Goal:
To finish, enjoy the journey and have fun, just bring it!
Pre-Race:
I got sick the Monday of Thanksgiving week. I lingered on the voice of positive thinking and kept telling myself I would be fine for my marathon. That following Monday I was diagnosed with a sinus infection….ughhh…I have only 6 days to get rid of this. I had done my last long run on November 18th and I was able to get 2 runs in just prior to my event. Not a lot of time on my feet but I as I have heard, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”
Nutrition: Consisted of getting my carbs up from 60% to 70% and fully hydrating those 3 days prior to race.
Day before – Endurolytes and Gatorade Endurance. I had a nice carbo lunch around noon with another meal planned at 5 but was too full from lunch so I ate the 3 remaining breadsticks and headed to bed at 6pm.
Race Day:
I woke up at 2 am and had two servings of oatmeal and granola. I head back to bed and awake at 4 am to get the bagel and PB down with my H2O. I throw in some coffee because this is part of my normal routine. I wake up Kevin at both of these times and make him eat with me. I have exceeded my normal eating regimen. I am feeling a little ill and at one point start to go thru the motion of yaking, you know the start of the cough. I tell myself it will be ok and to take deep breaths, I am fine.
The two of us take off at 4:45 so we can get over to the Mandalay Bay hotel where the race will commence. We are in the lobby of the Monte Carlo hotel and I am starting to get a little emotional. I start to think that maybe I am not ready and start to devise what plan B and C will look like. My eyes are starting to fill and than I tell myself to snap out of it for 1) I am in a smoke filled casina that smells stale and 2) its not the time to get emotional as there will be plenty of time to do that later and 3) I tell myself to HTFU.
Kevin and I arrive at the Mandalay Bay and head out to the start line. By now all my friends know that I have the smallest bladder in the world and I always have to pee every 15 minutes. I try to hold as long as possible but 5:30 wins over. I head to the start line to get ready for the race and a nice photographer takes our pre-race picture. Kevin and I tell each to have a great race, give each other kudos for the training each of us has put in and a kiss for good luck. It takes a few minutes to get to the start so Kevin and I run together before he takes off. I won’t see him until the finish line.
My Plan:
Most folks know that I signed up for CDA IronMan which is on June 22nd, 2008. Now I get a little emotional when I think about this day. If you know me than you know the longest run I had done was 6 miles, a ¼ mile swim, and a 15 mile bike ride. I would like to say that I was medicated or drunk when I signed up but can say neither of these occurred. I still to this day don’t know what happened but that I have never regretted this decision to sign up. I decide that I want to do a marathon before my actual training begins in January 2008; I want to know what kind of pain I should be looking forward to. So here I am.
Now….my plan today is to listen to my coach and follow her plan and run at HR. I have also been strict orders to stop at every aid station and get water. I am taking gels every 30 minutes starting 10 minutes before the race. Not in the plan was the enduralytes I take every hour, but I was afraid to cramp up so I threw this in for good measure. I should get an A for thinking outside the Box.
I start off well and also with a full bladder, oh well nothing I can do now. I don’t know where I am at in pace so I tell myself not to worry and to just to run. I find mile marker 3 and stop and get in the porta-potty line. Drag. I get back on course and realize that with all my adrenaline I have I have to go potty again. Mile 6 back in the porta-potty line. The girl behind me reminds me that we have been in line for 2 minutes and haven’t even gotten in yet. Yikes! I get back on the course and guess what mile 9 I am back in the porta-potty line. Drag. The good news is that I tell myself I have completed a third of the course. I am happy.
I stop at every aid station and I linger a little longer than I should but I am absorbing the ambiance, my journey.
I am running at a slow HR and people are passing me like crazy. I tell myself not to worry about it. Around mile 11 I look at where I should be for my goal and realize I am about 13 minutes off. I panic for a minute and realize that I shouldn’t be sweating the small stuff and I should just go with the flow. I hit the 13.1 mile point, half way at 2.40. Yippee. I tell myself that I am starting a second loop and how fun it will be.
