My Marathon Race Report
Freescale Austin Marathon, Feb. 13, 2005

Sheesh. Where to begin.

First, lightening and rain. So I cried in the wee hours of the morning. It wasn't supposed to be like this! But all is well - it cleared up.

Started the race, and I fell in with 4:45 pace group. (My goals were: 1. To finish, 2. To be under 5:00, 3. To beat 4:45.) Despite having peed twice, I had to go from the start. Hung well with pace group until couldn't stand it anymore - peed (after waiting in line) at mile 11. Lost the pace group. Poop. Before all that, I start feeling the twinges of a blister beginning at mile 6. Yup - mile 6.

Mile 13, my knees (yes, the ones I attended rehab for and did all those excercises to help) start trying lock up. Sucks. But still I run.

Mile 16. Holy hell my left knee hurts. I take Advil (thank you, husband!) and keep running - straight to the waterstop 50 feet up where I begin to walk. HA! As I'm eating my cookie, walking, thinking "I don't give a damn what my finishing time is - I just want to finish", I hear my name. Who is it but my coach coming back on the return loop! I start to smile and wave, but he yells "Jodi - Go, kiddo!" Have to admit at first I was peeved (as my mom says, he's lucky he was able to finish at all considering he yelled that at a woman with knee problems and cramps!), but it did force me to start running again. And then within a mile I'm grateful to him for kicking me in the butt a bit.
** Funny side note - found out later he *actually* said "Way to go, kiddo!" HA! What a difference two words make (his words). :)

Mile 20. Ouch. Double ouch. Both knees are barely bending. And the walking starts to be every 7 to 10 minutes. Losing time. But what a site! My parents are cheering me on, and my husband has reappeared with a new shirt! (The picture below shows his shirt and the one he made for me to wear post race.)

"Can you TwentySixTwo?" "My wife can!" "Can you TwentySixTwo?" "I did!"

Mile 21-24. I'm so grateful my hubby rode his bike nearby spurring me on. Knee pain - and terrible side stitch (the kind that prevents deep breathing at all) - keep me walking every 3 to 5 mintues. I REALLY lost lots of time here.

Mile 25. This mile is mine, so I begin to run it. I pick up the pace some - knee was feeling better. The people calling my name helped. And a whopping two whole minutes later, I'm walking. Again, no bonk - energy-wise I felt okay. Stupid, stupid knees - and feet. Blisters suck. But after I notice on my watch that I *could* possibly beat my secondary goal of under 5 hours, I decide to just keep going and pay for it later.

And later came in one minute - in the form of quad cramps. This is BAD news, as once you get muscle cramps, there's no coming back from that. So, I took a step off the side and began beating my muscles into submission with my fists. Took a little stretch, then quickened the pace to make up for lost time.

Running down the chute with everyone calling my name was GREAT!! I just wanted to reach the finish line so I could STOP! haha.. So I finished. I wasn't sure if I beat the 5 hours, but my deal with myself was that if I beat it, I'd never have to do this again. If not, then sign me up already for 2006!

I received my medal (awesome!), red PowerAde (NOT a welcome site after all the red PowerAde ingested), and my Mizuno cap (husband likes!). Got my finisher's t-shirt, found the family, and then took off my shoes to reveal..... among 3 other blisters on toe tips, a HUGE blister (over an inch in length, and over 1/4 inch in height) on the inside of my foot below the big toe. Yeah, ouch.

Wanna know if I have to run it again?? (i.e. wanna know my time?) Despite all my dumb walking (dumb because I didn't walk in any of the 21+ mile training runs), I made it in 4:59:57. Yup!! I made it with 3 whole seconds to spare!! (Someone was definitely looking out for me!) I know it's not a fast time - and definitely not the time I had been expecting - but considering all my issues and the fact that it was a balmy, bright 70 degrees (my long training runs were all done under 45 degrees!), I'm okay with it. :-)

A big THANK YOU to my parents and my husband for being my support team! It was the best to see them waiting for me at different mile markers to cheer me on! Thanks again, you guys!