and it would all be for naught if I didn't actually use the strength from this training to make it throught the race. I kept on trucking....

Mile 20-21 was interesting because it was a series of small inclines and hills. I was worried they would sap my strength, but they actually did the opposite. It was very refreshing to use the different muscles necessary to climb inclines vs. the ones I was using on the flat White Rock Lake area. In fact, I felt a surge of strength and was able to pass a good amount of people. This was a first for me..to find energy reserves in the second half of a marathon. Once the course flattened out, I started to mentally map out the rest of the race. I couldn't believe I had only 5 miles to go..but knew from experience that they would be a LONG 5 miles.

What made things crappy was the half-marathon joined back into the race around mile 21. They started an hour after the marathon, so the people that were running when I met up with them were the slower ones, and in fact many of them were walking. What made this an issue is that many of these people had no freaking clue about race courtesy and were walking on the left hand side of the street instead of keeping the left side for the faster runners. I was already on the verge of having calf cramps, so having to avoid these people only made things worse. One wrong move and I would have been on the ground. Luckily, I only had a few near collisions and made it through unscathed. I also almost ran into an EMS vehicle that a police officer decided to let through. It didn't have its emergency lights on, so I got slightly annoyed. However, a man right in front of me got much more than slightly annoyed and screamed "No, no, no!!!" at the officer, and whaddya know the officers stopped the EMS vehicle and let us pass. I was relieved not to have to stop, but pretty surprised.

Around mile 24, the 3:40 pace group caught up to me. I was starting to feel pretty crappy by this point. However, I decided that I was going to stick with the 3:40 pace group as much as I could. I knew a Personal Record was on the line if I slowed down much more. So I stuck with them, and dug really deep to keep moving. This was my 5th marathon, and the first time I was truly mentally strong enough to push myself beyond what my body thought it could do. It is hard to describe with words though, but it was a big mental barrier that I was able to overcome.
At mile 25, which actually was mis-marked, I somehow got the strength to speed up. I passed the 3:40 pacers and never looked back. I was determined to stay strong for the remainder of the race and finish with a sub 3:40 race time.

The last 1+ miles were ridiculously long. I kept on expecting the finish line to show up in the horizon, but it just never seemed to appear. FINALLY, I got to the 26 mile marker. I was feeling like crap, but the thought of it finally being over kept me going strong. I suddenly came upon Thon right then. It was surprising because I thought he would have finished by then, but I said "Thon, let's finish strong". That was enough for him to pick up the pace with me. He cracked a joke with about 1/10th of a mile to go with "You wanna hold hands?". I just laughed and smiled, and was really happy I was finishing the journey with such a good friend. We crossed the finish line, and gave each other a big hug before we got our medals and finisher's shirts.

Final time, 3:39:26....a 5-minute PR for me. Along with just being ecstatic with finishing, I felt like I ran a great race overall. It was the first marathon that I was truly able to stay in the zone and stay mentally strong. Everyone feels like shit at some point in a marathon, but being able to keep moving even when you do is what separates a well-run marathon from a not so well-run marathon.

As for everyone else:

Amy: ran a 3:28 and looked like she did an easy 5k
Carrie: 3:29 (PR by 6 minutes!!!!) and ready to go for a 3:20
Thon: 3:39..an official PR (had an unofficial PR of 3:37 at Freescale). He bonked towards the end, but I am still really proud of him for having such a great time. If I had bonked, I would not have gotten even close to a 3:39. It was an honor finishing the race with him, and I won't ever forget it.
Venus: 3:45:42- she qualified for the second time for Boston by 17 seconds. It turns out she had foot problems and was running in pain for about 20 miles of the race...yet she still was able to qualify. She is a BAD ASS in my book. Very impressive.
Shawn: Shawn ran a 1:59 half-marathon, congrats!!

Stephanie, Richard, Hava, Perry, my mom, dad, sister, and Kyle: Thank you so much for your support on the run..it meant a great deal to me! I love all of you!!

What's next?? I dunno, but I'm relaxing for a little bit before I even think about it!