Marathon Recap
Honolulu Marathon 12/9/12
Official Time: 5:01:50
Guess what? I DID IT! I RAN MY MARATHON!!!! a full 26.2 miles!!!!! I don't even know where to start, but I want to write all about it.
Thursday was my last run- I did 4.3 miles here on Ford Island, on what I'm calling my new "loop". I had to remind myself to go easy but I still did them at about 10:15/mile which is a lot faster than when I started all this running. I went to the expo on Thursday to pick up my number and timing chip and see if there were any must-have items. It was a shock because it seemed like almost everything was geared exclusively for the Japanese Runners. The signs were mostly in Japanese, the vendors were all trying to get their attention, etc. It wasn't a huge expo which was a change from what I had expected- I was thinking of something like the Cooper River Bridge expo with tons of vendors and samples and stuff. However, I was able to finally buy Peanut Butter Gu (my race fuel of choice), a couple new Bondi Bands (which I wore and loved), some really good beef jerky and a necklace. The necklace was for when I finished- it's a simple silver charm that is a circle and is stamped with Honolulu-26.2-2012. I haven't taken it off since I finished. More about that later. So after wandering around for a while but not finding much I had to have, I went home. I started to pack my gear and lay out my outfit. I still hadn't picked up my shirt from Lululemon and the Sparkle Skirt hadn't arrived so I was a little nervous about those 2 items.
I slept a lot Friday night which is the most important night of sleep. I was able to go to Ala Moana Mall to get my amazing shirt from a friend named Dani- mine said "how will you make your mark on the world- DO IT NOW" and was a bright pink tank top- perfect for me!!! Then Saturday I slept in and was lazy. I had a bowling event that I was the military sponsor for out for work, out of town a little- just before the Dole Plantation. I really shouldn't have been up there from1-6pm the day before the biggest race of my life. It turned out to be a great event and my supervisor said he owes me a beer for helping to put it on.
So after that I rushed home, checked the mail- my skirt arrived just in time!!! I grabbed my gear and headed for the Hale Koa. I ended up sharing a room with a fellow runner from the Teen Center staff. The girl that was supposed to split the room with him ended up bailing, so it worked out well. We both had our gear set out and were asleep by 8:30pm. Robyn had flown in Friday night and we agreed to meet up at 3am in the lobby so she could see me before the race. I slept from about 9pm until 2am when I woke up from nightmares/nerves. All week I kept having dreams that I had driven to the race start but was early, so I went and slept in my car only to wake up later and realize I had missed the start of the race. Not fun. Luckily that was not the case on race morning. We met up with Robyn in the lobby and it hit me- tons of other runners were headed to the start. I was about to run a marathon. Holy cow. We met up with my running group from the Marathon Clinic at an office just before Ala Moana- we were able to talk about last minute strategy and use private bathrooms since 25,000 were all trying to use a limited number of porta-potties at the starting line.
The race itself was hard, I won't lie. It was a long run. It was a lot of time out on the road alone, even though I was surrounded by thousands of people. I wasn't able to rest as much as I would have liked the days before- working too much and just not taking enough time for me.
Walking to the starting line was exciting and nerve wracking. Somehow we managed to get lined up near the sign that said 5-6 hours pace. However it turns out that nobody was really in any certain order as I soon found out. The start was amazing- a huge fireworks display for about 5 minutes while we all shuffled to the start. The energy was amazing and the Japanese were out in groups of thousands. It took us 15 minutes to even reach the start line. From there the real race began- running along Ala Moana up to Aloha Tower all we could do was basically pass people and try to get to the running pace we wanted- the first 6 miles were slow. And hot. It was neat to see all the Christmas lights all lit up, to run through the streets of Chinatown in the dark. Around every corner and all along the streets it seemed like everyone in the world was out cheering. That was really fun and helped ease the stress of starting out so slowly. Robyn went down on Kalakaua by the Royal Hawaiian Center mall to cheer me on- that was so fun to see a face that I knew!
As the crowd thinned it time to get in "the zone". I knew the course from the zoo going southward, so that helped a lot. The hill at Diamond Head the first time was a breeze and was lined with volunteers cheering us on the whole time. We also got to see some of the wheelchair racers flying by.
