As 11/20/10 approached I became more excited about this race. Last December, after my first marathon, when I was planning my marathons for 2010, I often jumped on marathonguide.com scanning through all the races trying to figure out which ones I wanted do for the coming year. One afternoon, I saw Mountain Home, AR…I thought, “no way is this the little ol’ town in northeastern Arkansas where Grandma lives, no way” so I clicked on the link and sure enough it was! It was scheduled for Saturday, November 21, 2010 and I started to plan my vacation time around that. How perfect to go up for the race and stay the following week through Thanksgiving at my grandma’s! So it was done.
In the days leading up to my final marathon of the year I became quite anxious. Not so much for my performance but for the race itself. I was beginning to dislike my training, feeling like it was confining me and keeping me from enjoying my routine around it. I had already decided after this marathon I would take some much needed time off and do shorter races for awhile (I’ve never done a 10k so I’d like to run a few of those for sure). I think the shorter distance training will be better for me given the amount of time long distance training requires. And I think it’s really important to be in a good spot mentally when going into a marathon, unfortunately I was starting to lose that. I love running, love, love, love it, from just going out for a run to the various training runs I do. I don’t want running to become a chore so the end of training was starting to look really good.
Back a few months ago they changed the date and location of the Mountain Home Marathon for Kenya. They moved it up a day, moved the course to the next town over (Cotter) and put it right along the river so instead of a hilly course we now had a FLAT course. It was 6.5 miles out-and-back twice which I thought was great! It automatically broke my marathon into parts for me (4 “laps” instead of thinking in mileage) and allowed for plenty of opportunities to cheer on the other runners (which is one of my favorite things to do). Not only that, but my parents were going to come with me. Because of the lay out of the course I’d be able to see them multiple times and could leave my fuel with them getting to run my first marathon without a belt or having to gear check anything!
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| Me and Grandma |
The weather in Arkansas, in my opinion, is perfect this time of year for running and it was actually going to be “warm” for race day. Our predicted low for the day was in the 40s and our high was in the high 60s. My running outfit was my favorite, mid-length tights and a zip-up long sleeve top along with gloves and my ear headband thingy :-P. If I have to wear gloves and cover my ears the temps are perfect for running! This was my first race where I didn’t get nervous. I suppose my excitement to be done with training kept my nervous energy away and everything moved so fast on race day I barely had time to think let alone get nervous.
Saturday morning arrived foggy and at 38 degrees, marvelous! My mom
and I headed to Cotter school; this town is so small there’s one little campus with all the schools on it…but Cotter can boast because they are the trout capital of the US. From there, we hopped on the shuttle…side note, they had a church van, a mini church bus, a full size church bus, and a charter bus going for their runners, talk about prepared…and headed to the start. My dad and grandma met up with us about 15 mins later. All events started at 7am and the timing devices were different than ones I’d had before. They weren’t individually timed but all devices started when the gun went off, so I tried to get as close to the front as possible. Dad said I was 8 seconds off from the gun time so I’d say that’s not too bad. It was super foggy heading out, I’d never experienced running in dense fog so it was something different and I really liked it. The entire course was along the White River and it’s very rural, I thought there were little spectators in Alaska, but there were even less here! I can count on one hand the number of spectators I saw on the course and they were all in their cars waiting for someone they knew to run by. We had 4 (maybe 5) water stations (since it’s an out-and-back twice course we had plenty of opportunity to hydrate and fuel) manned with 3-5 people and two large coolers (one for PowerAde and one for water), along with pretzels, bananas, and oranges. Not knowing before hand that the course was open to traffic, my parents and grandma just stayed at the half way point/finish to cheer me on. It ended up working out for me because during late fall/winter/early spring I don’t need to hydrate and fuel as often as I do during the hotter months. So grabbing a little water and PowerAde on the course was plenty for me. At about .5 miles the front-runners of the 5k had made their turnaround and were now coming the opposite direction, which allowed me the pleasure of cheering on my fellow runners. By 1.5 miles the half marathoners and marathoners were on our trek alone. I started to feel lonely. I’d gotten so used to sharing my long runs with others I had to get back to my single runner mentality. Even if I didn’t talk much on my long runs I was still out there with one or more runners next to me or very close by. And although I didn’t get to run Chicago with my running group, I was still running with thousands of runners and no matter where on the course I was it never really