Rocket City Marathon

This was my first attempt at running a marathon. I'd been training almost exclusively for this race since my last triathlon back in August. Unfortunately, in order to adequately understand the stresses my body would experience, I would actually have to run a marathon before the race. Needless to say, I didn't run a marathon before the race, so this was the first time I had ever run this far.

The weather could not have been any better. It was overcast and in the low 40s when the race started and only got warmer. I shed my gloves and sleeves shortly after the start and dumped them off to my mom the first time I saw her. I ran into someone I met at the Rocketman Triathlon back in August who was looking to run about the same time as me (4 hours), so we decided to stick together for at least a little while.

The race started out as a 2.5 mile loop of downtown Huntsville, passing some of the more historic buildings. It took a while for everyone to space out as there were 1500 people running and we all started at the same time, but after 3 miles or so you didn't feel like you had to run on top of the people in front of you. The first hour or so went by really fast. I almost couldn't believe that we had been running for an hour when we came up to mile 7 (~1:05 into the race). I had seen my brother in one of the many neighborhoods we were navigating, and my girlfriend and both my parents were at the 7th mile. I told them not to make signs, but during the race I decided I was glad they did.

Shortly after seeing my support group we turned onto Bailey Cove for what would be the most tedious part of the race. The road was completely level, which was a good thing, but it was also very straight. This meant that you could see 3 miles away and know "Hey, it's going to take me half an hour to get there." Nothing is more discouraging than seeing where you're going and knowing you're not even close. In addition, there was a strong headwind the whole time. As is becoming more and more popular, pace teams were organized to run the marathon and help people finish in a certain time. The 4:05 pace team had been right behind me the whole race to this point, so a mile into the 5.5 mile stretch of Bailey Cove I dropped back into the pack of 10 people or so and enjoyed getting pulled along. The were quite a vocal bunch, so I enjoyed listening to their conversations to take my mind off of the tedium.

I passed the halfway point (mile 13.1) at 2:01:00. This was 1 minute off of my target time, but I also knew that there was no way I could replicate the performance I had turned in the first half of the race over the second half of the race. It was at this point my goal shifted from a 4 hour marathon to "just finish." Granted this made it easier for me to easy up and not try and push my body to the limit, but as it turns out, that was about the best thing I could have done.

My first walking break was at mile 15.5. The upper portion of my hamstring where it connects with my gluteus muscle was becoming increasingly painful. I knew it wasn't going to go away, so after resigning to the fact that I was going to be in pain for the rest of the race (10.7 miles) I took off again. It was at this point that I dropped behind the 4:05 pace group and stayed there for good.

Mile 16 to mile 20 was where things started to go wrong. I had been having trouble stomaching the gel supplements I had been taking every 30 minutes, but now even the thought of strawberry-banana anything made me want to throw up. In addition, not only did the pain in my hamstring increase, but I became increasingly aware of a pain on the outside of my left knee. My breathing was becoming more labored and my pace was falling off. Between 16 and 20, my pace dropped off from 9:09 m/m (minutes per mile) to approximately 9:30 m/m.

The Grissom cross country team set up shop near mile 20 (I don't remember exactly where, it hard to remember much of anything in any kind of detail). So as I rounded a corner, I was delighted to see 30 people lined up in the middle of the road forming a chute. The person in front of me ran through them, high-fiving everyone, so of course I did it as well. (Turns out, whenever someone used the port-a-potty, they would line up outside the door and cheer them out of the bathroom...to mixed responses). This was an emotional pick-me-up for me and helped me get through the next half mile (yes...half mile).

The farthest I had ever run while training was 20 miles, so everything after that was uncharted territory. Usually 6 miles is not that big of a deal, but after running for 3 hours and 15 minutes, running at all seems like an act of insanity. Time seemed to slow down indefinitely, with each mile marker seeming to coming farther and farther apart. I caught myself looking at my watch a lot (making time slow down even more) and had to force myself to focus on one step at a time.

There were several periods during the last 4 miles where I couldn't see anyone and I was all by myself. All of my motivation had to come from within myself and from imagining myself crossing the finish line. The only thing that kept me going was knowing that if I didn't finish this race our make an impromptu trip to the hospital, I would never forgive myself.

Huntsville Hospital came into view with only a half mile to go. It was then that I knew I would finish, so I just focused on enjoying the next five minutes or so. After all, it's not very often you get to savor the final few minutes of a 4.5 hour race. I crossed the finish line (the goal of the race) and decided I was no longer going to try and stay in control of my body. I stumbled a couple of feet and then collapsed in the finisher's chute. Once on the ground I started shaking uncontrollably and hyperventilating. Every muscle in my body was seizing up in protest of the torment I had just subjected it to. They carried me to the side of the chute where the EMTs where there to help and I tried to gather myself. In all of the commotion, a volunteer slipped a finisher medal around my neck and then went back to the finisher's chute. At that point it didn't matter what happened to me. I had accomplished what I'd set out to do, and that was all that mattered.

Distance - 26.2 miles
Time - 4:21:09