That is, until I started to get the itch to run a full marathon. It wasn't out of any desire to "prove myself" or anything like that. It was more to see if I really could manage to run 26.2 miles all the way through. So earlier this summer, I filled out the form, paid my fee, and was signed up for my first ever full marathon.
The race was held this past Saturday. As with the local half marathons that I have run, start time was 7:00 AM. That meant that I needed to catch my bus up to the start line around 5:30 AM. I sat on a school bus next to a man who was running his second, and we chatted about running and other things. Then, we finally arrived at the start line, pretty far up in the mountains.
I should mention here that it was rather chilly that morning. In fact, it was cloudy and cold, which meant that they had a warming tent near the start line. It was packed really full. And then, about 30 minutes before the start, it began to rain. Not a nice drizzly rain, but a cloudburst. It stopped after about 5 minutes, at which time everyone proceeded to get ready at the start line.
Then, about 5 minutes before the race was to begin, wouldn't you know it, but another cloudburst. Quite a few people had worn trash bags to keep themselves dry. I kind of envied them. Despite the downpour, the starting gun sounded, and we were off!
The rain persisted fairly heavily for about the first 2 miles. Then, it stopped. That was about the time that I finally started to warm up. So I tossed my warm up jacket to the collection spot on the side of the road and kept running. The rain had made the weather nice and cool, which gave the promise of a nice run.
The course that the race follows starts up at the end of a mountain valley. For the first 17 miles, the route goes down out of the mountains into the valley beneath. That means that we all got to run downhill. Now, downhill running is great, except that it does take its effect on the quad muscles of the thighs. During the run, though, it actually felt pretty good.
It was during this downhill portion that the clouds above seemed to think that it was a good time to start another downpour. Around mile 8, the clouds once again began to pour our their watery contents. Again, not a nice drizzle, but a downpour. My shirt was so soaked that it was sticking to my body, and my shoes felt like they had gained about three pounds in water. We all continued to run in this until we exited the mountains and came out down into the valley.
That's when the rain decided to give way to hail. Not really large hail, but some nice, pea-sized stuff that just persisted for about 5 minutes or so. However, the one good thing about all of this was that it kept all of us runners nice and cool, which means that we were saving energy that our bodies would be needing later on in the race.
I was running at a really decent pace throughout this first portion of the race. In fact, the only times I slowed down was to walk through the aid stations when I needed something to drink. However, once I reached mile 18, I finally hit the point that I needed to walk for a couple of minutes. That seemed to rejuvenate me enough to keep running, though at a much slower pace than I had started.
Finally, I reached mile 20. That meant that I only had 6 more miles to go. However, most marathon runners will tell you that the wall typically happens around mile 20. That's when I really started to feel like my legs were ready to drop off. However, I was determined, not just to finish the race, but to finish in under 4 hours. So, I pushed on.
Now, some of the people who support runners at a marathon are very enthusiastic. Throughout the route, there had been people with signs, people cheering on loved ones, and in general, people showing their support for everyone who takes up a challenge like the marathon. However, the funniest thing that happened to me happened at the mile 23 aid station. There was a young man holding his infant child, and he spied me out, and starting hollering at me to kiss his baby. After he persisted two or three times, I decided, "why not?" and took a quick detour to kiss his little one!
The last three miles really seemed like they weren't going to ever end. However, as I got closer and closer to the finish line, Carrie spied me out to take a few pictures. Here is one of me, exhausted, as I am running down one of the last roads before the end of the race.
The route wound around a few blocks, going up one street, over a block, back down the next street, and then did the same thing again, leading up the finish line. That meant that Carrie was able to zip over and catch a picture or two of me as I headed toward the finish line.
Just a few moments after this picture, I crossed the finish line. Total time was 3 hours, 58.1 seconds. A few moments later, Carrie had found me in the runners' area and got this picture of me in all of my triumphant glory!
Yes, that is my medal for finishing the race. I can now say that I am a marathon runner. The rest of the day, I found that I had worn a few of my joints a bit more than they were used to. This made sense, as I had never run more than 13 miles before. It took the rest of that day and a good night of sleep to let those joints cool off and feel normal again. Then, on Monday, after a nice four mile run, all the built up lactic acid was out of my muscles, and I now feel as good as new. Will I ever run a marathon again? I can't say that right now. However, I can look back and say that I have run a full marathon.
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