Leading up to the marathon in January I started my training. I really eased into it which was nice. A few things were different from my past trainings and one was Mary worked me up to running 6 days a week. I only had Sunday as my off day. She also wanted me to life weights twice a week but that usually only happened once a week because.. kids. I started out slow and steady and slowly built up my strength, mileage and training. I worked up to 65 miles per week and stayed there for a few weeks as my peak week. I focussed so much on this marathon, my mental toughness and staying healthy. Training through the winter can really be tough but this winter was super mild and we only had a few bad snowstorms that I had to run inside for. I went to the Y and ran around the indoor track there. Other times I just biked to Red Hook track and did my speed workouts. Everything worked out so well! I was healthy, I didn't get injured, I was homeschooling the girls and things were looking up! Another different thing is that I really only had 2 hard workouts a week. I would have a speed workout on Wednesday and then my long run on Saturday. I had never done so much tempo running in my long run but it helped keep my speed up as I was running long miles. My speed workouts on Wednesday varied from 800's to 400's to 2 mile repeats! It was nice to switch it up. Right around peak week is when my body was really starting to feel the training and even being over trained. I was exhausted, going to bed at 9:00pm each night and just feeling really tired and heavy. A few runs I couldn't hit my paces because I was short on breath and not feeling the best. Mary suggested that it was a low-iron problem and so I went to get a blood test. Even though everything came back ok.. maybe a little on the low side but nothing significant, I started taking an iron supplement and really trying to each iron rich foods. I also upped my calories and carbohydrates because I hadn't realized I was losing so much weight from running so much! I weighed myself one morning and was shocked at what I weighed so I started eating a lot more during the day. I packed a snack with about 800 calories of nuts each day that I would eat on top of a protein smoothie to add to my lunch. I had lots more meat for lunch and dinner and lots more breads and rice. I also stopped doing no sugar (I wasn't eating sugar since New Years but decided to not do that while I was training and just eat healthy but not restrict any treats). Changing the eating habits meant a lot more preparation and Spencer would help me prep for the week on Sunday. We would make oatmeal pancakes, over night oats, protein balls, roasted veggies for salads and then he would help me cook up some meats for my salads. It was super helpful to have my breakfast and lunches ready for the week! I would also prepare a nut mix with dried apricots (high iron) for each day as well. This helped my body so much get all the nutrition that it needed throughout the day and I felt really good and healthy. Still lightheaded sometimes but better!
About 3 weeks before the marathon I had a 24 hour stomach bug where I was super nauseous the whole day! My stomach hurt so bad and I really just stayed in bed the whole day. Luckily Spencer took the day off from work and helped with the kids because I was really feeling gross. I couldn't keep anything down and it set me back a few days in running and that long run on Saturday was pretty rough since my body was low energy from not getting food a few days before. Other than that I felt really healthy and injury free this training cycle! I rolled out every single day, stretched after long runs and got a monthly sport massage! I feel like that helped and also just the way that Mary scheduled my runs of not starting out too fast and not raising my mileage a lot each week. Spence watched the girl every Saturday morning while I had my long run and then usually had an ice bath or epsom salt bath ready for me after my run.
The week of the marathon I was getting pretty nervous and anxious! I felt it deep in my gut and my nerves were really kicking in. I think because I was thinking so much about the race and wanting to hit my goal soo soo bad that my body was feeling these nerves everywhere. Because of that I started spotting (2 weeks early than when I should have been getting my period). This scared me at first but luckily it didn't turn into anything. I flew out to Vegas on a Thursday and my cousin Tiffany picked me up form the airport. Her sister and mother live there and they were so gracious to let us stay at their homes. We went to a yummy Italian restaurant that night and I got spaghetti and meatballs. Its as delish!! I made sure to drink lots and lots on the plane and after I landed since I was at a higher elevation in Vegas. Friday we slept in!! And then slowly got up, I ate a big bowl of oatmeal with honey and frozen fruit. Then we hung out for a bit and then went to get lunch. We went to a yummy place and I got a turkey wrap with avocado, lettuce, cheese and smoked turkey. It was really good! I didn't eat the salad that came with it because I was trying to limit high fiber that day. After lunch we went to pick up our race packet. There was a Q&A of a coach that had run 67 Revel Marathons! I never usually listen to those but I am really glad I listened! He went through the whole course (which I had done on my own but since he had run it before he had even more insight). He showed us where the uphills were and told us that we needed to stay hydrated! He said drink at that first aid station at 2.5 miles. I wouldn't have done that in the race. He said to sip at each station and pour water on our heads at each station since it would be HOT at the end. The finish was about 80 degrees and he said lots of people will get dehydrated if they don't drink more than usual and stay smart. Its was good to listen to his advice. I also really like what he said about our race effort. He said on a scale from 1-10 you should race at a 7. Ten is if a bear is chasing you and one is sitting still. A 7 should get through to the end and you should just listen to your body and base it off effort rather than a specific time you wish you had. He said be ok ay with your "7" whether that is faster or slower than you wanted. This was good advice! After picking up our packets we went a got some dinner at a place called Greens and Proteins. We both weren't super hungry so Tiff just got a smoothie with sweet potato fries and I got chicken and rice. It was a perfect pre-race meal and super clean. That day I had also snacked on some of my protein balls that I had made and brought and drank lots and lots of water. That night we got ready for the morning and set our alarms for 2:30am!!! Crazy but the buses left at 3:30 and it was a 30 minute drive. I tried to go to bed at 8:30pm to get a good nights rest. Luckily I was able to fall asleep fast!
