Rock N Redemption? Not so much.
It had been a long 6 weeks since the Hard Corps Marathon and I was having mixed feelings coming into this one. During my back-to-back marathons, I was pretty active and running consistently. After pinching a nerve in my back at the HCM, I was being very conservative. I wanted to let my body rest so I took it very easy. I did one long run, 15 miles, in between and sprinkled in short runs when I had the time (enter Grad School and a new job to sabotage my schedule). Almost every run I did, no matter how short, ended with lots of back pain. I felt like someone was squishing me and nothing seemed to help my back un-kink itself. So on one hand, I was wary and knew that dropping out of the race was a real possibility. On the other hand, the cocky girl who ran 3 in 56 days with minimal pain thought I could pull something great out of my ass!! You see where this is going, right?
Expo
I met up with Christin and her family, in from Germany, on Friday afternoon. (Sidenote: Her Dad has been talking about this race since last June when I visited them in Germany. He signed Christin up, but she's knocked up and had to pull out.) The Expo was huge, tons of stuff to buy, gear to check out, and people to meet, but it was so crowded! I love expos, but even I had to get out of there, it was too crowded. And, this was the worst goodie-bag ever! There was nothing in it!
Last Supper
Saturday night I went to my first Maniac Meet-up at an Italian restaurant in Hillcrest. It was so much fun! Tons of great people all talking running and marathons! It was bliss! The food was authentic Italian and delicious! I stuck with my protein dinner and just had roasted chicken and veggies.
Race Day
I was up at 4:30 getting ready for the race. For some reason, my pre-race Oatmeal tasted like crap so after a few spoonfuls I threw it away and had a few pieces of bread. We had planned to take the motorcycle to the Start Line to avoid traffic, but the bike was dead. We hopped in the truck and tried to haul ass. On the way there, we ran over a bunny. I was sufficiently freaked out at this point and decided to just go with the flow. The morning was a mess so I made up my mind to just relax and take whatever comes my way. Shit happens, deal with it. At least I had a sweet outfit!
Beau got me as close as he could to the Start so I had to walk about 6 blocks uphill to get there. I found Christin and her Dad and we started in Corral 13. It was 6AM and it was warm enough to take my sweater off. What?! This can't be good either.
I zoned out for the first half of the race. No panicking. No mental math to compute my finish time. No chasing down pace groups. Just running, how refreshing! I was going fairly fast, but I started taking walking breaks when we hit mile 8 and some hills. I felt good coming into the half way point, even though I had been doing more walking than I planned. The 4:15 pace group finally caught me and I was pleasantly surprised to know I was ahead of them.
Around mile 14, I realized that the sun was out, there was no shade, and it was HOT. I was craving ice cold water (which isn't normal for me) and I knew the rest of the run was going to be a struggle. I came into Mission Bay and tried to run as much as I could. I knew that I had a few miles before I was on Fiesta Island and that I would push all the way through that last hour. I ran into Christin and she had some encouraging words for me. It felt like an eternity trying to get to the Island, but I didn't know "eternity" until I got on the Island. I had planned on just powering through that last hour, but it wasn't going to happen. It was hot, dusty, and boring on that Island. It seemed to last forever! I would get into little grooves of running and then I'd come out of it and need to walk. I finally got some consistency at mile 24 and promised myself the world if I could just keep it to the finish line. Coming back into Mission Bay and into Sea world, you couldn't see the Finish Line. I hate that. I just kept turning corners, but it never came into sight until the last 100 meters. I crossed the line at 4:47.
All in all, it was an uneventful race. I had a great attitude going into this and expected the very worst and very best. I'm not a fan of the course or the Rock N Roll organization so I don't think I'll be repeating this one or any of their other races. For #4 this year, I held up well. I'm giving myself an entire month off of running and probably won't do another Marathon until the Fall. I really want to tune up and get back to being faster, I do not want to see anything slower than 4:30 anymore. No more slow marathons, no more walking! I guess I'll have to wait a few more months for redemption, but that's okay. Until then, I'm going to sit on my ass for a few more weeks and be lazy! You should try it, it's kinda fun!
