We left Saturday from work, about 12:30 and made it to the Expo about 5PM. Shelley, Shanan (her hubby) and Lynn (another girl friend) and I got everything taken care of and were going to stay together at Shelley's dad's house.
We all went out to dinner, PASTA night and then came back and got everything laid out for in the morning. I actually TRIED to go to bed about 9:30, 10 o'lclock, but I just laid in bed. Different scenarios of the race playing through my mind, what if I forgot something? What if I crashed? I slept pretty fitfully, waking up at 2AM, thinking that it was time to get up to get ready. I tried to sleep more, waking up with my alarm right before 6AM.
I got up, showered just to wake up, got ready and excited that I actually had a "buddy" to get ready with - Lynn. (She's ran like 9 marathons.) Hot tea, oatmeal, banana in hand and we jump in the vehicle and head down to the race. I think I went to the bathroom about 4 million times before we even got to the race line. We had ordered a "Perks package" and so we were able to get in to get little bagels/bananas/goos/coffee/etc. I probably could have gotten a massage too, but....I didn't want to wait in line.
Tad, Shanan, Lynn, Shelley and I all lined up together in our little group and gave each other Good Luck and hugs. :-) And then we were off!
Tad, Shanan, and Lynn all stayed together for a while, but they run faster than Shelley and I, so we stayed together. We ran through Little Rock with Shelley pointing out different places that she went to school, daycare, friend's houses, and so on. We stop at mile 10, use the restroom and continue on. Shelley and I walk through almost every water station, since trying to drink out of those little paper cups and running is just ridiculously funny. :-)
We run through people singing, saying my name (it's beside my number), and eating the goodies they've put out (the animal crackers were my favorite!). The hills were 13-16 and yes, they were trying, but I knew they were coming. I made it through, bounding down them as usual and then waiting for Shelley to make it back up to me. Then the next step was the 'out and back' - that never seemed to end.
We stopped and got water and then at mile 22 stopped again to use the restroom. Stupid me decided to take some ibProfen to help the cramping in my legs. But on an empty stomach....not a good combination. I immediately felt naseous and knew that I made a mistake.
Shelley and I saw the 4:45 group leaving the water stop and I really wanted to stay with them, so we hung on for about .5 mile. But by this point, they were just going too fast for me to stay with them. Shelley and I stayed together for about another .5 mile and I'm glad that she went on without me. I had to walk a little bit, specifically up the HUGE hills at mile 24 and 25. From mile 22 on, it was definetly NOT as fun -run/walking more than I would have liked. At about mile 25, there was a "lipstick station", where you could 'touch up your makeup' before your photo finish.
Mile 26.2 was accomplished with a time of 4:58:00. I was tired, quads cramping and hungry. I was pretty disappointed with myself, because I really didn't want to take longer than my last one, but....it's okay.
I went over a few things, and I've determined that at certain times of the month, especially if a race is near, my iron intake needs to go up. Although I probably need to look over my multi-vitamin to see if it includes 100% of what I need with the iron.
I need to NOT do as many long runs before my upcoming marathon. Phoenix and Little Rock were only 7 weeks apart and I did a 18, 21, 16, 13, and a couple other longer runs in that period of time. I think this time, I'm going to do just a 18 and 22 mile long runs.
I also think that OKC's marathon will be my last marathon for a while. I'm looking forward to the Full Moon Cafe's 5K in May - one year from the time I began running last year. Let's see how fast I can do it! :-) Then I think that I'll do the Tulsa Run again and Route 66 Half marathon (once again, a full year later, to see how much I can improve my time). Shelley talked about wanting to do Houston's marathon in January; she says it's flat, so I'll probably join in that one as well.
We'll just see what happens.....
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