Saturday morning we woke up bright and early (it was bright yet actually). We got ready, I made my sandwiches (3 pieces of white bread with almond butter), got my gatorade and banana and we went to the buses. It was so early that my stomach wasn't super hungry and I didn't want to over do it so I only ended up eating 2 of my sandwiches and banana. Tiff parked by the bus loading area, we said a quick prayer, had tears in our eyes and we were off! Tiff went to one side of the parking lot where the half marathoners loaded and I left for the marathon loading. On the bus ride up I sipped on water and gatorade and just tried to relax, close my eyes and think about the race. Once we got up to the start I went straight for the porta-potty line and waited about 15 minutes to go to the bathroom. Luckily I was able to go! This is big for runners :) Then I found a quiet spot to get all set for the race. I turned on my watch, put in my headphones, ate a goo, drank a few more sips, wrapped a blanket around my legs and stretched. I did some leg swings and then decided to try to go potty one more time. The lines were way too long so I went down a small hill into some bushes and saw about 10 other guys doing the same thing so I squatted right next to them. I was able to pee more which was great! Right after that it was go time so I started walking to the start with everyone else. We all lined up and we were off! The first mile was a huge hill so I took it very easy and just warmed up a bit. I saw my friend Kim who I used to run a lot with in Utah and so we ran the first 4 miles together chatting just a bit. It was good to see her and I just kept her in view the entire race since I knew she was wanting a sub-3 as well! The first half of the race went by really fast! The miles flew by and I was able to keep a steady and fast speed. I was a little worried that my splits were too fast (around 6:40) but I felt good, wasn't breathing hard and it all just felt really good so I kept it up. At the half my time was around 1:26. I had talked with my coach before and she was saying to be around 1:30 so I was a lot faster than that but I still felt really good (my quads were starting to feel the downhill a bit) but I wasn't breathing hard at all so I felt good! There was a guy that I ran by a lot and every time he was shaking out his arms and relaxing his whole body while running. This was so good for me to see and do as well.. it just helped relax all those muscles you tense when you run. At every aid station I would take a drink and pour water on my head and neck. I knew it was going to get hot soon so I wanted to stay cool. This helped a TON during the race!
At about mile 20 I started to feel a little more weighted down. I was still running sub 6:50 miles and felt good but I could feel my body starting to feel the effects of running for so long. This is when I had to keep my mental toughness in check. I had to stay positive, tell my body I felt good and that I could do this for 6 more miles! At mile 22 my body really felt heavy and I think this is about when I started to hit the wall. I got a little dizzy and was so scared that I was getting dehydrated but luckily it didn't last long. I slowed down a bit and made sure to drink more and pour water on my neck. They passed out cold towels to put around your neck which felt good but after a few minutes of running with it I saw a guy that was super delirious and dehydrated.. he wasn't walking straight and was really out of it so I ran passed him and put my towel around his neck and kept running. It was also around mile 21 that I literally At mile 24 I knew I had made it and felt good! Still really heavy but knew I could carry myself for 2 more miles. It was such a good feeling to know that if I kept a good steady pace I was make a sub-3. At the end I rounded a corner and sprinted to the finish! Right when I crossed the finish line I fell onto a guy giving me my medal and couldn't stand up straight. I told him I was high headed and needed to lay down. He helped me over to the medical tent where Tiffany came over to me and helped me too. She had Dani on speaker phone and I was crying telling Dani "I did it!" Dani was crying too and telling me how proud she was of me! It was a really tender moment! I tried to FaceTime Spencer and the girls but my phone wasn't working. I laid down for a bit and took some sips of water and still felt a bit light headed so we ended up staying in the tent for about 15 minutes. After I felt ok, we stood up to walk and my body was already so sore.. I couldn't walk well so we walked slowly to get our bags and then I laid on my blanket under a tree and we just laid in the shade for another 30 minutes. That felt great and after that I felt much better! My body was soo sore but I didn't feel light headed anymore.
We went and got some chocolate milk because that sounded so good to me and then we picked up some pho to eat. After that we went back to Tiffany's sisters house and just relaxed in her salt water pool for a few hours. That was so nice and relaxing! Then we went back to got some in-and-out and then went to bed! My body was exhausted! As you can image the next day was even worse for soreness and I couldn't walk well at all or do stairs! It's already a week later and my quads are still super sore! I am walking much better but can still feel soreness all over my body. One place I was surprised to feel sore is in my back. All the muscles in my back have been sore!
I absolutely love this race and feel so grateful that my body was able to carry me for the 26.2 miles. I feel so grateful that I didn't have any stomach issues and that I felt so good leading up to and during the race. During the race I just scored down the canyon and I really feel like I had angels helping me. I just felt so good and never had a moment where I didn't think I couldn't. I definitely had prayers and help. I am so thankful that I was able to accomplish this goal and finally hit that sub-3 hour marathon mark. It took a lot to get here but this is such a lifetime of happiness that I accomplished. When I was running I thought about my girls and how if I made it I would be able to tell them all about how to got my sub-3. I knew this race would make me feel like a million dollars or like such a failure and I knew I needed to feel good. I knew after this race that we wanted to start trying to have a baby and if I didn't get it, it would be another 2-3 years before I could hit this goal and I just needed to do it now! And I did!!
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