Wednesday I ran my seventh marathon...the Operation Jack Marathon in Los Angeles. I had made plans with my family to travel to the San Diego area to visit my brother and his new wife, Laura, for Christmas this year a few months ago. Naturally I started looking for races to do in the area before my flights were even booked. I found a marathon scheduled for the day after Christmas that was being held just 90 minutes from Dan and Laura's home. The race had been created by a man who has a son with Autism to raise money for Autism research. In my opinion, it couldn't be a more perfect arrangement: running a marathon in California the day after Christmas and supporting a cause I feel passionate about. In addition, I would be checking another state off of my personal Run-A-Marathon-In-All-Fifty-States list (I am now at 5: Illinois, Iowa, Virginia, Minnesota and California...plus DC) AND running a race over vacation at Christmastime! I was pumped.
My wonderful sister-in-law got up with me at 4:30am the morning of the race to make the trek with me to Los Angeles for the event...she even drove so I didn't have to! It poured for a majority of the 90-minute drive. According to the weather forecast, it was supposed to "sprinkle" all morning until noon or so. However, the rain subsided completely shortly prior to the start of the race. Perfect!
The race was on the small side compared to a majority of the events I’ve done...around 300 total registrants for both the half and full marathon events. Packet pickup was the morning of the event, which was great. Laura and I arrived around 7am and I had no problems getting my number and gear situated and ready to go in preparation for the 7:30am start. We had great intentions of arriving earlier but ended up having a debacle finding a gas station along the route. It ended up not being a big deal at all, thankfully.
(To get to the starting line we had to file across a man-made bridge crafted of sandbags and folding tables to get over some flooding in the parking lot, secondary to the crazy rain the morning of the race)
The people running the event were quite wonderful. They were kind, helpful and openly appreciative all of the participants for registering for the event. The man who organized the event spoke a bit before the start thanking everyone for coming, stating, "My son didn't choose to have to fight Autism, but you all chose to be here to run and raise money to fight Autism. Thank you."
(Pre-race...before the rain clouds cleared up)
The temperature was cool at the start but warmed up gradually as the race progressed. It was an absolutely gorgeous, perfect day. The route was a 13.1 mile loop that was completed once for the half and twice (obviously) for the full. The entire course paralleled the beautiful Pacific. As the director stated at the start, "If at any point you don't see water...you've taken a wrong turn, you're lost and you should just go home." Luckily, I never had an issue following the course ;). At times the breeze coming off of the ocean was a bit intense and provided just enough resistance for running to be a bit more challenging, but it wasn't horrid by any means. The course was fairly flat but had a few hills that were less than kind on the legs in the later miles of the race.
(Shot from the race course loop at approximately the 3mi/15mi point)
I ran nice and easy (for me this equates to a pace between 9:00 and 9:30 minutes per mile) through the first half of the race. I felt great and had to rein myself in a bit to keep from going faster. I knew if I pushed myself too hard, I would crash and burn as I neared the end. The longest run I had completed since the Marine Corps Marathon two months prior was 13.1 miles. I had been focusing on other areas of training, namely swimming, the past few months, and hadn't been doing many super-long runs. I completed the first half in just slightly over 2 hours (reference point: my fastest half was in March of this year and was 1:48).
(Shot from the race course loop at approx miles 8/19)
It soon became apparent that it was a good thing I held back from going too fast during the first half of the race. By mile 15 I allowed myself a short walking “break” through a water stop. I also took the time to quickly tie my left shoelace that had decided to go rogue on me and had come untied. In addition, I snapped a few pictures with my iPhone…if you know me, it comes as no surprise that my iPhone was on my person even while running :).
(Laura took this shot early on in the race before I shed the rain jacket...perks of having a supportive fan present: they can take pictures and collect cast-aside gear!)
By mile 18 I was silently cursing and asking myself repeatedly WHY, exactly, I choose to run marathons while on “vacation.” In addition, I asked myself WHY I didn’t just stop at the half (I had to run right next to the finish line when I was halfway done to keep on going to complete the full…trust me, it was tempting ;)). Further, I asked myself HOW on earth I was going to somehow complete a run of the same distance after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles at Ironman Wisconsin in less than nine months. Here, precisely, was when sheer determination and knowledge of the fact I was being held accountable by someone else got me through to the finish line in spite of my self-doubt, self-loathing and general state of pain.
Prior to registering for Ironman Wisconsin I knew I should probably look into training with some sort of triathlon coach if I planned to actually successfully complete an Ironman…particularly if I wanted to learn how to swim 2.4 miles without drowning. A close friend of mine had worked with a coach from the Minneapolis area to train for the half-Iron distance tri she completed in September of this year. Hearing her talk about her specific training plans, workouts and the many helpful conversations she had with her coach piqued my interest in finding someone similar to work with.
After completing the 8k at the Easter Seals Run the Woods event in early October, I met Laura W. We both placed in our age group and had a little chat following the race. Laura is a phenomenal athlete, lives in my area and….has a triathlon coaching business! She is driven, motivated, passionate and very talented. In addition, she’s a female who is about my age so I feel comfortable with her and like I can relate to her on some levels. Plus, she’s super cute and lots of fun to boot! I met with her in November to discuss the possibility of working with her and officially started working with her the last week of November.
Laura develops training plans for me each week and provides advice as needed. After I complete prescribed workouts, I am to upload my data to an online program (Training Peaks) for her to analyze. This data comes from my Garmin watch and includes information such as distance, pace and heart rate, as well as other data specific to the activity I am completing (swimming, biking or running for example). The accountability I feel from simply knowing someone else is looking at my workout data has played a large role in not only ensuring I complete the workouts prescribed for me, but also makes me push a bit harder.
This accountability factor helped me power through to the end of the marathon. Not only had I told many friends and family members that I would be completing my seventh marathon over Christmas vacation while in San Diego, but I had “Marathon” in my training schedule for Wednesday, December 26. Having to enter anything less than 26.2 miles into my Training Peaks account would’ve made me feel like a failure. Additionally, knowing that Laura would specifically be able to visualize IF, WHEN and for precisely HOW LONG I walked…made me walk through far fewer water stops than I may have otherwise! I am certain that this is a large reason why my finish time (4:13) was twenty minutes faster than my marathon finish time just two months prior (at the Marine Corps Marathon on October 28 I finished in 4:33).
As I always am at the end of a race, I was elated to see the finish line for the final time (this race was a bit torturous as it was a loop and after the start you actually passed by the finish line three times before you actually got to run through it: at miles 6, 13.1 and 18). It was super nice that I also got to run through the finish to a familiar face :). Big thanks to Laura for being a super fan and not only getting up before the crack of dawn with me…but for also driving me to and from the race (both drives should’ve been around 90 minutes each but ended up taking much longer due to a variety of silly factors) and for cheering me on at various points during the event. You rock, Laura! I’m pretty glad my brother somehow managed to find an awesome wife who actually puts up with him!
(Sweet finishers' medal!)
(Shot from the car on the way back to Dan and Laura's...this is Camp Pendleton where Dan is currently stationed)
Now that marathon seven is on the books, I need to crack down harder on my swimming this winter...and probably should begin to think about nutrition, etc. considering the fact that I've eaten a crap lode of nastiness over the holidays :). Additionally, I need to decide when and where #8 shall occur. Lots to think about, as always. Bring it on, 2013!
