After finishing my first marathon on
October 6, 2012 I was very discouraged. I felt MISERABLE. My muscles
were cramping horribly and I was CRYING. Not happy tears. Sad, mad,
disappointed...you name it. Is that how running marathons are
supposed to be? You set a goal to reach and when you don't reach it,
you are miserable?? About a month later I got to thinking. I wanted
to redeem myself. I didn't know if it was too soon to run another
marathon but I felt I needed to. You see, ever since that finish I
struggled to find my love for running. It became a chore. Something I
HAD to do. Like a job. It sucked to be quit honest. I met a great
friend around this time and talked to her about my desire to run
another marathon. She ran her first marathon in March 2012 and just
finished her 5th one! She runs one about every other
month. Being inspired by this I signed up for another. I had about a
month before race day so I did what I could. I was nervous!!! What
did I just sign up for?? I was soo MISERABLE after my first WHY IN
THE WORLD would I even THINK about doing another. But like I said, I
felt a marathon shouldn't feel like that and I wanted redemption. I
had a lot to over come in this month prior to the race. I suffered
severe muscles cramps from mile 18-26.2 in my first marathon. Not to
even mention the mental side. I was a mess! I'm honestly surprised
that I finished. Honestly. It was bad. About this time I met a great
group of friends from ALL over the world. We all bonded so fast and
became a very tight family. I got advice on mental toughness and how
to overcome the dreaded wall in the marathon. These friends each
picked a few miles of the race and wrote me inspiring words, funny
jokes, and motivating words. I bawled like a baby when I found this
post. I had no idea. I have never had friends that gave me this kind
of support. I felt so special and so ready to rock this marathon.
Marathon weekend. We dropped my girls
off at my parent's house and headed over to my great friend
Christine's home. For the past 4 weeks she had been giving me
massages! Talk about an AWESOME friend!! I am truly blessed to have
had her. I definitely feel the massages helped my legs feel 100x's
better this time around...but I'll talk about that later! :) After
the wonderful relaxing massage, my husband and I headed to Tucson.
Tucson is about a 2/2 ½ hour drive from where I live. This weekend
was about having fun. I didn't want to have any negativity and drama
that I did last time. (Don't get me wrong...I had a ton of fun with
my family and really enjoyed the experience...but it wasn't AMAZING
like I was expecting. I mean come on...running 26.2 miles is pretty
flippen amazing...but it didn't feel that way) ANYWAY...haha...We got
to the check in spot and walked around for a little while. I'm not a
huge fan of expos...just a bunch of over priced gear and what not.
But I got my bib and we headed out to drive the course. I loved just
being about to look at everything around me. (when we drove the
course for my first marathon...we had the kids in the car...AHHH!!! I
about ripped my hair out!!) It was so nice to have a quiet car and
just relax. We found the starting point and drove back out to the
finish. After finishing there we headed out to find our hotel.
Unfortunately the hotel I booked way pretty far away. We talked to
the manager and he let us cancel without charge. So after doing that
we drove back and found a nice hotel about 10 minutes away from the
bus loading zone. Now for my last marathon (sorry I'm comparing so
much between the two...but hopefully you'll get the point by the
end.) I didn't sleep AT ALL the night before. Maybe 30 minutes. This
time I got a GREAT 4 FULL HOURS!! So silly how amazing that was! I
woke up around 2am and was just awake. I laid around until about
3:15AM and then got up to get ready. I was PUMPED! I was sooo
excited. I was singing and dancing...now remember this was 3 IN THE
MORNING! I'm NOT a morning person. I KNEW it was going to be an
AMAZING day. My husband dropped me off at the buses, told me I was
amazing...with a little prying by me haha...and then I was off. As I
walked to the buses all alone, I decided to talk to everyone around
me. I didn't do this last time and I felt very lonely. There were
these 2 guys just behind me, so I turned to say hello. I asked them
all sorts of questions and we had a good small conversation. I
noticed one of them wasn't wearing any running clothes and had flip
flops odd...found this to be odd...but he did have a pretty good
backpack on so I figured he'd change on the bus. As we walked to the
start of the buses I noticed that the end buses were school buses but
the ones up front were nice charter buses! We had a heater and our
own bathroom!!! AMAZING! (In St George we rode up in freezing cold
school buses and I had to wait in a HUGE line to go potty...almost
missed the start because of how long I waited. I think I waited
around 20 minutes to go potty.) We got to sit on the bus until about
20 minutes til start. AMAZING!! Once I got off I hurried to get my
drop bag ready to go and then walked towards the starting line. I
figured I'd try to hit around the 4 hour mark again and just see what
happens. The ONLY thing I was nervous about was the dreaded wall. I
hit it hard at mile 18 in my first and suffered all the way til the
finish. NOT AMAZING. Hahaha As we lined up they played the national
anthem and did a countdown from 10. Normally that's when the
adrenaline and nerves hit me. But not today. I was relaxed, had a
smile on my face, and ready to LOVE running again. As we started and
as the crowd spread out a little, I met some friends, Lynn and Dave.
