Texas Marathon New Year's Day 2012 in Kingwood Texas

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.

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.

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!

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!)

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.

Finish Line

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.