Eugene Marathon

I finished is all I can say. This was not the race I hoped it would be.  I was doing great in my training and even though I had just run the Salt Lake City Marathon 15 days before, I felt strong to finish this.  Best laid plans...

I was excited about this race because if I finished, I would become an official Marathon Maniac.  I also was going to be able to share a room with runner chicks Melissa and Andleeb so I knew I was going to have fun. I arrived in Eugene about 2 pm and was able to check into our room early. Then I went downstairs to the expo since we were staying in the host hotel.  I got my packet and then got my "not so great" race shirt.  I was disappointed, but I really wasn't there for the shirt anyway.  It's just too bad that Eugene couldn't have picked a better shirt to represent them. I won't wear mine, that's for sure.

Such a lovely shirt, NOT!

Melissa and Andleeb arrived later and they got situated in the room and then picked up their stuff at the expo. They also did a bit of shopping there, but I'm the one who spent all the money. lol  I bought a magnet for my car and a really cute running skirt.

That evening we went to dinner with Nancy, Emily and her hubby and another runner.  It was a great evening!  Only Andleeb and I were running the marathon, the rest of the group was running the half.  We got back to our hotel and finally got to bed around 10, I think. :)  Alarms were set to go off at 5 so we needed an early night.

Of course, I woke up before my alarm went off, as usual,  so I just got up and got ready early.  We had our breakfasts and then went downstairs to catch the shuttle at 6:15.  It seemed like everyone was waiting until then to get the shuttle, so we had to wait for a second one to get there.  We were supposed to meet more chicks for a photo at 6:40 by the baggage drop off so we were pushing it for time.

The shuttle dropped us off a bit from the baggage claim so it was a walk to there.  We met up with some of the chicks, Aleta, Jodi, Anna, and Amy and got a photo with them before high tailing it to drop our bags.  Melissa was in Corral A and Andleeb and I were B, but we all three just went into corral A about halfway down. They weren't checking corral numbers and we wanted to stay together.  For some reason, the start was delayed by 10 minutes so we got to stand in the cold longer. What fun!  It was about 39 degrees but was supposed to warm up to over 60 by noon.  I used my space blanket from WDW to keep warm until the start and then just tossed it.

Me, Melissa & Andleeb, bottom middle of photo. You can see my back tattoo! :)

We all started running together but then each went our own pace after a very short time.  I started very fast, which was kind of necessary since everyone else was going fast too and I didn't want to get trampled.  I managed to keep running without a walk break for 2 miles so my pace for mile 1 was 9:48 and mile 2 was 9:25, really too fast. :)  I did really well until about mile 6 when my foot started hurting for no reason.  I felt it "pop", but the pain didn't get any worse so I just thought it had cracked like it does sometimes.  Still, I had a lot of pain so I ended up speed walking the rest of the marathon. I was SO disappointed, because I really wanted to get a PR in this race. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my foot since I'd had great training and no pain ever.  I managed to keep on persevering and finished the race, but it was hard. Still, from the pictures, you'd never know I was in pain. haha!

I crossed the finish line in 5:49:02, not even close to what I wanted, but still my 3rd best time AND it was done speed walking. Also, I had just run Salt Lake City Marathon 15 days before. I was an official Marathon Maniac!

I had to drive home to Salem and then went to volunteer at a homeless shelter that night. The next morning I went grocery shopping, but came home early because of exhaustion and pain.  Finally on Tuesday, since my foot was still horribly swollen, I went to the podiatrist and found out I had broken it. :( :( :(  No running for me for 2 months. How depressing!  The fracture was a sudden, unexplained one, but the doctor thinks it's probably because I took Fosamax, which has been know to cause this.  So bummed!  Oh well, it's back to cross training for a while.

My race "Souvenir"

This was a wonderful course and would have been a great marathon to actually RUN, but it was not to be for me this year.  I can see why everyone says you NEED to run Eugene. Maybe someday I can go back and run it like it was meant to be.

