AT&T Marathon

I have had a secret for a while now. Many people knew that I had agreed to pace the marathon this year, but few people knew how utterly unprepared my body was. After my injury in August that took me off of the roads for a good 10 weeks, I had not really trained with any substantial volume until the very end of December. I mostly did a 10-12 mile long run with 2 or 3 4 mile workouts during the week if I was lucky. Yes, I managed to complete the required 22 miler on Jan 19, but other than that run, I had not gone further than 16 miles in a really long time and had only done up to 14 miles for the first time on New Years day.

Anyhow, since the 22 miler on Jan 19, I have only run 11 times including today. That was a month ago. Yes, 10 times in an entire month leading up to the marathon...most of those were measly 4 mile runs and I had no long runs over 12 miles under my shoes from that point forward. I had set myself up for complete failure today. Both Chad and I were really nervous about my ability to finish. I had my mom and him on alert for a phone call anytime after 4 hours.
I put on a confident face in front of most people at the expo and just tried to pretend that everything would be okay. I was living in a world of worst case scenarios.

The bad part of undertraining this year is that I had people depending on me to be strong and to finish on time. Not only was I going to be on my feet for 5 hours straight, most of the time it would be with first time marathoners and people desperately trying to break through the 5 hour barrier. These are people who need a positive leader and someone who they could depend on. I was fearful that my hip or knee would give out, that I would start cramping, or that I would simply bonk hard like other folks who try to go out an run a marathon with complete lack of training. I was trying to avoid the mental image of me on the side of the road in cramps or passing out.

Secretly, I was terrified this morning when I lined up for the start with my pace partner, Jennifer.

So, after completely setting myself up for failure, the end of this story is a good one...Jennifer and I rocked. We were not only able to finish, but we hit every single timing mat within a few seconds of when we needed to. Both of our official times are 5:00:00 and we are certainly in the running to win the pacer award for 'pacer king/queens'.

I usually learn something about myself with each marathon...I had already learned that I could overcome tremendous pain and obstacles with Boston 2006 and Pikes Peak. Today I learned what my body could do on the bare minimum of training and that it is a wonderful organism. The marathon is truly a mental feat. My body performed wonderfully today and I am so thankful to be healthy and strong both physically and mentally. I endured today.