Bold Moves

After my first marathon, I was absolutely thrilled with finishing it regardless of the time.  It was a huge deal!  I discovered from that first marathon that I like running endurance races and I rediscovered my love for writing.  So that first marathon launched more races, more races supporting LLS, and publishing my first book.

After my second marathon I again felt fantastic and was again thrilled with finishing.  This time though, I had the added spark of running a BETTER time than that first marathon, by 19 minutes.  That was a new feeling of accomplishment!  That second marathon was different in so many ways.  I trained differently, I was a year smarter about trainng and nutrition, I knew what was ahead of me (and did it anyway), and I had a time goal in mind.  Once again, the lessons were many with marathon #2.  I learned that I had improved as a runner yet I still had so much more to learn! 

And now I have my 3rd marathon fresh in my memory, muscles still slightly sore and marathon medal still kept near me in my work bag.  Once again, I was better prepared and once again I had a time goal in mind.  And yet, once again I learned many lessons. 

The KC Marathon is a tough course, full of hills.  I like it because it is near my home and I run it with Team-in-Training so it is a fund raising race for LLS.  Runnng it for the 3rd time meant I knew the course and so there would be no surprises.  I also really like that.  The weather was cooler than normal, which was awesome.  No rain, big winds or other adverse weather conditions — perfect!  I had 3 specific goals for marathon #3:  first, finish.  I never take for granted that I’ll finish a marathon.  I respect the marathon for the beast that it is; so much can happen over 26.2 miles!  Second, beat my time from last year.  That meant, run faster than 5:05.  Third, which I called a stretch goal, break five hours.  Picking up my packet at the Expo, I felt confident that I had a really good shot at achieving all three goals!   At the Expo, I picked up a pace band for the 4:50 group.  I don’t really run with a pace group, but I like to know where I am relative to the pacers. 

So how did I do?  It’s all a matter of perspective!

The race itself was good overall.  I ran the first half very well, better than expected.  Actually, I’d say I ran up to mile 19 better than expected.  By mile 20, I was in trouble. Although I felt fine overall, my legs went dead.  I mean, they felt like dead weight.  It was taking extraordinary effort to move them, let alone run.  At mile 22 I downed almost all of my remaining Heed/Protein mixture.  As I slogged into the  mile 23 aid station, sponsored by TNT, my legs were beginning to come back to life.  The TNT aid station is a HUGE milestone for me because I get another surge of energy from all the familiar faces.  Plus, I know that the remaining 3.2 miles are FLAT (except the finish).  During that three mile dead-leg portion of the race, I promised myself a lot of things, including retiring from marathons!  I gave myself some time to mourn the loss of my “break five hours” goal and regrouped to salvage a finish.  Emerging from the 23 mile aid station, I checked my Garmin and realized that I could still make my goal! IF…..IF I pushed hard for the last 3.2 miles.  Was that possible?

I thought about my daugther, Morguen.  She’s an athlete and I’m always telling her things like, “do your best to be the best,’ and “never quit,” and “believe in yourself.”  It was time for me to follow my own advice; it was time for me to give that “no regrets” effort.  I wanted to be able to look her in the eye and say that I had given the race everything I had, my best shot.  I thought about my leadership philosophy — attitude is a choice.   Dang, time to pony up.  What attitude was I choosing?   I got angry and dug deep to run harder.  I repeated my running mantras, “Never quit; finish strong!”  And, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  My legs were less heavy and I ignored the pain.  I pushed as hard as I could for those last three miles.  Each aid station was a 10 second refuel point then back to running. 

As I turned onto Grand Blvd with the finish line about 4/10 away, I started looking for my Hubby and Morguen.  I needed them!  I was using every ounce of energy to run as hard as I could.  I was hurting.  Even my toes hurt.  At the 3/10 to go point, Morguen swooped in like an angel!  I was so happy to see her and she had such a great smile on her face.  She said lots of things but I was so tired that the words weren’t really registering but the sound of her voice was motivating.  Then I saw Hubby, he was filming me on his iPhone.  He yelled at me too, but again, I just soaked in his voice like a warm blanket because his words weren’t processing in my brain.  I heard cowbells.  I kept running.  More spectators, lots of encouraging voices!  Someone yelled my name. The finish line felt far away and the uphill finish felt like torture!  Morguen was still running with me but through the crowd, not on the road.  I focused on the finish line and the race clock.   Everything seemed to be in slow motion, it was a bit surreal.  Finally, I crossed the finish line!  I barely had the strength to raise my arms in victory.  Marathon #3 was DONE!  I had achieved ALL 3 goals!  I had somehow managed to regain the time I had lost during that 3 mile “death run” and clinch my goal to beat 5 hours!  My official time: 4:56:51!  I had cut nine minutes off my time from last year!

Reunited with Hubby and Morguen post finish line, Hubby asked me, “How was it?”  My response, despite the PR, was, “it sucked!”   At the same time, I smiled and laughed because I was so thrilled to PR and to be done.   Hobbling back to the hotel for our bags another runner walked alongside us.  Looking up he suddently pointed at me and said, “You ran a tough race!”  I was surprised by his comment and thanked him.  He then looked at Hubby and continued, “I tried to catch her but I couldn’t!”  Then he looked back at me and said, “Good job!”  I was stunned.  No one had ever said such a thing to me.  Wow!   What a day….I battled through a really rough patch in the race, I held on to PR, and on top of all that, I get an amazing compliment from a fellow runner.  Pain?  What pain? 

How did I do?  AWESOME!  How was the race?  AWESOME!   Perspective is a fantastic thing.   During that rough patch I promised myself that this would be my last marathon. I even shared that sentiment with Hubby right after the finish.  By the time we were in our car driving home, I was already talking about finding a flat/fast race for my next marathon.  See how that works?   Conquering those dark, horrible moments are excruciating but when it’s all said and done, they motivate you to face the next challenge knowing that you CAN face the challenge. 

Never Quit — Finish Strong!