I start to have issues with my watch and my HR is starting to freak out, which in turn is causing me to panic just a touch. For about 2 miles my watch is freezing up and HR is going from 122 to 84 to 122 to 150….nothing consistent. I try to feel out where I should be and at this point I am looking for my pacers that I have tracked during my first half of the race. No consistent pacers but my watch is working again, excellent. I decide to take another pee break at mile 15. I quickly get in and out as I realize I have a lot of wasted time on pee breaks. I will have to make up the time but I will not do it with my HR. I decide to take shorter walks at the aid stations.
Mile 15….I will be making history. I will have gone further than I have ever gone on any one of my runs. At this point I am all smiles and I can’t shake the grin I have from ear to ear.
Mile 17 – Legs are feeling a little tired but I have my music, and most of all I have heart. I remind myself that I can here with a plan and that I am going to stick to it 100%. I also tell myself that I believe in me and I can do this. I will HTFU.
I run…and run and I even shout the Forest Gump saying of “Run, Forest, Run” except mine is “Run, Jennifer, Run”. I am a little tired but tell myself my feet are like feathers and I practice good running form. I am proud of myself and I have come this far.
Mile 20 -I kick up my heart rate a few beats and tell myself I only have a 10k left, not too much left to run. I now pull out my Coke that I have in my water bottle. I have waited 4 hours to drink this as I only have it around the last hour of my run. It’s the best sugar I have ever tasted. I don’t drink soft drinks but this I have to have. This will get me thru my last 6 miles.
I have been playing cat and mouse with the pacers I scanned early in the race but right around the time I start to have my coke I decide to skip every other water station to cut down on time. I stay consistent and keep strong those last three miles. I also keep my eyes on my pacers which are now behind me. I come around the corner to see the finish line and give it one last sprint across the finish line giving hi-fives to the folks handing out medals.
Clock Time: 05:11:47
Chip Time: 05:08:38
Overall Place 3230/4290
Gender Place 1054/1588
Division Place 217
Split 30k 3:42:27
Pace 11:46.5
Half 2:40:58
This is one of the happiest days in my life:)
In every other race I have been blessed to not feel any pain in my legs until at least the following day, but my legs they feel pain now...I keep moving. Kevin and I decide to get to the hotel quickly as it is hard to walk now. I am shuffling to my hotel at a very slow pace….why did I do this again??? oh yeah…closer to my IM goal.
“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” – Ronald E. Osborn
Race Day:
I woke up at 2 am and had two servings of oatmeal and granola. I head back to bed and awake at 4 am to get the bagel and PB down with my H2O. I throw in some coffee because this is part of my normal routine. I wake up Kevin at both of these times and make him eat with me. I have exceeded my normal eating regimen. I am feeling a little ill and at one point start to go thru the motion of yaking, you know the start of the cough. I tell myself it will be ok and to take deep breaths, I am fine.
The two of us take off at 4:45 so we can get over to the Mandalay Bay hotel where the race will commence. We are in the lobby of the Monte Carlo hotel and I am starting to get a little emotional. I start to think that maybe I am not ready and start to devise what plan B and C will look like. My eyes are starting to fill and than I tell myself to snap out of it for 1) I am in a smoke filled casina that smells stale and 2) its not the time to get emotional as there will be plenty of time to do that later and 3) I tell myself to HTFU.
Kevin and I arrive at the Mandalay Bay and head out to the start line. By now all my friends know that I have the smallest bladder in the world and I always have to pee every 15 minutes. I try to hold as long as possible but 5:30 wins over. I head to the start line to get ready for the race and a nice photographer takes our pre-race picture. Kevin and I tell each to have a great race, give each other kudos for the training each of us has put in and a kiss for good luck. It takes a few minutes to get to the start so Kevin and I run together before he takes off. I won’t see him until the finish line.
