The Marathon Experience-Chapter Five

I passed the 9 mile point and I knew the turnoff for the full was coming up soon. it wasn't as crowded now and it was a little easier to hit my target pace, but I was concerned that I wouldn't see the turnoff-I had no idea how it would be marked and there were no other full marathoners nearby that I could kind of follow. Then I saw a sign-"Full marathon turn soon" or something to that effect. So now I knew to follow the signs, and they had quite a few high enough that I could see them almost a mile before the turnoff. Then I saw pylons and a sign directing full marathoners to the right of the pylons-I was on track and they hadn't closed the course! I got really excited. This was where the marathon really started for me. I made the turn, and the atmosphere of the race changed immediately-there were only a handful of runners in front of me and it suddenly got very quiet. No more joking around; no cell phones; just a few runners focused on the task ahead of them. I saw Hubby with the camera and managed to give him a thumbs up as I passed him.

I had entered the hallowed territory of a full marathon. This is where it began for me, even though I had already run over 10 miles. There was plenty of room and the water stops were no problem at all, except for one or two where they didn't have any Cytomax mixed up; I just took water instead and kept going. Everyone was very friendly but very serious. There were a few Elvi and a few wedding couples but otherwise it was just regular runners like myself. I glanced behind me and yes, there were runners behind me-I wasn't last!

The course took us through some residential sections of Las Vegas-you might be surprised at what is just off the strip-older homes, and also some rather nice neighborhoods. I occasionally passed a few runners; more often they passed me. I didn't care-I was running a marathon. My pace was slowing and I decided that was ok, too-I knew there was a slight incline for quite a distance and I figured I would have to slow down for that.

I was doing an out and back at one point, and I heard a member of one of the bands giving a wonderful, truly inspirational little talk about how he admired the runners and we were his heroes, and the next song was just for us and he hoped we found it inspiring. Great, I thought-a nice inspirational song just when I need one. Then the band launched into a headbanger rock song, the kind where you can't understand anything they're saying because they're just shouting into the mike, and the only actual words I could understand were the f bombs! Wow-yeah-that was inspirational-thanks!

I couldn't remember if mile 16 or 18 was the next point where we would be diverted off the marathon course if we weren't there by a certain time. So when I passed mile 16 I was pretty happy; then two miles later at mile 18 I knew I was going to finish the race-I was in, baby! They weren't taking me off the course unless they were willing to use excessive force!

The Marathon Experience-Chapter Four

After getting lost in the crowd, we finally found our way to the corrals. We were at corral 6 and started walking back-for what seemed miles. Every step was taking me further away from the start line and I didn't like that at all-it would be a long time after the gun went off before I finally crossed that line. I took a quick turn through corral 22 looking for a fellow blogger; all I had to go by was her profile picture and I couldn't find her-sorry, Funderson-it would have been nice to meet up before the race! We kept going back until finally, there it was-corral 24. It was already packed with fellow racers and even one woman in a wheel chair. I started chatting with 2 people in my corral, Lynn and Dave, and we had plenty of time to get to know one another. Lynn is an experienced marathoner-I think she said she's done 4 marathons following a Galloway plan and she was hoping to finish the Las Vegas race in 6:30 or so. Hmmm, I think to myself-someone who has done this before and could finish before 7 hours-maybe I should pace with her and follow her plan of running a mile then walking. When I suggested this, she got a sort of horrified expression on her face, and said maybe a better idea was for me to follow my 3 mile plan. I realized she was right-it would be incredibly foolish for me to ditch a plan I had been following for months. Dave was a first time marathoner from Colorado and what a funny guy! He kept us laughing the whole time we were waiting for the start gun. No one in my corral seemed worried about making the cutoff point-heck, no one seemed worried about anything. The other corrals may have been faster runners than we were, but I doubt that they had more fun than we did. I even took the opportunity to try to bum a cigarette-this always gets a few laughs before a race, and my newfound running friends cracked up.

Finally I saw fireworks and the start of the race on the giant screens. And we kept waiting. And waiting. We would move forward about 20 feet, then stop. This went on forever. And then we were actually approaching the start line-complete with the Blues Brothers performing on top of it! We crossed the start line and began running. Dave found a big opening in the crowd and took off like a shot and I didn't see him again until much later in the race. I couldn't go more than a 13:00 pace-the crowds were ridiculous. The slow pace felt uncomfortable and clumsy. I really wanted to hit my customary 12:30 long run pace but that just wasn't going to happen. I remembered Bruce's advice to resist weaving around the slower runners and thus adding mileage to an already long run, and so I just slogged away trying to find openings to help me pick up the pace.