This was Lynn's 9th marathon and Dave's 63rd!!
Dave had to be in his 60's!! Anyway, we asked what our hopeful
finishing time was and both Lynn and I said to finish with a smile! I
loved her! As we continued running I saw my friend I met on the bus.
The one with flip flops and shorts on. Ya, guess what...he was
running BAREFOOT. Now, understand there are runners who do that. So I
wasn't too shocked...just kind of blown away that I actually saw
someone doing it haha about this time I noticed on some of the
uphills my heart rate was sky rocketing, so I pulled back. I didn't
want to hit that wall at the end! I ended up walking the uphills all
through out the race. It felt great. And that's what I wanted.
So...around mile 3 I noticed a HUGE puddle of blood on the street and
then a trail of blood after that. I thought about my barefoot friend.
I thought that maybe he stepped on a sharp rock or something and
prayed he was ok. As I continued I noticed blood every once in a
while and knew it was bad. About mile 6 I caught up with him. He was
walking...with his shoes back on. I stopped and walked with him for a
bit. Asked if he was ok. He didn't step on any rock...he had BLISTERS
on the bottom of his feet...the WHOLE foot was a blister that had
ripped opened! I felt horrible for him. But....then again...he could
have worn shoes. I asked if he needed anything and he said he was
going to get bused back to the finish. I gave him a high five and a
smile and then I headed again. About a mile later I noticed another
runner. I felt the urge to talk to him. So I slowed to his pace and
said hello. This was his first marathon. I chatted a little, told him
my few tips of advice, and then gave him a high five and headed out
again. Shortly after....I felt my tummy starting...my dear girlie
friend was here to visit and I always get sort of gasy with her in
town (hahaha) I had to stop and use the restroom. And of course 5
other people beat me to it. I of course started a conversation with
them while we waited. It was fun. Yes, waiting in line to use a
portapotty was fun. After starting back running again I felt a TON
better. I found another friend to talk to and he was from Berlin! He
had a great accent! I always love talking to folks with accents
hahaha He told me this was his 29th marathon, again he had
to be in his 50's. He said he was supposed to run the New York
Marathon, but obviously didn't because it was canceled to to
Hurricane Sandy. He had said he flew in to New York from Berlin the
day before the race, got all signed in and then the news of it being
canceled came. HOW CRUMMY! So he ended up flying back home and
searched for another marathon before the end of the year. I was just
lucky enough to chat with him. He ended up heading to the bushes to
go potty so I picked back up my pace and headed on. I hit miles
9-13...those were rolling hills. I decided to keep my walking uphill
strategy and keep the good feeling going. Pretty slow miles here but
still feeling good. After the half way mark, I realized my pace was
pretty slow so I decided to pick it up this next half. As I picked up
my paces...my tummy started hurting again. So once again I had fun
waiting in line for the restroom. Had I only had to go #1 I wouldn't
have waited in line...there were big bushes on the side...but this
was not the case. Anyway, after that I picked back up and felt good.
