After months of anticipation and
training, weeks of nervousness, and a couple of nightmares about missing the
race, New Year’s Day finally arrived. I
was amazingly calm that morning. We made
it to the race site without getting lost, packet pickup was fast, and there
weren’t any lines for the port-o-potty.
I lined up at the start line and wasn’t even nervous. The race announcements were made and the
medal (HUGE 1.5kg medal) was revealed. Then we were off. The course was a repetitive loop course with
four loops for the full marathon. My
plan was to do a run walk interval of 5:1 minutes and try to stay on pace for a
sub six hour finish time with even or negative splits and fuel with power bar
gels every 45 minutes and water.
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| Let the madness begin |
Loop 1 –
split 1:30:09
The main goal for this loop was to
take it slow. It was really hard to go
slow because my legs wanted to go faster.
The course is run on greenbelts through Kingwood so it is basically a
sidewalk. Thank goodness the participant
count is limited because it was tricky to try to get around the walkers and
other runners without getting in the way of the faster runners. It was a little intimidating when the fast
half marathoners cruised by. I noticed
some chafing on the inside of my arm as I was headed back to the starting area
to complete this loop. I kept looking
for Glenn at each water stop to see if he had staked out a ‘spectator’ camp
there. As I approached the underpass
under Kingwood Drive I was hoping that he was there and that he still had my
body glide. I ran through the tunnels and
there he was and much to my surprise, my TNT coach and friend, Steve was there
as well. I stopped and applied some body
glide to my arm and then Steve ran with me to the turnaround point. They announced me over the loud speaker by
name and home town- nice touch. Steve
was announced too and he didn’t even have a bib. I hit the turn around right on pace for a six
hour finish so I felt pretty good about that.
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| Steve and Me at the turnaround |
Loop 2- split 1:31:47
This was my favorite loop. There was quite a bit of traffic as we headed
back out. Steve stuck with me until we
made it back to Glenn. He hung out there
and from what I hear they were a big hit with the participants because Steve
had brought his cowbell. It was a good
place for them to camp because I know they were very encouraging to a lot of
people. It felt like my sock was bunched
up under my toe so I stopped briefly to take my shoe off and straighten out the
sock. Another lady stopped as she was
passing so I could hold onto her for balance to put my shoe back on. Runners are so awesome. Before I knew it I was at the turn around point
and ready to head back to the start. I
even said “Wow! I am already here?” There were volunteers camped there marking us
down as we passed. They confirmed I was really there and I headed back around
Lake Houston to complete the second loop. Before I knew it I was under Kingwood Drive
again and Steve ran with me again to the turning point and back to their
camp. I am pretty sure I smiled the
entire time through this loop. I was
beginning to feel tired toward the end but strong. I had a bit of a positive split but it wasn’t
too bad considering the congestion. By
this point there was a steady flow of traffic in both directions and I really
enjoyed cheering everyone on as we passed one another. Our names were printed on our race bibs so we
could call each other by name. Some
people had nick names on theirs. I think
my favorite was ‘Eye Candy’. I laughed
out loud when I read it. There was a mom
running the half marathon pushing a double jogger. DOUBLE JOGGER!!!!! I can barely do one mile with one child in a
stroller. The race crew makes a bright pink sign for every participant and they
are hanging on the trees near the start/finish area. I found my sign at the end of this loop. It
was pretty exciting. They really go out
of their way to make you feel special!
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| Tree of encouragement |
Loop 3- split 1:37:29
I was still feeling strong but was
getting tired by this point. Cheers for
fellow runners were less verbal and more thumbs ups and fist bumps. I was doing well sticking to my 5:1 intervals
and the run intervals were still feeling short and the walk breaks long. There
was a guy chanting what sounded like a Native American ‘Hi OH YA’ or something
like that. Sometimes you gotta do what
you gotta do to get through it. I have
to admit I was glad when he was out of ear shot. It was a little distracting and it sounded
painful. Somewhere between mile 17 and 18 I started to get some cramps in my
right foot. I stopped to walk it out
about the same time that my coach from Fitness for Life class at Lonestar
College North Harris lapped me. He
stopped and walked with me for a bit, congratulating me on my first marathon
and encouraging me to keep going. It was
so nice to see you Coach JenisonJ. After the cramps set in I took my gel ten
minutes early and started taking sports drinks at the aid stations. Up to that point I had only done gels and
water. This coupled with a little stretching and slowing the pace helped to
prevent the cramps from constantly plaguing me. It was risky since I hadn’t trained with both
sports drink AND gels so I knew I was risking the trots but luckily my GI
system handled it well and there were no emergency pit stops or dashes to the
woods. Steve finished this loop with me
and I ate some peanuts at the turning point for a little extra salt (Another
risk- I am such a gambler ;) HA!)
