Austin Marathon Recap

So I am thrilled to say that I am now officially a marathoner! Most of you probably saw on facebook, but the short story is that I accomplished nearly all of my goals from this post:

1. Finish the race. Done!
2. Finish the race on my own terms. Check, since I accomplished #3!
3. Run the whole race (except for walking through water stations and such). Unbelievably, yes! 
4. Finish at a 10 min/mile pace. Almost, my Garmin said 10:10 min/mile - close enough for me!!

This post will probably get a bit long, but I want to document my race experience!

Before the Race

The race started at 7AM, so we got up at 4:45 to have enough time to eat breakfast and digest a bit before running. I ate my english muffin with peanut butter, which was my plan, and then took some Gu  Chomps (basically energy fruit snacks) with me to eat once we got downtown. Turns out the buses weren't running from outside Kelly's apartment, but we were able to drive down and find a parking spot not too far out of the way. By the time we checked our bags in and stood in line to use the bathroom one last time (very important if you are going to be running for 4 hours!) it was basically time for the race to start!

Hard to get a good picture in the dark!

Sam & I got up to the 'corrals' right as the race was starting, but it was no rush since it takes a long time to get thousands of people moving. The way it works is that you line up based on your expected pace, from fastest to slowest, so I was fairly far back and perfectly okay with that. Sam probably should have started a little farther up, but no matter what you end up weaving through people for the first few miles so it didn't really matter. We finally got moving and crossed the start line at about 7:09.

Miles 1-10: Don't Start Too Fast!

For the first few miles I was just focused on keeping and even pace and not starting out too fast! I wore my heart rate monitor that syncs with my Garmin watch, so I was able to keep and eye on my pace and my exertion level. My 'max heart rate' is 190, and I didn't want to end up much above 180 by the end, so I decided to target around 170 for the first half of the race. That meant I had to take it easy on the uphills on miles 4-6, but I cruised a little faster on miles 7-9, which were mostly downhill.

By about mile 10, I felt pretty confident that I would be able to run the whole race. My knees were hurting, but it was a normal level of ache, not the 'my knee can't support my weight anymore' type pain that made me stop a few weeks ago. So I started psyching myself up for that and also focusing on my pace a little bit. I was averaging around 10:02 per mile through the first 10 miles so I thought maybe I could keep it up the whole way.

Miles 10-20: Gummy Bears & Trying to Enjoy It!

I took my energy gel at mile 9, and by mile 12 I was starting to feel hungry! I knew they weren't giving out energy gels until mile 17 so I was a little bit worried. Luckily the race spectators in Austin were awesome and lots of them were handing out food! I grabbed a whole handful of gummy bears from a tray around mile 13, and that hit the spot! By mile 15, my pace had slipped to 10:08 or so, so I knew that I wouldn't be able to get it back down to 10 min/mile, but I was still pretty happy with my pace so far!

I would say that around mile 15-19 is when I started to really enjoy the race. The first 15 miles I was so focused on pacing myself so that I wouldn't burn out early, and worrying about whether or not my knee would start hurting worse, etc. that I really wasn't taking time to just relax and enjoy it! Once it hit mile 20, I was pretty excited that I had now run farther than ever before, but I also started worrying about "hitting the wall" - I've always heard that happens around mile 20!

Miles 20-26: Setting a Random New Goal

I made it through miles 20-23 a little slower (about a 10:30 pace) and at that point I knew I wouldn't be able to hit a 10 min/mile average pace, so I started hoping that I would make it in under 4 hours, 30 minutes. I didn't know exactly what pace that would be, but I figured if I stayed around the same pace I could make it. Then around mile 23 was when I finally 'hit the wall' I suppose. My ankles started hurting, my left one in particular, which I have never had happen before. But at that point I knew there was only 3 miles left and there was no way I was stopping! I checked my watch with about 2.8 miles left and it was 11:09, so I knew there was about 30 more minutes and I could probably still make it!

