I did it!
It may have taken me much longer than I would've hoped, I may have been running as slow as molasses, I may have been dealing with an intense amount of pain in my knee, and I may have gotten beat by a bunch of people who weighed about 50-100 lbs. more than me...but I did it.
I start to cry just thinking about it. I definitely shed some tears as soon as I saw the finish line about .25 miles out (and my parents...mom was crying). And I absolutely cried when they put my medal around my neck. Oh, and I cried when I saw Eric afterwards, as well as some of the people from the training group. I knew it was going to happen. I have been fighting back tears just thinking about it for the past year. It's just so emotionally overwhelming. I trained 4 months for this thing. I have been dealing with such a huge amount of frustration and disappointment for the past month. I did not think I was going to be able to finish it. And I even had a lot of reservations about 4 miles into the race when my knee began hurting. But I fought through all of that and got myself across that finish line.
So yeah, I tried starting out realllly slow. And I tried walking up and down all of those hills. Yet my knee still began to not feel right at about mile 4. I soon realized that I had to walk up all the hills because that really bothered my knee, but I ended up discovering that running very slowly down hills actually made my knee hurt less than walking down them. The pacer I was following soon was not to be seen anywhere in front of me. And then I was passed by the 5 hour pacer, which I knew wasn't good. But I knew I just had to go slow through the first half because of all the hills. I was running between 12-13 minute miles and crossed the 13.1 mile marker at 2:39 (30 minutes slower than my half marathon time from last year). But the pain stayed at a manageable level. Actually, my legs seemed to be going numb here and there, which was kinda weird, but also a blessing in disguise. The sharp, stabbing pain that I experienced during my 20 mile failed run occurred intermittently throughout today's run, but it wasn't consistent like the 20 miler. Instead, it was a more consistent, strong dull pain throughout my whole knee.
The second half of the marathon was great. I continued my slow shuffle and ran a lot more because the roads weren't so hilly. I ended up with a negative split for my second half of the race...2:25! My average mile pace was an 11:38. Not fast by any means, and not even close to what I am capable of...but I'll take it since it got me to the finish!
So I can check "completing a marathon" off my list! My mind instantly goes to the thought...What's Next?!?!
Do I try another marathon? I'd really like to break 5 hours because I was soooo close! I'd actually really like to just run a marathon with no injuries to see what I am capable of.
I'd also like to try to break 2 hours in a half marathon. Maybe I should do a flat course for that. I think I could definitely do that.
I guess before I look forward to any future running events, I should rehab this IT Band. There's no telling how long this problem will last. I do know that I need to keep up with my physical therapy program...icing, foam rolling, stretching, and strength training. I'm going to take a few weeks off from running and see if that helps as well. I can start focusing on biking now in order to train for triathlons.
But I will keep thinking about those future running races. I have a few particular ones in mind already :).
I'm a MARATHONER (and I have the sweet medal to prove it)!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment