Done?
Cool.
So, race morning I actually woke up just a few minutes before my alarm which rarely ever happens. But oddly I felt pretty rested, so I took that as a good sign. After checking my emails I got up and started getting ready to leave. I made sure to apply my temporary tattoo to the inside of my left elbow so it was in a place where I thought it wouldn't rub against anything too much. (I was wrong. The lower half was gone before the race even started.)
I then grabbed my water bottle with cherry limeade Nuun, hydration pack and spibelt with race bib and headed out the door with my Dad to get to the metro.
After a shorter than usual metro ride with my Dad, he wished me luck as we parted ways. Then started the long walk around the Pentagon to the starting area. (I'm not totally sure how far it actually was, but it was at least half a mile probably closer to three quarters. Either way, I finished my water bottle with Nuun as we walked to the starting area.) I got there early enough that security was a non-issue. I just walked up to a guard, showed them my hydration pack, they felt the reservoir portion and waved me on. The lines for the bathrooms started to get a little crazy so I went ahead and got in line. After getting through, I walked across the parking lot and got in line for the other set. This line was a little longer, but I made friends with a couple ladies from Indiana who were also running their first marathon. I told them everything I knew about the race and how it was awesome. I also started texting with my friend who ran with me on that fateful training run that shook my confidence, and we tried to figure out where we were. While we were in line for the portajohns we got to see the skydivers and see the fly-by from some of the Marines' Osprey (they had people hanging out the back door waving at the runners!)
I had seen part of it from the National Mall, but seeing it right up close was awe-inspiring. Nerves started to set in as I neared the portajohns for one last stop.
At this point it was 7:55am and I headed over to the starting area with my friends from Indiana, hoping that I would come across my friend. Fortunately, since she's so tall it was pretty easy to find her in the crowd once she told me her corral. (We are a similar pace so I felt good about lining up with her.) I also got a glimpse of the pacers for the 5:30 finish time. We were close enough to see the pacer, but far enough back that we weren't in that pack of people. My initial strategy was to keep the pacer in my sights while hanging back far enough that I wouldn't get caught up in the pack.
Finally the gun went off at 8:05am. (Later I found out it was due to a suspicious package on the course.) I crossed at 8:24am with one of my friends from Indiana and my training friend.
I decided to take it easy and not go out too fast, so when my watch beeped to start one of the intervals, I waved bye to my friends and told them I'd catch up later. At this point, my IT band was feeling a little achy, but not terrible. I tried not to focus on it and somehow I managed to catch up with the 5:30 pace group early on and kept up with them pretty well for the first half of the race.
Staying with the pace group for the first half helped a lot. It helped keep me from going out too fast, and the pacer knew when to speed up and when we could slow down. Thankfully it was a group that did run/walk breaks, although I'm pretty sure the leader wasn't very strict about sticking to them. She also stopped briefly enough at the aid stations that it was basically impossible to take any liquid, which was stupid because of how hot it was supposed to be that day. (Thankfully I had my hydration pack. Yes, it had Tailwind in it, but I remembered a bit of advice from Scott Jurek from my Boston trip in April for Marathon Monday. He said to take on nutrition every half an hour whether you need it or not.) But after a point I started to get annoyed with the people around me because it was packed. One woman kept throwing elbows to stay right next to the pacer, and various people kept knocking into me, and several people lost shoes because somebody behind them stepped on their heel. Normally I don't like to post pictures from MarathonFoto with the watermark, but this is a great visual of how packed the pace group was.
By the time this picture was taken, I was getting pretty tired of being in such a tightly packed crowd. Just before Hains Point aka The Blue Mile (and the halfway point), the pacer ran through the water and paused just briefly at the Gatorade and I walked that portion. I tried to hang back but keep her in my sights, but she just kept getting further away. And then I suddenly felt relieved. I could hang back and look around! And I was at the first point where I needed to look for a familiar face! And...I didn't see her! Oh well, no worries! My next milestone was to beat the Gauntlet at about mile 17 by 12:33pm and I was well on my way to doing that.
A lot of the race was pretty much a blur. I remember seeing some people from the pace group and passing by them. I ran into one of my Oiselle teammates just before I met up with my Mom and husband right by the Washington Monument to change out hydration packs just as we planned. At that point, I was past mile 17. Less than 10 miles to go. Might as well finish, right?
