Marathon Dreams

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My plan is to run the Gate City Marathon on May 20, 2018, just weeks before my 41st birthday. Since I celebrated my 40th birthday by running a half marathon, it’s time to finish 40 strong and run a full marathon. Truthfully running a marathon doesn’t scare me at all. My first son was 42 hours of labor & delivery without an epidural. With that under my belt, I feel like I had trained to run a 5k and after running 6 miles, I realized I was running a marathon I was not prepared for. I’m stubborn, and my support team was amazing, so finish that marathon I did.

I learned a great deal about running and about myself during my training for the half marathon and I’m going to take those lessons into my training of my full marathon.

My first half marathon was The Westfield Half in Westfield, MA on June 24, 2017, my goal was to finish with the hopes of a time under 3 hours. I finished in 3 hours and 19 minutes, my official time was 3 hours and 24 minutes, but I don’t count 5 of those minutes, since I had stopped to help a sick runner.

What went wrong? Many things, most of those things were out of my control but some were under my control. Let’s discuss what I could fix for the next time (a pretty way to say, lets discuss where I made mistakes).

1. I picked a summer time half marathon. I knew there was a risk of it being hot, I was not prepared to run 13.1 miles in near 90 degree weather with high humidity and don’t forget to add in, around the halfway mark we can add full sun as well.
2. I never solved the during the race nutrition problem, eat the wrong thing and ruin my stomach while running, or eat nothing and power through it. I found I ran empty just fine, but there is a difference in running empty when you wake up and start running within 45 mins, and race conditions. I was awake for 5 hours before I started running the race, I was beyond empty with no idea how to correct it. I ran 13.1 miles on 1 cup of coffee with matcha mixed in, 2 tsps of sugar, 3 stale almonds, a piece of candied ginger and 6 oz of tailwind*. I drank some water at the water stops, but mostly I just poured it on my head to cool down. I was running a half marathon, not away from Zombies, I could have done better.
3. When baseball games (my sons playing), and training conflicted, I chose my sons. This was not a mistake, but it meant several of the longer runs near the end of training were 2-3 miles shorter than they should have been. I also ended up missing mid-week runs because of timing. But I saw my sons play ball.
   
4. My cat died. Bomber, my cat of 16 years died of something that could have been prevented, but when the problem started I was too poor in graduate school to do anything. Once we could afford to care for him, it was too late, he wasn’t healthy enough for an operation. To complicate the guilt, this was the cat that bonded with our older son. My son was devastated that he lost his cat. My own grief had to take a back seat to care for him.
5. I ingested dairy. Diary is my dangerous food allergy. I carry an epi-pen for dairy and I am extremely careful to avoid it. I made a stupid mistake. I was at the end of the year party for my younger son’s t-ball team and there was a box of popsicles, they were bright colors, so I assumed they were safe. Who puts diary in fruit flavor popsicles? I grabbed a pink one, took one lick, and realized something was very wrong. I checked the box and sure enough popsicles with diary. I gave the Popsicle to my son to finish and chugged a liter of water, texted my husband who was at a different field with our older son’s end of the season party and hoped for the best. If I recall I wasn’t carrying an epi-pen that day and I was terrified I’d have to ask a parent I barely knew to call an ambulance. I didn’t want to embarrass my son (priorities right?). While my tongue felt too big for my mouth and my chest got congested, I was able to get home without anyone knowing what I had done. I took some Benadryl and waited to make sure there was not going to be any secondary reactions. The result of all that was I had hives for 3 weeks, and overall just felt off, my joints hurt, I was tired. This was 2 weeks before the race.
   
