My First Marathon

This week hasn’t been too exciting at work and I’m just resting up for the half marathon this weekend!  This will be my 3rd half marathon but I haven’t ran one since 2008 (2 weeks before our wedding, David and I ran the Maine Half Marathon). Before I started this blog, I was over on BlogSpot with my Blissful Running blog. It was started to document my training to my first marathon, the Maine Marathon. And I thought I would share that all with you!

The Maine Marathon was my first marathon and after I was done, I swore it would be my last. But after a few months of reading up on other marathons, witnessing the Boston Marathon firsthand, and training for this half marathon, I think another marathon may be in my future. But I told David that I would wait for him to get home before I ran another one.

We stayed at a hotel in the Portland area and I have to say that I was nervous/excited the night before. I had a hard time eating, and sleeping was pretty sporadic. But I still woke up feeling rested. The race didn’t start until 7:45 so we were able to sleep in till about 6ish. (The race started not too far from the hotel). I had everything laid out the night before. And I loved that the bib had my name on it and the fact that it was my first marathon. I had people yelling out my number and cheering along the route!

My parents drove us to the start line. This marathon is small so thankfully the crowd wasn’t outrageous and I was able to use the port-0-potty without any trouble. It was cold that early too, but of course, warmed up after we started.

I certainly didn’t break any records for this race (even any that I set for myself) but I wanted to at least finish without being hurt and I did!! And I had a smile on my face at the finish line. And tears once I saw my mom.

My time ended up being 5:27:50 which is a 12:34 pace. The first half with David was pretty steady at a 10:30 pace but not long after we reached the half way point, I was having trouble with my left foot, calves and hips. I think I may actually favor my left leg while I’m running which is why my foot felt as tight as it did. I had to stop a few times and stretch my calves out and at one point, we found some military personnel who were marching the marathon and they were so helpful by giving me some ibuprofen. After that, I also stopped at a first aid station and the guy there helped me loosen my left sneaker (at this point, I couldn’t bend down myself.) After that, I started feeling a whole lot better. Once we hit the 22 mile marker, my energy came back and I was able to run the last four miles without stopping and without any real pain.

So to break down the mileage:
1-13(ish) miles, pace was steady and we did the half in 2:26 (there was a mat that was clocking us). Not my fastest half but not my slowest!
14-17 miles I was starting to ache and had to take some walk/run breaks. I walked at every water station and stretched for a bit. We talked with some people who were doing the marathon in walk/run patterns. It was great talking to people who had ran marathons before and one guy said that we should be proud doing this at all. David then chimed in that if it were easy, everyone would do it.
17-22 miles things started going downhill. I was fed up and didn’t think I would be able to finish at all. We found the soldiers and they were able to give me some meds and then we found the first aid who loosened my shoe. We walked for a few, just letting everything sink in, then…
22-26.2 was Hello energy! I just picked up my legs and they didn’t feel like they were dragging. I was smiling and David and I even started singing “The Gambler.” My mind was off of whatever pain I was having and I was actually enjoying the race. It also helped that right over one of the hills, I could see Portland. Around the 25 mile post though, it’s kind of a tease because you can see the finish line over the bay, but you have to first run around the bay to get to it. I was feeling great though and I even bolted across the finish line! And I saw my dad around the last turn and then after the finish, I saw my mom, who was crying. That made me cry.

I was smiling just because I was so happy to be done. You bet I was sore. I had a hard time walking the rest of the day.

After we were showered and checked out of the hotel, David and I went to our post-marathon restaurant: Wild Willy’s Burgers in Rochester, NH. For some reason though, I just couldn’t finish my burger. I wasn’t hungry. Did you find yourself without an appetite after you finished a marathon? I did need to hydrate though. And I have to say, I love running a race in the fall.

I learned a lot from this race. One of the main things is that training for a marathon is no joke. It takes so much time, effort and motivation to be able to train for the 4-6 months leading up to a marathon. I admit that I didn’t stick to the plan that I was given. My long runs, after 15 miles, started to suffer and I was more and more nervous that I wouldn’t be able to even finish the marathon. I’m happy to say that I (obviously) did finish, but I wish that I had ran it better. I know I have it in me to be able to do that. Even though along the race I was saying “I hate this, I hate this, I’ll never do it again.”, I realized that I felt that way because I was unprepared for the race. Once David gets home, I really want to be able to stick to a plan and run a marathon that I can truly be proud of. Don’t get me wrong, I am SO PROUD of myself that I ran a marathon, period. But I think that I have it in me to do so much more.

How was your first marathon experience? Any training plans that you swear by?

Tagged as: Maine Marathon, Run to Remember Half Marathon, running, training