Quote of the Day: “I always loved running…it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.” Jesse Owens
Saturday, marathon morning begin for me officially at 4:00 A.M. Unofficially, I kept glancing at the clock to make sure I wouldn’t oversleep. It is the fear of every runner that you will oversleep, set the alarm clock incorrectly, and thus miss the bus to the starting line. It has never happened, to me, mainly because we each set a separate alarm and I check and recheck my alarm setting many times before I fall asleep. Everything is all laid out, shoes with timer attached, shirt with racing bib pinned, bag with all the necessary items, banana, bar, drink, i-pod, earphones, gloves, hat, vaseline… We’re a funny group as we clammer to get on the buses. It’s pitch black outside, everyone is nervously walking, some even running to be transported to the starting area. This year, the weather up Ogden Canyon was cool but doable. People gathered around bonfires, a lucky few actually get to stand first row to the fire. Donna, Cokie, Sue, Mary, Alex and I rode on the bus. After a lot of driving, we all exited except Alex who rode to the 2nd relay exchange point. Denise Landvatter, a fast marathoner, later told me that part of the appeal of marathon running is the camaraderie of the people.
Mary was my support for the first 7 miles of the race. Mary is amazing. There is not a finer person in the world, there is just not. She was worried about running this distance without proper training but no worries because from the start of the race, my lower legs were tight. I had to stop several times to push my foot up against a curb or sign or just stretch the muscle the opposite way that running was causing it to be stretched. We went along in silence, Mary concentrating on getting to mile 7 and me, concentrating of making my body warm up so that I could continue for 26.2 miles. I’m always amazed when I look back at how the miles pass by because it is daunting from the start to think that you just passed mile 3 and you’ve got 23.2 to go. So you don’t go there, somehow you just keep thinking of the next mile and try to focus on getting to that point. Joe sent me an e-mail from active.com that said: “Running is not a complicated mental activity, which means your brain can go on cruise control while your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes and heart need more and more resources each mile.” Now, I remember the days when running was much easier and of course I am probably forcing it a bit. I’m older, gone through a lot of changes and yet I expect to feel the way my body used to feel. I wonder if it will ever happen, or even if it’s possible?
By mile 7, Mary had done her job exceptionally well, on just a little sleep, I might add, and went happily to the bus and then back to the hotel room for rest. Alex met us and was raring to go. At around mile 8, I started to experience some pain in my foot, my biggest fear, but was able to sit at the aid station, remove my shoe and rub and bend the foot like crazy. I put the shoe on and away I went in hopes that would do it for my foot. To my surprise, it was ok and wouldn’t hurt too much unless I was going downhill. It was the first time in my marathoning career that I have prayed for flat or uphill parts of the race. Unfortunately, Ogden is a downhill race but I understood now to be careful on the downhill part. There was no fast downhill running for me. We decided that Alex should speed off and give the relay timer to Nate so he could start running the most uphill part of the course.
Nate’s part of the race went from mile 13.1 to 19 miles. He basically was going up to Pineview Reservoir Dam and then down Ogden Canyon. I met up with Nate at mile 15 and walked with him for a bit. Nate was hilarious about doing the race. Joe and I had this great idea, when we signed up for the marathon, that our entire family could tag team me as I ran the marathon. It seemed like a long time away when we gave our adult children and their spouses shirts that said “Run for Your Life” in December. We were picturing Nate losing weight at the rate they do on the Biggest Loser and running a 9 minute mile. The night before the marathon, Nate was complaining about having to run this race, in his very humorous way, about being forced into doing this because his mother had “cancer”. We were all in the hotel room laughing, secretly dreading the work that needed to be done to get to the finish line of this race. But those are my favorite times, when we are all together, discussing dealing with a hard situation, my children making hilarious comments, all of us trying to understand it with humor. The day after the race, Nate commented about how much he enjoyed doing the race. He liked it so much, in fact, he was going to sign up for some 5ks.
Joe, was the real star of orchestrating this show, more on him in tomorrow’s blog!
Sue and Mary at start
Alex and me at mile 7
Racers at the start, Denise, Sue, Cokie, Mary, Joanie and Donna
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