Well here I am, 24 hrs after the Bluenose marathon, my legs are beginning to forgive me for yesterday. I learned a lot about myself yesterday and in that process of learning, have discovered more questions that need answering.
My day started at 4am. I got up and started eating. I started with leftover pasta from the night before. I followed that up with 2 bagels with peanut butter. I washed this down with 700ml of gatorade. There, that should have topped up the glycogen stores to last me for the first third of the race. I made sure all eating and drinking was stopped 2 hrs prior to the starting gun.
We left the house at 6:15, making sure to get there early to find a parking spot. I figured with almost 10000 runners arriving for the different races that it may be difficult to find a spot. we had no trouble finding parking.
My worst nightmare pretty much came true for this run and I saw it coming all week in the form of warm temperatures. Anyone who has read my earlier blog entries may remember the meltdown I had back in October at the Valley harvest. I was nervous all week and every forecast just made it worse.
As per my previous plan, I lined up at the back of all the runners and once the gun went off, walked slowly to the start line before breaking into my run. People were looking at me like "uhhh, don't you know you should be running now?" lol At 8am it was already 14C. Not good, not good at all.
Before I had even run 1k, I already had stopped at the first water station. I wasn't thirsty, I just wasn't going to take any chances.
Most of the first half was pretty uneventful, I was cheered on by a friend who showed up at 5 or 6 different places. It helped to keep it interesting because i never knew when she was going to appear again. I get back to the MacDonald bridge (about 18k) to find myself embedded in a pile of slow 10k runners. Just wonderful, they're hogging a water station that I need and I doubt that they do.
I'm fortunate to be carrying a 700ml bottle of gatorade with me for just such an occasion.
I cross the halfway point at around 2:01, very close but above where i wanted to be at this point and with the temp at 20C I was beginning to think that a faster second half wasn't going to be in the cards today. Instead of letting that get me down, I decided to say "f**k it" lets just see how I can do despite the conditions. The heat was really getting to me in the 24-29k range as the distances between the water/gatorade stations was slightly further than earlier. Or maybe it just seemed like they were further apart because of my suffering. Even though the heat was uncomfortable, my knee wasn't giving me any problems! This was a good sign.
I remember thinking at the 29k sign, "oh wonderful, only 13k to go" and I wasn't being sarcastic this time. At just past the station around the 32k sign is where I got sick to my stomach for the first time, I'm not sure if i had drank too much or what but I had to walk for a minute or less to keep from puking, I had to do this two more times during the remainder of the run. If i walked for a brief period of time, the feeling went away, another good sign. Once I got to Young avenue, there was a station set up by someone providing orange slices. OMG! Heaven! I grabbed 2 slices and gobbled them down, looking forward to passing by this station again once I get out of point pleasant park. When you've been eating nothing but gels, gatorade and water for 35+km, a slice of something real is a real treat.
As each kilometer marking sign passed after the 35k one, I KNEW I was going to finish this and finish strong (if finishing slower than the first half can be considered "strong" but I do). At around the 39k mark, I noticed that one of my right toes had become numb. It just didn't feel right. At that point, it doesn't really matter, you just keep going. What I was doing at water stations now was i was taking a glass of water to drink and another to soak my hat with. That felt good. At the last station (41k) I just poured it over my head. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Cool.
At noon I heard the cannon on Citadel Hill go off, telling me that my sub 4 hr marathon was officially out of reach but i was very close. I didn't really care, I knew that I was in the process of setting a PB (personal best) marathon time for myself. Just before I finished I glanced to my right and saw my Mom and step dad, cheering me on like crazy. I think I smiled back at them, I'm not sure, everything was kinda fuzzy at that point. lol I crossed the line at 12:06pm, 6 minutes behind my predicted finish. I finished 42.2k in 4:06:04!!! Stacey found me right away and held me up, I was pretty wobbily. I started drinking chocolate milk right away!
Once I got in the Metro centre, I continued to walk and just eat practically anything I got my hands on. Milk, juice, bananas, yogurt, bagels... etc.. you get the idea. It doesn't take long to start feeling better once you start stuffing some food back in you. Now onto my numb toe. It wasn't as bad as I thought, just a blister on the end of my toe and slightly underneath the toenail. No black toenails, sorry to say.
So in one 4 hr run, I have erased any doubts about my ability to a) run in heat and b) run without injury issues. Any ghosts of the Valley Harvest Marathon have been put to rest. I was so scared that my IT band was going to start hurting again at the halfway point. Nope, not a peep from it. I didn't even experience "the wall" this time. Sure the last 10k were tough but I never thought "I can't do this", like I have before. The questions raised by this run are: what next? I'm kind of drawing a blank as to what to do next. There's a tiny, crazy voice in my head that was whispering "Boston" in my head before this run. It's louder now. I'm going to enjoy my week off from running and then decide whether to listen to it or not, its a good voice this time but one that would mean a pile of work.
some stats from yesterday
42.2k in 4:06:04
3200 calories burnt
42800 steps taken
average heart rate 175, max 197.
onward and upward.
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