December 2009 Archives
Through the rest of the afternoon, family slowly trickled into Jeff and Renee's place. It was really great to see everybody, eat some pre-race pizza, and catch up. We watched "The Spirit of the Marathon" (thanks Mister P for the loan) and eventually I got up off the couch and wandered off to bed. It was around 11 before I got my stuff all laid out for the next morning, which was not great considering the 4.5 hours of sleep I'd had the night before, but as a result I slept soundly right up to the moment my alarm went off, which is a total Big Race First.
I got up and checked the weather one last time - current temperature was in the mid-40s with highs predicted in the low 70s. A glance outside showed nothing in the sky but stars. Frankly, the weather could not have been better. Of course I was loaded for bear, technical clothing wise, with cold weather stuff, rain stuff, layers, etc flowing out of my suitcase, but all I needed was a short sleeved technical shirt, shorts, and my new race gloves. I had a little toast and coffee and we headed out.
It was a gorgeous morning as we pulled into the VIP parking lot (a definite perk and one of the good reasons to hang around with a duly designated representative of the race's title sponsor) and started peeling off warm-ups and doing final pre-flight checks. We all needed a porta-potty stop before we lined up, so we got into the very long lines for that. Unfortunately, we were still in these lines when the start gun went off. Jeff noticed another bank of porta-potties without much of a line, so we dashed over there, took care of our respective business, and, well, ran over to the starting line. As we pushed through the barricades to get on-course the announcer was calling out "and who will be the last to start this year's marathon?" (Careful analysis of the results show that I was in fact the 11th from the last to start the full marathon.) We were about 5 minutes behind gun time getting to the line, which was not really a big deal - chip timing had us covered. The lack of time in the corral also helped make the prerace nerves part very manageable - no time to worry about anything! I remembered to turn on my footpod just before we crossed the line, and zip, zap, zop, we were on the course.
The downside of the late start was that all 3000+ full and half marathoners were in front of us. We moved around, through, and by all the walkers and tried to settle into a pace. I spent a good deal of time adjusting the drawstring in my shorts, which were falling off. I had been in such a hurry to get to the start line with my cousins that I hadn't tied it very well and the weight of gel packs and race stuff was pulling my shorts off. In spite of all that we hit the first mile in about 9:30. Jeff and I were planning to run with the 4:30 pace group, and they were obviously up the road a ways, so we were running about 30 sec/mile above pace to reel them in - slowly. My cousin Steve was running the half marathon at the same pace, and so the three of us ate up the early miles of the race together, chatting a bit, interacting with the spectators, and enjoying the morning. I kept jostling Steve just because I am so unused to running with people. We passed the 5:30 and 5:00 pace groups and caught the 4:30 pacers at around mile 5.
Over the last few years, I had been talking with a couple cousins about running a marathon together. We discussed several but it had never come to more than just talk. Then, this summer I got an email from my cousin Jeff. The Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa, where he lives, had gotten a new title sponsor - Williams. It was a sign. I had been planning on running my local half-marathon this fall but the idea of running with my family, and getting a shirt that said "Williams Marathon" on it, was enticing. I agreed to the idea, booked a plane ticket, and laid out my training plan.
My training was not great. I probably missed 20% of my planned runs due to illness and travel. Late in the plan I had a string of truly horrible long training runs (like, DNF horrible) but toward the end I had a spectacular 20 mile run that really boosted my spirits. It was the fastest I'd ever covered that distance, I felt great at the finish, and it made me feel like I could run my goal time of 4:30. I was pretty up about the whole thing until Friday of that week, when I came down with H1N1 flu. Two weeks before the marathon and I'm nursing a 102 degree fever, just great. Thanks to that I missed another week and a half of training and was doubting whether I'd recover before race day. No matter, the plane ticket was in hand and the entry fee was paid, so I figured I'd just get myself to the start line and hope for the best. In my mind I tried to focus on that 20-miler.
I rented Rocky III to watch on the plane. I found myself wondering whether the marathon was going to be more like Rocky's first or second fight with Clubber Lang. Was I going to end up lying to Burgess Meredith afterwards? Or holding up a championship belt? Either way I knew I was going to get beat up. In the words of Apollo Creed, "There is no tomorrow!"
I was going to spend race weekend with my cousins in Tulsa but coming to Oklahoma and not spending some time with my mom would be, well, rude. And bad. And thoughtless. So I traveled early and spent a couple days at mom's house: taking care of some chores, running errands, and nursing a cold that seemed to have tagged along after the flu. A sore throat, drippy nose, and occasional hacking cough were a constant presence, and that made me more than a little worried about race day. I spent Friday night with some high school friends and we stayed up talking into the wee hours of the morning. When I woke up on Saturday, I wasn't sure if I was feeling crummy from being sick, sleep-deprived, nervous, or some delicious blend of the three.
I got myself up and started thinking about breakfast, and heading out for Tulsa.
