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| Course Map |
I have friends that live just a few block from the start that were generous enough to let me and 2 of my friends that were also running stay at their place Saturday night. It was the perfect walking distance to the start and we got to stay warm and have access to real bathrooms until nearly the last minute. This was a huge luxury especially when it's cold at the start. By the time we walked there and dropped our bags at the sweats check it was go time!
It was a cool start so most runners had extra layers to drop as soon as they got going. Trash bags are a pretty common item warn before the start to stay warm. I opted for an old fleece zip-up that I didn't care about and I highly recommend this over the trash bag option (more about that later!) The nice thing is, volunteers pick up all the dropped clothes and they are donated after the race.
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| Please don't be like her and wear a trash bag pre-race! |
I crossed the start at 8:02 and was running at a nice comfortable pace. My plan was to just run how I felt and not watch my pace, a method that worked well for me last year. I was off to a great start and feeling pretty confident. Then, about a half mile in, I saw one of those trash bags, likely dropped by a fellow runner, blowing across the street in front of me. I tried to avoid it by jumping over it, but it blew right into my feet and got tangled up. For a a few seconds I was in the air kicking my feet trying to free them and stop myself from going down but I knew it was coming. I skidded across the asphalt with my hands out in front of me like Superman and tore holes in the palms of my gloves! I'm sure it was a hilarious sight, but at the moment I was not amused. The only choice I had was to get up as fast as I could and keep running, so I did.
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| the gloves that saved my hands! |
It took me a minute to get over what had just happened, then I stopped dwelling on it and instead used that energy in my favor and pressed on. After just a few miles I found myself running near the 3:35 pace group so I thought I would try to just stick with them for a while. That didn't last very long and I actually passed ahead of them still feeling very comfortable. I hit the 10k mark and glanced at my time, under 50 minutes, better than expected. Things just continued going well and I was feeling great and just enjoying my run and the awesome spectators. I hit the half way point under 1:43, my half marathon PR was 1:44:26, I kept thinking I better slow down and pace myself, but I still felt great. I started getting tears in my eyes because I just knew I was going to hit my goal. At this point, I was about to slow myself down and then I had a great surprise, 2 of my friends were there cheering for me, bringing even more tears of joy. It's not that I don't get support from family & friends, but by #4 most of them are over the fact that I run marathons so I wasn't expecting anyone there cheering for me, so this was so amazing!
Every time I crossed a check point with a clock I couldn't believe the time. I kept getting emotional because I was having such a great race. I'm not a very religious person but every time I started to get teary eyed, I looked up and thanked God for all the strength I had and the perfect conditions he provided that day. Any time I started to get tired, the crowd picked up and kept me going or the perfect song came on my iPod. Nothing, not even that darn trash bag was going to stop me today!
It wasn't until about mile 21 that I started slowing down, but at that point I knew I had banked up enough time that even if I slowed to a 10 minute mile I would still hit my goal time. With 3 miles to go I was starting to struggle a bit. Then I hit mile 25 and magically my friends appeared again. They cheered so load and got me pumped back up for that final 1.2 mile and before I knew it the finish was in sight.
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| the flag just before the finish in sight! |
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| approaching the final 1/4 mile |
I crossed the finish and was thinking my time was about 3:29 which blew my mind! I almost cried when they placed that medal around my neck. It wasn't until nearly an hour later that I learned my official time was 3:26:33 and 2 days later I'm still in shock! Over 11 minutes under my goal time,15 minutes faster than my previous PR and 13 minutes under my Boston Qualifying time which means I'm almost certain I'll be running the Boston Marathon in 2016!
Here are just a few things that I strongly credit in aiding me at this race:
- Believing in myself & having a dream
- Eating clean ~ I can't even begin to explain the difference this made in so many areas of my life including my ability to train hard and recover quickly. I have never felt better!
- Training hard & working my butt off
- The crowd support at this race is absolutely incredible ~ if I don't run it again next year I will be there cheering and supporting other runners
- The surprise of my friends showing up at just the right times
- Perfect weather conditions ~ even if it was a bit cloudy & cold, much better than too warm
- The perfect music playlist and the perfect timing of my Eminem songs coming on!
If you have a goal you need to work hard & go for it! Sometimes you might need to get outside your comfort zone to reach it, but don't ever let that scare or stop you!
