I ran the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon San Diego yesterday. It was my first marathon.
I attached so much meaning to this day when perhaps I shouldn't have. This was going to represent my accountability for life. I was going to take charge of my decisions and follow through with them. I saw my self confidence slip through my fingers with ever little set back the marathon offered.
The cards were stacked against me. My training didn't go perfectly. In hindsight, I was suffering from overtraining after about four months. I got prohibitively sick three times, one of them the week before the race. The mixture of poor sleep, nyquil, and illness eating made me gain 4 pounds just before the race. I thought very hard about stepping down to the half marathon. In the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon series all you have to do is line up for the half marathon race to give up your marathon dreams. I decided to line up for the marathon because I'll never finish a marathon if I never line up. Maybe all great things were accomplished by just seeing what happens.
The expo at the convention center was alright. We had to pay 10 dollars for parking. I was a little irked that I paid $135 and they had so many extra fees tacked on. I went on Saturday afternoon and just missed some of my blog friends as well as meb. There were so many people. Way more people there than at the half marathon expos i've been to.
I had fun, and at this point, I had high expectations.
The race logistics were a mess. They told us that there were going to be close to 60,000 people in Downtown San Diego that morning and that they were closing down most of the roads. Their recommendation to me living in inland north county was to drive to qualcomm and take the special morning shuttle to 5th avenue, then walk for 15 minutes to the start line. They said to plan 90 minutes buffer for arriving to the start line.
So I woke up that morning at 3:45 after an excellent 7.5 hours of sleep. I had a cough but I already decided at that point that I was going to go through with this no matter what. I ate yogurt for breakfast with a cup of water and a whole gatorade and left the house by 4:10. We got at the qualcomm trolley station by 4:32. We fully intended on buying a trolley ticket but by 4:38 the ticket machine was broken and we all hopped into the next trolley. The trolley situation isn't extremely reliable so we weren't sure if we had caught the special line trolley or the green line that had to transfer. This was followed by massive confusion that led us to missing two trolleys. I reckon that the marathoners that couldn't fit into that packed trolley (everyone had to hold thier breath to get the doors to close) I took missed their race.
I walked for the 14 minutes to the start line really hoping that the portapotty lines wouldn't be ridiculously long. Of course they were. At this point, my race had already started and all the corrals have been released. I decided to skip the bathroom despite my gatorade filled bladder when the race announcer said that the remaining marathoners 1 minute to get across the finish line before they were forced to do the half. Of course I was five blocks away. I started sprinting, probably fast burning all of my glycogen stores, and did the fastest mile (7mins/mile!) of my whole race just to get over the start line. Everyone spectating the start line laughed because I ran my ass off just to get over the start line just to slow down and, well, start running a marathon. The fellow behind me was the last guy allowed in. I felt something like delight as I passed by the sag wagon. Not today, I said.
At that point I thought about how ridiculous their trolley expectation was. Lots and lots of people were late. Alex said that half marathoners were showing up half an hour late and weren't allowed to race. A fellow I met in the trolley line said that they used to hire buses to shuttle marathoners direct to the start line. Some of us trolley takers had to pay $5 for the privilege to be left behind. The announcers were being so snarky about it too! Just rub salt in the wound, why don't you.
I had to use a portajohn at around the 3 mile mark. The lines were long and people were really taking a long time. I spent 20 minutes in that line. I had wished I got a little further before i took a long bathroom break.
The start course was a nice little tour of downtown. We went past City College, through little italy, ran parrallel to the 5 freeway through this nice little tunnels and up through morena blvd to get into mission beach. The tunnels were really neat. One of the DJs hired to entertain us for the course had set up strobes in an adjacent tunnel that synced with her music. It was SO cool. And at the 8 mile mark I was still feeling hunky dory.
At the tunnel point I managed to catch up with a fellow that was juggling not 3, but 5 balls while he ran. Everyone got excited seeing a juggling person so I really felt some residual fuel by tailgating.
The cheering squads were so awesome! They closed in so that to get past them you had to run through a tight tunnel of teenage cheerleaders, rubbing you with their pom poms while they ran. They would read your race bib and scream your name and tell you how well you were doing. The adrenaline, stress, and appreciation brought me to tears on more than one occasion.
Miles 13 to 16 through the mission bay trails were a real game changer. My ankles started hurting in ways I was not accustomed too. The winding trails made me keep changing directions. I saw one lady that cut the corners and I had a strange bad feeling like she was cheating or something. I mean she was REALLY cutting them. She probably cut a mile off her race. One the other hand, my garmin told me that I had actually run 26.8 miles so maybe the race was metered for us to cut them.
That mission bay segment also made us switch terrain too many times. The gross asphalt in mission bay was full of potholes and tiny loose rocks. This portion was HELL for barefoot runners. I saw several barefoot runners limping slightly after this segment. My ankles never recovered and I am hasty to put pressure on them today, the day after.
There was one spectator dubbed "Crazy Fred" who was out on the sidewalk pumping it out with an eliptical machine. The sign said he was at it since 6am. That made me laugh out loud. At that moment, I just felt so connected with him that he laughed too.
Then, what a lot of people consider the main draw, we ran on the 163 freeway. I was about 19 miles in. I totally lost it at this point. The on ramp was banked at too high an angle to not walk, and the freeway went straight up hill. There was one band in this 4 mile stretch. Sure it was pretty cool that we were on a closed down freeway, but they shouldn't have put the toughest most barren part of the course where most people hit their wall. Maybe it would have been neater if I was present at the 2.5 hour mark and saw the poundage of human flesh squeeze onto the onramp, but the crowd had really thinned out as I was sweating past. It was here that I, and everyone surrounding me, started walking.
I tried to convince myself that the last six months weren't a waste. I felt great during the base building portion, about 2 through 4 months in. I was in the best shape of my life. I would run before work and rock climb after work. I felt like I could do anything, take on any challenge, and accomplish any goal. I woke up early and felt comforting silence in the early morning mist. I could be quoted at this point saying that I was having the best year of my life. Those six months were a waste if an excellent marathon time was my only goal. I had to convince myself that those few perfect days were worth the pain I was feeling on the course. Maybe it is, Maybe it isn't.
When I finished I realized that finishing was all I trained for. I didn't train for a 4 hour marathon. I trained to finish. I got everything I expected, and it was some sort of malfunction to expect anything else, anything more.
My time was 6 hours 12 minutes. I finished, and that wasn't a clear possibility until mile 23. I was on track until mile 20 where my split time was 4:30, but I hit a wall and had to mostly walk the rest of the way. Those last six miles took two hours. I did my best.
Would I run this race again? I don't know. The logistics were a nightmare. I left my house at around 4am and didn't get back from the morning race until 3 pm because of that nasty trolley situation. Are all city races like this? Because that sucked. Taking the trolley feeling like my feet were broken after the race was one of the most desperate moments in recent memories.
I have until june 5th to decide, they are offering a special price that day only. It will be 105 for the full marathon and 90 for the half. Thats a pretty good price. that is so good a price that I don't think I would want to sign up again unless that is how little I paid.
Right now the next thing on my plate is the San Francisco Woman's Half Marathon. I felt like that would be a fun but easy challenge that would only require fitness maintenance at. It is a shame that the sign up date was the day directly after the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. I am so sore that I can't even fathom doing another marathon right now. I still have to see if we make the lottery for that event. As far as full marathons go, who knows whats next?