I'm all smiles, right? I'm grinning through the pain because at this point both my IT bands were starting to ache. (But the KT Tape was still intact!!) And I was justifying finishing. And I had to catch up with my Oiselle teammate I hadn't seen in awhile, and she was hurting too. Before I knew it we were passing the Capitol building...
And I ran into Oiselle spectator #1 by the Smithsonian. And she had starbursts on a cookie sheet. They were perfect and I said hi, thanks for the starburst and walked as I peeled the candy and popped it in my mouth. (At that point, chewing felt weird.) I had also started to drag so once I finished the candy, so I opened up a pack of Run Gum and popped in a piece. It was a little crumbly at first, but then it started to hold together after a few chews and the caffeine in it did the trick! (Okay and maybe Batala and a hose spraying water helped a little bit, but mostly the gum.) I caught a little bit of a second wind as we headed towards the dreaded 14th street bridge.
All the runners knew going into this weekend it would be warm, and by this point it was about 12:00/12:30 so it was getting bad. And on the bridge, there is no shade for even a little bit of relief. I had run the bridge before when I ran the 10k in previous years, but at the marathon distance it was a whole new beast. No spectators except a few brave souls here and there cheering you on. At this point, the muscle pain had really started to take over. I had to really convince myself that I could finish this. The only way off the bridge was to keep going. And if I kept going, I might as well finish.
I was so ready to see the familiar faces of my Oiselle teammates at Mile 22. Finally I came over a hill and I finally saw one of my teammates that I recognized right away. I screamed her name and ran by giving everybody high fives and kept running. Right through another fire plug that had been opened up and was spraying water. And right into a puddle. (Worth it.)
At that point a couple toenails started softening up and I started worrying that a couple were gone. I had to talk myself out of it because I had run with wet feet before, and this had happened before. I was almost done. I got this.
That final turnaround in Crystal City was glorious. I was finally in the homestretch. Once we got back to the Pentagon parking lot, I ran into my Oiselle teammate again, who was also hurting. So we ended up walking a bunch of the final mile together. We ended up joking about how off our Garmins were on the distance (maybe it was because of all the weaving around people?) and how when our watches buzzed saying we finished the marathon but we hadn't really finished that we were just doing an ultramarathon.
As we got closer to the finish we started to give each other a pep talk to really go for it in that final stretch. (Well, as much as we could.) We walked up that final hill to Iwo Jima (hating that hill more than I ever have in previous years of running the 10k) and once we hit the flat portion, we took off...again, as much as we could. And we finished!! My official time was 6:03:59. Not my goal time, but still an automatic PR.
I hobbled with my Oiselle teammate through the medals, the water, and the post-race snacks and then we parted ways. Throughout we both kept texting our loved ones letting them know we crossed, and we were almost to them. Just after the bridge we parted ways and I got my watermelon. (Barely. Apparently they were giving a ton to everybody who walked by since the race was almost completely over and they still had a lot of fruit.) Either way, I met up with my parents and husband again and they handed me another container of watermelon. (I'm all about that post-race watermelon. Seriously. It's always the best. Thanks, Watermelon Board!)
After I finished the watermelon, drank a bottle of water and started finishing my hydration pack, I was ready for some real food. Fortunately, there were tons of food trucks around. I opted for a nutella crepe, and my Mom got one for each of us to enjoy back at their house. On the metro ride back, I tried really hard to stretch. But that only lasted a few minutes. The muscle fatigue had definitely set in and my legs were hurting, especially if I lifted them more than just a couple inches off the ground. I definitely didn't sit on the metro because I knew that was just asking for trouble.
Once we got off the train, I yelled at my husband for walking so fast and he said to me "I'm walking at a normal speed!" "No you're not! Stop walking so fast!" And we both laughed as I collapsed into the car. Shockingly I didn't have very much trouble getting back out again and hobbled my way inside the house and ate my nutella crepe. Then came the time where I had to get up and get to the bathroom for a shower. Naturally, it took longer than I'd like to admit and part of it was because I was nervous about what I would see when I took my socks off. So I sat on the side of the tub and very carefully pulled off my socks.
And what did I see?
All ten toes, all ten toenails. INTACT! Win. (Small victory.)
And I was SO happy to put on my finisher's shirt.