I started to notice that I was passing a lot of people. As I passed I
said a little something and smiled and then kept going. It was fun to
give encouraging words. Around mile 15 I wasn't passing anyone and no
one was really around to talk to, so I pulled out my music. You
better believe I busted out some sweet running dance moves. It was
great. The bike patrol people would wave and smile at me. The kids at
the water station laughed and we'd bust out a few moves together too.
It was great! I made sure that at every water station I thanked the
people there. They were volunteering for this. They weren't getting
paid. If they weren't there...there would be a lot of runners
hurting. So I felt the need to thank them. As I approached the cursed
mile 18 I kept telling myself to smile. I high fived the mile marker
sign and pushed on. And I continued to high five each mile marker
sign until the finish. It was great! I even stopped at mile 20 to
pose for a picture. One thing that I noticed in my first marathon is
that I looked down a lot. I starred at the street in front of me a
lot. So I made it a goal to keep my chin up and look around. I had
gotten my phone out to video a few points along the route. It took a
lot of time getting in and out of my bad so I kind of stopped for a
while and just tried to keep my eyes up and focused. It REALLY helped
to do that. Around mile 22 I got my phone back out and right then my
husband started calling. He asked where I was and he ended up finding
me around mile 23. He was on his mountain bike and he rode to the
finish with me. It was soo nice to have that because around mile 24 I
started to crash. Not nearly as bad though. Just my legs were getting
tired and I kept wanting to walk. And I did. Like I've said
before...I wanted to finish with a smile. So I walked and ran the
rest of the way. I ran past this really elderly guy and said hello.
He had to be in his late 80's. Seriously amazing!! As we turned the
corner to head towards mile 26 there was this lady. She looked as
though she was struggling. I ran next to her for a bit and kept
telling her to not stop. Don't give up. You are ssoooooo close to the
finish. You can't stop now...not only was I telling her that, but
also myself :) As I headed down the last stretch of the race there
were people on both sides. It seemed kind of quiet so I threw up my
hands and started cheering. People joined in and I started to get
some tears in my eyes. The announcer was saying peoples names as we
came in. When he said my name I let out my “Zena Worrier” yell,
that I'm very famous for, and finished with a SMILE!! I felt on top
of the world!!! I could hardly walk, but I seriously felt AMAZING.
THIS IS WHAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE!!!! Not in tears from being
sad and mad.
I'm very proud to say that I achieved
my goal. I finished with a smile and I had a TON OF FUN. YES!! 26.2
miles of running was FUN!! I've found my love for running again and
couldn't be happier. I can't wait for every marathon to be such a
fulfilling reward. Who cares about my pace and my time...for me I
need to LOVE what I do. Running is my release, my anti-depressant, my
therapy session...and when I'm concerned about time....IT SUCKS!! To
each their own. Some people love to win marathons, or hit a certain
pace. For me, I'm learning that smiling is my thing.
Another good thing about running
slower....I'm not NEARLY as miserably sore!! Ya, sure...I still can't
walk down stairs. But it seemed after last marathon I cried when I
had to stand up or sit down or take a step. I hurt so incredibly bad.
And it wasn't fun! Today I'm feeling sore...but it's sooo worth it
for how much fun I had!
On to my nutrition for the race. Last
marathon I took GU every couple miles. It helped but it was messy!! I
also was very dehydrated. This time I ran with my camelbak. I drank a
TON and I know it helped. Sure, you don't need to run with a
backpack...but make sure you take your time at the water station.
Drink two cups of water/gatorade if need be. I also ditched the GU
and took these pills called Endurolytes. They are capsules
filled with electrolyte powder. I'm 100% positive these helped me
with my cramping. I took one every 20 minutes and I felt great! Even
at the end...I'd feel the cramping coming on and notice I was at 15
minutes or so, so I'd pop a pill in and within 3 minutes my legs felt
great! I also drank HALF of an energy drink at mile 20. Miles 20-22
my pace was 8:45!! haha but then I hit more uphills and I slowed back
down. I think next time around I'm going to save that kick until mile
24!
My next marathon is in 10 weeks!! I'm
super excited for training until then. I'm planning to start P90X and
get some strong muscles! Wish me luck!!
SMILE EVERONE!!!
(pictures coming in another post!!)
