GW Birthday Marathon Take2
Bare Bones Race Report:
0730: Leave home
0735: get gas
0736: Merge onto I-95
0845: take wrong exit on I-395
0850: use Google Maps to reroute
0930: arrive in Greenbelt
0945: Pick up race packet, shirt, number
1000: Run into Jennifer
1015: Walk w/ J- to race start
1031: Marathon Starts
Mile 1: Bottom of big ass hill
Mile 2: Between Mile 1 & Mile 2 hear someone in a car calling my name. What? oh, McGee!!! YES!!
Mile 3: Strip off my long sleeve and pass off to McGee. (she's a lifesaver)
Mile 4: Decide to walk for 1 minute at every mile marker (and walk hills when I feel my hear rate going up)
Don't know how many times I got asked this question but I got tired of replying. . 'Aren't you cold?' (granted I was in a singlet and running skirt when most everyone else still had hats and glove on. .. but I'm from New York)
Mile 7: We've just come down through the intersection if I remember correctly, I'm running strong and passing a bunch of other runners on the big hill but I'm going to take the energy burst when I can get it.
Coming in to the staging area for the relay runners I'm feeling really good, pushing but being smart about it. Drinking gatorade at every water stop, I've got my water bottle and gummy things on my person. Walking for a minute every mile, walking hills and feeling really good. Getting a bit overheated on the front of the loop and going numb when we're running into the wind on the outer loop. At some point I realize that I'm still pulling down sub-10 minute miles even with all this walking. I keep pushing and realize that if it weren't for that huge ass hill at mile 25 I'd be running a 4:15 marathon. . .WTF! Right around Mile 20 I'd seen a man going backward up a hill. I tried it and surprisingly, it worked. . on that hill. When I tried this technique on the last hill my quads seized up around my knees and forced me to turn around and kind of jog up the hill because anything else hurt too much. As it turned out, somehow I managed to pull down a 4:19:36 marathon. A PR and still felt good afterward. McGee was at the finish with an ice cold beer. It was a good day.
The drive home was a bitch. My bum felt like it was a huge charlie horse. Fortunately I'd taken a shower at the rec center so I focused on the positive and grinned, well, I whined a bit too.
0730: Leave home
0735: get gas
0736: Merge onto I-95
0845: take wrong exit on I-395
0850: use Google Maps to reroute
0930: arrive in Greenbelt
0945: Pick up race packet, shirt, number
1000: Run into Jennifer
1015: Walk w/ J- to race start
1031: Marathon Starts
Mile 1: Bottom of big ass hill
Mile 2: Between Mile 1 & Mile 2 hear someone in a car calling my name. What? oh, McGee!!! YES!!
Mile 3: Strip off my long sleeve and pass off to McGee. (she's a lifesaver)
Mile 4: Decide to walk for 1 minute at every mile marker (and walk hills when I feel my hear rate going up)
Don't know how many times I got asked this question but I got tired of replying. . 'Aren't you cold?' (granted I was in a singlet and running skirt when most everyone else still had hats and glove on. .. but I'm from New York)
Mile 7: We've just come down through the intersection if I remember correctly, I'm running strong and passing a bunch of other runners on the big hill but I'm going to take the energy burst when I can get it.
Coming in to the staging area for the relay runners I'm feeling really good, pushing but being smart about it. Drinking gatorade at every water stop, I've got my water bottle and gummy things on my person. Walking for a minute every mile, walking hills and feeling really good. Getting a bit overheated on the front of the loop and going numb when we're running into the wind on the outer loop. At some point I realize that I'm still pulling down sub-10 minute miles even with all this walking. I keep pushing and realize that if it weren't for that huge ass hill at mile 25 I'd be running a 4:15 marathon. . .WTF! Right around Mile 20 I'd seen a man going backward up a hill. I tried it and surprisingly, it worked. . on that hill. When I tried this technique on the last hill my quads seized up around my knees and forced me to turn around and kind of jog up the hill because anything else hurt too much. As it turned out, somehow I managed to pull down a 4:19:36 marathon. A PR and still felt good afterward. McGee was at the finish with an ice cold beer. It was a good day.
The drive home was a bitch. My bum felt like it was a huge charlie horse. Fortunately I'd taken a shower at the rec center so I focused on the positive and grinned, well, I whined a bit too.
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