THE MARATHON

The Los Angeles Marathon 2009

How I Ended Up Doing Another Marathon

A few of months back, Theresa, one of the homeschooling moms who has also raced in one of the Urban Dares with me in the past, wondered aloud if she could finish a marathon. "Of course you can" was my reply and I didn't think much of it after that. Sometime latter she informed me that the LA Marathon date had changed and so lack of prep time wasn't really an excuse for me not doing it. Then it gets a little fuzzy. I don't remember if I signed up because she said if I did she would, or if I signed up because all of my attempts at weight loss had been failing and training and running a marathon always seemed to do the trick or if I was feeling like I needed a challenge. For whatever reason I did sign up and a couple weeks after that so did Theresa.

It was the first time I had anything close to a running partner. We did the weekly long runs together and it certainly helped, both in keeping committed to doing the long runs every week and in making 2-3 hours of running more interesting. I was still pretty lame about all the running in between, sometimes only running once during the week usually twice, but not nearly the amount or regularity that a marathon deserves.

The Marathon

It was a wonderfully cool and overcast day, perfect weather for a marathon. Theresa and I had decided that we'd start the race together and probably get separated early on and then see each other at the finish line.

The first mile is so crowded that its more of a shuffle than a run. As the crowd kind of opened up in the early miles I decided to hang with Theresa rather than dart and weave through the crowd to try to get a fast pace going. So I ended up going a little slower but expending a lot less energy. After a few miles, we were still running together still at a pace that would have us finishing a lot faster than I ever had, but at the 10k mark I was a couple of minutes slower than last year. I was getting more water though and trying a new strategy of taking walk breaks around every 1/2 hour. We had done that in our long training runs and it seemed to help. I've also read a lot of testimonials about its effectiveness. I was still unsure about it though.




Half-way through the marathon, mile 13

So we were at the half-way mark, still keeping a good pace, still together, chatting less but still in good spirits. Now my split was 2:10:07, still a couple of minutes slower than my previous marathons, but I was feeling good. Last year at mile 13 I was feeling good too, so ......
Oh, BTW at this point the winner of the marathon would have crossed the line actually a couple of minutes earlier 2:08:24.





Around mile 17 still feeling good

At mile 16 Theresa and I split up. I felt bad because it was for a bathroom break. But I was trying to keep at a 10 minute mile pace and it was already beginning to slip so I really couldn't afford to wait.



Hi to Kip(Theresa's husband and photographer of most of these pics, thanks) and the rest of Theresa's family who made it to two spots to cheer and support. Thanks guys.

Cindy and Skye also were there to cheer us on at around mile 7 and then again near the finish line.

My 30k split was 3:06:20, three minutes faster than my best previous times.

I ended up with a 4:28:02 time shattering my personal record of 4:45:09.

I don't know how much of it was better training, the walk breaks, better weather or I'm sure a combination. Miles 21 to 26 were still pretty miserable but not nearly as bad as in the past.




Slogging up the last .2 miles

I was actually able to "sprint" the last 50 yards, something I have never had enough energy to do at the end.

I felt great!!!!!!



The Official Finisher's Photo






No wait this is the official photo, I'm confused.




Cindy, Theresa, River and me post-race

Theresa came in at 4:36:13 which is pretty amazing especially because it was her 1st marathon. She beat my previous 4 marathons times, impressive. Congrats and thanks for the long runs.



Getting the thumbs up from Skye!!!!!