FP Marathon race recap

First off, thanks everyone for the good luck wishes on my race yesterday. Overall, there was good and band but no ugly. Yay!

The good:

-Time was decent (more on that later).

-It was fun meeting up with some others from the running group.

-I plowed through even when I felt horribly tired.

-My bondiband headband stayed on.

The bad:

-My chip timer on my shoe laces kept hitting me mid ankle every time I had a heel strike. This caused me to change my gait. Even after the race, a mark was left on my foot and anything near that spot, still made my foot feel like the chip timer was there.

-It rained on and off the entire race, and there was high humidity.

-My legs felt like lead.

That's a bit of a summary. As I mentioned in my last post, this race was more about camaraderie than anything else. I met with three girls from the running group early in the morning to drive over to the race site. There were tons of people there. I knew there was no way of finding some of the people who we had all wanted to say hi and wish luck to in a sea of 20,000 people.

By the time the race began, it was already raining and my shoes and socks were soaked midway through the race. K (one of the girls that rode with me) and I were going to run together since we both had the same race goal time. Well, she took off at the start, going out faster than I expected. I ran too fast out of the corral as well. By mile 4, I was already tired and had started slowing down.

The rest of the race, I had periods of being slower or faster depending on the terrain. However, I could never pick up my pace greatly. I finished the race about 8 minutes slower than I had originally wanted, but it was still a decent time. It gave me a baseline for where I was, having only gotten back into running at the end of January after a year in a half hiatus and only running 2-3x/week. If you all remember, I have also been doing physical therapy for awhile. Normally, I mention if I'm going to run a race or something, but I got yelled at once for that by my PT, so I refrained from telling him since my injuries have been doing a lot better.

One thing I can say, and no one would ever expect to hear me say this, but I actually miss the hills I used to run on out in the country. And this is coming from a girl who used to hate hills! Seriously though, that put me in such great condition.

K. who went out faster than me finished a little over a minute before me, and the rest of our crew came in a few minutes later. We all said how we had a hard time picking up the pace, so it was good to hear it was not just me. I heard later that a lot of people were disappointed with their race times. My guess, it was the humidity.

As we all finished, we made our way to the post race food aisles. There were mega amounts of everything--bananas, chocolate milk, yogurt, fruit cups, fritos, doritos, granola bars, water, fruit, etc. I guess when you have to feed 20,000 people, it takes a lot of food. K. actually took a box and just started grabbing multiple items of everything. We all laughed about that.

On the drive back to our cars, I learned a few interesting things about these girls. They all went to the same high school, ran cross country and did other sports together. They were also all pregnant at the same time with two of them delivering on the same day! It left me feeling like the odd girl out, but it was nice of them to include me, even with all of us wearing matching barrettes. Surprisingly, even after learning this, I didn't feel too much like a "tag-a-long."

The rest of the day was pretty non-active and low key, other than discovering Tovah somehow hurt her toe and was limping. Well, except when she saw a squirrel in the yard. Then, miraculously, there was no more limp, and she ran off into the yard. But of course, came back limping. ;-)

That's the recap for this race. Hopefully, there will be another one later in the year. No dates or decisions have been set yet.

Note--Some interesting tidbits about this race:
-The woman who won the marathon is legally blind. She said she used the big clocks and "pig" markers as a way to guide her.
-The third place female winner in the 5k was a woman who won this marathon five years ago. Six months ago, she was hit by a car while cycling, having extensive head and body injuries. She and her husband are both doctors, and it was actually her husband who was dispatched to the scene of the accident, though he did not recognize her. Both were the honorary starters on Sunday.

-I saw a man wearing minimalist shoes.
-I saw another man actually going barefoot. This barefoot/minimalist shoe is the latest trend in running. I have decided to keep my shoes and not run like a Kenyan who can easily run barefoot.
-There was a lot of pink clothing, costumes, and a streaker. The news story said he had to borrow a pair of his father's shorts which were too big. The shorts kept falling off, so he just let them go. He apparently wouldn't stop running, so he was tasered by the police. He plead not guilty today in court.