A 32 Minute Marathon PR!

Where can I possibly start with this post? I feel like I could write a novella recapping the experience. However, since most of you have jobs and would probably mop your floors than read a 20+ page recap of my marathon, I'll try to keep it short.  Try, of course, being the operative word there. On Saturday I ran the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. It was my second marathon and my second time running the course. And yes, I beat my time from last year - by 32 minutes.

The event started out with a bang - literally. A cannon shoots off at the start of the race, and Tim got an amazing photo:

Although I'm a solo runner roughly 99% of the time, this race was completely atypical for me. I started the race running with lovely fellow blogger Twila. It was wonderful to meet her! I would say we ran together for about 25 minutes before I realized I was going just a little too fast. I waved her on ahead and settled into my perfect pace, just under 9 minute miles. I ran alone for another hour or so, just admiring the scenery (you run through a historic Civil War battlefield/national park).

Still feeling good...

Around mile 9, a woman running right around me introduced herself as Bettina and asked if we could run together. I said yes, but explained that I wasn't the chattiest runner. We stuck together for nearly two hours, and I'm so grateful that we were running together. It turned out that our husbands were both on the course at the same spot standing next to each other waiting for us to pass, so we introduced them to each other at mile 15. What are the odds of that happening, honestly?

Around this point, we picked up a third runner - my friend Jonathan who was aiming for a sub-4 marathon. He was completely on pace and the three of us ran together perfectly. Sadly, around 20 my new friend Bettina needed to drop back. (Spoiler alert: she still finished STRONG with a PR and a time of 4:12!) The last few miles Jonathan and I ran side by side, although we were both barely talking by this point. Although I had passed the halfway mark under 2 hours, I knew a sub-4 wasn't happening. My miles slowed every so slightly along the way, with my final mile coming in at 10:05. Negative splits continue to elude me.

Around mile 24

It's a weird feeling to be running next to someone else during the last few miles of a marathon. It's an extra layer of motivation and encouragement, but it's almost a little extra pressure, too. Only a few minutes from the finish, during an uphill trail segment (a very, very small portion of the course was on trail, although it wasn't challenging terrain) I had to stop and walk. Can you imagine how defeated I felt to stop just 5-6 minutes from the end of the marathon? I didn't stop to walk ONCE until that point at 25.5 miles- and I honestly felt like I could give up there and then. I waved Jonathan ahead, but he didn't go. Had he gone ahead, I probably would have kept walking. But he didn't, so I just kept running. And running. And running. And then, there it was. The finish line, with the last .2 miles going perfectly downhill.

Relearning how to walk at the finish line

There are three ways that you can feel about a race, in my experience.
1) You can feel fine at the end, but have a nagging feeling that you didn't leave EVERYTHING out there on the course.
2) You can feel exhausted and miserable, having peaked and crashed too early.
3) You can feel spent - knowing that you gave the race everything and you performed to the best of your ability.

My race was the third option. I could not have asked for better conditions, better running partners, better support from Tim or better pacing overall. I don't think I could have finished that race any faster - I truly feel like I left it all out there. And it's a wonderful feeling. The temperatures were cold at the start and about 60 degrees at the finish - perfect. I felt exhausted but with no injuries-perfect. Intestinal distress?  Fuhgettaboutit. I beat last year's time by 32 minutes, coming in with a chip time of 4:05:28-perfect.

Although I certainly was secretly aiming for a sub-4 race, and really wish it could have happened, I have no regrets. This was a perfect day, and I'm still on cloud nine about it. Thanks to everyone who sent me Tweets, Facebook messages, texts and emails with encouragement and congratulations! And of course, thanks to Tim. Seriously, what husband gets up at 5am to watch his wife race? And hands out fuel along the way? And takes amazing photos? And deals with a cranky, tired wife for a few days AFTER the race? This guy:

Best husband ever!

Amazingly, I feel fine now. I stretched an insane amount on Saturday, and then went for a slow 2 mile walk that night with lots of stretching and foam rolling - and then the same again on Sunday. I feel great today, albeit tired, but I'm going to stick to cycling for a few more days to give my joints a break.

Stretching post-race

And to the winner, the spoils! Random.org picked #38 as the winner for the Oakley sunglasses, which is.... Marel Pease!

Marel, email me at gourmetrunnerblog@gmail.com with your shipping information so that Sunglasses Shop can send you your new pair of Oakley Radar Edge sunglasses!

And with that, I bid you adieu. I'm going to take a little hiatus from blogging for a while. After thinking about it a lot, I've simply invested too much time, effort and emotion into this blog to give it up entirely. I think some time off will remind me of why I loved it in the first place. I'll still be on Facebook and Twitter, and of course you can always email me! As Arnie would say....I'll be back! (Bonus points if you said that out loud in an Austrian accent.)