St. Jude Marathon - December 4, 2010.  My first marathon.

How does one go about recounting their first marathon?  I don’t know – I’ve never done it before.  I started it, but have been putting it off for almost a month now because I just wasn’t sure what to include.  I’ve also been hesitant to read others’ marathon recaps because I didn’t want to copy someone else’s thoughts.  Case in point, it’s 1:42am, I can’t sleep, and so was trolling tumblr reading through a blog (one-twenty-five.tumblr.com) when I came across the individual’s (E’s) first marathon recap.   Since I don’t want to read anyone else’s marathon recap before I write my own, here goes…  (Edit – it’s 3:22am now and I just finished it up and am about to post it.)

We were lucky to get a hotel in the heart of everything.  Literally across the street from the finish line at AutoZone Park (pic #1), and just around the corner from the corrals for the start line.  Brook and I waited in our room for Kacey (my boss and training partner), Amy (Kacey’s and my friend with whom we trained for our first half marathon), Katie (Brook’s sister), and Rita (Brook’s mom) to arrive.  Kacey and I were running the full; Brook, Amy, and Katie were running the half; and Rita was there for moral support.  They all were going to leave their stuff in our room during the race, and then come back there afterward to shower and change.  They were a little late getting there as the streets were closed and they had to walk further than they expected, but they finally arrived and we rushed off to the starting line.  We had already decided which corral to line up in based on our expected pace.  So off we go and it was crazy.  We get almost to our corral and I look back.  And Brook, Katie, and Rita are nowhere to be found.  How did we get separated before we even get lined up?  So Kacey and I find a spot where she will stay while I go back to look for them.  I circle back through the crowd a couple of times and finally find them, at which point we go back to hang out with Kacey, Amy, and some of Amy’s friends to wait on the start (pic #2).  Anticipation builds as each wave of the start takes off (pic #3). 

Kacey and I had tentatively planned to stick together during the race.  We are a pretty good match for pace as we’ve trained together almost the whole time we’ve been running.  Brook and Katie were going to hang with us if it worked out.  Amy was going to stick with her friends who were also running the half. 

So it’s finally our turn and we take off.  I felt amazingly good.  Like floating on air.  Too good really.  So good it was hard to hold myself back.  Whether it was the excitement of race day, or just being rested from the taper, or just having a good day, I don’t know.  But I felt good.  And so off we went.  There were about 4,000 marathoners and 8,000 half marathoners running.  So we covered quite a spread.  We had lost the rest of the crew by this point, so it was just Kacey and me.

As we rounded another turn or two, we saw one of the greatest views of the entire race – the Mississippi River.  We ran down a hill toward the waterfront, and it was really an awesome stretch running along Riverside Drive (pic #4).  There were people who had come down from their residences to hand out water and cheer on the runners.  We saw a lady who had pinned a sign to her back saying it was her birthday – we cheered for her.  As we went along, there were some other folks passing out bloody marys to runners.  I can’t imagine why anyone would accept a bloody mary at like mile 1 of a marathon, but perhaps they had people take them up on it.  Right around this same area there were people stopping for bathroom breaks in a parking lot (without porta-potties).  Yes, remember to take care of  business beforehand!  The rest stops for miles 1 and 2 were combined at mile 1.5, so perhaps it was more than these people could take when they got to mile 1 and there were no porta-potties. 

We continued on the run to turn onto Beale Street where there was quite a hill (pic #5), but then greeted by lots of spectators (pic #6).  We then turned and ran back past the other side of our hotel where we saw a friend of ours, Jerry Toney.  I need to e-mail Jerry to see if he got a picture of us. 

The next 6 miles or so all run together.  I was really feeling great and having a hard time holding myself back.  I should have been conserving more energy, but instead I was cheering on folks with MS State cowbells and giving kids high-fives. 