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| Just tunneling through |
Loop 4- 1:48:44
Here is where the details begin to
get fuzzy. As I passed Glenn for the
last time near the underpass, Roman ran a few feet with me and wanted me to
take him out for the loop. When I say he
wanted me to take him what I mean is he wanted me to carry him. Another runner was passing and she said
“Mommy is almost done.” It was pretty
cute. That was a long time for him to be
out on the trail driving his cars in the dirt and ringing cow bells (of which
he now has his own). After that they
headed back to the finish line where he played his heart out on the playground.
For me this loop was the longest. My
pace had slowed but I was still feeling pretty good. I thought “This isn’t so bad, shouldn’t I
feel worse by now?” I finally made it to
the turnaround cone and the volunteers said “This is it.” I thanked them for hanging out all day for us
turtles. That is when things started to
go downhill. I headed back out around
the lake. Somehow that lake managed to
double in size since my last pass. I hit
mile marker 24 and I am pretty sure my watch said 5:48. “Not too bad” I
thought. That was where I guess I hit the wall.
I was very tired and it was hard to fight the temptation to walk and
even harder to pick up the run after my walk breaks. Mile marker 25 welcomed the return of the cramps
and I ended up having to walk quite a bit of that mile. Stretching seemed to make things worse so I
just tried to walk the cramps out the best that I could and run as much as was
tolerable. It was most
uncomfortable. At about the last half
mile I was so ready to finish that I decided to keep running through the
cramps. I saw the mile 26 mile marker
and put on the gas the best I could. As
I approached the finish area I could hear the cheering and then the
announcement “Finishing her first marathon Emily Johnson of Conroe, TX”. And just like that it was over. I was directed through the finishing chute
where I received my pig with my finishing placement and my medal. Then I was directed to sit on some chairs so
they could cut off my timing chip. I opted
not to sit. It seemed like a bad idea. There was pizza, cookies, and soda at
the finish. I was starving but I could
barely choke down one slice of supreme pizza and an oatmeal raisin cookie. Eating was a bit of a challenge for the rest
of the day.
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| Finish Line |
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| Me and Coach Steve (and one big medal!!) |
Stats
Chip time: 6:28:11
Gun time: 6:29:17
Overall placement 192/221
Women overall 75/90
Age Group 22/23
Thoughts
In Spirit of the Marathon
Dick Beardsley said “The minute you
cross that finish line, no matter how slow no matter how fast, it will
change your life forever”. I guess I
have watched that movie too many times because I don’t feel all that
different. Don’t get me wrong. I feel accomplished. I set a goal to finish a marathon and I
accomplished that goal. I finished what I
started and that is really saying something. I know that I can do hard things. If I am in a rough spot I can look back and
say “I ran a marathon. I can do this.” Running this marathon wasn’t the euphoric
experience that I was expecting it to be.
I just knew I would cross that finish line and burst into tears. But I didn’t.
I was tired. I was hungry. I was
grateful for the ability to accomplish such a feat. I was grateful to be
finished. I suspect that the change didn’t
magically happen as I crossed the finish line.
It occurred gradually over months of training and preparation. It was the journey that changed me- not the
destination. I look forward to more
marathoning and more changing for the better.
We were on the road
by 5:00am to allow enough time to get down to the beach in the weather. I thought I would be able to sleep on the road
but the heavy rains made me too nervous.
I was thinking the cost of a hotel room might have been better than
driving through that! We only made a
couple of brief stops but still cut it very close. By the time we finally made it to Stahlman Park
I was getting really nervous because it was twenty minutes to start time and I
needed to get my packet and do all of my little pre-race things. 