thinned out at all. This was not the case for this race. Most of the participants were 5k runners and it turned out there were only 146 half marathoners and 79 full marathoners; so there were plenty of times and miles I ran by myself especially the second half of the race. By mile 4 I’d finally found my mental and physical groove. The fog was still heavy and it was cool to see runners up ahead slowly appear as I approached. It was different to look out over the river and at times not be able to see it at all and other times it peek out just to disappear again. I have to say one thing I learned through this race, my gloves are no longer sufficient. I’d never dealt with cold and wet conditions before so my regular cotton gloves were perfect for keeping my hands warm enough to enjoy the run. But throw moisture in the mix and wearing non-wicking material is not a good idea. So, I’ve decided my next purchase will be actual running gloves…yippee! I don’t remember what mile it was, but runners started appearing again from the opposite direction…ah the front-runners of the half marathon and full marathon. Boy was I feeling slow! But I didn’t allow this to mess with my mental game instead I did what I do best, I distracted myself with cheering on those awesomely faster runners I so envy to be. I made the turnaround and felt good, slow but good. I’d rather have a negative split than go out a good clip to later realize I’d gone out way too fast to keep it going for 26.2 miles. The fog was starting to lift as I headed back toward the start and I was able to enjoy more views of the river and the houses along it. With this turn, I was able to cheer on the runners and walkers who were technically behind me. I saw a marathoner behind me with his 2010 Chicago marathon shirt on and got to holler to him about running the race as well. Strangely enough, I also saw a guy in a green shirt that looked pretty familiar but couldn’t place him. Mom had decided to go for a nice walk and walked about 2 miles out from the start, so I got to see her before I reached my dad and grandma at the start/halfway point/finish. I was feeling really slow and starting to get hungry and looking forward to seeing my time and refueling…of course having my personal cheerleaders up a few miles was motivation too. I reached my dad and grandma and stopped and chatted for a minute and got everything I needed for the second half of the course and got back on my way. Since the turn around was next to the finish line I was able to catch my time. I was at 2:17:10, which my half PR is 2:08 but my pace is different when I run a full and the 2:17 was faster than I’d felt I’d been running so I was pretty happy. I headed back out for third leg and by now the fog had completely lifted. It was like running a slightly different 6.5 miles and the final leg would be from a different vantage point so it was a nice little change.
I felt really good on the third leg; I’d refueled and was still enjoying cheering on the half marathoners and marathoners coming by on their second leg. I saw the guy in the green shirt again and immediate recognized him. I hollered to him and asked if he’d run Alaska this past June and he responded back that he had! CRAZY! I was finally able to place him because I spent the last 3-5 miles walking with him and a few of his buddies who were on their 2nd and 3rd circuits of completing the 50 states. Of all the states and all the races and all the runners we ended up at this little bitty race together! NEAT! In all this, I haven’t mentioned any pain/ailments that afflicted me for this race. But that’s not to say there weren’t any. In fact, as I hit mile 14 I started to experience knee pain. Of course I had taped my knees for the race so I was slightly discouraged when they started to tell me they were there and not very happy with me only 14 miles in. But I decided I wouldn’t think about it, unless the pain became unbearable I was going to find ways to forget about it. My voice teacher and I have been working through my vocal tension issues and he said to me this past week, “if your focus is on your character’s story and what she’s feeling and thinking at this point in the opera instead of figuring out ways to work through your tension while singing this aria, you’ll end up distracting yourself away from the tension and more than likely loose most of it in the process. Not to mention, you really should be focused on what your character is thinking and feeling anyway☺!” I decided to use this approach with my pain. I thought about my form and checked myself from head to toe to be sure I was still running efficiently. I thought about how good my body actually felt and how on top of the world I really felt; instead of trying to think past the pain I just chose to not think about it at all. It really worked! I fought knee pain, a cramped shoulder, foot pain and foot cramping but really my body felt really good. My legs didn’t feel heavy, I wasn’t overheated or freezing, I felt like an efficient machine. I also think my singing has helped me in my breathing as a runner. Just like breath is the foundation of singing I really think it’s the same for running. I’m not a shallow breather using only my lungs but a full body breather, filling my lungs and diaphragm to be able to unlock the maximum potential of my body. When running, I’m extremely rhythmic in my breathing and sometimes get lost just focusing on that. I know what my turnover is when I’m running slow, moderately, and fast and my rhythm is always consistent.
