The Team:Emily D
Jay R
Lisa B
Shelby B
Emily R
May 13: Lisa ran the hippie chick 1/2 marathon and passed out at the completion. She prayed we would not draw out in the Lottery.
May 15: Our team won a lottery pick
May - September:
- I received hate texts most Saturday while training. Lisa B was more than a little concerned about the distance, the altitude, and questioned why she had been crazy enough to get talked in to paying for a race that she now had to spend every Saturday running her body to its breaking point.
- I struggled with running. I didn't have energy. I felt exhausted after every run whether it was long or short. My muscles didn't seem to move like they have in previous months. My lungs just seemed to not get what they needed. I tried changing out my shoes. No luck. It wasn't fun to run anymore. (It was September before I found a correlation between estrogen levels and muscle fatigue.)
- In September we moved to Arizona. Increase the temperatures by 10-15 degrees and add in lack of street lights in our city and you have very few options of when to train with out losing 10% of your weight in sweat or running into a cactus in the pitch black of night. Yes, even at 6:45 pm at night it was too dark to run outside).
- Jay was busy in clinical rotations and studying for boards. He usually only found time to run on Saturdays.
- I started experiencing severe R knee pain the first week of September. Pushing through the pain proved detrimental as the pain would shoot down my leg causing my foot pain and numbness. My supplemental insurance while I am between jobs doesn't really have good enough coverage for PT.
I think we were experiencing mixed emotions about the race.
October 1: Jay's clinical rotation told him he would not be allowed to leave early on Friday for us to travel to St George for the race. We feared we would be leaving Tucson at 5 or 6pm and be lucky if we pulled in by 2am.
October 5: Jay got off work at 1030! A blessing in our favor, finally! We were on the road by 1130 and pulled into the race expo at 8:30 pm. We carb loaded with pancakes at IHOP and met up with the rest of our team at a condo in Hurricane Utah. Jay and I got the couch pull out bed that night. We didn't really sleep.
October 6: Marathon Day
4am: wake up
5am: load the bus for the start line
6am: Julie and I met up. We sat around the fire to keep warm until the race began. I don't remember it being that windy 7 years ago when I ran.
Mile 1: Jay and I finally warmed up and lost our long sleeve shirts. Jay was looking like quite the runner in his soccer shorts and headband. (We really are just wanna be runners)
Mile 2: My R knee started hurting.
Mile 5: We saw Lisa B running--She was lookin' good.
Mile 6: Jentry flew by us (one of Jay's classmates. We drove him from Phx to St George for the race). Jentry could tell I was limping and compensating by leaning left while I ran. (As such my abs were in pain after the race. I've never had ab pain from running!)
Mile 7: We hit Veyo--the biggest hill of the race.
Mile 10: We were maintaining about an 8min/mile pace but I could tell my knee was really not going to make it much longer. I encouraged Jay to run without me slowing him down and we split up at that point for the rest of the run.
Miles 11-26.2 were pretty much all a blur mentally talking my way through every tenth of a mile. I walked what I consider a lot. I probably walked a tenth of each mile but I kept moving trying not to let the people passing me get me down. At this point in the race it is as much a mental battle as a physical battle. Icy hot at two different aid stations in the last 10 miles helped to numb some of the pain. I walked through the aid stations for water or gatorade every other mile when they were offered. I kept my eyes down on the road and focused and just tried to keep moving.
I crossed that finish line. A 3:50:19. Surprisingly, I crossed it within 30 seconds of my previous marathon time. Not too bad considering how much I walked on this one and that 7 years have elapsed. A far cry from Boston qualifying time, but good enough for me.
Jay ran a 3:42, a PR for him and bragging rights in the Robertson family household. He now has the family's fastest marathon time. (There are rumors starting of a Robertson family race for the future to provide some healthy family competition).
Lisa B, Shelby B and Emily R all finished their first marathons! And each had their own cheering section at the end from their spouses who were their biggest fans!
This was Julie's 7th marathon and second marathon in the last 3 month. She's got more mental will power and muscle endurance than I will ever have.
It might just be another 7 years before I run my next full marathon. Jay and I in the meantime may look into a triathlon. Only problem-I can't swim and clipping in on a bike scares me. A LOT. I'll have to figure those two things out before I can commit to a tri. And buy a swim suit.
And yes, I must be crazy. I can hardly walk and I'm already talking about the next race.
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