Mohawk Hudson Marathon

After watching the Boston Marathon and having a beer in Boston with a friend, Joe and I suddenly decided that it was important to do a marathon this year. Joe's goal was to qualify under the new standards for the Boston Marathon and mine was to PR. This seemed possible as I had been PRing all year and felt like my training was going well and I was getting faster. Joe had found a training plan that he thought would be perfect for his new goal. We signed up for the Mohawk Hudson Marathon and were excited about the challenge ahead. We picked this race knowing that we would be sleeping in our own bed the night before the race and could control our food intake the days before, plus no jet lag to deal with - this should be a great experience. Then comes this summer when I had really bad training runs and struggled through the heat and the amount of running miles that the plan had called for. But all this had changed in the four weeks preceeding the marathon. I completed my first 20 mile training run ever! Not only did I complete it but I rocked it time wise (3hrs 34 min). I had made a few changed in my weekday runs too which was reaping great benefits to my mental status and my body felt better. I went into taper thinking this marathon was going to be great! If Mother Nature was to grant us a perfect day, I had the potential to have a perfect day!

The day before the race was more chaotic than we had planned it to be but we recovered quickly and even took a nap. We went to bed at 9:30 with a great night planned of sleep ahead of us. At 12:45 am I saw lights around the block and heard a woman screaming outside. I then heard something in the backyard. I realized that the woman was yelling for her dog. This dog was in my backyard. I tried to yell to the woman that her dog was in my backyard but she was yelling at her significant other at this point. Then the smell hit. The dog had chased a skunk into the backyard. The skunk sprayed the dog right under the kitchen and bedroom windows. The entire house smelled of skunk. The dog finally left our yard about an hr later. The woman found the dog but because it smelled, let the dog sit outside the rest of the night and cry from 2 am until we left for the race in the morning.

Race Day:

Temps were starting at 55 degrees but were scheduled to get up to 80 degrees by the end of the day. I kept thinking I would be fine if I just hydrated appropriately. My more pressing concern was that I hadn't slept all night and smelled like skunk. We also knew that after the race, we would have to go home and figure out how to deal with the smell, not just sit down and rest. The race started and I felt great. I ran my first mile slower than I had planned but knew that that was just my style of running so I wasn't worried. At around mile 11 I realized it was getting warm out and I was running a little faster than I had planned. I figured I would just slow back down to the pace I wanted but I was struggling to find that pace (I had been struggling to find it during training too though). I had Grace meeting me at different points in the race to give me oranges and motivate me so I wasn't concerned about my condition yet as I knew I would have a constant source of nutrition at regular intervals along the way, I was making sure I was taking water and gatorade at every aid station about every 2 miles. I felt confident that I would be able to keep it together. Then at mile 14 my body felt like an oven was turned on and I started having cramping issues. I ran my first half in the time I wanted to but realized I was having trouble keeping my target pace. I figured I could take in more gatorade in the next two aid stations and then I would feel better. Not the case, I got to mile 18 and was still moving well and then fell apart. Mile 19 was horrible, mile 20 was even more horrible - thank goodness Grace came to find me and ran with me and my sister and my nieces were cheering for me because I wanted to just sit down and stop moving at this point. I wanted a coke for the caffeine and sugar and I wanted to take off my shoes. My feet had started swelling so much I couldn't feel my toes any longer and my feet HURT! I walked about half of mile 21 then started running again until my calves and my feet hurt so much I had to start to walk again. I found a fence to put my foot up on so I could untie and tie my shoes again (my figers were also swollen so that was difficult) but I felt immediate relief. I started running again 5 min on, 2 min off for about 1 mile then decided I just needed to run so that I could be done. I just needed to be done. I knew that Brenda was going to be waiting for me around mile 25 so I just had to get to there by myself and I would be able to think about something else for a mile and get to the end. Brenda met me at mile 24ish which was phenomenal. I had been running when I got to her and then she helped me to pick up the pace a little bit and got me to the finish line. Without her help, the last 2 miles would have been brutal. I finished in 5 hrs 7 min - 17 min longer than I had planned but I finished. The day had gotten to 84 degrees - way too hot for an October day in the Northeast. It was brutal. I think I did well for the weather conditions.

Recovery has been difficult. My foot hurts from the run and I am less than motivated. I have several black toenails from my foot swelling so much. I know that I need to start training for the Ironman in about a month so I feel like I can slack a little for 1 month and hope I heal completely before subjecting myself to the torture of Ironman training. I am exhausted from the effort but I am already excited about my next marathon in the future.

Joe's day was great! He finished in 3:03. Ryan finished in 2:58! KP, Courtney, and Tucker finished their first marathon ever! Brenda finished her 2nd half marathon 9 months to the day of the birth of her daughter. Scott finished his 1st half marathon ever! Ultimately, we all had a good day!