MidSouth Marathon part Roku

Done!!!!!!!!! Can't believe I just completed 26.2 miles. As soon as I could my shoes came off and I was barefoot :), well except for my pink injinji socks. But it felt so good getting the shoes off my feet, lol........It didn't feel so good 10 minutes later when I tried to put them back on and my left leg cramped up from my calf to my toes. OWIEEEEEEEEE! Didn't think I was ever going to get it loosened up and my toes uncurled (and those toes weren't curled in a good way). I'm pretty sure that cramp is why my leg is so sore today.

Final time was 4:40:40, very easy to remember and kind of unusual especially since I'm 40 years old. A friend suggested I play those numbers in the lottery, lol.

77/158 overall

3/9 40-44 female age group (but first won a masters award so I got 2nd age group)

not sure where I placed female overall and too lazy too count it up :)

The bling!!!

Jackie asked me afterwards if there was anything in my training I would have done different but there wasn't. I felt strong at least until the headwinds but those affected everybody. I heard later that even most of the faster runners were 35-40 seconds off their usual times per mile--haven't verified this but everybody did say they were struggling with the winds. The only way I could have trained better was to have thrown in some midday runs in Central Texas (notoriously windy).

So war wounds--hobbling about today because of the left foot and calf, a blister on my right pinkie toe, and a bit of chafing on the inside of my thighs from the shorts under my running skirt. The chafing I discovered in the shower afterwards, OUCH, OUCH, OUCH! Little bit sore through my shoulders (leaning forward into the wind) but otherwise I don't feel any worse than after my first half marathon last year. If it wasn't for the left leg I could even go for an easy run today.

Thanks to Jackie for running with me in my first marathon and to the entire Cabot crew for the support and training (esp. Brenda, Cindy, Lisa, and Jackie). TWB and Terry were also a major cheering section as was my Twitter friends (I'll leave somebody out if I try to list them all). Love to Patti, Becky, Karen, Brice, and Tala!! Another thank you to Jeff Clark, the Marathon Trucker for the encouraging emails and advice. A huge shout-out to my friend Alyson who bought the very cute "Running. I do that." tee-shirt as a 1st marathon gift. Thank you Aly!!!!! and here's the pic of me wearing it to my ohmygod, I finished the marathon celebratory pancake dinner that I'd been obsessing about all week. Wow, sound like I'm giving an Academy Award speech or something :).

MidSouth Marathon part a cúig

Jackie and I agreed around mile 16ish or so that we were just going to go on and do whatever we could do. She has 14 or 15 marathons completed so she's much stronger than I am with the longer distances. I was able to keep her in sight until around mile 24 (more on that in a bit).





As I wrote earlier I was so disappointed when I didn't see James where I thought I would so that kind of dropped my spirits even more. Yeah, I'm such a baby :(. He most definitely made the right decision with staying and helping with the water stop, I am so proud of him for that.





At this point I'm playing the game of picking out a cone, sign or a pole to run to, then another to walk and so on. Wind is continuing to pick up and I'm soldiering on albeit slowly, lol....I get passed by one of the faster women from the regular start and she's taking walk breaks too. Later I found out from Jackie that this was the woman who won the MidSouth Marathon last year.

Mile 24 up the monster hill and this is where my left foot starts to cramp up. Yep, the one I had the plantar fasciitis problem with last spring, the one that hadn't bothered me for the past 3 months. That's the one :-(. Way more walking than what I wanted at this point, grrr and this is where I lose sight of Jackie for good. Finally up and over the hill but still walking more than running.

Finally some crowd support :). There was this lovely older lady that had a series of signs staked out in her yard and she was offering bottled water to the runners. So sweet and a welcome sight. I didn't need the water but absolutely loved that she was doing that. Groups of JR ROTC members are at every corner now. Some are cheering more enthusiastically than others but I was getting an "I love your tattoos!" from every single group, lol. Finally see James again and hand off my water bottle to him and get a quick kiss :). Muster up the energy to run (slog!) the last 1/4 mile through the finish line, smiling and laughing and almost crying all the way.

