Race Report: Stillwater Marathon 2009

The race started innocently enough. Hot air balloons overhead. Sunny but cool.

There were four different distances - 12k, half marathon, 20 mile and marathon. They all started together, so I got to start the race with all of my girls - three doing the half, three the 12k...I was the loner, the only one doing the marathon. I'm doing Grandma's marathon in June as my "real" race, so I was doing Stillwater as my long training run. People do marathons for training runs all the time? Right? Right? Bueller? Bueller??

Anyway.

I started the race with JD and CJ - who were running the half. We had a great time. There were some hills...but nothing we couldn't handle. Ryan was on his bike, leapfrogging us so we got to see him several times along the half marathon course. He ran with us for a few minutes at around mile 5 - hoofing it in his bike shoes. Very cute.

We loved the water stop near the Stillwater Prison - the volunteers were dressed in stripes and the trash bins were decorated as prison cells. Hilarious!

I bid my girls farewell at mile 12 where they went on to finish strong. I had 14 miles ahead.

My first challenge without the girls? A Big Ass hill. Crap in a hat, this thing was brutal. With Ryan riding on the path next to the road, I made it up the hill without walking. Whew. Ryan rode ahead and continued leapfrogging me. It was so nice to see a familiar face every mile.

At mile 15, I was coming down a hill towards a boisterous group of girls...and as I got closer to the group they started to chant.

"ALLY! ALLY! ALLY! ALLY!"

Holy crap! I am famous!! These people LOVE ME!

Or else Ryan told them I was coming and asked for a little favor.

But probably the former. I mean, c'mon...I am famous among DOZENS. :)

After this point, things started to get a little blurry. The miles started to run together (no pun intended). I had conquered some major hills...hoping (praying!) that the worst was behind me and I was starting to wonder, "really...how much worse can this marathon get??"

Silly Allison...don't you know to never ask that question??

Because it can always get worse.

The course turned off into a residential neighborhood. Have I ever mentioned that I hate running in neighborhoods? No? Well. I hate running in neighborhoods. It was especially bad because it was at the point of the day where it was starting to get hot. I was started to feel the effects of the earlier hills. The race thinned out when the half and full courses split and I was starting to feel alone.

It was a Godsend that Ryan was on the course. He rode with me through part of surburbia - he commented that things must not be going well since I was only giving him one word answers (he was right...I wasn't in a happy place). But he kept encouraging me...saying my form looked great and I looked strong and all of those things that you need to hear in the tough parts of a marathon, even though you know they are lies.

But as Coach Rudi always says - there are always rough patches in races and you just have to run through it.

The goal in my mind was to reach mile 20. I just had to get to mile 20. The last six miles of the marathon were downhill, so I just had to make it to 20 and I could practically coast my way to the finish. The miles slowly ticked away, up a hill, down a hill, up a hill, down a hill...haven't these people heard of FLAT?? My secret-ish goal was to only walk through water stops, but one of the hills near mile 19 was too much for me to take. I gave up and walked it. Sad face.

At this point, I had only taken two gels - one at mile 7 and one at 14 - and the idea of taking another one was making me a little nauseous. But I knew I needed the calories so I forced one down at mile 19 or 20 - along with some orange slices. I felt the effect within a few minutes and it perked me right up.

I was feeling strong at mile 22 as I turned onto Highway 95 - the home stretch. Four miles to the finish. Four miles of heavy traffic, running on the shoulder of the road, and heat radiating from the pavement. At mile 24, the volunteers were warning runners that it was 80 degrees and that we needed to pour water on ourselves. EIGHTY DEGREES?? Faaaak. No wonder this feels so hard.

At the mile 24 water stop, I made friends with a runner that I had been chasing since mile 18 - he was always in my sights but I could never catch him. Until now. We ran together for almost a mile - cranking out a 10:30 pace for much of it. We hit one last uphill (Dammit, Stillwater!) and I dropped him when he decided to walk it. He told me to keep up the pace and to finish strong.

But I couldn't. The heat was getting to me. Ryan couldn't ride beside me because there was too much traffic. I slowed to an 11:30 pace...wishing the race was over. I was hot and tired. My legs were shot. I didn't have anything left.

I slogged through the next mile and a half and was passed by two Galloway runners that I'd been playing leapfrog with for the second half of the marathon. I wanted to beat them. I wanted to pass them. I wanted to WIN, even though they didn't know that we were competing.

As I neared the 26-mile mark, I heard a familiar voice. "GOOOO ALLLLYY!!!!" It was Coach Rudi.

With a burst of energy that I didn't even know I had, I sprinted the last .4 miles, feeling like I was flying, and finished strong.

4:53:51.

Not bad for a training run.

Distance: 26.4 miles (according to Garmina)
Average Pace: 11:08
Average HR: 166

Three words to describe this run: Hilly, Hot, Challenging

The nitty gritty:
Mile 1: 11:15
Mile 2: 10:53
Mile 3: 10:43
Mile 4: 10:59
Mile 5: 10:51
Mile 6: 10:44
Mile 7: 10:30
Mile 8: 10:46
Mile 9: 10:33
Mile 10: 11:18
Mile 11: 10:50
Mile 12: 11:07
Mile 13: 11:19
Mile 14: 11:14
Mile 15: 11:14
Mile 16: 11:10
Mile 17: 11:27
Mile 18: 11:52
Mile 19: 11:57
Mile 20: 13:07 (stupid walk break)
Mile 21: 11:40
Mile 22: 11:04
Mile 23: 10:55
Mile 24: 10:28
Mile 25: 11:26
Mile 26: 10:55
Mile 26.4: 3:26 (8:37 pace!)