This was not like any race I have ever been in. This was more like a running party. Almost all the runners I saw were doing the half and they were laughing and joking and goofing off the whole time. I saw people on cell phones and texting while they were running. I think this was because I was at the back of the pack-I'm thinking faster runners up front were probably taking the race a lot more seriously. There were running Elvi and couples dressed for the run through wedding everywhere, and Hubby saw a guy running in a kilt and a caveman guy with a sign on his back that said "so easy a caveman can do it"!

I saw Hubby around mile 2 and slowed down just enough to give him my sweatshirt. It was still freezing cold but I figured I would warm up soon enough. I wondered later on if maybe I should have kept the sweatshirt longer-my arms got really cold and my hands were numb with cold even while wearing gloves. It was so cold that my chomps were a little frozen-I had them in a ziplock bag pinned to my shorts and they were hard to chew!

The water stops were horrible. I only needed to hit every other water stop and it was so crowded that people were just stopping and lining up. I managed to skip the first tables and go a little farther down to a less crowded table but it was still awful and I know I lost a lot of time. At one stop, I finally made my way to the table and just as I was reaching for a cup, a woman pushed me really hard and got in front of me. Seriously-I almost fell. I just gave up on that one-it wasn't worth a face plant just to get a cup of Cytomax and it was so cold anyway that I didn't think hydration issues were critical.

I finally reached the turn around point at mile 7. I was feeling really good, not tired, no hip issues, and I just tried to focus on keeping as close to my pace as possible. The crowds had thinned out a bit and I was able to speed up to my usual pace. I was very nervous at this point. There were NO full marathoners anywhere to be seen. I knew that the half marathoners had a different bib color and I kept looking for anyone doing the full. I began to wonder if I was the last marathoner approaching the turn off point. I was really dissapointed when I saw a race clock that showed I had lost over half an hour just getting to the start line. I felt like I was running with a penalty. this was one of the lowest points of the race for me.

The Marathon Experience-Chapter Three

Finally, the morning of the race is upon me. I was wide awake at 2:00; I had 2 alarm clocks set for 4:00-does anyone remember the Seinfeld episode where the marathon runner missed the start of the race because his alarm didn't go off? I had all my gear laid out; my number and chip were already attached; Hubby was properly equipped with fully charged camera and cell phone; there was nothing more to be done but have some coffee and a bagel in our room and head down to the Mandalay Bay. One of the smartest things I did was to bring my own coffee pot-there are 2 Starbucks at the Luxor, and both were packed beyond belief with runners trying to get their pre-race caffeine.

I was pretty much holding it together until we turned a corner and I saw the crowd of runners all headed for the Mandalay Bay. There were so many-and they all looked so incredibly fit, and serious, and focused. This is where my nerves started to get the better of me. I saw all those people who appeared to really know what they were doing and I almost lost it. Honestly, I thought about just turning around, going back to my room, and forgetting the whole thing. I didn't belong with these people-I was just a middle aged, incredibly average woman who just liked to run. What was I thinking-who was I trying to kid-I'm not marathon material. I sort of stayed behind Hubby because I didn't want him to see how upset I was. He just kept walking and cracking jokes as we made our way through the crowd and that helped. We finally reached the lobby and there were still so many runners-no one wanted to go outside until the last possible minute because it was so cold.

I got a quick picture with a couple of Elvi and headed out. Unlike the rest of the crowd, I wanted to get outside and find out just how cold it was sooner rather than later. I was a bit surprised-it was cold, but it didn't feel as cold as most of my pre-dawn training runs. I actually felt reasonably comfortable in light sweats. We wandered around the staging area trying to find our way to the corrals; it was obvious that the organizers really knew what they were doing-this definitely wasn't their first race. The bag check area alone was pretty amazing-imagine an entire parking lot with gear bags neatly laid out in rows and volunteers running back and forth placing the bags in proper order.

I had talked to a runner yesterday who told me he was registered for the full, but due to an injury he would run to the cutoff point and then make a decision based on how he felt to either turn off for the full or just do the half. I thought about this the morning of the race, and wondered if I would be making the same decision soon-would I reach the 10 mile point and just decide it was too much? Perhaps the decision would be made for me-I was still nervous about reaching that point before the mandatory cut off time.

