Okay time to get down to business. My first marathon was in Huntington WV in November 2006. I finished in four hours and seven minutes (4:07). Basically, about mile 22 I lost my momentum and ended up walking alot of the last few miles. I was glad to finish but felt miserable. I had run three 20+ mile training runs before that race. This time around from January to March I ran five 20+ mile training runs. Most of the time with my buddies Lee, Shawn, and Milton. The 26.2 miles of the marathon wasn't as intimidating anymore.
This trip was to be a family trip and we were all looking forward to it. My wife and I both had caught a cold the week before and we both started feeling better in a few days. However, she relasped into more of the flu and could not go so my Dad a.k.a. GoGo went with the girls and I instead. We drove up on Friday and went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and checked out an IMAX 3D film about landing on the moon. It was really cool and the girls like it.
Madison was like a sponge and tried to read everything! After dinner in a jazz cafe it was time for bed.
Saturday morning I was up and off to the race. I rode the metro to RFK stadium and arrived there about 6:30am. It was raining lightly in the pre-dawn darkness. I had wolfed down a honey oat bar and a gatorade. I pinned a couple GU energy packs, a honey oat bar, and two advil to the inside of my shorts. You could say my shorts were loaded. I checked my backpack in for safekeeping at the baggage check and began to look for a portapottie. This race was about 5000 people total. I would later find out 1170 of those ran the full marathon while the rest ran the half. So most of the people were there for the half. I found the 50 or more portapotties and the lines were 5 to 10 people deep for each one.
I had a bit of an embarrassing moment right off the bat. Over the loudspeaker I could hear "5 minutes till race time". I saw some guys a short distance away up on the hill near the DC Armory relieving themselves in the shrubbery so I took off for them. After I got there the National Anthem started. After I was done I turned around and realized that the flagpole was between me and the 5000 runners in the street below! I don't know if anyone really saw me but it would have been hard to miss me. I didn't see anybody laughing or pointing at me so I chuckled to myself and said oh well and went on back down to the mob. It was still dark and foggy.
It had stopped raining and they were counting down to the start. The horn went off and from where I was at not much happened. Then we began walking forward slowly. About four minutes later, I crossed the start line. I would say I was about 3/4 of the way back in the pack. Thats how many people there were. This race was a timing chip race so I was wearing a radio frequency ID tag around my ankle. That way the system knows when I cross the start and finish lines so I don't have to worry about the time spent behind the start line. I would call it comfortably crowded running. It was hard to get onto my pace of 9:08 per mile. I felt like a running back in a football game trying to weave my way through the crowd. I had brought a gatorade along with me because I knew for the first several miles the water stops would be so crowded it would hold me up to stop at one. This was a smart move. I cruised along at about the right pace throughout all the early miles. Running was easy. We were running on the flat streets around the capitol/mall area and I was just concentrating on holding my pace constant. There were several people out cheering us on.
The first 10 miles absolutely flew by. Well except for the fact that a couple of the early water stops smelled like vomit because well somebody had vomited. I had taken an advil at mile 9 to begin warding off the swelling in my legs. I'd had a GU pack because I had dropped my honey oat bar when trying to take the advil. I learned to just ignore the volunteers handing out water and belly up to the table and down about four or five small cups of water real fast and then move on. At mile 10 or so the half marathoners split off from us and then there was plenty of room to run. We were out in Anacostia Park. It didn't look like that great of a place to be honest. Soon we were back in the city. Mile 13.1 is the halfway point. This is where I was really going to pay attention to my time. I came in at just over two hours (2:00:07). A minute or more behind where I should be. The second half is more hilly than the first so I thought "uh oh I am in trouble here". I was actually slower than I had been in the first marathon at this point.... The only difference was this time...... I felt great!
Madison as a statue
Just as I got to the top of the hill I heard "Daddy Daddy". It was Madison. Dad, Madison, and Erin had been waiting on me at this point. I finished the climb rounded the turn and told them to come see me for a hug.
The girls were headed off to the zoo with GoGo for the morning.
