Ok. Second marathon ever. I was all set for a “flat” course and was dismayed to find that it wasn’t FLAT. Also, it was mostly in gravel. The course description read as follows:
60′ elevation gain
64% crushed rock
36% asphalt
So 60 feet elevation sounds flat, right?? Oh, well. I have no idea how they arrived at that measurement. But, setting that aside, on to the run details (and I’m writing this very much after the fact, so I’m relying on my memory). I got tired right away. Also, I spent a lot of time resenting the reported elevation gain. And, I happen to be one of those runners where the “mental” game is about as important as the physical training. Not being in a good mind-set was no bueno.
The worst thing about this event was that it shared a course with the half-marathon. The marathon was basically 2 loops and at the half-way point, I didn’t see any markers forking the marathoners away from the finish line, so I accidentally crossed. Then, I had to spend a few minutes straightening it out with one of the volunteers (she had to get my race number to back out my results) and then I had to figure out where I was suppose to resume the loop. I was pretty irritated by this, especially since I’d had a rough first half to begin with! I could have happily stopped running right then and there and having my momentum stopped was just terrible. I already did the loop, too, and knew everything I was not looking forward to…
I had to stop and do some walk/jogging pretty late in the race (not sure when), but I was thinking that all of my optimism about doing a sub-4 mile marathon evaporated. I wanted to just walk that final mile and didn’t even care if I just walked across the finish line, but near the end, there were my babies cheering me on with Tom! I knew I had to shuffle across the finish line–I couldn’t have them see me “give up” so close to finishing, so I rallied and dragged my feet across.
Boy was I surprised when they gave me a medal for finishing 2nd in my age group! As it turns out, this was another one of those small races–only 9 gals in my age group to “compete” with, but hey, after all of that spleen and suffering, I’ll take the extra medal!
Stats:
Overall: 27/74 (36.4%)
Age: 2/9 (22%)
Time: 4:05:41
Pace: 9:23