This past weekend, I officially ran my first marathon! On April 30th, I participated in the Illinois Marathon and ran 26.2 miles! It was super exciting and it wraps up my last goal of finishing a marathon during my years in college. I can't believe that I only started running a year and a half ago. In my view, it is one of my biggest accomplishments in college, to overcome the physical barrier that had stood in the way of my running all during high school.
So to start off, I didn't put in anywhere close to the amount of training that I should have. Even for last year's half marathon, I put in a lot more training than I did this year. Thanks to the 20 credit hours that I am taking this semester, I really didn't have the time to run as much as I could. In the month and a half before the marathon, I only ran twice, and those were 13 and 6 mile runs respectively. So you can understand that I was really worried about the marathon as it approached: being able to see it coming, but not being able to run due to some homework or project that I had to work on. The only good advantage that I had this year which I did not have last year was the sleep I got the night before the marathon. Last year I carbo loaded so much the night before that I couldn't sleep the entire night because I was just pulsing with energy. This year I didn't carbo load too much (I went to a pasta dinner at Willard's house, which was nice) and because of that I was able to sleep for about 5 hours.
So the morning of the marathon I woke up feeling really worried (and tired - it was 5:30 am). Showered, got dressed, ate oatmeal for breakfast, and then I started the longggggg walk to the start line. The walk took me about 40 minutes, and I barely had time to drop off my bag at the gear check. Then the marathon started. Because I was so unsure of the time I would be around, I decided to stick with the 5 hour pace group. It might have been good because I could have started way too fast and died halfway through. It might have been bad because I could have gone at a more normal pace and not worn out my legs as much from each step. But I guess we'll never know which one.
The rest of the marathon (from mile 0 - 14) was a blur. It sounds so weird to say it, but they passed like nothing. Even by mile 14 I was feeling fine, as if I had not been running for about 2 and a half hours already. Granted it was at a horrendous pace (11:27 mile) but I was surviving! And then things started to go downhill (figuratively only, of course) from there. The sun came out and it became scorching hot. My feet started to hurt at around this point, and our pace group began to dwindle. We originally started with probably around 20 people, and by this time we had probably around 10 left.
There was a lady who really inspired me at this stretch (from 14-22 miles). She said that she had never been able to run past the 18 mile point, and that it always had been a wall for her and that she really wanted to push past it. So the entire group took it as our goal to get her past the 18 mile point. The last glimpse I saw of her was around the 22 mile mark, when I turned the corner and lost sight, but she was still running at that point! I was so proud of her.
By mile 20, every additional mile was a struggle. Each mile from mile 20-25 seemed to double in difficulty. There was a small uphill incline at around mile 24 that just killed me. But this was also the part when I started going ahead of the pace group. At this point my legs were beginning to cramp up from the slow pace that we were going (which put more stress on my thighs), while my hamstrings still felt fine. So I picked up the pace and began to use my hamstring muscles more. The last mile really flew by in a whirl, since I was running hard for much of it, to try and finish strong. If not for the strong headwinds that prompted me to walk right as I came into sight of the stadium, I would've had a much better time.
When I crossed the finish line that was like a huge sigh of relief for me. I got the medal (as everyone else did) for completion of the marathon. I finished in 4 hours and 57 minutes, which isn't a good time by any means, but leaves me plenty of room to improve in future marathons. I hugged my pace group leader for all his help to get us across the finish line (at around mile 24 there were only 3 of us left in the pace group. Everyone else had fallen behind).
I can't believe that I actually managed to do it. To me that seems like an incredible triumph. The willpower that it takes to do something like this is so hard to muster that I doubt normal people would be able to do it. Even though I say that everyone should be able to do the half marathon (and I still believe in it), not everyone can do the full marathon. But everyone SHOULD try and do the full marathon! Because the sense of accomplishment you feel afterward is so huge.
The outer arch of my right feet is still hurting from the marathon, I think because of my form. I will try to let it rest as much as I can in the meanwhile. Finals are done! Next post coming soon.
-FCDH
So the morning of the marathon I woke up feeling really worried (and tired - it was 5:30 am). Showered, got dressed, ate oatmeal for breakfast, and then I started the longggggg walk to the start line. The walk took me about 40 minutes, and I barely had time to drop off my bag at the gear check. Then the marathon started. Because I was so unsure of the time I would be around, I decided to stick with the 5 hour pace group. It might have been good because I could have started way too fast and died halfway through. It might have been bad because I could have gone at a more normal pace and not worn out my legs as much from each step. But I guess we'll never know which one.
The rest of the marathon (from mile 0 - 14) was a blur. It sounds so weird to say it, but they passed like nothing. Even by mile 14 I was feeling fine, as if I had not been running for about 2 and a half hours already. Granted it was at a horrendous pace (11:27 mile) but I was surviving! And then things started to go downhill (figuratively only, of course) from there. The sun came out and it became scorching hot. My feet started to hurt at around this point, and our pace group began to dwindle. We originally started with probably around 20 people, and by this time we had probably around 10 left.
There was a lady who really inspired me at this stretch (from 14-22 miles). She said that she had never been able to run past the 18 mile point, and that it always had been a wall for her and that she really wanted to push past it. So the entire group took it as our goal to get her past the 18 mile point. The last glimpse I saw of her was around the 22 mile mark, when I turned the corner and lost sight, but she was still running at that point! I was so proud of her.
By mile 20, every additional mile was a struggle. Each mile from mile 20-25 seemed to double in difficulty. There was a small uphill incline at around mile 24 that just killed me. But this was also the part when I started going ahead of the pace group. At this point my legs were beginning to cramp up from the slow pace that we were going (which put more stress on my thighs), while my hamstrings still felt fine. So I picked up the pace and began to use my hamstring muscles more. The last mile really flew by in a whirl, since I was running hard for much of it, to try and finish strong. If not for the strong headwinds that prompted me to walk right as I came into sight of the stadium, I would've had a much better time.
When I crossed the finish line that was like a huge sigh of relief for me. I got the medal (as everyone else did) for completion of the marathon. I finished in 4 hours and 57 minutes, which isn't a good time by any means, but leaves me plenty of room to improve in future marathons. I hugged my pace group leader for all his help to get us across the finish line (at around mile 24 there were only 3 of us left in the pace group. Everyone else had fallen behind).
I can't believe that I actually managed to do it. To me that seems like an incredible triumph. The willpower that it takes to do something like this is so hard to muster that I doubt normal people would be able to do it. Even though I say that everyone should be able to do the half marathon (and I still believe in it), not everyone can do the full marathon. But everyone SHOULD try and do the full marathon! Because the sense of accomplishment you feel afterward is so huge.
The outer arch of my right feet is still hurting from the marathon, I think because of my form. I will try to let it rest as much as I can in the meanwhile. Finals are done! Next post coming soon.
-FCDH
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