My first (and maybe last; hard to know right now) full marathon was the "Garmin Marathon in the Land of OZ". My original plan was the OKC Memorial marathon but work made that impossible. Lucky for me this marathon was only one week before that one.
I had no specific goal but I thought that 4:20 was possible. And I read that Oprah ran her marathon in just under 4:30.
Surely I can beat Oprah! Right? Maybe?
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| Dorthy was at registration. There were several Dorthys on the course as well. Most of them were women. |
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| The best things start with a Cannon |
 The day was cool and absolutely perfect for running. The Marathon started and finished at Garmin's headquarters. Here I am with my expensive warm up jacket.  |
I didn't think I could finish in 4 hours but I started off with the 4 hour pace group. They started slower than I would have started on my own. They even did something I hadn't planned on which was walking through the water stops. I figured if they could do that and finish in 4 hours then maybe I could too.
At about mile 6 somebody calls out "deer" just as a deer comes running out of the grass and crosses though the runners just a bit ahead of me.
At about mile 8-9 my calf/achilles was hurting some. I didn't feel like that was a good sign with most of the run ahead of me. Luckily this pain went away in the next few miles. The first 13-14 miles with this group was great and we were 1 minute behind schedule for the 4 hour mark. About mile 15 I couldn't keep the pace. I had to drop off to what was more comfortable.
Mile 18 brought a new pain to the back of my leg. Again a concern with plenty of the run left. Luckily this pain went away, or at least it was a dull pain.
I was still being passed some but was surprised that I also passed others. A few people I kept passing and then slowing down. One girl would pass me fast then I would catch up when she was walking very slow or stopped. I really don't understand that strategy. Eventually I ran ahead of most the people that wanted to play leapfrog.
My longest run before this was 20 miles. Everything was a record after the 20 mile mark. I tried to tell myself that all I had left was a 10k (6.2) miles and tried to forget the 20 miles I just ran. That helped for a little bit. Basically the last 6 miles just hurt. The pain didn't increase, it was just always there. I just tried to think about the next mile and keep running.
Somewhere after mile 20 there was some traffic close by and I wondered if somebody would give me a ride back to the finish.
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| I think this picture was about mile 22. I saw the camera man and put on smile and tried to look like I was actually running. I think I look much more fresh than I was. It was hard all the way to the end. At .2 miles left I considered walking; I didn't do it but I seriously considered it. At that point there was a helper saying "almost there". Of course I had been hearing that for the last 5 miles or so and sometimes you just want to tell people to shut up and you aren't almost there. This guy had the right to say it. Of course I gave anybody that said something encouraging a smile and said thanks. Like the kid that the sign that said DON'T POOP out. I thought about trying to pick up my pace but I'm not sure I had it in me. Any change in pace would have hurt. When I saw that I was going to make it under 4:20 I was happy. If I had been close to 4:20 I probably would have tried to pick it up a bit.  |
| home stretch |
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| I almost fell over when I had to stop so they could cut the timing chip off my shoe. |
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| The medal. The first in a series of the OZ characters |
My stats are:
time:4:18:54.83
pace: 9:53 minutes/mile
overall: 302 out of 584
Men 40-44: 31 out of 53
Men: 198 out of 329
Run data from my Garmin can be seen here:
http://app.strava.com/runs/7173910
I had one hammer gel and 5 Honey Stinger Waffles
After everything was done I hobbled back to the car. Took a short dip in the hotel hot tub and drove 3.5 hours home. That was a long trip home. Walking was not fun when I got home. The run was Saturday. On Sunday I went to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate. Walking was getting better. On Monday I could walk okay but my muscles were sore. On Tuesday my right foot hurt and I claimed it was broken. On Wednesday my muscles didn't ache too much anymore. And on Sunday my foot finally didn't feel broken.
As of today, 10 days later I haven't run at all. I think I may try a short run in a few days.
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| I don't care for bumper stickers but I found it hard to resist this one. |
