A day after, my first marathon

Well it is now Monday and yesterday I ran my first 26.2 mile race. It was everything I expected and more.

The day started off we tan drizzling. I felt I was at a plastic bag convention or a Pink Floyd concert ( I went to a night time day on the green in the rain...but I digress). There was 3000 people signed up for the event I'm not sure of the breakdown but with all races starting at 7am were were all loaded up for the start. It was very quiet not music no speeches then from up ahead we all took time to pause for our national anthem.

I started my watch about 10 sec early by mistake but I crossed the line very quickly gun time as we had ta 4 lane road to ourselves to start. Garry Glitter "Rock and Roll" was the send off music. I had been filling my head with as much AC/DC, Metallica and crazy hard guitar riffs as I could over Saturday hoping to avoid the old cross county team trick o singing Roxanne by the police to mentally slow the other team, Gary did not help.

I realized about mile 5 that I had a rub on my right heel and sure enough by mile 7-8 it was painful. I finally looked at it at the end and yes just another stained sock and shoe I opened up 2 blisters. Its amazing how the body can push past pain when you drive it on.

I started out with the 3:45 pace group but soon after about mile 3 felt it was holding me back. I started to go my pace and found that my 7 mile time was typical of my 6.9 training run which should be about right.

After we split off from the half marathoners the crowds became thin and the wind became an issue. We for the most part until that time had been in local pars winding threw residences. The road we were now on was out to a bunch of new developments with lots of open fields and long roads with no trees except newly planted ones. This was where I started to feel my legs give up on me. It was an odd feeling I kept trying to have my coar muscles pull me along and they did a good job but the burden of lifting my legs became an issue and I realized I had 'BONKED" every effort now was to take in sugar and carbs as much as possible for me to have energy to finish. The rolling hills along the bike trains at the end were also unexpected and though not steep the length of one in particular had caused a few people to walk.

As I came past mile 23 the 3:45 pace leader and group came up on me and I could not push myself to join them. I knew I had only about 3 miles left. I figures maybe 30 min I can say a rosary and get threw this thinking of something else. Steve does it Greg Willits did it, I can do it. Well I got threw it so fast I was done by mile 25 I guess when your body is slowing down your mind can still be quick and sharp. I even tried to slow down but that how it goes. I came into the park park and knew I was getting close seeing some finishers walking around cheering on others. The final turn down the path to the finish and it was all I could do to think push. I could not do it until I passed the 26 mile mark and saw the last few hundred yards to the finish. The crowd cheering and I actually gave it a bit of speed. My body immediately started rebelling causing each stride to feel like I was going to permanently cramp with each step but I did not care I was going to finish looking like a runner not like I did not care enough to do my best. I crossed the lines got my sweatshirt, medal and a water and started walking.

https://www.runraceresults.com/secure/raceresults.cfm?id=rctc2008

Every time I stopped I felt the cramps come on strong. I finally made it to pick up my bag and call my wife and then send out a message.

I still am in a bit of shock that I did it. I had an ice cream and found what had smelled so good was not Mexican food but eggs and sausage. I could not eat like that so I talked to a few others and made my way back home.

I will do this again, it was the first time Fresno had a marathon and my first. I realize now a day later how important strength is to being successful and faster. While I was not tired my legs were and that really had a negative impact on me doing better. I need to do more strength and cross training and nothing like running a marathon can make you appreciate how tough and rewarding it is. I learned first hand the like baseball half the game is 90% mental. I decided to run the whole race I had visions of grandeur for a bit thinking I could do it in 3:30 or that I could shift into a walk/run mode an still do well. But mentally I was tough and was going to stick with my plan. I missed my goal time of 3:45 but was close enough and learned enough to believe I'll hit it next time.


at home after the race, tired & sore, but happy