Collecting my thoughts @ Cleveland Marathon starting line
Hey Everyone!
Sorry it’s taken so long to put up this blog,
I have had state finals at school this week, so it wasn't till this weekend I finally had the time to sit down and write this blog up.
Thanks for the patience. J
Wow, last weekend was crazy! Let’s start with Friday, as my
trip started that afternoon. First off
the hotel that we stayed in was crazy (in a good way)!
It was originally like a mall that was turned into a hotel with
buildings built on both sides to add more rooms, so the thing was really cool
as the first 2 floors still had shops in them.
Anyways after we got to the hotel we went down to the elite athlete
check in and I got my number along with extra info I needed. Turns out they now give out clear plastic
bags that we use to keep our running gear in at the race, in order to prevent
another Boston happening; pretty smart if you ask me. That night I appeared on the local news’ 7
o’clock news program to answer a few questions about the race and how I felt
about running it. It was really fun and
kind of weird at the same time seeing myself on the TV in the corner of my
eye. But the people at the news station
were so nice and made me feel very comfortable.
Afterwards dad and I went to the VIP dinner the race had at the hotel;
let me just say that the pasta they had was absolutely delicious! During the dinner dad and I met Mark Lindsley
(a blogger for the race) and his son Cairo (who was 17 and also running his
first marathon). I also had the
pleasure of meeting Jack Staph, the owner of the Cleveland Marathon.
Saturday was another eventful day as I started of with me
trying to do a short shakeout run in the morning in the fitness center. However it had been more than a year since I
had last run on a treadmill so after only 5 minutes I got mad at the treadmill
and instead ran around the block outside a whole bunch of times, by the end of my run
the doorman had started cheering every time I ran by. J After that I headed back to the NBC news station with
the Cleveland marathon’s PR person Leigh Greenfelder and my dad to appear on
their morning news as well. It once
again was a nice interview and experience, though I never knew before that the
news doesn’t use camera men anymore, they have cameras that are on wheels and
are remote control. It kind of scared me
at first because I was just sitting in my chair and when I looked up a large
camera is rolling straight for me!
Afterwards we chilled in our hotel room until we went down to meet with Salty
and Ginger from Salty Running Blog along with Salty’s little baby, her daughter
was adorable! After that we headed down
to the elite athlete room to grab some water but instead ended up having an
hour conversation with Toni Reavis, which was awesome by the way, he knows so
many top runners and has great stories as well. We also met and chatted with
one of my dad’s runners Kristy Hill as she lives in Cleveland until we headed
off to church later that afternoon. The church we ended up
going to happened to be having confirmation at that mass so the bishop was
there. After mass the bishop shook my
hand as we left and told me to have a good Sunday, which made me feel pretty
special. Then we went back to the hotel
and had dinner at the race’s pasta party, again it was delicious and plus they
had giant brownies there that were just amazing. Man I love food! Hahahaha J
Sunday morning I was awoken at 4 o’clock to one of the most
annoying alarms ever on my dad’s iPhone; I have since then gotten him to change
the alarm sound. Anyways after I got up
I ran a couple minute shakeout because I am NOT a morning person at all, I
think it might be a teenage thing but then again it might just be me. After that we went down to the athlete
breakfast so I could eat, we ended up sitting there for an hour just talking
and relaxing with John Tope before I had to go get ready for the race. We ended up walking down to the starting area
and saw Trisha Drobeck on the way, whom we had met at dinner the previous night
and ended up 4th female in the marathon. Getting warmed up for this race was a little
weird as I didn’t need to do the normal 2 or so miles I normally do before a
race, I only ran about a mile to get ready with only one repeat of high knees and butt kicks rather than 2. Before I knew it, it was time to get on the
starting line.
The start of the race was somewhat relaxing as no one
sprints out in the beginning of a marathon. The goal was to try to get into
pace and just click off the miles and that seemed to work for the first half of
the race as I tried to find the pace that felt right. Everything seemed to be going fairly smooth
until after the half way point when I turned a sharp corner and hit a pot hole
awkwardly with my right foot causing a twinge in my hamstring. As I tried to keep up my pace I was running
before, my hamstring just felt worse and worse.
But I knew I had slowed down a lot and that my hamstring felt horrible,
so hitting my goal time was no longer realistic, but I told myself there was no
way I was not finishing this race. I
then focused on getting to the next aid station, that’s what I needed to do to
focus myself to keep going. Each aid
station was great, filled with so many smiling and cheering volunteers, each
person was so supportive. Running from aid
station to aid station worked well up until about 22 miles, from then on I had
to keep it every mile. Along the way I
had a few runners who were also struggling to finish running along side me
encouraging me as we ran. Around 24- 25 miles
I was hurting really bad but I had to continue I had a new goal at that point
to finish the race and to finish in less than 3 hours. When the pacer for 3 hours came by me, I knew
I had to go with him, there just wasn’t anyway I was going to let the pacer
beat me. So I just went for it; I was
tired and my hamstring hurt but I just kept going finally with less then a mile
left the pacer told 3 of us to go for it and said “it’s down hill from here
just go”. And that’s what we did, we
just kept running knowing with every step we take, that’s one more step to the
finish line. Going around that final
turn and crossing the finish line I was incredibly happy, yet vaguely
disappointed. I was happy to be done and
happy that I finished after what had happened, but also disappointed that
things hadn’t gone the way I had planned.
I will definitely learn a lot from this race and use my new found wisdom
going forward in training and in races.
I would now like to take the time to thank everyone who has
sent me well wishes and congratulations on my race. I appreciate all the encouragement and just
wanted to say a massive “THANK YOU!!!!!!”
©©©©©© J
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