At this point, my dialogue with myself was getting pretty entertaining. I kept trying to pump myself up with things like "it's okay if you totally ruin your knees - this isn't a training run, it IS the race - who cares if you need surgery later!" (even though my pain was never that bad) and "Rachel, actually lifting your legs is going to be a requirement for finishing the race" (after I dragged my toes a few times and almost tripped). But mostly I just focused on the fact that I was so close to the finish and to my goal of running the whole race, and that I would be so disappointed if I stopped to walk now!

(I should probably mention at this point that I don't think there is anything wrong or shameful about walking during a race - I know a lot of people even employ a run/walk strategy on purpose. In fact, during those last few miles there were numerous people that I passed while they were walking who came running past me a few minutes later - they were able to run faster by taking short walk breaks. It's a great strategy for some people. But for me personally, I had set a goal to run the whole thing and that was more important to me even than my finish time. Plus I knew that for me, starting to walk would make it really hard to start running again!)

The Finish!!

Within the last half mile there was a pretty steep hill (cruel!) but at the top Sam & Kelly & Will (Kelly's roommate) were there cheering so that pumped me up for the last little bit! Sam tried to grab a few pictures, but of course I wouldn't be capable of giving them a normal, smiling face:

I was in the middle of raising my arms to cheer, but I guess Sam took the picture a bit early, so I look ridiculous!

Should have just smiled for this one and it would have been good! But I was in the middle of yelling "I haven't
 stopped yet" as if I couldn't believe it... I look like I'm either lost or mad that someone is taking my picture! Oh well.

As I rounded the corner to the finish line I could see the race clock showing 4 hours and 38 minutes, and since I started 9 minutes after the clock started, my new 4:30 time goal was still in reach! I crossed the finish line after it hit 4:39, but I didn't know if I had made it because I couldn't remember how many seconds into the 9th minute we had crossed the start line!

After I crossed the finish line and stopped, all of a sudden I could barely walk. It's kind of hilarious when you think about it, because literally 2 minutes earlier I was running and now I could hardly move my legs! I guess that's what the adrenaline does for you! I hobbled through the medal area and got a water bottle and a banana and went to get my bag. I sat down on the curb (that felt nice!) and I called my Mom right away. She had been tracking my progress online and told me that I had finished in 4:29:41 - just barely under!!! I was definitely excited about that! All together it was an interesting mix of emotions at the finish - I was so proud and excited but also so tired and relieved to be done that it kind of all balanced out to neutral, or maybe I was just stunned!

Here's a couple of the "official race photos" I haven't purchased them yet (and probably won't), so sorry for the low quality and the copyright watermark - I guess they don't want you taking the pics off the internet (like I just did haha).

I hobbled over to meet up with Sam, Will & Kelly and headed out to lunch after much-needed showers!   We headed back to Beaumont right after lunch, and we were home by 8 so that wasn't too bad. On Sunday my joints were so sore - I waddled more than walked for the rest of the day! But Monday and today and I have had more general muscle soreness, but not too much lingering knee/joint pain. My ankle still feels strained, but I think it just needs a few more days to rest and recover. All together, not too bad for running 26.2 miles! I've had fun recounting the whole thing to family and friends and now you guys - it's hard to believe it really happened!!

It was also awesome fill in a blank spot on my personal records on the Garmin Connect website where I track all of my runs! Note that I actually ran more than 26.2 miles - pretty typical that a race ends up a little longer than advertised. My watch said 10:10 pace for those 26.3 miles, but if you divide my total time by 26.2 miles the pace would have been 10:17.

Well I think that is enough for today, I have some more thoughts on the whole marathon process in general but I will save those for tomorrow! All in all it was an awesome race and I am just grateful that I didn't experience any bad knee pain or any other pain that made me stop. I know it is mostly due to my training but I feel like there is some amount of luck involved - any day can randomly be an 'off-day' so I am thankful that this was not one of those! Thanks to all of you guys for your words of support - as I was running I knew I wanted to be able to report a good race back to everyone!!