I woke up at 4AM to eat a bagel with peanut butter (it's best to eat 3-4 hours before the marathon so you don't have digestive issues). My friend Beth picked Kelly and I up at 6AM. I was in the elite development tent which made for a less stressful pre-race because you are in the tent with your teammates and they take good care of you and lead you to the start when it is time to go. I felt good on the warm-up. We only went for 10 minutes because it was warm out so there wasn't much need to "warm-up". When the gun went off everyone was flying by me. I thought I was starting conservative but my first mile was 6:07 oops! I tried to settle in but the crowd support was so amazing that I couldn't seem to run slow enough. Every 2 seconds someone would yell my name and I would be so excited and start to speed up! Well after a bit the heat started to creep up and my times started to slow...until instead of hitting 6:20's I was running 6:40. After the half way mark it just wasn't looking like I was going to get the standard of 2:46. I had to make a decision- do I want to run a slower marathon and have that be the end of the season or do I want to be able to give it another try. I decided around mile 15 that I didn't want to just finish- I wanted a chance to reach the goal that I was going for. At that point I stopped but I was pretty far west so I had to cut over a street in order to get back (this cut about a mile off)..therefore when people saw me next I looked like I was doing amazing! Jeff hopped in and started running with me and I said I was going to stop at mile 18 where I knew I had some friends. Jeff was so confused saying- what? You are running so well! I explained that I had stopped and hopped back in the race. Anyway- it was a terrible feeling to drop out. I haven't ever done that and I had no idea it would feel so bad to stop before the finish line. I know that I did the right thing though and my Coach was very happy with me. It still doesn't feel so great though. It was fun to hang out with a LOT of Calvin people after the race. Many of my friends had a great first marathon experience!
C, this sentence is the most important one: "I decided around mile 15 that I didn't want to just finish- I wanted a chance to reach the goal that I was going for." Remember what your goal is. I know you've never dropped out before but you've never had such a major goal like qualifying for the Trials before. It's a whole new ballgame and sometimes you need to do whatever it takes to reach your goal. You've made a mature decision. Now you'll have fresh legs and run another marathon soon :)
ReplyDelete...and I've typed the word "goal" four times in the above post. LOL!
ReplyDeleteGood decision Christina. The ultimate goal is most important.
ReplyDeleteagree with above comments. where will you be running now? best of luck to you.
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