Well I guess I'll post my race report even though I'd rather just forget the whole experience....
I ran the Charlotte marathon yesterday, and finished with a time I'm not proud of. Only because I've trained at a faster pace and I have no idea what went wrong other than maybe I wasn't trained as well as I thought.
The day started out rough as DS(1) cried and fretted all night. I got about 4 hours sleep total. As I walked out the door to meet Christa, I told DH to check his temp b/c he felt hot to me.
Christa and I met up around 6:30am and rode down to the race together. DH and DS(1) were going to meet me at the end to take me home since Christa had to get home directly after the race.
My friend Ross showed up at the start and ran the first half with me. Let me digress here for a sec... My goal for this race originally was to treat it as a training run since my 22 run was scheduled for this weekend . I figured since I had to run that far what was 4 more? If I needed to walk extra then I'd do that. Somewhere in my training over the last couple months I decided I wanted to PR on this race. See; up to this point I've never broken 5 hours on a race. My last race which was the goofy two years ago I ran a 5:10. Close, but yet still so far. Yesterday was my first race since having the baby last november. I have trained at a faster pace than I have in years past so my goal became to run a sub 5 marathon. For me that shouldn't be too hard. I ran my 20 mile run in 3:40. Ok, so back to my story...
Ross ran the first half with me and it was great to have the company. I ran steady, never slipping above an 11mm or so....give or take a few seconds. He left me at mile 13.5, I put on my mp3 and kept truckin along. Somewhere around mile 18 I felt the fatigue kick in. At mile 20 I fell completely apart, hit the wall, call it what you want, but my body said no more sister. I fought tooth and nail for 3 miles to keep running, and thought well maybe I won't make 4:45 but maybe I'll at least come in right at 5.
I gave up the fight at mile 23 and walked entirely for 2.5 miles and ran/walked the rest of the way in. My head was hanging so low I have scrapes on my chin. I don't know if I could have felt any worse about myself then I did at that point. At about mile 24 i came across one of the guys from our local running store riding the course on his bike supporting folks. he rode beside me for a few minutes. I was deep in self loathing at that point when he said to me "hey Bree wasn't this supposed to be a training run for you anyway?" Well yes, but I know I can run faster than this. He said "well this is the farthest you've run so far this year and you have disney to be prepared for in a few weeks" Ok, Ok, so maybe I won't go bury myself in my closet when I get home.
I came across the finish line in 5:25. Still within the 6 hour limit, and I wasn't DFL. Charlotte is not what I would call an easy course. I wish I had a topograph (isn't that what you call it) to show all the hills. I really think the whole second half was uphill. My quads are killing me today! When I spoke to Christa afterwards, she asked me if I left all i had in me on that race course.. I said yes. She said then there is nothing you could have done differently, and you finished. I can't argue with that.
High notes: the weather was nice, a little warm at the end, but nice. I had someone to run the first half with. Had a great "scream team" in my FIL's wife, and her 6yo granddaughter. I did finish the race, and got a medal. I can now say I have finished 6 full marathons.
Low notes: Didn't finish in the time I wanted to. DS is in fact sick and has been running a 102+ fever. So now I have self loathing AND guilt
~bree~
, congratulations. Looking forward to your race report
Way to go Jen!
I give you all the kudos though, for finishing under those trying circumstances. I'm glad you had friends along side of you to help you to the finish line. And, even though it might not seem so in your eyes, that's a rockin' time for 26.2!
