Big Weekend

Here's some of the finer details from Marathon weekend!

Saturday
Woke up still feeling like the cold was lingering on, but I felt somewhat better. Hubbie and I made our way towards downtown for lunch at Buca Di Beppo with a group Anne brought together for somewhat of a carb-load meal for those who were running. I even got to meet Dawn (Pink Chick) who posts on the Complete Running Network. It was a nice lunch and I had learned a few things about the San Diego Rock N Roll marathon that I did not know, such as only the TNT people being the only ones who could choose run a half marathon portion instead of the whole 26.2. I never knew that. After lunch Hubbie and I walked over to the expo for our timing chips, numbers and goodies. The expo seemed smaller this year, but I was able to stock up on free Soy Joy bars, found a booth for runningskirts.com and purchased a running skirt, and renewed my subscription to Her Sport + Fitness magazine. We found our friend Sam there and we walked around with him a bit, then called it a day and went home to finish carb loading and get our running clothes ready for the next day.

Sunday
We woke up early to June gloom weather, ate a light breakfast, etc... Our son drove us to the marathon start site. We drove into the event a back way so we could avoid being caught up in the traffic, and arrived with more than an hour until the start. My head is feeling detached from my body, as my cold feels like it's not going away. While waiting in line at the port-o-potty, I was trying to get my cell phone to hook up to the live tracking feed, but nothing I did worked. I tried to call the guy who runs it but I only got his voice mail. I spent the whole time before the marathon trying to get the damn thing turned on. I went into everything I could possibly think of, but nothing worked. Right before the race started I just decided to do the regular tracking. Right as we're passing through the official start line, the guy from the Live Tracking finally calls back, but I can't hear him because there's the speakers, and bands, and noise of the runners, etc. He was trying to help me start my tracker, I couldn't hear him at all. I just told him to wish me well and we'd figure it out later. Oh well. I tried to get the live tracker to work during my run, but it was getting to be annoying, and I wasn't enjoying my run, so I decided to not use it at all. My head was still feeling detached from my body because of the cold, and I was already feeling fatigued at mile 6. I had to keep telling myself to keep going. If I were running by myself, as in a training run, I would have quit, but since this was the big event I stuck with it. It did help that I was running with a whole bunch of people.

There was a couple who I kept seeing through out the race. Every time I passed them, the lady would say, "There she is, we need to get going!" I guess they were using me as their point of reference. They would always pass me by. I lost track of them at the last few miles. I don't know if they went ahead or if they fell back.

My friend Rich found me around mile 19 and got some pictures. It was nice to see a familiar face on this long run!

I did much better with the water and electrolytes this year. It didn't prevent calf cramps, but I still was able to keep going. After about mile 20 I was overly fatigued. It was also at that time the clouds cleared up and the sun came through. At mile 21 I was way ahead of where I thought I would be but the cold and exhaustion really set in. It was a struggle to keep going. I wasn't able to run the entire last mile at all. As I made my way into MCRD, there was a band playing "Fight For Your Right To Party." That song is still stuck in my head. I walked and ran that last mile, and once the clock was in view I ran in. The clock time above my head was 5:11. Chip time is always better than that, so I knew I was close to my 5 hour goal. Finishing is a joy. It always is. I was given some water, an ice cold towel, and my medal, I met a woman who just finished her first marathon and was extremely excited. She must have finished right behind me. We chatted while waiting in line to have our pictures taken. It turns out she is also from San Diego and running in similar events. I hope to see her again at other runs. Once I loaded up on bananas, electrolyte drinks, Spenco rubber slippers etc, I made my way out to the meeting area to find my friend Rich. We found a shady spot under a tree, he helped me stretch out. He used to be my personal trainer several years ago, so he knows what he's doing. Ouch. I must say the stretching did help. I also switched out of my race shoes and put on a pair of old, dry running shoes ~ My race shoes were wet and sticky. Rich had to leave, so I sat around and waited for my hubbie to find me. He was about an hour behind me and he eventually hobbled over to where I was. It turns out our son was there waiting for us to take us home, and we did find him, eventually. We never did find our friend Sam, and I kept looking for Dawn, but there were just so many people.

We made it home, had cold showers, and thought we might make it to the Seal concert, but I was feeling the cold come back on with a vengeance. We opted not to go to the show. Hubbie was going to take one of our kids but they were down for the evening as well.

Hubbie's results were never posted. We don't know what went wrong, but I have a feeling that it was because he put the timing chip on the same shoe as his Road ID. I've heard that the Road ID can interfere with the chip. I even told him to not put the chip on the same shoe as the ID. Oh well. He finished, we're guessing, In something like 6:00 - 6:10? We don't know his exact time for sure. He finished and he has the medal and sore muscles to prove it.


Today
The cold has officially taken over. I'm just going with it and let it run it's course. My calves are sore but I'm walking, however slowly. I'm glad I took today off from work. Hubbie went into work today, wearing his medal. They take bets at his office to see if he'll actually show up. Heh.

Peace

Official Results:
15683 Irene M San Diego CA 47F Chip 5:02:47 Gun 5:11:30 Age grade 50.8% Pace 11:33 10K 1:04:44 Half M 2:18:35 21 miles 3:54:35