I think the photographer was tired, this photo is off center and part of me is cut off. :(

In the meantime, I'm going to try to keep my fitness level up as much as possible. I ordered a bike trainer for my bicycle so I can at least do SOME cardio while I wait for my foot to heal. I can also still do my strength, core and stretching routine so that's a plus.

I know that prayers kept me going through the race. My favorite scripture kept going through my head: "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength" ~~Philippians 4:13  God is SO good.

SO happy, I'm finished!

Salt Lake City Marathon

This was my 4th marathon in 11 months; just a little too much, I think. :) I was hoping for a much better time, but it was not to be.

I arrived in Salt Lake City on Thursday night and spent Friday afternoon walking to the mall and shopping with my granddaughter. We probably walked at least 2 miles. I'm not sure this was a good thing the day before my marathon, but...

Saturday morning, I got up at 4:30 (SO hard to do) and at 5:30 my daughter in law took me to the Arena trax station to ride to the start line. I arrived about 6:10 AM which gave me plenty of time to use the porta potties, etc. The weather was too warm, already 53 at 6 am, clear and sunny.

I was putting my gear bag in the truck when I noticed a dailymile friend, Drew (aka Utah C). The odds of us running into each other were huge considering the thousands of people at the start line. It was nice to meet him and his wife. He was shooting for a 4:30 marathon and ran it in 4:33. Congratulations, Drew!

We went to the starting line just before 7. It wasn't organized at all, everyone just lined up wherever they could. We ended up about halfway in the crowd, too close to the start for me. The crowd was so dense it took 3 minutes to cross the starting line. The first part of the course is downhill so I ran for 7 minutes before walking my 1 min. It was hard to negotiate through all the people. The half marathoners started with us so that made for a crowd of well over 6000 people.

I did pretty well for the first 9 miles, but I started feeling the altitude and knew I was in trouble. I realized that when I ran here last month, I had run where there were stop lights so I was getting breaks fairly often. Not so during the marathon, of course.

Thankfully, neither my ankle nor my hip bothered me, but my toes and the soles of my forefoot started hurting pretty bad. The two toes from the end of my left foot always hurt really bad when I run long, not sure why. It's probably a nerve issue, because they stop hurting as soon as I quit running.

At mile 11 or so, I pretty much had to stop my running and just speed walked. I reached the halfway point at 2 hrs 40 minutes, but knew I wouldn't PR this race. I was SO disappointed and for the first time in a marathon, I wanted to quit. However, I knew that I wouldn't; I just don't give up easily. LOL

The course was a good one, with plenty of spectators. I was amazed at how much support from the community there is for this marathon. People were out sitting on the sidewalks cheering us on. Some even had snacks & drinks. At about mile 20 or so there was even a group that was handing out shots of booze. :) I passed on that. I figured I needed all my faculties to finish the race.

The only drawback to this race is from about mile 24.5 or so we start up State street, which is an uphill climb for about a mile, the last part being a stiffer climb. The last part of the race is slightly downhill, but I was SO tired from the State Street climb that I just walked it. I tried to run a few times, but my right calf went into a horrible cramp. I've never had that happen in a run, never.

When I approached the finish line, my daughter in law, Val and granddaughter, Alexis were there to cheer me on. They hopped the barrier and Val grabbed my hand hand and helped me run across the finish line. She kept telling everyone my age and the fact that this was my 4th marathon. It was great, everyone was clapping and cheering me on. What a wonderful encouragement! I've only had family at one other marathon so this was great.




I'm not sure if I'll do this marathon again, simply because of the elevation, but since my son and his family live here, you never know. I am really burned out right now and am not scheduled for another marathon until January. I definitely need a break from such intense training.

It took me 2:40 to finish the first half and 3:10 to finish the second half. My official time was 5:50:17; 13 out of 17 in AG, 1050 out of 1112 total finishers.