Marathon Girl! (That Would Be Me!)

I DID IT!  What an fantastic weekend, and what an amazing experience I had running the Phoenix Marathon!  I am still flying on a good mood, 48 hours later. 

I am going to skip the preamble about all the lead-up to the race, the events, my teammates, the coaches etc and save that for later.  I know you want to know how the race went, so I’ll get right to it.

I had so much fun!  The coaches kept saying, you only have one first marathon, so make sure you have fun.  And let me tell you, I had a blast.  I kept reminding myself to smile, and be in the moment, and just enjoy the miles I was running through. It was cold — at the start of the race, temperatures were freezing.  It took me until mile 13 to really be warmed up — half the race!  At one point (actually, around 9:47, the race started at 7:40) we ran by one of those big bank clocks, and it flashed 33 degreees.  It was the coldest day in the history of Phoenix in 16 years.  Insane.  My hands actually never warmed up, I had to rip open my GU’s with my teeth because my fingers had no mobility.

But anyway – I started the race with D, her boyfriend and our teammate C.  We didn’t cross the start line until 11 minutes after the gun because we all had to pee so incredibly bad.  So we peed.  I freaked out waiting for the port-a-potty; I yelled at some poor half-marathoner to “get in that empty stall!”  But, after that, all my pre-race tension past, and I relaxed into the race.  The good thing was there was NO ONE on the course when we started, so we didn’t have to fight the crowds and could set our pace right away, and also it felt great to be passing people right off the bat — we passed the walkers, and everyone running slower than ~11 minute miles.  We also passed a lot of our teammates from NYC, which was great since it gave us a chance to chat with them and check-in.  We passed a lot of purple singlets — there were thousands of TNT runners who raised over $5 million dollars for the LLS for this one marathon alone.  All the TNTers are very supportive; all race long I heard a lot of “Go Team!” 

My family (Husband, Brother, Mom and Dad) popped up around mile 3, they didn’t cheer at first and so I had to shout at them, “It’s me! It’s Me!”   Then around mile 4 I caught up with K, one of my teammates, and she said, I want to run with you.  I told her OK but that my pace was 11-minute miles and she wan’t speeding me up or slowing me down.  She agreed.  And off we went.  She was a great companion, as we didn’t have to chat the whole time, but she was into keeping the pace.  We always just concentrated on the mile we were running, maintaing the pace, holding ourselves in check, watching our breathing.  We stopped for the bathrooms a few times, we passed my family a few more times.  Their cheering improved.  We kept catching up with our teammates, it was great to see them and cheer them on.  The purple singlets were everywhere.  We kept our strategy of pace, pace, pace, and told each other that the race really began at mile 13.  When we passed 13.1 — the half way mark — we gave a cheer.  After that point, the distractions really became more and more important.  The people cheering, water stations, time for nutrition, we started looking for our coaches on the sidelines.  We’d say things to pep each other up like reminding each other how relaxed we were, that we were having fun.  Also, there were bands every mile, so we’d comment on them, enjoy the songs.  I was working too hard to sing along but the music still was a boost.

Around mile 19 we saw Coach Christine, who is amazing, a great coach.  She ran with us for a good half-mile, and gave us strategy for the next six miles.  She said, “it’s just one loop around Central Park, but without the hills.”  Which was exactly what K had said a moment earlier!  We felt so smart.  In fact, we had already run a very smart race up to that point, by maintaining our pace and conserving energy.  At mile 20, our race coordinator H saw us and started cheering like crazy, shouting out our names, with  pom poms and whatnot.  Then my brother scooted in, slapped me on the butt, and ran with us for two miles.  Wow, those miles really sped by like two seconds.  When he broke off to head back to the family, I got teary eyed, his support and belief in me really touched me.

The crowds were great when they were there.   There were many stretches where all you heard was our breathing and dozens of sneakers pounding the pavement.  But once I threw away my warmups and was running in my singlet (mile 13-ish), people started calling out my name (I’d put my name in White-Out across my shirt).  The first time I was like, “How did they know my name?” Duh.  A few people said to us, as we ran by, “Thank you, you helped save my life.”  Wow, those moments were intense. 

We really picked up the pace starting at mile 20, and began running 10-minute miles more or less.  We felt great.  And, basically, we passed everyone who was in front of us.  By mile 23, there were a lot of people walking!  But K and I were focused on getting to the finish line.  We were working hard.  At mile 24, there was this insane freaking hill, it totally sucked, it wasn’t so long but it seemed steep as a cliff, and we only got through it by focusing on the crest and heading for it. Phew! At the 25-mile-marker, I turned to K, all choked up and said, “K—, we’re really going to finish!”  I think at that moment I finally allowed myself to believe it and project ahead.  Then we ran into our group mentor at the beginning of mile 25, which was a total surprise and a total boost, and she ran with us a maybe a quarter of a mile?  She’d run the half-marathon earlier that day so we were totally psyched to see her.  Then, before we knew it, there was a woman shouting, “Mile 26 is just around the corner!  You’re almost done!”  K started bawling (her brother has leukemia) we turned the corner, we saw our head coach R, who ran up to us to lead us to the finish line, and he ran with K, to sooth her and support her, and I took that chance to break away and run ahead just a tad.  I looked up and there was the finish line!!  There it was!!  My ears started ringing, I opened my stride, and broke into the biggest smile ever.  My body was tingling with joy. I started crying, these kind of breathless little weeps, I put my arms up like a champion, and ran right across that finish line. 

I kept crying a little, saying to myself, you did it you ran a marathon.  I was truly overcome.  Then K came over the line, we hugged and cried, we did it we did it!  Congratulations all around.  The rest is a whirl — we got out medals, we got our finisher photos taken, we got those cool mylar wraps (they really work!), we stood in line for food and water.  By the TNT tent, our families met us and we met other teammates and we all hugged and cheered a little.  I spoke to my sis-in-law and Nana on the phone, more pictures, I went and collected my bag from UPS and put on layers of warm clothes. 

I finished in 4:45:45.  I ran a negative split (the second half of my race was faster than my first), I didn’t stop to walk, I didn’t get injured, and I raised nearly $8,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  I am so proud of myself!