Today was game day. The white smoke of the starter's pistol marked the start of the
2010 Austin Marathon. One year ago, I crossed the finish line in the 2009 Austin Half Marathon vowing to come back this year and finish the full. One year of training. One year of sweat and pain and overcoming injuries. One year of perseverance brought me back to the start line as the gun went off. 26.2 miles and 4:30 later, the race was over and I had established a new personal record. This is the story.
I never sleep much the night before a race. I'm always full of anticipation and wired on adrenaline. Last night was no exception. I fell asleep around midnight and woke up at 3:30am wide awake and sure I was missing the race. Shell tackled me back into bed and reset the alarm for 5am. I must have fallen right into REM sleep because that second alarm was not my friend.
Hopping out of bed, I put on the clothes I laid out the night before. It was 34 degrees at that point, so warm weather gear was a must. After loading up my race nutrition, ipod, and post-race change of clothes, I hopped in the car and headed down to the race.
Usually when I park downtime, I park in a free spot right off Red River and Cesar Chavez. In hind sight, that's a really bad idea for a race. The lot is about a mile from Congress and the finish line. Not really the kind of distance one wants to walk after running a marathon. But, hindsight is 20/20, so I parked there and walked to the start.
The walk did me some good. I got a chance to warm up and stretch out. For shorter races I would have gone for a jog, but no point today. Marathons aren't about fast starts. I'd have plenty of time to warm up on the course. Just before the race started, I managed to sneak into a bathroom and get rid of the last of my nerves. Now I was ready to run.
If you've never seen the start of a popular marathon, it's quite a site. One mile of humanity sprawling out in before you; rising up and down in waves as they consume the course ahead. It's an impressive sight.
One side effect of the large field is that you don't actually make it to the start line for up to 20 minutes after the start of the race. That means that you can't really use the race time as an indicator of your time. My start time today was about 13 minutes after the start of the race.
Once I got out onto the course, I moved to the outside and paced myself around 10 minute miles. My plan was to cruise there until mile 18 and reevaluate. Heading out, the first 5k is filled with upbeat, live music by several of Austin's local artists. With a 7am start, I'm wondering how many of them were playing sober by then...
Around mile 7 I caught up with Luis Remo. I'd never met Luis before, but we struck up a conversation that carried us for the next 3 miles. Good man. I learned about his family, how they came to the US, their business, his wife's injury that's kept her from running, his kids passion for running, the economy, his hope for the future, and his race calendar for the rest of this year. It was good conversation that kept both our minds off of running for a while.
With a word of encouragement, Luis wished me well for the rest of the race and slowly faded behind at turnoff for the half marathon. About the 20k mark I started playing tag with Emily. When we realized neither of us was going to pull away from the other, we struck up conversation. Turns out Emily is a PR rep for a teacher's legal protection organization. Emily and her husband met at Texas State and have been together for 11 years. He doesn't run much, but he's always there cheering her on at their races. We chatted for the next 15k before she faded back and I moved on.
At the 35k mark, my feet really began to hurt. My legs started to physically shut down on me and my pace slowed. I tried stretching out and walking at each water station, but that really didn't do much other than remind me that my legs hurt. About that time I realized I had to make a choice to get control of my mind and push through the pain or spend the rest of the race coming up with excuses why everyone else was passing me. This was going to hurt a little more than I'd felt in a while, but I opted for the former.
By 11am it was warm again. The winter sleeves and thermals were threatening to overheat me. Just when I was about to give out we entered the downtown district and shade from all the big buildings. When the capitol building came into sight, I knew I was close. With a short breath of air, I lengthened my stride, ignored the profanity from my legs, and made the last downhill push to the finish. 1/2 mile later I crossed the finish line. 4:30. I set a new personal record.
I wish I could say that once I crossed the finish line I felt no pain, but that would be a lie. It hurt...a lot. This is when I realized my mistake parking a mile from the finish line. Somehow I managed to pull myself together and make it to the car. An hour later I was sitting in an ice bath. Numb never felt so good.
Reflecting back on the race I realized that I was never really tired. The "wall" that a lot of people hit never came. My struggles were mostly from lack of core strength and lack of lower body strength. I'll address both in the months to come. I'm glad I took the year to work on my marathon conditioning. I've learned a lot. I think that next year in New Zealand, I'll be better off for having done it. That's all for now. Have a great day and keep on training.
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