2011 Grandma's Marathon, Part 1

After feeling pretty flat for the past two weeks, I was surprised at how good I felt during today's run. It only took a few steps for me to settle into a rhythm, and really I enjoyed running with a pace group most of the way.

The long and short of it is that in the end, the 3:10 pace group was too ambitious, and I dropped off suddenly and severely during mile 23. This mile includes the infamous Lemon Drop Hill, which is hardly a hill, but it certainly blew me right off the course anyway.

In these last miles I walked a few times, and with each pause I realized it would take more and more energy to push myself to begin running again. This was enough motivation to maintain a slow jog for the final 1.2, and I had absolutely nothing left in me at the end for a quick finish. This was in stark contrast from the last time I ran this race (my only other marathon), when I kicked strongly for the final miles and over the finish.

I ended up finishing in 3:16:21. I'm ecstatic with this result given my lackluster training and uncertain expectations. Perhaps my favorite moment was during one of my walking pauses in mile 24, when I must have looked like I was feeling sorry for myself, and some old guy yelled at me to suck it up and get going. It was brash but it worked.

Training for this race has humbled me just as I was humbled during that final stretch today. It's given me a benchmark. And I can't say that I didn't give it everything out there. That's all I wanted to do today. Some more details to follow (if I can remember them).