My Plan:
Most folks know that I signed up for CDA IronMan which is on June 22nd, 2008. Now I get a little emotional when I think about this day. If you know me than you know the longest run I had done was 6 miles, a ¼ mile swim, and a 15 mile bike ride. I would like to say that I was medicated or drunk when I signed up but can say neither of these occurred. I still to this day don’t know what happened but that I have never regretted this decision to sign up. I decide that I want to do a marathon before my actual training begins in January 2008; I want to know what kind of pain I should be looking forward to. So here I am.
Now….my plan today is to listen to my coach and follow her plan and run at HR. I have also been strict orders to stop at every aid station and get water. I am taking gels every 30 minutes starting 10 minutes before the race. Not in the plan was the enduralytes I take every hour, but I was afraid to cramp up so I threw this in for good measure. I should get an A for thinking outside the Box.
I start off well and also with a full bladder, oh well nothing I can do now. I don’t know where I am at in pace so I tell myself not to worry and to just to run. I find mile marker 3 and stop and get in the porta-potty line. Drag. I get back on course and realize that with all my adrenaline I have I have to go potty again. Mile 6 back in the porta-potty line. The girl behind me reminds me that we have been in line for 2 minutes and haven’t even gotten in yet. Yikes! I get back on the course and guess what mile 9 I am back in the porta-potty line. Drag. The good news is that I tell myself I have completed a third of the course. I am happy.
I stop at every aid station and I linger a little longer than I should but I am absorbing the ambiance, my journey.
I am running at a slow HR and people are passing me like crazy. I tell myself not to worry about it. Around mile 11 I look at where I should be for my goal and realize I am about 13 minutes off. I panic for a minute and realize that I shouldn’t be sweating the small stuff and I should just go with the flow. I hit the 13.1 mile point, half way at 2.40. Yippee. I tell myself that I am starting a second loop and how fun it will be.
I start to have issues with my watch and my HR is starting to freak out, which in turn is causing me to panic just a touch. For about 2 miles my watch is freezing up and HR is going from 122 to 84 to 122 to 150….nothing consistent. I try to feel out where I should be and at this point I am looking for my pacers that I have tracked during my first half of the race. No consistent pacers but my watch is working again, excellent. I decide to take another pee break at mile 15. I quickly get in and out as I realize I have a lot of wasted time on pee breaks. I will have to make up the time but I will not do it with my HR. I decide to take shorter walks at the aid stations.
Mile 15….I will be making history. I will have gone further than I have ever gone on any one of my runs. At this point I am all smiles and I can’t shake the grin I have from ear to ear.
Mile 17 – Legs are feeling a little tired but I have my music, and most of all I have heart. I remind myself that I can here with a plan and that I am going to stick to it 100%. I also tell myself that I believe in me and I can do this. I will HTFU.
I run…and run and I even shout the Forest Gump saying of “Run, Forest, Run” except mine is “Run, Jennifer, Run”. I am a little tired but tell myself my feet are like feathers and I practice good running form. I am proud of myself and I have come this far.
Mile 20 -I kick up my heart rate a few beats and tell myself I only have a 10k left, not too much left to run. I now pull out my Coke that I have in my water bottle. I have waited 4 hours to drink this as I only have it around the last hour of my run. It’s the best sugar I have ever tasted. I don’t drink soft drinks but this I have to have. This will get me thru my last 6 miles.
I have been playing cat and mouse with the pacers I scanned early in the race but right around the time I start to have my coke I decide to skip every other water station to cut down on time. I stay consistent and keep strong those last three miles. I also keep my eyes on my pacers which are now behind me. I come around the corner to see the finish line and give it one last sprint across the finish line giving hi-fives to the folks handing out medals.
Clock Time: 05:11:47
Chip Time: 05:08:38
Overall Place 3230/4290
Gender Place 1054/1588
Division Place 217
Split 30k 3:42:27
Pace 11:46.5
Half 2:40:58
This is one of the happiest days in my life:)
In every other race I have been blessed to not feel any pain in my legs until at least the following day, but my legs they feel pain now...I keep moving. Kevin and I decide to get to the hotel quickly as it is hard to walk now. I am shuffling to my hotel at a very slow pace….why did I do this again??? oh yeah…closer to my IM goal.
“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” – Ronald E. Osborn
