Marathon #10 is in the books!!!

Matt and I had a great weekend, despite the cold weather and short trip to Memphis. We didn't get out of town until Friday late afternoon and arrived to Memphis marathon expo in time to pick up our race packets and check into the hotel. It was so cold outside and later than we would have liked to eat dinner, so we decided to just call in a pizza delivery to the hotel. Good choice since it was so cold outside (27 degrees!!!) and we didn't want to get back out in the weather that night. Nothing too eventful happened Friday----normal night before a marathon-----got our race gear together, (this one was a little harder to dress for because of the cold weather--we decided on multiple layers!), relaxed and watched TV a little bit, and then tried to get a good night's sleep.

I WAS happy that the race didn't start until 8 am--a little later start than most marathons. We were about 1 mile from the start, so we ate breakfast, walked over to Charlie and Melanie's room, and decided to all get a taxi to the start.....ha!!!.......HEY we are already running 26.2 miles........no need to make the legs do more than they have to ;)

Matt and I started off together. You can see from my earlier posts that he has been having some foot problems lately, so I said a little prayer that everything would go ok for him throughout the race. Off went the gun and we paced each other from the start. (Well, he paced me ;) He told me I was not allowed to get in front of him at any time---I have a tendency to want to start off a little bit fast because I get so excited with all the other runners around ;)

It goes something like this:

Matt: "Babe, slow down. Stay beside me".

Amanda: (grin) "okkkkkkk"

Matt: "Babe, you're doing it again----stay beside me".

Amanda: (grin) "I knowwww"

Matt: "Babe, slow down."

******Just repeat this dialogue over and over for quite some time ;)


I really enjoyed (as much as you can enjoy a marathon) having Matt beside me. The last 3 marathons (Houston, Boston, and NYC) I have run completely alone, so it was really nice to have him there, even if we didn't exchange words at all. In a marathon, you go through doubtful, dark times and hopeful times throughout the course. To me, I try not to even think about what I am doing until I hit mile 10. At mile 10, I start asking myself if everything is feeling ok, body-wise. If so, I sort of switch off again until mile 20. Miles 10-20, in my opinion, are the no-man's land. Anything can happen. It's way too early to be happy if you are feeling good, but also I try not to read too much into it if I'm not feeling good.
We both experienced different points where one of us would say, "I'm not feeling it.......it's not going to be a good day." But, it was nice to encourage each other and try to look past the mental blocks of those times.

For me, when I get to mile 20 of a marathon, I start telling myself to "suck it up". It hurts---it's going to hurt--it's supposed to hurt. Like they say, if it was easy, everyone would do it. I will say this is the first year where I have trained my body to push through that hurt. I told Matt at mile 15 Saturday that I didn't know how much longer I could keep the running pace up. It got better, but I think a great deal of it is mental training as well. This was the most I have ever had to push through the pain of a marathon. It HURT!!!! It really hurt this time. But at the same time, I kept telling myself, "get to the next mile marker, get to the next mile marker." At mile 23, there was a big guy behind a tree--he looked like an athlete. As I passed, I think he could see the grit and determination, as well as pure hurt in my face. He said, "Come on, this is what you put all those long, hard miles in for.....this is what it's about". That pulled me through another mile. Once I hit mile 25 of a marathon, I know that I can make it the rest of the way. I honestly don't even tell myself I might reach a goal until I hit that point in the race. Too much can happen out there.

I did slow down the last 3 miles, but they were still under 8 minute miles, so I can't complain. When I had to leave Matt around mile 19 1/2, it was really hard. Part of me wanted to stop and just finish with him, but part of me wondered if I could pull out that 3:20 or better. I knew he wouldn't want me to wait on him, so I did what he told me and went ahead. It was some lonely miles out there. No crowd support and just long, hard miles. I was SO ready to cross that finish line.

Final times for the day-----I finished in 3:21:11. I placed 2nd female in my age group and 19th overall female. I had no idea I even placed, or we might have stuck around for the awards!! I beat my NY time, even if not by much, so I was satisfied by this. I am proud to have even done this, seeing as though NY was only 4 weeks ago. It puts that hunger in me, though, of wondering what I could accomplish if I gave my body a true rest and trained hard again and tried a marathon out on a truly fast, flat course. Oh well, I will have to wait until next year.........Ironman Canada is on the radar, so no more time for marathons now!!! I will always love marathons. That was the first big accomplishment I ever had with endurance events, and it is my favorite........now if I could only convince Matt ;)

Matt finished in 3:34. His foot held out for him and I am so relieved he is not injured. He beat his old marathon time by a great deal. He is satisfied with it and very well should be. It just frustrates me for him, because he has the potential to REALLY kick butt in a marathon!! I know he could have done a 3:20 or better, but due to his cramps he experiences at every marathon he has done (this makes #3 for him), he can never know what time he could have really accomplished. One day he is going to figure out those cramps and completely kick my butt!!!!!!!!!!! I know I better watch out :) I am thankful, though, to be fast enough to run with my husband. This makes training so much more fun, because I know a lot of couples can't train together b/c one is usually a different speed than the other.

We have eaten SO much junk throughout the weekend it is not even funny!!!!!!!!!! We are enjoying it thoroughly though ;) I will put out another post soon about our new little family member we picked up on the way home!!!!!!