Little Rock Marathon!

The fun started Friday night with our trip to the expo.  Paula and Jennifer followed Ruthanne, Carrie, and me so they could get their 5k stuff.  The expo is always exciting and this year there were some good photo ops!  The theme of this year's race was Lucky--I figured at first that this was the 13th Little
Rock Marathon, but it was the 11th.  It's 2013, though, so I guess we needed some luck to go along with the year.  There were cowboy shirts, country music, hats--and a horse.  We had some fun with the horse.Well....the rest of us didn't have as much fun as Carrie had.  If you ask her she'll say she was coerced, but that doesn't show in the photo evidence.

Paula, we found, makes a very convincing looking farm hand/cowboy/horse wrangler.  Maybe the teaching thing is a front??

We popped into the Go! Running VIP party for a bit and then said goodbye to Paula and Jennifer and headed out for some dinner and drinks.  I was determined to eat right to prepare for this marathon, and Annette Blanton told us that the meal two nights before was where you really get your energy for the race, so I went with pasta.  We had a great time and there was much laughter and conversation that cannot be reproduced on this blog.  Let's just say it has to do with underthings--or the lack of them--and leave it at that.







I spent Saturday morning working at the AP prep

session at North Pulaski.  It was snowing!  I guess Paula and Jennifer and the other 5k-ers got to deal with wind-blown snow flurries for their race.  I griped about the weather.

I was nervous about this race because I really wanted to PR.  I set my previous PR at the Little Rock Marathon in 2012--it was marathon 2 for me.  Then I went on to run 10 more races in the next year, but I didn't beat that time of 4:22.  I came sort of close at White River (4:27, I think?) and at Mississippi River (4:25), but this time I felt like I was as ready as I would be to PR and I knew the course and what to expect.  Except I was nervous.  There was no "I'll just run it and have fun."  I wanted to PR and everyone knew that I wanted to PR.  I wanted to at least finish under 4:20.

I had thought about starting out with the 4:25 group again like last year, but they were in the C corral and I was in the Open corral.  They were definitely being strict about the wave start so I began the race on my own.  It was chilly but not uncomfortable.  I ditched my warm up pants before the start and lost the sweatshirt fairly soon after.

In North Little Rock I was happy to see Claudia, Dave, Evelyn, and Gloria waiting for me to come by.  I knew when to look for them so I made sure to be on the side of the road where they would be.  It was great to have some cheers from friends on the side of the course and even cooler to see them when I came back the other way.  High fives are a good burst of energy.  I was keeping a good pace.

Around mile 9 my legs started to feel really tired and I got worried--with my legs feeling tired then, I didn't know how I would be able to keep that pace for the rest of the race.  Plus, I was feeling the hills before we even got to the hills.

I got a boost when I caught up to the 4:25 pace team--I chatted a little with the pacers--they were the same ones who led that pace team last year and ran with them for the first half.  It was a boost to chat for a minute and also because I could feel that their pace was slower than what I had been running and that I could run faster, and I went on.

The hill up into the heights felt longer than before.  Not only that, but I felt like it never really leveled out until we started going downhill.  Finally heading down felt better.  It was actually a relief to get to the bottom and head down the river trail--plus--at mile 18 I was still on pace for a good PR and felt deep into the race.

The out and back has a reputation for being long and boring--and it is--except that there was plenty of yelling back and forth from maniac to maniac and friend to friend.  That helped break up the monotony.  A couple of maniacs were at the turnaround taking pictures and there were laughter and smiles.  I passed mile 22 and was waiting...and waiting...for mile 23, for knowing there were only 3 miles to go, and that I could walk through the water station.  When I finally looked down at my garmin and it said 23.5, I thought it might be a mistake--how could I have missed that mile marker?  But it wasn't, and soon Cantrell, mile 24, and the evil final hills were in sight.

 I knew that with the way I was feeling I would have to walk some.  I also knew I had plenty of time and didn't have to worry much about my PR at that point.  I probably would have been able to gather more energy and push harder if I had been closer to my old time--which is both good and bad.  On the last tough hill I saw Greg, who snapped this picture,


and then I caught up with Barco and got a bear hug and a few steps from him.  I was so close and so tired and just kept telling myself hell yes, oh god hell yes, go get this PR.  I kept glancing down at my garmin to make sure that I was right about the time.  I remembered to stop the timer as I crossed the finish line and felt tears and disbelief and having finished in 4:11:52.  I staggered over to get the chip cut off my shoe, get that heavy medal, and have a picture snapped.  Kristin, Shawn, and Kennedy were there at the finish and came around inside the park to spend some time with me--it was so great to see them and spend a few minutes celebrating my PR with friends.

Kristin took this picture of me with my medal to go with the somewhat hideous--but still appreciated--one that she took as I was crossing the finish.  I got my post-race beer and we walked a bit.  I felt great about my time and my legs didn't get that super heavy painful feeling that they sometimes get right after a race.  Kristin and Shawn left with Kennedy and I found a spot by the finish line to watch people.  That was an amazing thing to see, all of those people so elated with their accomplishment, huge smiles, and I loved marathoning even more then, seeing the things people can do, knowing everything that they did to get to that point, and seeing it become reality.  At one point I teared up as a much older lady crossed.  She had a half-marathon bib on and was doing a stiff walk--you could just tell that she had probably been doing that same walk through the whole 13.1 miles she had just covered, and what an amazing display of determination and refusal to do anything but achieve, put herself out there and just do it!! So many people tell me they could never do it.  What about the man who had his lower leg in a boot.  He had his leg bent at the knee and on a wheeled scooter and he was slowly pushing himself long with the other leg.  Or the guy in the wheelchair who was pushing himself up the mountain into the heights.  Or the many, many people who were older or who were still carrying the extra weight who I passed from the early start--by 11:30 when I started passing them, they had been going since 6 and had hours left.  One of the maniacs who had been taking pictures did some dancing at the finish--impromptu entertainment!  Many people grabbed hands with a running partner to cross together, looking so thrilled and triumphant.

After Carrie and Ruthanne finished, Ruthanne went to see her family and Carrie and I grabbed a spot on the grass to relax.  I had stayed on my feet since the finish and it felt good to get off of them.  We stayed there until Ruthanne was ready.  I kept my hood pulled over my face to avoid any more sun, since I forgot again to put on sunscreen.  We then staggered out, brought the swagger wagon down, and went to Sticky Fingerz for some beer and snacks.  More fun, more inappropriate laughter, and a slightly inebriated Carrie are what we had to show for that.

The server was nice enough to capture these moments for us, which Ruthanne put together and shared with me.  The medals do hide our whole faces, and there was clearly some hilarity as well.  Running friends get into your life and heart quickly and make the whole experience so much bigger and more special.  I look forward to many more races with the friends I have made and the ones who are to come.  I'm so thankful to be able to do what I do and feel great doing it.  I can never fully explain what running means to me and why I do it.  It's part of my heart and soul now.

I'll just leave you with this close-up of Carrie's friend from the expo.