That shower felt amazing and soon after my husband and I headed home. I was still hungry, so I opened up my snack box and was VERY impressed!
I'm almost positive everything except the fruit cup was gone before we arrived home an hour later. At that point, I was so ready for a nap.
And it was glorious.
Next up: What I learned!
I then grabbed my water bottle with cherry limeade Nuun, hydration pack and spibelt with race bib and headed out the door with my Dad to get to the metro.
After a shorter than usual metro ride with my Dad, he wished me luck as we parted ways. Then started the long walk around the Pentagon to the starting area. (I'm not totally sure how far it actually was, but it was at least half a mile probably closer to three quarters. Either way, I finished my water bottle with Nuun as we walked to the starting area.) I got there early enough that security was a non-issue. I just walked up to a guard, showed them my hydration pack, they felt the reservoir portion and waved me on. The lines for the bathrooms started to get a little crazy so I went ahead and got in line. After getting through, I walked across the parking lot and got in line for the other set. This line was a little longer, but I made friends with a couple ladies from Indiana who were also running their first marathon. I told them everything I knew about the race and how it was awesome. I also started texting with my friend who ran with me on that fateful training run that shook my confidence, and we tried to figure out where we were. While we were in line for the portajohns we got to see the skydivers and see the fly-by from some of the Marines' Osprey (they had people hanging out the back door waving at the runners!)
At this point it was 7:55am and I headed over to the starting area with my friends from Indiana, hoping that I would come across my friend. Fortunately, since she's so tall it was pretty easy to find her in the crowd once she told me her corral. (We are a similar pace so I felt good about lining up with her.) I also got a glimpse of the pacers for the 5:30 finish time. We were close enough to see the pacer, but far enough back that we weren't in that pack of people. My initial strategy was to keep the pacer in my sights while hanging back far enough that I wouldn't get caught up in the pack.
Finally the gun went off at 8:05am. (Later I found out it was due to a suspicious package on the course.) I crossed at 8:24am with one of my friends from Indiana and my training friend.
I decided to take it easy and not go out too fast, so when my watch beeped to start one of the intervals, I waved bye to my friends and told them I'd catch up later. At this point, my IT band was feeling a little achy, but not terrible. I tried not to focus on it and somehow I managed to catch up with the 5:30 pace group early on and kept up with them pretty well for the first half of the race.
Staying with the pace group for the first half helped a lot. It helped keep me from going out too fast, and the pacer knew when to speed up and when we could slow down. Thankfully it was a group that did run/walk breaks, although I'm pretty sure the leader wasn't very strict about sticking to them. She also stopped briefly enough at the aid stations that it was basically impossible to take any liquid, which was stupid because of how hot it was supposed to be that day. (Thankfully I had my hydration pack. Yes, it had Tailwind in it, but I remembered a bit of advice from Scott Jurek from my Boston trip in April for Marathon Monday. He said to take on nutrition every half an hour whether you need it or not.) But after a point I started to get annoyed with the people around me because it was packed. One woman kept throwing elbows to stay right next to the pacer, and various people kept knocking into me, and several people lost shoes because somebody behind them stepped on their heel. Normally I don't like to post pictures from MarathonFoto with the watermark, but this is a great visual of how packed the pace group was.
By the time this picture was taken, I was getting pretty tired of being in such a tightly packed crowd. Just before Hains Point aka The Blue Mile (and the halfway point), the pacer ran through the water and paused just briefly at the Gatorade and I walked that portion. I tried to hang back but keep her in my sights, but she just kept getting further away. And then I suddenly felt relieved. I could hang back and look around! And I was at the first point where I needed to look for a familiar face! And...I didn't see her! Oh well, no worries! My next milestone was to beat the Gauntlet at about mile 17 by 12:33pm and I was well on my way to doing that.
A lot of the race was pretty much a blur. I remember seeing some people from the pace group and passing by them. I ran into one of my Oiselle teammates just before I met up with my Mom and husband right by the Washington Monument to change out hydration packs just as we planned. At that point, I was past mile 17. Less than 10 miles to go. Might as well finish, right?
I'm all smiles, right? I'm grinning through the pain because at this point both my IT bands were starting to ache. (But the KT Tape was still intact!!) And I was justifying finishing. And I had to catch up with my Oiselle teammate I hadn't seen in awhile, and she was hurting too. Before I knew it we were passing the Capitol building...
