It all started out odd. By this I mean I slept amazing the night before the race (this never happens), however at 2am my calves started cramping up on me. I knew this was weird and was trying to think of why, and then I figured it out. I wore flip flops the day before the race. I forgot that it takes a bit for my legs to adjust from winter heeled boots to flip-flops. I threw on my calf sleeves and my legs felt better by race time.
I got to the race early (bad habit of mine) as I knew parking was really limited. I charged up my phone, ate a last minute banana with peanut butter and watched all the other people who got there early. 8:40am came I dropped my bag and headed to the start line. I was surprised how unorganized this race felt compared to many others I have done. I feel that this led to some of the issues.
There were no pacers and it took me a littles less than 2 minutes to cross the start. The parkway is not very wide, but for the amount of people there it was packed. So packed, that by not having people grouped by pace people were literally pushing people out of the way to get ahead. This is when some guy decided he wanted to pass me (I even kept my earbuds out for this reason) and he pushed me and another lady up onto the sidewalk over the curb. Not nice Mister.
After the pack started calming down around mile 3 I realized I had been running to fast and slowed down a bit more. I was very glad at this point I chose shorts and a tank and it was getting hot fast. Around mile 3.5 I decided I would go with a Gu as I had pushed the first 3 miles. I went to pull all my Gu and all I found was a sticky mess. Somehow all 3 of my gu's exploded in my pocket and my shorts were now stuck to my leg, along with having stick hands ugh!
I literally tried to get the rest of the Gu out of one packet and carried the one with the most left. This was just not good as I knew they weren't doing Gu's until mile 10, and gatorade hates me. I kept running and pushing, and drinking my water, but I knew it was getting warmer and my calves started to cramp up.
Not shocked at how mad my calves got. Lesson learned, give up flip-flops or buy better ones, and never wear new shoes the day before a race. Around mile 8 I cut across to hit the port-a, lets just say these were a rare find on this course. There were 4!! And after drinking around a liter of water I had to wait two miles which led to a side stitch. I probably hit my wall around mile 9 (where a poor girl sat waiting for an ambulance from heat exhaustion, yes it did get that hot). Somehow I made it to 10 and grabbed a Gu but my calves and quads were mad. I had to do a walk/run combo the last 3 miles (not what I wanted) but I did it.
Somewhere near mile 12-13 I felt a super SHARP pain in my left quad. And there was Mr. Bee hanging out on my leg. Ugh what the heck! Anyone who knows me, knows I hate bee's!! I run screaming like a little girl. Today more than anything it ticked me off. I pulled him off and finished. Then I grabbed ice and had the first aid people get the stinger out.
So overall, I have a lot to learn, a lot to do different next time, and I lived to tell. I did realized I don't like running with a hand held bottle anymore, I like having my arms free so I have to try a belt, ugh. I do have a clip bottle but it can be a pain too. Any ideas for great hands free running? I am really happy I finished in under the time limit and didn't come in last. For me this wasn't about finishing even in the front 3/4. It was about doing it to prove to myself I could.
I think I will be training all summer for Big Sur and maybe save the Marathon for next fall. That doesn't mean I can't start doing some of that training now. I am hoping by the end of summer to be able to do 15-18 mile relaxing runs and then maybe I will feel more confident about Big Sur.
I also realized last night I need to buy new sunscreen. Though I put it on my back it is still pink. One poor girl in front of me had blisters on her back already at mile 10. Yikes!