At mile 4, we passed by the Pyramid, and then ran through the St. Jude campus.  Amy and her friends caught up with us at about mile 7 (I think?), and said they had seen Brook and Katie earlier and all was well.  Kacey and I split off again.  At mile 8, we ran along the back of the zoo.  Not the greatest smell.  It then seemed like we ran uphill forever.  I still felt great though.  When I’d get ahead of Kacey, I’d walk a while to let her catch up.  (Let it be noted that Kacey did a phenomenal job of pacing herself.  I would have been better off to conserve energy by taking it easier than running ahead and then slowing down.)

At about mile 12.5, the half marathoners split off.  We had been warned to be ready for it to get much lonelier at that point, and this was exactly the case.  We did get another pass through Beale Street at mile 13, but after that, the spectators tapered off dramatically.  As I really fed a lot off the energy of the crowd, this did have an effect on me.

I think it was at about mile 16 that Kacey and I both really started having some troubles.  She was having some chafing issues with her shirt and arm and began looking for some Vaseline at the aid stations.  I began have pain in both my feet.  This was due to an error (in hindsight) on my part.  Going into marathon training, all of my old running shoes were due for retirement mileage-wise.  I bought a new pair just before I started my training plan.  I also went on vacation at this same time and had to run on a track.  Well, as luck would have it, I developed pyriformis syndrome right after this point.  I didn’t know whether it was the track or the shoes that caused it, and long story short, I just decided to stick with my old tried and true running shoes.  Well, this didn’t really present a problem during training runs, but at mile 16 of the marathon, my feet really began to hurt.  And it only got worse.  So lesson learned – don’t go into marathon training with worn out shoes in the future.  Have at least one pair broken in but with some miles left on them. 

At mile 18 (pic #7), Kacey thought her sock was twisted, so we both sat down and took our shoes off for a bit – she to fix her sock, and me to just massage my feet.  Then we were off again.  We had planned how we would do water stops – every three miles, with gels at miles 6, 12, 18, and 21ish.  Well, around mile 16 or 18 or so, we began walking through pretty much every water stop.  For me, it was more about getting a little walk break than the water.  Nevertheless, I was really proud of our planning in the hydration and fuel departments, as we saw others cramping up.  And we had no problems in that area.

There’s not much to be said for miles 20-26.2, other than they just sucked.  Somewhere in there I told Kacey to remind me how bad it sucked if I ever started talking about doing an Ironman.  Kacey was doing much better than I was at this point, but stuck it out with me.  We passed another friend from our running group, Chip Templeton, at about mile 21.  Chip, unfortunately, just had a bad day.  He’d trained well and was really expecting to smash his PR, yet it may have been his longest marathon time to date.  I guess that’s the way it goes sometimes. 

I had asked several people who had run the course before whether it was hilly.  Some said, yes, that it was very hilly.  Some said that it wasn’t all that hilly.  Of course, this is relative to the terrain you’re accustomed to running.  For me, it was hilly.  There were several overpasses and underpasses to navigate, as well as (get this) a highway on-ramp at like mile 26!  But all in all, it wasn’t too bad of a course.

Right before the on-ramp, Kacey said she couldn’t walk any more or she wouldn’t be able to start back.  So we ran the rest of the way in.  As had been the case the whole race, when I ran, I outpaced her and so finished a couple of seconds ahead of her (again, not that I’m faster – I just was not doing well at pacing).  It was a great feeling to round the corner and see the finish line (pic #8)!  Once we crossed over the finish line, there were volunteers standing there ready to put medals around our necks.  Very happy moment indeed.  Months, years even, of training had culminated in that moment.  We had done it.  We could call ourselves marathoners (pic #9)! 

Official finish time – 4:56:00.  I can’t help but be a little disappointed with this time.  I know, I know!  I’m not supposed to feel bad about my first finish time – I’m just supposed to be happy to have finished it and look forward to PR’ing next go round too.  And I said I’d be happy with anything with a “4” in front of it – which obviously I met.  However, I was really hoping for more along the 4:30ish range, which I think I could have done had I not had so much foot pain from my shoes.

We’ve started talking about our next one – perhaps the Marine Corps in DC in October 2011.

(Some pics borrowed from http://www.cantstopendurance.com/2010/09/st-jude-memphis-marathon-and-half.html.)