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October 15, 2005
nothing's going to happen
One of my goals for today's marathon was to carry all of Tall Dwarfs' Hello Cruel World in my head, and I pretty much succeeded; "nothing's going to happen" ran through my brain constantly when I wasn't distracted by other stuff.
The very short story is that I ran 3:16:33 by my watch, not what I'd hoped but alright, I guess, under the circumstances (circumstances discussed in excruciating detail below). I'm not sure of my official time or place because the results aren't yet available online, and they never posted anything but the top 12 men's times at the finish.
Circumstances: 58 at the start, 72 when I finished. The wind (13-14mph) was a constant annoyance starting at about 10 miles, and it seemed to be in my face on most of the uphills (really!). On the other hand, the wind made it seem cooler than it actually was.
I got a conservative start for once, and felt really good thru about 12 miles, then medium-good thru 17 miles. By then I was in the thick of the hills on the back half, and the wind was wearing me down. My one 8+ mile was during that stretch. Mile 20 was a half mile up and a half back down, and after that I tried to push a little harder, with mixed results. For a couple of miles I had what felt like a cramp in my diaphragm - can that happen? - and hard fast breathing was out of the question, and I had to ease up on downhills. After a bit that calmed down and I was left with only normal end-stage marathon pains. I did manage a 7:01 for the last full mile.
Good stuff:
I unexpectedly saw my husband a few times during the race: at 6 miles when the course went past our hotel; at the half-marathon start (he ran the half); during the horrible uphill/downhill 21st mile, and during the 26th mile when he passed me (that got me going about 2.51322s/mile faster for about a minute). He yelled some encouragement each time. I usually don't care too much about "crowd support" (see the Boston Marathon blog entry), but this was really great.
I passed women until about 14 miles, and I guess after that I reached the end of women I had any hope of passing. After the initial sorting-out of the first 5 miles or so, no women passed me except relay people and (later) half-marathoners. I guess I'm pretty happy about that.
I drank water from 6 - 24 without slowing, getting sick, or getting it up my nose. For me, this is no mean feat. I didn't stop at all, didn't walk through aid staions or up hills or anything. That is a marathon first.
I really wanted to leave everything I had on the course, and despite the creeping (physical) annoyances of the last 6 miles, I almost did.
Bad/indifferent stuff:
I didn't run 3:10. I didn't run 3:14, either, which is what I'd hoped for in Boston.
I ran alone, in a hole, for much of the race.
None of the guys seemed very interested in working together in the wind. One male-model type even slowed way down as I got near him. A few times I just drafted off a likely male (I don't discriminate, but there were no women around), then pulled ahead to let him know that I was perfectly willing to do some work, but no one got it and I'm not gregarious enough to say "hey stranger, wanna draft?"
Baltimore's streets are seriously in need of repair. All of them. Luckily I have some annoying stretches of broken pavement at home to practice on.
My left ankle is kinda sore.
I did not quite leave everything I had on the course.
Posted by joe positive at October 15, 2005 3:42 PM
Comments
Congratulations, you did a wonderful job!!!:)
Posted by: Dawn at October 15, 2005 6:25 PM
I, for one, am very impressed with this. Congratulations!
Posted by: Alison at October 15, 2005 10:47 PM