The little visit with the girls really charged me up even more. I was really beginning to experience the "runners high" at this point. I was coming up on mile 20 and I felt like I could fly. I was passing people like crazy at this point. I had 6.2 to go but felt light on my feet. In my head I was beginning to say "get of my way I'm coming through". I was beginning to notice a trend though. We were in some of the northern neighborhoods of DC. We would go around a corner and then up a hill, around a corner and up a hill.About mile 23 I saw this lady who looked like she was struggling and I said "come on you can do it only a 5k to go" and she said "really only a 5k?" I said "yeah, is this your first?" she said "yeah I've run a bunch of half marathons but never a full". I said "yeah, it's a whole different ball game, after mile 22 it gets so tough, hang in there" and she said "I'm finding that out". I could see she was dropping way off so I kept the hammer down and went on. Later on I passed by this large black policeman who was cheering me on. He was saying go blue and looking right at me! (I had on a blue shirt). In my first marathon this is the time where I was saying to people I passed by "Don't ever do this!" But this time around I looked right at him and said "Have we started yet?" He gave out a big belly laugh it was great!
I'd have to say Mile 24ish was the low point of the race for me. The crowd support had dropped off to nothing. There was no one right in front of me to pass. I was thinking that I was not going to have any trouble making the four hour mark but at mile 24 I realized hmm my math had been off a little due to the "fog of running". I hit mile 25 at 3:50. That left me 10 minutes to run 1.2 miles. Again this would be absolutely no problem if I were fresh. I still felt good but the pain was starting to get to me and I started catching myself grunting on the hills and talking to myself as in "come on", "you can do this", "got to move". Of course the hills were still coming at me all the way to the end.
I was running with all I had I knew it was going to be really close. I began hearing people say "you can see the finish". I was too focused to look up. I rounded the last corner and I could see the finish out about 100 yards or so. I looked at my watch.... it already said 3:59!. It doesn't display the seconds on the screen I was on. I just about panicked! I said I am not coming this close to fail at 4 hours! I reached down deep and pulled out an all out sprint. I was now flying. I passed two more people and hurled myself over the finish line. The guy on the loudspeaker said "That's the way you finish right there.... passing two people at the finish and flying."
I then came to the people giving out the medals and the guy there said "wow I think you could have run a little faster". I wasn't really out of breath but I just couldn't think of what to say. My brain was mush. I reset my watch so I could see my complete time. It said 3:59:55. I had done it! I felt great even after the finish. I then walked toward the metro to head back to the hotel.
I would find out later that night that my official time was 3:59:56. FYI, The guy that won it ran it in 2:26:35. I was 458 out of 809 male runners (56%). I was 68 out of 121 male runners age 30-34 (56%). Overall I was 574 out of 1185 runners (48%). I did find out I was first at something. I was the first runner from WV to cross the marathon finish line and yes there were other runners from WV, four to be exact.
I think now I will focus more on speed than distance. I'm going to try to achieve a 6 minute mile for 1 mile. Hopefully, my next marathon will be the Marine Corp Marathon in late October. I'd like to give thanks to the Lord for the strength and ability to run this marathon. Years ago I had high blood pressure and felt horribly. I couldn't run 200 yards or even a quarter mile. My wife and family have been very supportive and all this wouldn't be possible without them.
You can check out the marathon at
http://www.nationalmarathon.com/
and see the full results at
http://www.nationalmarathon.com/Results/2007.asp#mm
My approximate paces for the race were as follows (My GPS was off by 0.2 miles so they are not totally accurate)
| Mile | Min | Sec |
| 1 | 9 | 24 |
| 2 | 8 | 55 |
| 3 | 9 | 8 |
| 4 | 9 | 14 |
| 5 | 9 | 13 |
| 6 | 8 | 51 |
| 7 | 8 | 53 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 9 | 10 | 3 |
| 10 | 8 | 18 |
| 11 | 8 | 36 |
| 12 | 9 | 28 |
| 13 | 8 | 44 |
| 14 | 8 | 47 |
| 15 | 9 | 18 |
| 16 | 8 | 55 |
| 17 | 8 | 30 |
| 18 | 9 | 36 |
| 19 | 8 | 48 |
| 20 | 9 | 45 |
| 21 | 8 | 27 |
| 22 | 9 | 9 |
| 23 | 9 | 30 |
| 24 | 8 | 47 |
| 25 | 9 | 53 |
| 26 | 8 | 48 |
| 26.2 | 7 | 59 |