MidSouth Marathon part Vier

So, turnaround point, headwind, still running strong.........





At least until we get out of the tree cover then the wind is BRUTAL.............





Started slowing a bit but nothing too drastic, then I realize that I took a bit too much water at the last 2 stops and had to hit the portapotty for a quick pee. Small race-walk to reach it, come out and I swear the wind has picked up even more for the less than a minute I was in there. Run for another 1/2 mile or so, it's steadily uphill (where the hell were the downhills?), and I can't catch my breath at all. It ends up being a race walk/run pattern from this point on (mile 17-18) with the wind continuing to pick up and gusting and it's getting hot. I simply could not draw enough breath in. Legs were still good at that point but that deteriorated quickly with not getting enough oxygen in :(.

Here is a graph of the weather conditions from yesterday. Note the wind speed/gusts. The highest wind gusts yesterday were 46.5 mph.





Was looking forward to seeing James at the first point we'd seen him that morning because I was going to drop some gear with him to try and lighten up the load a bit. To my disappointment he wasn't there and oh man did my spirits plummet :(. Afterwards I found out that the mile 11ish/15ish water stop had only 2 volunteers working it and he stayed with them to help out until 1030. They were getting overwhelmed so he started refilling cups and handing them out. After that a couple of other spectators jumped in to help too. But isn't that so awesome of him?!?

MidSouth Marathon part Tres

Ok, line up, listen to the speech, starting pistol is fired :)--3 minutes late by the way....Chip timed but no starting mat for it. I think they compensated for it in the final results though.





Jackie asked me what my race plan was but to be honest, the longest race for me so far has been a 1/2 marathon and my longest runs were 20 milers (and only 2 of those) so I had no idea what my race plan was or even should be....I was going to be relying on her guidance and advice. My nutrition plan was one gel every 5-6 miles, I was carrying my amphipod bottle with heed and would get water at the stops as needed.





Morning started out cool but within a mile it was heating up already. I'd left my long sleeve shirt with James but kept my gloves on, they only lasted about 3 miles. Good steady pace in the beginning but do not let anybody tell you that the MidSouth Marathon is flat.......It may be in Wynne but the course takes us over and around the edge of Crowley's Ridge. I do believe the only flat parts were the first and last miles.





Jackie's nutrition plan was to take 1/2 a gel every 3 miles with a bit of a walk break so I ended up following that and it worked out great. May continue that routine from here on out for my long runs (I want to stay in 1/2 mary shape consistently).





James surprised us by showing up at the first place along the route that was ok for spectators to drive to and cheer the runners. I was so surprised and happy! Can't believe how much that lifted my spirits up to see him throughout the course :). Unfortunately there is very little crowd support for this marathon except at the water stations. The water stations however were every mile or so and the vast majority of people were very enthusiastic. I do wish they were still doing the themed water stops with costumes like they used to, not sure when they stopped that. A lot of kids were working the stops and they would be so happy when you chose them to take the cups from. Sooooo cute! There was more than one where they looked so crestfallen that you didn't take their cups :).





I had a low spot right around mile 5 or 6, just wasn't feeling great, hills were taking their toll and I was cramping a bit (oh forgot to mention my period started Friday evening, yuck) but came out of it fairly quickly. Maybe I need to start carrying a recorder so I can note what's going on where and when. Would be a great reminder for afterwards 'cause things tend to blur together sometimes. It was so nice to reach the tree-covered part of the course for some shade, but still seemed like there wasn't any corresponding downhills to the uphills, wth?!?





Kristen drove by cheering at one point :), she's such a sweetie! Saw James again at the mile 11ish water stop, hit the turnaround point, give Charity a quick hug and introduce Jackie to Kristen. Feeling awesome, we start meeting the fast runners from the regular start and the runners that are behind us from the early start. Great boost to cheer everybody on and so very, very cool to see and cheer on Ethan and Leah twice, once meeting them and then when they zoomed past us.




Saw James again at the same water stop on the way back but this time he was handing out water and gatorade with the volunteers :).