And I ran into Oiselle spectator #1 by the Smithsonian. And she had starbursts on a cookie sheet. They were perfect and I said hi, thanks for the starburst and walked as I peeled the candy and popped it in my mouth. (At that point, chewing felt weird.) I had also started to drag so once I finished the candy, so I opened up a pack of Run Gum and popped in a piece. It was a little crumbly at first, but then it started to hold together after a few chews and the caffeine in it did the trick! (Okay and maybe Batala and a hose spraying water helped a little bit, but mostly the gum.) I caught a little bit of a second wind as we headed towards the dreaded 14th street bridge.
And
it
was
brutal.
All the runners knew going into this weekend it would be warm, and by this point it was about 12:00/12:30 so it was getting bad. And on the bridge, there is no shade for even a little bit of relief. I had run the bridge before when I ran the 10k in previous years, but at the marathon distance it was a whole new beast. No spectators except a few brave souls here and there cheering you on. At this point, the muscle pain had really started to take over. I had to really convince myself that I could finish this. The only way off the bridge was to keep going. And if I kept going, I might as well finish.
I was so ready to see the familiar faces of my Oiselle teammates at Mile 22. Finally I came over a hill and I finally saw one of my teammates that I recognized right away. I screamed her name and ran by giving everybody high fives and kept running. Right through another fire plug that had been opened up and was spraying water. And right into a puddle. (Worth it.)
At that point a couple toenails started softening up and I started worrying that a couple were gone. I had to talk myself out of it because I had run with wet feet before, and this had happened before. I was almost done. I got this.
That final turnaround in Crystal City was glorious. I was finally in the homestretch. Once we got back to the Pentagon parking lot, I ran into my Oiselle teammate again, who was also hurting. So we ended up walking a bunch of the final mile together. We ended up joking about how off our Garmins were on the distance (maybe it was because of all the weaving around people?) and how when our watches buzzed saying we finished the marathon but we hadn't really finished that we were just doing an ultramarathon.
As we got closer to the finish we started to give each other a pep talk to really go for it in that final stretch. (Well, as much as we could.) We walked up that final hill to Iwo Jima (hating that hill more than I ever have in previous years of running the 10k) and once we hit the flat portion, we took off...again, as much as we could. And we finished!! My official time was 6:03:59. Not my goal time, but still an automatic PR.
I hobbled with my Oiselle teammate through the medals, the water, and the post-race snacks and then we parted ways. Throughout we both kept texting our loved ones letting them know we crossed, and we were almost to them. Just after the bridge we parted ways and I got my watermelon. (Barely. Apparently they were giving a ton to everybody who walked by since the race was almost completely over and they still had a lot of fruit.) Either way, I met up with my parents and husband again and they handed me another container of watermelon. (I'm all about that post-race watermelon. Seriously. It's always the best. Thanks, Watermelon Board!)
After I finished the watermelon, drank a bottle of water and started finishing my hydration pack, I was ready for some real food. Fortunately, there were tons of food trucks around. I opted for a nutella crepe, and my Mom got one for each of us to enjoy back at their house. On the metro ride back, I tried really hard to stretch. But that only lasted a few minutes. The muscle fatigue had definitely set in and my legs were hurting, especially if I lifted them more than just a couple inches off the ground. I definitely didn't sit on the metro because I knew that was just asking for trouble.
Once we got off the train, I yelled at my husband for walking so fast and he said to me "I'm walking at a normal speed!" "No you're not! Stop walking so fast!" And we both laughed as I collapsed into the car. Shockingly I didn't have very much trouble getting back out again and hobbled my way inside the house and ate my nutella crepe. Then came the time where I had to get up and get to the bathroom for a shower. Naturally, it took longer than I'd like to admit and part of it was because I was nervous about what I would see when I took my socks off. So I sat on the side of the tub and very carefully pulled off my socks.
And what did I see?
All ten toes, all ten toenails. INTACT! Win. (Small victory.)
And I was SO happy to put on my finisher's shirt.
That shower felt amazing and soon after my husband and I headed home. I was still hungry, so I opened up my snack box and was VERY impressed!
I'm almost positive everything except the fruit cup was gone before we arrived home an hour later. At that point, I was so ready for a nap.
And it was glorious.
Next up: What I learned!