6. My plans to travel out to the area the night before changed at last minute and in tragic ways. Instead of the whole family driving out, we decided that just my husband and I would go and stay with a friend. We had my night before meal planned for, and when I would go to bed. The change in who was travelling, delayed us leaving NH, as we needed to pack the boys to stay with their Grandparents, but before dark we were finally on the road. About 45 minutes into the drive the “Check Engine” light appeared. Considering the last few weeks, we decided to pull over and have the code run. Those lights can be a nothing or they can be bad. If it was a nothing, we’d keep going, otherwise we’d turn around. The answer was inconclusive. If it was our transmission, we might just need more fluid, or the transmission could be eating itself. Ever acknowledging Murphy’s law, we headed back to my in laws. At this point I gave up. I wasn’t going to be running my first half marathon. My husband and several close friends thankfully did not agree with me. My friends and my in laws convinced me to head home. My husband would drive me to the race in the morning. When it was all done, I ate dinner at 8:30pm that night and took forever to fall asleep. I was up at 4am to drive to the race.
7. No race pictures. Westfield Half had finisher photos, but mine were never posted. My husband took a few before the race shots and I took some selfies along the way, but I was so toast when I crossed the finish line I fell exhausted into his arms, and he trusted that the finishing photos would be available. Note, they were not.
   
8. Post-race, 1.5 hours ride home in the car. With no other people to hang out with after the race and most of the race support closed up when I finished, we headed home. Running was hard, but unfolding myself out of a sedan after 90 minutes on the road, was harder.

With all that in mind, if I wanted to have a successful full marathon, I needed to learn from my mistakes. This is what I am doing to improve my chances of success.

1. Gate City Marathon is nearby in Nashua, NH the weekend before Memorial Day. While this date has been on the hotter side recently, it is unlikely it will be oppressively hot. The race also starts at 7am, before the sun has had time to heat things up. Even on a hot day, I should be able to get two loops done before the heat starts. I know from previous years, the race support can handle hot days.
2. Since the half marathon, I started a new running log. I am writing down what I ate, when I ate it in relation to running and did it upset my tummy. I am trying out various nutrition products to find one I like. The truth is the problem on that race was electrolytes. I couldn’t drink enough tailwind to correct it because I didn’t want to drink anything. I’ve picked up a few electrolyte pills so I can take those on the next long hot run and correct the electrolyte problem faster. I’ve just about figured out a pre-race food that I can eat without feeling sick and while I can’t stand the texture, I know that Gu Gels* don’t upset my tummy. I also like sucking on Clif Bloks*.
3. As our youth baseball season rolls around again, I am going to work harder at time management for my long run so that I don’t miss a mile. My sons will still come first, while it’s good for them to see Mom training and working toward a goal, I personally feel it is more important for them to know Mom is their biggest cheerleader. This time the boys will be on the same team and my life will be a ton easier.
   
4. DEAD CAT Ok. There is nothing I can do about this one. There is nothing I can do to predict when my other old cranky cat will pass. He had a full physical and blood work a year ago and sadly he has hyperthyroidism and early renal disease. He’s under treatment, but we have no idea how long he will be with our family.
5. Making the dairy mistake reminded me how vigilant I need to be about food. I doubt I’ll make this mistake again, likely I won’t eat food made anywhere but my kitchen in the 3 weeks before the race. Just to be extra careful. This is my advanced apology to my husband, who does all the cooking. I love you honey, thank you for cooking, and thank you for editing this blog. SMOOCHES.
6. This is the main reason I choose Gate City Marathon. It’s my hometown. I don’t need to make accommodations, I don’t need to worry about travel time, and I can even pick up my race packet the night before. If I need to I can WALK to the race. I know I’ll have people to cheer me on.
7. I want photos and I’ve told friends, that I want photos. I know and trust that my friends will make sure there are not only finishing photos but photos along the way. Because photos.
8. Just like #6, this race is close, the ride home in the worst conditions (Christmas traffic after a snow storm) would take at most 30 minutes and if that happened, I could just get out and walk alongside the car.

I’m sure this marathon will teach me new lessons, but that is life. Each race teaches us lessons. Hopefully my half marathon lessons will help others.