The turnaround point marked the headwind though, eep.......























Freezing at the start, cute gloves, and Carol to the left.

MidSouth Marathon part Deux

Jackie, me, Annette, and Jane. Not sure who number 76 is :), Brice is at the far right with blue cap, and I think that's Patti's arm.

Patti, me and Becky :). I adore these girls!

Breaking this up into several posts so hopefully will be easier for everybody to slog through :-).

Earlier last week we received an email from the race organizers saying that the early start of 0700 was going to be open to all runners and I started noticing facebook posts that most of my friends were going to take advantage of it because of the warmer temps being forecast. This led to an overwrought post about what I should do and Brenda sends me a text to call her. I soooo needed that! Thank you so much Brenda!!! What we decided was since it was such a small marathon I would be essentially running by myself or pretty close to it anyway that I should go for the early start and run with Jackie, another experienced marathoner who would be doing the same pace as me. Since it was my first my only real goal was to finish under 5 hours and still be walking afterwards. Plus there are two final grand prix races (2 10ks the final two weekends this month) so wanted to try and stay well enough to complete them.

Saturday morning, James and I actually arrive early, early!!!!!!!!! That is so unusual for us, we're almost always rushing around at the last minute in panic mode, lol.........This gives me time to go to the bathroom, get geared up for battle, go to the bathroom, get my race packet and chip, go to the bathroom, socialize, go to the bathroom.........yes I have a nervous bladder, LOL......

Got to visit with Carol and her daughter quite a bit and she was giving me major compliments on my muscle tone and was telling everybody how she got to witness my transformation and how awesome I was. The thing is Carol is one of the most awesome people I know!!! Always so bubbly, positive, heckuva body herself, and has completed 14 (I think) marathons so far this year plus 1 ultra. And that's not counting the various shorter races..........Amazing, amazing woman :). I'm very privileged and honored to have her as a friend.

Visited with Patti, Becky, Annette, Jane, Arland, Jackie, Brice, Tala, and Karen :). Oh shoot who am I forgetting? Getting old sucks, lol......Unfortunately Tala missed our facebook posts about us doing the early start so she didn't run with us. That sucked for me and her :(.........I am so sorry Tala, I should have thought to email you directly, I feel like such a jerk.

MidSouth Marathon

Well, I am no longer a virgin--marathon wise that is, LOL!!! This can now be marked off as one of those bucket list items, although I'm fairly sure it wasn't on my bucket list to begin with, ha-ha........

Good news is that I didn't hate the experience and may even try my hand (or feet) at another one in the future but the next one will most definitely be one of the larger venues just to get the full experience of the crowds. This one was kind of an accidental marathon because at halfway through the year I'd realized I'd made all the state's Grand Prix races and thought why not try to go for Ironman status............Yeah, I knew there was a marathon involved but kept thinking that work schedule might cause me to miss one of the earlier races then there would be no pressure to run the marathon :).

Unfortunately last month James' mom suffered a minor stroke which has caused some major stress in our household in trying to rearrange schedules, deal with government agencies, etc.......Anyway I've whinged enough about this on twitter so don't feel I should go into all over again except to note that this caused some major sleep deprivation, stress, and a weight loss of 2 pounds 2 weeks prior to the marathon that I couldn't afford to lose right then. Major thanks to Lybbe, The Wondering Brit and Terry aka Little Trucker for getting me through last week with what little sanity I have left somewhat intact :)

Why the heck is my hat so crooked? LOL! Lots of compliments from non-runners about my shirt

:-)

random pics

Again most of this has been posted on twitter so don't bothering looking if you've already seen them.

Blurry pic of weird sky in Memphis last week

muddy shoes from today's trail portion of the 12 miler

eww, muddy socks. Plus the little bitty dot on the inside of my ankle is where I cut it when I face planted today

Immediately after today's run :). Was in such a great mood wanted to share it with James. When he received the pic he called saying that it must have been a really good run since I was grinning so big. And yeah, I was wearing gloves throughout (chilly fingers!) even though I ended up shedding the long sleeve technical shirt.