I felt hydrated and fueled- I was taking water and gatorade at every stop and eating a GU once an hour. My right knee and the top of my left foot started to hurt at mile 6 or 7, but I knew that I was just going to have to push through it- nothing was "wrong", it was just achy. The sun came up just after Diamond Head which was a great sunrise and luckily there were a few clouds and a good breeze. The vog had cleared out but it was still pretty humid. Along the "out" portion of Kalianaole Highway (H1 headed toward Haunama Bay) I got to glimpse at the fast runners coming back in, though I wasn't able to see the pack of Elites. From there I went into "long run mode"- managing my pace and how my body felt. It was hot with the sun, but the aid stations were frequent- they had sponges in buckets of ice water which were great to squeeze along my arms, neck & help wipe my face. My strategy was to slow down at each aid station- grab a cup of water and gatorade, drink it, walk a few feet then start running again. It was just long enough to get re-energized.
I hit the bathroom at mile 15, i knew that if i waited any longer my running would suffer. It took me a few minutes but after that I was good to go. At this point I lost my friend Brian- he told me to go ahead and not wait for him. The generosity of the on-lookers was amazing- people were out with everything from ice, water, gatorade, playing music, cheering, clapping, great signs, buckets of pretzels, cookies, candies and even beer! I didn't grab any though, I wasn't quite sure how my body would react.
At mile 18 things became a mental battle- I'd never run that far before, I was tired, but I could clearly see Diamond Head and knew I had to get back there. From there I was watching the clock knowing that I had to hit my mile times if I wanted to still finish at 5hours. At mile 20 things sucked- I was done. But I knew I had to keep going. Dan and Robyn were both texting me and were waiting downtown for me. I just kept going. As I headed into the final 4 miles- the big long hill I just put my head down and went. It felt great to know how hard that hill was but that I had run it many times before and this was the last time for a long time. Running down the hill I pushed too hard and too fast and by the bottom I was tired, but still had .6 miles to go. From there it was all mental- I wanted to finish looking and feeling strong so I started taking some really deep breaths and just trying to relax. I took in all the sights- sounds- everything as I ran down the last half mile. People were lined up cheering and screaming and then I saw Robyn and Dan. My energy shot through the roof and you can see in the pictures Dan took- I lit up like a light bulb. The last few hundred feet I just focused on how amazing it was that I had just run a marathon. The feeling of crossing the finish line was one of relief- it felt good to be able to stop. The only thing would have made it better would be Lyle by my side or waiting for me. I really wanted to share this experience with him.
After I finished things were a little crazy- you get a shell lei, but then have to walk what seems like a really long distance to get the medal and shirt. They give you water but the food is far away too. And because the thousands of Japanese runners all buy these race packages, they have these huge catered tents, but nothing for the rest of us. I got my shirt and was in desperate need of food at that point- I found the food tent and grabbed a malasada. It was THE BEST malasada (and only the 2nd ever in my life) that I've ever had.
From there I didn't stick around- I met up with Robyn & Dan. We walked back to the Hale Koa- I remember last year thinking "how in the world is Robyn even walking after running 26.2 miles?" but I realized that it was much better to be walking- if I had sat down that would have been the end of me. I was able to shower, Robyn gave me the 2 bottles of Red Electra she brought out! I wasn't feeling very good at this point so I opted to skip eating and head home. I drove myself, Dan went to his house (he had come right from the ship having had duty the night before) and Robyn went to hike Diamond Head with her travel buddy.
Dan came over later in the afternoon at which point I demanded Teddy's Burgers. We had talked about Subway and just having a quiet afternoon but once the urge hit me, I wasn't stopping until I had a burger. We got fries and a milkshake and a Dr. Pepper, but I really only focused on the burger. I won't lie- i drank some of the DP and ohmygawwwd, so good. After that I felt a lot better, but we still just went back to the house and hung out. I was pretty achy and the stairs hurt a lot. I took some Tylenol PM and was asleep from 8pm until 7am. It was great. I felt good the next morning- just a little tight all over. I was able to go to work, participate in the kids gymnastics class, etc.
Overall I'm so proud of myself for having done this. I will be doing more marathons in the future, look out world, I've got "the marathon bug"!!!
