Marathon Momma

Yes, it's a whole month after the fact but I just have to give this topic a little individual attention because it is too big an accomplishment for me to not mention it. I was waiting until I had at least one photo from someone to post. I finally nabbed some pictures so I’m not putting it off anymore.

I am now officially a marathoner!
I ran my first marathon on Saturday, 12-11-10, from the Laie Stake Center (next to the Temple) to Waimea Bay and back. That's me in the bottom right corner, pre-race. It was an unofficial marathon and there were only 14 of us who started, 7 finished at the half way mark (Waimea Bay) and 7 did the full (back to the Stake Center). It was a full 26.2 miles and I did it in 5:01. Sadly my goal was to beat 5 hours so I’m planning a rematch.

However, I learned a few things on my first attempt that will help me the next time. I definitely won’t be spending the entire day before my next race decorating the chapel for the Ward Christmas Party. I definitely won’t be eating a ward party buffet menu as my pre-race fuel. I won’t be partying and staying up late the two nights before my next attempt. I won’t be taking such frequent or long water & stretching breaks every 3-6 miles to try to 'save myself' for the end of the race. I’ll remember to pack more than one Power Bar energy gel for the race. I’ll experiment with some different fuel options including bananas, peanut butter, oatmeal and apparently Snickers bars during my training runs to see what gives me added benefit. Most importantly, I won’t forget to keep Tylenol and Albuterol in my sports bag!

Since there were very few people involved, there were no cheering fans on the side of the road – we were running on the side of the road actually, so there wasn’t a lot of adrenaline pumping encouragement. It would have been much less fun if I hadn’t had the support of my very own road crew in the truck waiting for me every 3rd mile. It was very convenient to have someone there to carry my flashlight, water, gels and Vaseline. It was even more helpful to have the encouragement of my husband and kids. The finish line photographer missed my big finish so we reenacted it 20 minutes later once I'd had a chance to cool down. But this is pretty much what it looked like at the end.

Anyone interested in joining me this year, I have a feeling I’ll be having a rematch this Dec. There are no official non-Sunday marathons on my island so I’ll have to figure out how I’ll get my first official race under my belt sooner rather than later. I am loving how all the running I’m doing has started to reshape me. Anyone wanting to trade some size 10 clothes in exchange for my old size 14 wardrobe, I’d be so happy to swap some bargains with you! Despite being in a kind of recovery slump with really infrequent workouts for the past month, I’m hooked on running and eager to keep pushing myself now. Today I ran 4mi in 36 minutes. I’m starting to focus my workouts on speed for my next event, the Great Aloha Run, on 2/21/11. It’s only 8mi and I’ve got my mind set on speeding up this year and really knocking down my finishing time.