Rocked and Rolled Over

The race is over but I'm so disappointed in my finish time that I've been unable to bring myself to write about it. I'm also embarassed by it, but that's my ego and I'll get over it. My goal, which I thought was conservative, was 5:40. I was off by almost an hour! The stats:

Chip Time 6:36:31
Age Grade 42.5%
Pace 15:08
10K 1:22:13
Half 3:06:23
21 Mi 5:14:31

That is my second slowest marathon. Only Grandma's was worse and at least I could blame that day on the 98% humidity and sitting down to ice my knee. I have no idea why I performed so poorly this time. I trained, carbo loaded, rested, hydrated. Maybe I need to strength train.

The race started at Balboa Park and I arrived at 5:30 after choking down half a bagel with peanut butter. I wore my water belt and packed 6 gels. Eight women from my running group were also racing, but I stood in the portapotty line until about 6:20 and didn't see them when I went to line up.

The race started about 10 minutes late, but soon I crossed the starting line and started to run. I set my watch for 1 minute walks every 4:30 minutes. I was careful to not start too fast and hydrated often. Around mile 4, three of my team mates caught up to me and I took a walking break with them. Then they were off and told me the others were behind me. I figured they'd catch me, but I never saw them until after the race.

My sister Deni was race-walking her second RnR SD, and told me that the portapotty lines would shorten at mile 8. They didn't, and I kept going until I spotted some about a mile later that had no line. I was out within a minute. Unfortunately, that was not the case at mile 13, where I waited in line for over 5 minutes. I looked for some bushes, but there was nowhere to hide. That was my last portapotty stop,though.

The race was most fun at the beginning, when we ran through the park. There were lots of bands and crowd support. The best were the Team in Training cheerleaders in drag. They were guys who were not trying to hide the fact, wearing wigs, skirts and falsies--they were hilarious! There were also plenty of Elvis's running.

The bands were good, too. There weren't any on the freeway, which was too bad because we were on the highway for several miles. I thought it would be cool to run on a freeway, but it really wasn't. The road was heavily slanted and I tried to keep to the flat part. It was also a little hilly and more than a little hot.

Hot was the theme for the day. Although SD claims the temperature was 70F, it seemed much hotter to me. Some people talked about the humidity, but compared to Minneapolis there wasn't any.

Shortly before the weekend, my brother-in-law, Deni's husband, learned he has prostate cancer. He will have surgery in a few weeks and hopefully he can recover and that will be the end of it. I dedicated my race to him, since he will have his own "marathon" to deal with. My dad is cancer-free and so is Bev, the woman I dedicated my Big Sur race to. I may not have told you about her. She had a double-masectomy and when I saw her a few weeks ago in Minneapolis she looked fabulous. She's a runner and attributes her rapid recovery to that.

SD was there and was able to cheer for me at a couple of mileposts and the finish line. When I saw him at mile 7, I was feeling so alone that I stopped and gave him a big kiss in gratitude. It's really nice that he supports me in my running and I appreciate all he does in that respect.

At mile 13, SD gave me a Lara bar and a gel that I had packed. I wasn't hungry but ate the bar anyway. I'm not sure how many gels I ate, but there were lots. About 7, but maybe more. You'd think I'd be Speedy Gonzales with all that glucose. My left knee was starting to hurt just a little bit, so I took 2 8-hr Tylenols in order to be pro-active.

But my strength was zapped. I could walk, but not run. I reset my run/walk breaks to 3:1, then I changed it to walk/run. And I sauntered. I didn't even think about walking fast until a woman speedwalker went past. I started to swing my arms and tried to match her pace, but she was quickly out of sight and there were no other rabbits. I knew I was off my 5:40 pace, but I didn't realize how slow I was until I got to mile 20. "Oh, crap!" I said out loud, "I'm going to be over six hours." A woman looked at me like, "You're just figuring that out now?"

I spoke to some women along the way. I told one woman, Carmen, about my blog so maybe she'll stop here for a visit. (If you're reading this, Hi Carmen!) Another woman had just lost her mother, and was running with a herniated disc. She was in pain, but she was running in honor of her mother. I was wearing a bunch of elastic bracelets that I had picked up from the Nike marathon expo that had various "strength" words printed on them. I gave her the one that said "Heart" because I told her that's what she has.

As I passed other women, I'd hand out bracelets to help inspire them. But I kept the one that said "pride" for myself. Even though I was so off my goal, I knew I would finish and finish within the time limit and I was proud of that. I needed my own motivation and dedicated various miles to people that were going through some sort of adversity. I even dedicated a mile to Hillary Clinton! Now there's a woman who doesn't give up. :-)

At mile 23, I saw blogger Irene. She was volunteering at the San Diego Track Club station. She called out my name and I started babbling about being so far off my goal. She gave me a big hug and it was just what I needed--thanks Irene! I dedicated my next mile to her. She just had surgery for a hip fracture and is getting around with a walker. Talk about inspiring!

Even with 5K to go, I couldn't run. I wasn't hurt, I was just out of gas. So I kept walking. At least I was moving forward. "It only hurts when I run," I remember telling somebody.

Finally we were on the marine base. I looked forward but couldn't see the finish line. "Through that building," a TNT coach told me. I forced myself to run. As I started to walk again another TNT coach blared through the bullhorn, "Only 200 yards to go." Before he even finished I started running again. Finally I could see the finish line, then I saw SD. I started towards him and he shouted for me to go to the left side. So I did and raised my arms and howled as I crossed the final mat. I later asked why he wanted me to go to the left and he said it was so he could get the clock in when I crossed the finish line. He's an experienced race photographer! :-)

Deni and her friend L. crossed 10 minutes later, but unfortunately I didn't get to see them as they crossed. We got together shortly after, however. I also saw my teammates, all but two had finished before me. They did great--two finished under 5 hours and one finished in 5:15. Not bad for a first marathon.