The week leading up to this race in Roanoke VA was a tough work week for me. I missed a full day of work because I was at the Boston Marathon on Monday. I would miss two more work days (most of Friday for travel, and Saturday for racing and traveling back). As a primarily self-employed person, there are no days off, no personal time, no one to cover the work. As a graduate student the same rules apply. I found myself challenged to do the same amount of work in 3.5 days that I would normally need 6 days to complete. This was not going to be easy!
I have been protecting my sleep lately as I find that everything else goes better for me when I am well rested. My teaching job concluded so I have more time back to train, race and sleep! However, there really wasn’t much I could do this week to make sure I got my 8 hours each night. I just needed to steal from sleep time this week to get myself to the start.
On paper, the trip should have been 6:45 of driving. In real life it was 8+ hours. I can’t even begin to share how much I really missed long road trips by myself. I registered for audible and used my credits to get two wonderful audiobooks. My journey to Roanoke Virginia was filled with stories about how smart birds are ("The Genius of Birds"). Just as I neared my destination, I reached the end of the book where the author shared some stories about the birds of the Blue Ridge Mountain. That was just perfect!
Normally, I try to arrive earlier enough the night before a race to have dinner 12 hours or more before the gun time. Gun time was 7:35 am. I arrived at 9:00 am. My dinner consisted of gas station snacks on the drive down, which included a gigantic chocolate chip cookie and some terrible coffee. Thank goodness I wasn’t actually racing seriously or I would have been a little concerned. Unbeknownst to me I would have welcomed an upset tummy over what I had to deal with race day morning.
I check into my hotel, organized my race day gear, asked for a 5 am wake up call and begane to unwind for the night. I had just run Boston in 4:19 and expected tomorrow’s marathon to take me at least 5 hours or more to get through it. The elevation is tremendous and I was very much looking forward to the climbs! Nothing get me in shape faster than climbing!
I was up before my alarm and took 5 minutes only to practice mediation while my coffee brewed. So far nothing was wrong. But once I attempted to contort myself in to my sports bra, I managed to strain something so badly in my back that I was afraid I slipped a disc!
I couldn’t stand up without pain and decided to lay on the disgusting hotel floor hoping that if I stayed really still and really flat my spine would stop acting out and get back on track. But once down on the groun, I discovered I could not actually get back up. Any twisting motion was painful. If I turned to put my weight one one hand to push up from the ground, the pain was debilitating only because I refused to test the limited. I could have powered through but I was afraid I would make things worse. I laid on the floor for 20 minutes wondering if I would end up being discovered by housekeeping. I wondered how I would get home. I had an 6:45-8 hour drive back to NJ after the race.
Time was ticking and I was already 15 minutes later than I wanted to leave for the start. After 20 minutes on the ground I could feel my back muscles loosening up a little. There was some hope!
I was able to get up only by rolling forward, essentially crunching up and somehow getting up on my feet. I had to leave if I wanted to get to the race. Once upright, I was able to walk and I could jog slowly.
I drove to the race and was able find a parking in a free garage so easily. I walked out of my car and realized that even with me getting to the at 6:45 I was able to find a spot across the street from the finish line. This was wonderful!
I got my bib in minutes and had time use the port-o-potty, go back to my car to change into something more comfortable. It was so painful to bend or twist. Fortunately running doesn’t ask for bending and twist! I stilled believe I would have a chance to run.
I lined up at the start. Gun goes off and off we go. I start running and so far everything is "ok". My back is not ok, but I can move… then we start to climb up hill. The strain on my back while going up was already causing me some pain. But even worse, just like at Boston, my shins were on fire. I start walking because running is just making things worse. I stop at the side of the course. I try to do some dynamic stretching to loose up the tightness. Just ankle rolls and that helped.
As soon as the 5:30 pace group blew past me and I was not even at mile 2 I knew I was not running a marathon today.
A guy next to me mentioned he was in the half and said that if I want to drop down I need to decide soon. I stopped to enjoy the view of the mountains, called Sidney to tell him I would be home a lot earlier than expected and I continued on hiking up the hill. I took a photo at the star and found that I was feeling better. I know I made a good choice.
I was able to run when my shins loosened up and found that by Mile 5, the course finally dropped and the descent felt fantastic. My shins were pain free. My back was not getting worse. Again, no twisting or bending but I could run and/or hike and it was glorious!
The only trouble was I was clearly the first marathon bib spectators were seeing and everyone was so excited to see a woman crushing the countries toughest marathon! Yet them seemed to miss how I was in no rush. I even called Kim at one point because I needed some conversation and while hiking and talking, some spectators yelled out “Oh wow, she is winning and she is having a conversation on her phone!”
“No. I am definitely not winning.”
“But you have a red bib! You are in the marathon!”
“Oh I am definitely not in the marathon. I am running the half. This bib was a mistake ;)”
I started to feel good enough to run some of the hills and start pushing myself to get some work out of this experience. A cyclist is climbing next to me, passes me, stops, turns around. I can see he has a camera. He says, “Are you winning?”… I say “Oh no… I am not winning. I turned with the half marathoners b/c I threw my back out this morning”… he says “I was killing myself trying chase you up this hill!” He was taking race photos. I apologized profusely and decided I needed to fold over my bib so people would not think I was in the lead. But then I was afraid people would think I was banditing. I have to admit, it felt nice to be up front again ;)
I ended up finishing the half in 2:37. I walked to my car and drove straight home.
I am sure this is a personal worst time but it was not a personal worst experience. My back was killing me, but for the duration of the half, with those glorious hills and the wonderful weather, I was in heaven.
A guy next to me mentioned he was in the half and said that if I want to drop down I need to decide soon. I stopped to enjoy the view of the mountains, called Sidney to tell him I would be home a lot earlier than expected and I continued on hiking up the hill. I took a photo at the star and found that I was feeling better. I know I made a good choice.
I was able to run when my shins loosened up and found that by Mile 5, the course finally dropped and the descent felt fantastic. My shins were pain free. My back was not getting worse. Again, no twisting or bending but I could run and/or hike and it was glorious!
The only trouble was I was clearly the first marathon bib spectators were seeing and everyone was so excited to see a woman crushing the countries toughest marathon! Yet them seemed to miss how I was in no rush. I even called Kim at one point because I needed some conversation and while hiking and talking, some spectators yelled out “Oh wow, she is winning and she is having a conversation on her phone!”
“No. I am definitely not winning.”
“But you have a red bib! You are in the marathon!”
“Oh I am definitely not in the marathon. I am running the half. This bib was a mistake ;)”
I started to feel good enough to run some of the hills and start pushing myself to get some work out of this experience. A cyclist is climbing next to me, passes me, stops, turns around. I can see he has a camera. He says, “Are you winning?”… I say “Oh no… I am not winning. I turned with the half marathoners b/c I threw my back out this morning”… he says “I was killing myself trying chase you up this hill!” He was taking race photos. I apologized profusely and decided I needed to fold over my bib so people would not think I was in the lead. But then I was afraid people would think I was banditing. I have to admit, it felt nice to be up front again ;)
I ended up finishing the half in 2:37. I walked to my car and drove straight home.
I am sure this is a personal worst time but it was not a personal worst experience. My back was killing me, but for the duration of the half, with those glorious hills and the wonderful weather, I was in heaven.
I feel like I am on my home.
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