Around mile 16 I met a Maniac (actually there were quite a few Marathon Maniacs running this marathon) who was introduced to me as Larry Macon. Don’t know him? Neither did I, but I was informed by one of his running mates he holds the Guinness World Record for running 105 marathons in one year (2008). He is also the fourth person to run marathons in all 50 states within one calendar year (2005), and completed them again in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 and I believe he’s on state #38 for this year! He’s 65 and ended up finishing this marathon in 5:22:10, GO LARRY!
As I approached the final turnaround I was feeling really good and decided to speed up my pace a little. For fear of overestimating myself I still kept the pace fairly moderate. I really enjoyed the run by myself in this final stretch. My body felt wonderful so wonderful in fact I decided to take a fellow runner friend, Mike’s, suggestion and try singing and running. I was coming up to mile 20 and Love Shack came on my ipod… side note, I’ve been running without music over 90% of the time but considering everything going into this race I thought I’d better run with music and I’m sure glad I did, I think it really helped…I was feeling really good and couldn’t help but singing along out loud (yes I know every word to the song). I’ll dance and sing in my head when I’m running but never have I done it out loud and especially during a race, but there weren’t many runners I came into contact with during my little escapade so I figured it wasn’t a big deal if I rocked out. As the song ended I realized I was doing even better than I thought, I was able to run (and not slow down) and sing the entire time! The next song came on and I decided to pick up my pace a little more, still well within my moderate level mind you. I saw a runner up ahead of me with a 2010 OKC Memorial Marathon finisher’s shirt on. I thought it was pretty cool that I sat with a fellow Texan from a few towns over from me on the bus to the start, saw a guy I actually walked with in Alaska, and fellow 2010 Chicago and OKC marathon finishers too! Anyway, I decided at mile 23 since I was still feeling this good I’d take it up another notch to the finish. I realized at mile 25 that I was still breathing easy and my turnover was good. I was shocked but still afraid to push it. I worried that it was just the adrenaline and that if I kicked it up I’d actually find I was already pushing it and end up finishing weak because I couldn’t hold the push to the end. See this is my problem, with everything, I allow myself to be consumed by my fear and lack of confidence within myself. I push but only so far or hard. I do a good job but don’t allow myself to reach my full potential for fear I’ll actually fail. So I settle for just skimming the surface. Well, that’s all beside the point and I could go on and on about that but this blog’s long enough with me going on and on about the race there’s no need for me to start analyzing myself on here. So, I came around the final small bend and saw the finish. Why I didn’t put in a harder push, I really don’t know but I’m still content with my run and finish. I crossed the finish at 4:30:59 (I was 8 seconds behind the clock so really 4:30:51)!This put me setting a new PR by nearly 20 mins and running a 4 min. negative split! And I never kicked it up to where I was running a fast pace, imagine what I could have run if I had!? I can’t wait for my races next year, have a feeling I’m gonna be setting more PRs! Final side note, I set new PRs this year in all three of the distances I’ve run: 5k PR 26:38, half marathon PR 2:08:47, and marathon PR 4:30:59!
In the 7 years this marathon has been around they've raised over $100,000 for Katito, Kenya!
