***WARNING*** THIS IS REALLY LONG.....SORRY
WHAT HAPPENED TODAY WAS NOTHING SHORT OF A MIRACLE!!!!
I don't even know where to begin with my race report. Three days ago there was no way in the world I was going to be able to run a marathon today. I couldn't even run a mile without stopping on Thursday due to a strain (or something) in my lower right calf muscle. That was the day I mentally turned off all hope of running this race. I didn't follow my normal race preparation routine with extra carbs, extra hydration and extra mental preparation three days before. In short, I was mentally out of the game. I still held on to some stubborn hope that I was going to go out there and walk the marathon just so I could collect my finishers medal but I was even having doubts about wanting to do that. My spirit and my motivation had gone down the drain and I had slowly come to the realization that it wasn't going to happen.
Friday at work I was still going back and forth about what I was going to do but was basically telling everyone that I would not be running.
Saturday morning, same story, not running. I was still considering being a stubborn mule and going out and walk the thing. By Saturday morning, Megan had decided that she wanted to go out and run "the dang thing" even though she had not wanted to do it up this point. I had a feeling she would jump in at the last minute because that is just how she is, doesn't want to be left out of any opportunity to thrash her body. So on Saturday I kinda started to get into the racing mind set and started hydrating and eating additional carbs, topped of with our traditional pasta dinner the night before the race. I was gonna do the thing, walk or run, I was going to finish.
Sunday morning, 3:30 am we are laying in bed contemplating wether or not to just stay in bed or get up and get er done. Meg shared a dream she had with me just before we got up, I had a good chuckle. We were on our way to the marathon when she realized she had forgotten her shoes. She asked me to call my mom, who lives in St. George, and have her bring her shoes to her. We got to the race and the only shoes she could find was a pair of firemans boots. So she was running through Veyo.....yes Veyo, not even the Las Vegas marathon, in firemans boots and really getting frustrated. That was the end of the dream. With that on our minds we got up and got going.
Already a book and I haven't even started the race report yet.....sorry.
My essential gear for the race was to carry the car key and the cell phone. The kids would be staying home so I would have my cell phone in case of emergency. Since I was sorta planning to drop out of the race around mile 2 or 3 I had the car key and a detailed map of the race course so I could calculate where Meg would be and get out and support her.
On to the race report.....finally. Our arrival at the race didn't start off too well. We were following the parking directions for the race and it turned out the roads to the lots where we were instructed to park were already closed at 4:30 a.m. an hour and a half before the race was supposed to start. A little frustrating, but manageable. We were able to park at the New York New York and walk across the street to the Excalibur and take the tram to Mandalay Bay. It's really different getting ready for a race inside a building where it is nice and warm and you have nice bathrooms, etc. About 15 minutes before race time we started making our way out to the starting line, man was that a chore. You could almost get to the starting line, but then a big fence was in the way with no explanation of where to go. As we were nearing the fence, an air horn sounded and it appeared that the race was going to start. People started scaling this 8 foot fence like you wouldn't believe, it was pertty chaotic. As it turns out, it wasn't the start of the race, I have no idea what it was. We finally found a gap in the fence and made our way to the starting line. We were supposed to be in a corral near the front but there was not indication of where that was. As you can see the start of this race was very messy.
We finally got situated and moved as close to the front as we could. We dind't have to wait around too long as the gun sounded and we were off like a heard of cattle. It was pretty tight running for a while. At the start they did send of quite a few fireworks and that was kind of a cool touch. The first couple of miles went pretty well for how crowded it was and we were able to go pretty much at the pace we wanted. Every mile that passed I continued to be amazed at the lack of pain in my calf. I could feel it a little bit, but it was nothing like last Thursday. I kept thinking the whole way, "okay if I can just make it to 10 miles then I can finish this thing in a repectable time." The 10 mile marker passed and I would say now lets make it to the half. I continued to be more and more amazed at how well my calf continued to feel and then started to feel stupid for having been such a wimp during the week leading up to the race. How in the world was I able to do this when I couldn't even run a mile 3 days ago.
Around mile 15 I started to feel a new pain in my other leg. It was in my foot. It was a blister. Never had one of those in a maratohon before. I guess my new shoes hadn't been broken in enough and I was starting to get a blister. It started to numb as the miles went on and I was able to manage the pain fairly well. As precaution I ripped off my shoe at one point while Meg stopped at a POP just to make sure I didn't have any major damage going on, all was well, just painful. Then I started having pains in my left hip area, geeeeez! Maybe I was changing my stride a bit to compensate for my bum right calf. These other two areas gave me more trouble than my calf ever did during the race.
Around mile 21 or 22 the fatigue really started to set in. I think a lot of this fatige had to do with my lack of metal preparation and physical preparation during the week. I litereally had to stop and walk a few times because the pain got so bad. I was a bit frustrated with myself for not being better prepared for the race but what was I supposed to do, this injury really had me messed up in the head. Well we finally made it to the finish line. Meg and I ran every single step of the race together It was really nice to run an entire race with her again, only two weeks after we ran VOF together. I think she could have taken off the last few miles today and smoked me but she hung with me and we crossed the line together, both in major pain and both relieved to be done.
They had some great chocolate milk and a few other good snacks and some pretty average looking finisher medals. I had my picture taken with some hot show girls, yes Meg reluctantly took the picture with my cell phone camera.
Overall the race was good. I will probably never run it again, but I had to do it at least once because it's my hometown marathon. The only flaws I saw was no Gatorade at a designated aid station that was supposed to have it and one aid station at mile 17 which had zero volunteers. All the boxes and tables were set up and ready for preparing the stuff but no volunteers to make it work. The 17 mile aid station was supposed to be another designated gatorade station, which didn't sit with well with Meg and I again. We drink all our carbs and it kinda sucked to miss out on two aid station that were supposed to have it. You'd think for $95 you could get some flawless support along the coures, guess I thunk wrong. As for local support along the course it was pretty spotty. The locals that did come out were great and we thanked many of them. Somewhere around mile 4 or 5 we had several holy rollers with huge signs declaring that the end of the world was coming and that we were all going to hell. We had a good chuckle about that too as we knew far to well the hell we would be in in the next couple of hours. We remembered these signs again at mile 23 and thought they would be appropriate at that point of the race too.
This report wouldn't be complete without a huge thank you to all my friends out in blog land who were thinking about me and praying for me. THANK YOU ALL, OUR PRAYERS WERE HEARD WITHOUT A DOUBT!!!
Glad it's over, glad I did it, glad I was able to run the whole thing but most of all I am so greatful for the blessings I received today that somehow got me through this race. It wasn't a PR but it was far better than that, it was an amazing journey that taught me so many things about will power and the resiliance of the human body, mind and spirit.
Ya Meg took this pic! What a good sport!
We're only smiling because it's almost over. | 