GW Birthday Marathon

I was all nerves on the morning of my first marathon.  But I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful February day - 40 degrees, sunny, with just a tad of wind.  Cool enough that I need my "magic tights," but warm enough that I only need one layer.

I meet Ken and Mark at the Greenbelt Youth Center and have about a half hour to kill before we start.  I was so nervous, but Mark said that I hid it well :)  We head down to the start, but first Mark makes me "cross" the finish line - in the opposite direction! 

The course begins with a 3 miles of a downhill run out to where the loop begins.  Ken and Mark tell me to "remember" the nice downhill, because it will be uphill at mile 25!  I make a mental note, but quickly forget.  We're running ~ 30 seconds/mile faster (10:30/mile) than training pace (11:00/mile), but it feels good, so we go with it.  I feel like I hold onto that pace forever! 

The loop is 7.3 miles, which we do three times, and it consists of some gently rolling hills.  And by gently, I'd give them about a 5/10 on the Riley's Rumble scale (10/10 = Riley's Rumble itself).  I'm pushing the uphills; Ken is blasting past us on the downhills.  As we round one of the loop corners, we see my Toyota Hybrid and George, Holly and my penguin are there to take some pictures! Here's a nice one of the three of us at Mile 7 (still looking very happy!):

Around mile 10, Ken and Mark both start reciting the Gettysburg Address.  AH!  Talk about a nightmare!  I tried to sprint away from them, but alas, they caught up with me! :)  

We start to lose Ken around mile 12, and pretty soon the half-marathon split is upon us. The watch says 2:16:31.  I can hardly believe my eyes ... My official half-marathon PR is 2:23 from the Parks Half Marathon.  Did we really just split a marathon 7 minutes faster than my half-marathon PR?  Mark gave me one piece of advice before the marathon - "don't run a half-marathon PR on the first half."  Whoops!  I get a little flash of self-doubt, starting to think that this could be a "fly and die" sort of day, but we keep on pushing.  

Actually, we speed up, and pretty soon, we're running around 10 min/mile.  We finish the second loop and start the third.  As we pass mile 17, I realize that I'm starting to feel like I'm running a marathon! Mark gives me some Ibuprofin, and I start feeling better a few miles later. 

We take a glance at the watch at mile 20, and we're at 3:26.  A half-hour ahead of schedule! Mark has his cell phone, so I have him call George to let him know we're probably going to be a little early ... 10K to go, and Mark and I both realize that we're absolutely cruising.

I'm pushing just about as hard as I can at this point.  I won't relent on the hills - mile 23 and 24 are a pretty significant climb back up to the log cabin.  Around mile 23, I would have been content with having a car take me out, haha.  Remember that hill I said we would have to remember?  We start that uphill climb at mile 25, and about halfway through, I needed a walk break.  We walk about half of hill, and then we're back running again.  We were both a bit shaky during the steep transition from the road into the final 0.3 miles down the park pathway to the finish line.

We finish in 4:30:20, a PR for me by default, and a PR for Mark by 13 minutes! Ken finishes a few minutes behind in 4:46.  A good day all around!

Oh yeah, and did I mention that we negative split a marathon?  2:16:31 for the first half; 2:13:48 for the second half.  Not too shabby at all! :)

One last confession (of a cupcake?): I spent the next 3 days walking downstairs backwards!

And with that, I bid thee farewell with a smile from Mile 9 :)