The Marathon Experience-Chapter Two

Saturday morning we slept in very late-for the Hubster and I, that means we slept in until about 7:00; we're both usually up at the crack of dawn so it just felt good to have a day with no plans, no running, no work. After a leisurely breakfast we wandered around the casino and took another quick turn through the expo. I didn't want to spend much time on my feet so we spent a lot of time sitting and watching a video of the race course. At 1:00 we met fellow blogger and my running mentor, Bruce. Bruce has lived in Las Vegas for many years, he knows the city well and was kind enough to give us a tour of the race course-complete with an entertaining history of Las Vegas and some really good advice about the course, the elevations increases I would have to watch for and so forth. The day was cold and clear and calm; I was hoping for the same on Sunday. After our drive over the course with Bruce, we took another short turn through the expo, wandered over to the cowboy stuff next door (they had rodeo finals in Las Vegas that same week, so lots of cowboys!) then went back to our room.

After dinner I laid out my running gear and had all my stuff ready for the next day. I didn't want to be digging through my bag looking for gloves or a heart strap the morning of the race. Surprisingly, at this point I wasn't really that nervous. I felt like I had done everything possible to allow me to finish the race. I was hoping to come in under 6 hours; 5:30 would be fantastic but I knew 6 hours was more realistic.

A couple of people on my running forum said that actually running the race would seem easier than running the long runs for training-I was hoping they were right!

The Marathon Experience-Chapter One

I intend to stretch this out, faithful readers. I don't know how many marathons I will run in the future; I do know that I will only have one first marathon in my life and part of my desire to savor that first experience includes blogging about it in excruciating detail. So you will see several posts here over the next few days-this will be the Las Vegas Marathon, step by step.

We got to our hotel Friday afternoon in plenty of time to check in and head over to the expo to pick up my race packet. I got my packet and goodie bag, then got in line for a race shirt. When I got to the table, the volunteer looked at my packet and informed me I was in the wrong line-these were half marathon shirts; I needed to go to another table for a full race shirt. I definitely didn't work this hard for a half marathon shirt! I discovered that the half marathoners got black shirts; those of us in the full marathon got a red shirt-cool! We then headed over to the expo and it was awesome. I could have spent days there, looking at all the displays, getting samples, and talking to runners. Hubby discovered Muscle Milk and had about 20 samples-he kept wanting to loop past that table for another sample. The whole time we were walking around I was thinking about the race and getting nervous, then trying to calm down.

I picked up info about 2 marathons that intrigue me-the Edinburgh Marathon, and the Mesquite Marathon-Edinburgh because I love that city and we can incorporate a vacation into the marathon, and Mesquite because they just started it and it's really small-the guy at the table said they only had 400 runners this year. How crazy is that-I haven't yet run my first marathon and I'm already considering a second one! Honestly, folks-I just don't know if I will do another marathon. The training is incredibly time consuming and I had to be extremely disciplined-skipping runs is just not an option when you're training for a marathon. But I digress-back to my first marathon.

Finally we left the expo, mostly because I was carrying so many free samples in my goodie bag and I was getting tired. We had an early dinner and went to our room and just chilled out and watched TV. I ran an easy 2 miler that morning before we hit the road; we had been driving for about 7 hours; we were really tired and hit the sack early that night.

Stay tuned for another exciting episode of The Marathon Experience!

I'm a Marathoner!

I did it. I finished the marathon. It was an amazing experience and there is so much to tell. We just got home this afternoon and I'm still walking about 6 feet off the floor. I'll be posting about the weekend soon-it was all very, very good!

Race Weekend

Hubby and I leave tomorrow morning, bright and early, for a 6 hour drive for Las Vegas-8 hours by the time we factor in meal and rest stop breaks. I'm excited, nervous and scared. All I can do at this point is trust in my training, watch my pace at the beginning of the race, stay out of everybody's way, and run. I'm hoping that the next time I post here, I will do it as a marathoner.

When the race starts, and I'm crossing the start line, I have to convince myself that this is just another long run to complete, and set aside the fact that I'm running my first marathon. I will have to remind myself that I've run 22 miles, therefore I can run 26.2 miles. I have to stay focused and while I really want to enjoy the experience I also want to watch my pace and pay attention to my running.

I think I'm ready.