It had been a long 6 weeks since the Hard Corps Marathon and I was having mixed feelings coming into this one. During my back-to-back marathons, I was pretty active and running consistently. After pinching a nerve in my back at the HCM, I was being very conservative. I wanted to let my body rest so I took it very easy. I did one long run, 15 miles, in between and sprinkled in short runs when I had the time (enter Grad School and a new job to sabotage my schedule). Almost every run I did, no matter how short, ended with lots of back pain. I felt like someone was squishing me and nothing seemed to help my back un-kink itself. So on one hand, I was wary and knew that dropping out of the race was a real possibility. On the other hand, the cocky girl who ran 3 in 56 days with minimal pain thought I could pull something great out of my ass!! You see where this is going, right?
Expo
I met up with Christin and her family, in from Germany, on Friday afternoon. (Sidenote: Her Dad has been talking about this race since last June when I visited them in Germany. He signed Christin up, but she's knocked up and had to pull out.) The Expo was huge, tons of stuff to buy, gear to check out, and people to meet, but it was so crowded! I love expos, but even I had to get out of there, it was too crowded. And, this was the worst goodie-bag ever! There was nothing in it!
Last Supper
Saturday night I went to my first Maniac Meet-up at an Italian restaurant in Hillcrest. It was so much fun! Tons of great people all talking running and marathons! It was bliss! The food was authentic Italian and delicious! I stuck with my protein dinner and just had roasted chicken and veggies.
Race DayI was up at 4:30 getting ready for the race. For some reason, my pre-race Oatmeal tasted like crap so after a few spoonfuls I threw it away and had a few pieces of bread. We had planned to take the motorcycle to the Start Line to avoid traffic, but the bike was dead. We hopped in the truck and tried to haul ass. On the way there, we ran over a bunny. I was sufficiently freaked out at this point and decided to just go with the flow. The morning was a mess so I made up my mind to just relax and take whatever comes my way. Shit happens, deal with it. At least I had a sweet outfit!
Beau got me as close as he could to the Start so I had to walk about 6 blocks uphill to get there. I found Christin and her Dad and we started in Corral 13. It was 6AM and it was warm enough to take my sweater off. What?! This can't be good either.
I zoned out for the first half of the race. No panicking. No mental math to compute my finish time. No chasing down pace groups. Just running, how refreshing! I was going fairly fast, but I started taking walking breaks when we hit mile 8 and some hills. I felt good coming into the half way point, even though I had been doing more walking than I planned. The 4:15 pace group finally caught me and I was pleasantly surprised to know I was ahead of them.
Around mile 14, I realized that the sun was out, there was no shade, and it was HOT. I was craving ice cold water (which isn't normal for me) and I knew the rest of the run was going to be a struggle. I came into Mission Bay and tried to run as much as I could. I knew that I had a few miles before I was on Fiesta Island and that I would push all the way through that last hour. I ran into Christin and she had some encouraging words for me. It felt like an eternity trying to get to the Island, but I didn't know "eternity" until I got on the Island. I had planned on just powering through that last hour, but it wasn't going to happen. It was hot, dusty, and boring on that Island. It seemed to last forever! I would get into little grooves of running and then I'd come out of it and need to walk. I finally got some consistency at mile 24 and promised myself the world if I could just keep it to the finish line. Coming back into Mission Bay and into Sea world, you couldn't see the Finish Line. I hate that. I just kept turning corners, but it never came into sight until the last 100 meters. I crossed the line at 4:47.
Marathon Mitch & I at the Finish
All in all, it was an uneventful race. I had a great attitude going into this and expected the very worst and very best. I'm not a fan of the course or the Rock N Roll organization so I don't think I'll be repeating this one or any of their other races. For #4 this year, I held up well. I'm giving myself an entire month off of running and probably won't do another Marathon until the Fall. I really want to tune up and get back to being faster, I do not want to see anything slower than 4:30 anymore. No more slow marathons, no more walking! I guess I'll have to wait a few more months for redemption, but that's okay. Until then, I'm going to sit on my ass for a few more weeks and be lazy! You should try it, it's kinda fun!
