I DID IT AGAIN!
I ran another marathon! It took me a while to have this sink in! Sorry for the late race report but since Monday I have a visitor from out of town at my house (my Newfie) so it’s been hard to write about my experience!
I arrived by train in London on Saturday, took it easy, went to Starbucks to read and enjoy a latte. When my room was ready, almost an hour later than the official check-in time! I had no time to take a nap and chill before the Maniacs Meet and Greet. We went to a restaurant that serves pasta in giant (huge) bowls!
Here’s a pic of our table (pic taken by Brendan Reid/qmp maniac)
The night finished early and I was happy to get back to my room for 8 p.m. I watched tv all night, spoke on the phone with my BF and prepared my clothing and breakfast for the next day…. I went to bed at 10:30 and felt asleep right away… I was up around 12:30 for a bathroom break and then started getting nervous about the race! I tossed and turned for the remaining of the night, not my best sleep!! But, I was up by 5 AM, got my breakfast in 2 h before the race and relaxed. I was out the door at around 7:30, I didn’t want to wait to long outside as it was a bit chilly in the morning.
On my way to the starting line, I meet this dad and his handicap daughter (in a stroller/wheelchair), Amanda, they were racing their 9th marathon together and wanted to finish in 3:40! They had run Boston twice already together! Impressive team! I was happy to talk to them, I wished good luck and was on my way to meet some maniacs.
The time was almost up to the race so we all took our place near the starting line, I went on my own to have time to myself before the gun went off... I felt the same as I felt for my last race, a bit teary, still couldn’t believe I was about to run for that long again! I knew this race was going to be different as my dad could not be there and he was such a great help for the last one. I was thinking about him a lot. I knew my friend Flashy and her BF would try to see me around 38-39K so I was holding on to the thoughts that it would be good to see someone I know along the way, especially when things start to get hard!!
My plan was to race at a pace that would have me finish with a 4h33 time (10:26 min/mile). I didn’t want to start to fast, which is always my problem, and I was very proud when I saw that I could pace myself properly and that was going very well (for the first 8 miles anyway).
Mile 1 10:16
Mile 2 10:26
Mile 3: 10:32
Mile 4: 10:18
Mile 5: 10:38
Mile 6: 10:22
Mile 7: 10:15
Mile 8: 10:23
The end of Mile 8 and the beginning of Mile 9 was quite hilly, I slowed down a bit so I don’t exhaust myself but that’s when my hip started to “feel funny”. It started to hurt when I would climb hills and disappear when I would be on flat ground. So the next 7 miles were done trying to forget about the hip and enjoying the ride. I was thanking people on the side of the road and the awesome volunteers!
Mile 9: 11:02
Mile 10: 10:19
Mile 11: 10:41
Mile 12: 11:05
Mile 13: 11:23 (half-marathon at 2:21:26)
Mile 14: 11:15
Mile 15: 10:42
Mile 16: 11:08
That’s when I switched to Plan B, which was a 4h45 finish with average pace of 10:55. I knew I wouldn’t be able to maintain a fast pace for the remaining of the race as I could feel my hip more and more. But then my knee started to hurt too and that’s when it started going downhill… I started to take walk breaks, hoping the knee/hip would miraculously recover... I was losing time and I was in pain. I was trying to tell myself some motivating speeches: “Pain is temporary, pride is forever”, “You’ve done this before, you know you can do it again” etc. But it wasn’t working, I was losing my “mental thoughness”!!
Mile 17: 11:37
Mile 18: 11:27
Around Mile 19, I started to cry, I was exhausted and I didn’t understand why it was going so bad and why it was so hard. Even though, I kept repeating if it was easy everybody would run marathons! I tried to straighten up my act for the next few miles.
Mile 19: 13:22
Mile 20: 13:01
Mile 21: 12:49
Mile 22: 12:27
Then by Mile 23, I lost it completely, the tears, the sobs and then I had difficulty breathing… a bad sight. I was already disappointed of myself for losing it and I was beating myself up instead of taking that energy to run a bit harder. My own fault, my mental wasn’t as strong as I thought it was… I really thought I wouldn’t finish at this point… Every time I would stop to walk, my body was telling me it didn’t want to keep going and starting to run again was so painful… But I guess I was strong enough to shut these thoughts and “just keep fuc’ing Running”!
Mile 23: 13:24
Mile 24: 13:24
Mile 25: 12:49
Mile 26: 12:30
.2: 11:01
The rest of the race was hard, I knew that I was going to miss Flashy at 38-39K at this point, because I told her not to wait for me too long there, if she wanted to see me finish in 4h30. That was harder than I thought it would to not have the support from my dad like at my first marathon, I appreciate even more today that he was there for me in Toronto!!
When I turned the corner and was able to see the finish line, tears came to my eyes again, I knew my friends would be there and I was happy I made it through another marathon. I crossed the finish line and hugged my friend Flashy! I started to cry again, it was hard but I made it, I learned a lot on myself….
Thanks to everyone for reading, I am happy to have such a great bunch of people for support! I am not done with this marathon business… ;-)
