Again, I had planned out how this day was going to go for months. I would make it to mile 16 and things would get hard. I would push to mile 20 and then the next 6 miles would be a piece of cake. If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.
At mile 14 I turned to Mike and said, "I really want to walk." He said something along the lines of, "come on, you can do it." At mile 14.5, I walked. My stomach hurt. It was full of Gu and Gatorade and water and I wanted it to be digested already. As I walked, I twisted around hoping that would help it go through. No such luck. So, I sucked it up and started running again. After about an eighth of a mile, I slowed to a walk again. Mike turned to me and said, "Okay. This is not going to work. You need to walk until you have enough energy to run for a distance. If we finish this race running eighths of miles, it is going to take an eternity." I nodded and continued walking.
So, here's where it gets sort of fuzzy. I was really tired. I couldn't take anymore electrolytes because my stomach felt so crappy. There was a lot of walking, then running. I tried stopping to go to the bathroom to see if that would help. When I sat down, I felt beyond exhausted and really dizzy. There was a lot of dry heaving during the second half of the race. I wanted to puke so bad. Alas, I could not, and I had to finish this thing.
And then the miles kept coming. We ran to mile 17. Then we walked for a bit. Brad with his pacer balloons were far out of sight. Even the 4:30 pacer had passed us. I could care less. I just wanted to be able to say that I had finished. We ran some of 18, 19, and 20. I ran all of the 21st mile. My back was killing me. We ran and walked and ran and walked. I was so sick of walking. It was slow. I wanted to run. I wanted to sprint. But we still had 6 miles to go. I remember looking at the river and wondering if it would be faster if I jumped in and swam. Which reminds me, the route was absolutely beautiful.
Now mind you, Mike is next to me this entire time. He is not frustrated with me at all. He was so so so supportive. It blew me away.
And then, from out of nowhere, my lucky number 7, Deb, comes running up behind us. "HEY GUYS!!!" She has a huge smile on her face and is running with two other ladies. One of them seems to be having trouble like me. But Deb is running with her pushing her along. She runs next to us for a second and gives me a pep talk - beaming the entire time. I am beyond delirious at this point, but Deb's energy kicked me in the pants and let me know that I could do this.
Running and walking. Running and walking. Running and walking. Then, the five hour pacer passes us. Now, if you had told me before I started the race that I would be passed by the five hour pacer, I don't know if I would have done it. First of all, 5 hours was so beyond my goal of 4:30, that I would have just been disappointed with my time. Second of all, if I knew that the 5 hour pacer was going to pass me, that would mean that I would have to be out running for more than 5 hours. That is a long freaking time. But here I was, being passed by the 5 hour pacer, not caring in the least. My goal at this point, as it was in the beginning, was to finish. I am running a freaking marathon, dammit. I am going to finish this. By mile 23, I was done with walking. I wanted to run the rest of the race. I told Mike that, and he agreed, knowing full well that I was way too exhausted to do that. So, at mile 24, when I stopped to walk again, he was right there next to me. Every time I walked after that, I nearly broke down in tears. Mile 24. 2.2 miles. We were so so so close. And then we were at mile 25. Still running and walking. And then people started to appear. And then there was a straight away. And then I saw the mile 26 flag.
.2 miles. I was utterly exhausted. Within seconds, I can see the gate to Hayward Field. Mike screams, "THERE IT IS!!! YOU'VE GOT THIS!!!" I see Christina JUMPING up and down and screaming. I see John a few yards later with his finisher shirt and medal on - he had finished and I was so proud of him. I hear "LISA!" and look over to see Joel and Amanda - Amanda with her camera pointed right at me. I hop on the sidewalk and enter the gates onto hallowed ground. The track felt incredible - even Mike said something to me about how nice it felt. He said, "we're on the jumbo tron!!!" I looked up but didn't have focus enough to see. I was going to be done. I passed one girl and turned the corner. There it was. The end. The announcer yells, "HERE COME THE ROWELLS!!!" I cannot sum up in words how good that felt. I threw my arms in the air, as promised, and ran as fast as I possibly could. I heard the beep of the machine recording my time as I crossed the finish and that was it. I finished. I got my medal and was covered in a space blanket. Gosh, now, thinking back, I wish I wasn't so delirious so I could remember it better. That being said, I will forever remember how proud of myself I was. Oh gosh, and how happy I was to be done.
Oh, I forgot, my official time was 5:13:16. Overall, that is an 11:58 minute mile pace. My splits were:
10k - 1:00:35
13.1 - 2:13:10
30k - 3:36:53
Last 12k - 1:36:24
I, Lisa Rowell, ran 26.2 miles, a complete marathon. I am a marathon runner.
Monday, May 3, 2010
The good half.
When I woke up Saturday morning, I read my email. I got an email from Jen that said, "don't forget - you've earned this. you've done the miles, now you get to skip around and enjoy the day." For the first 13 miles, I thought of Jen and what she had said. I remembered to enjoy it.
People were everywhere. Folks out on their front porches cheering us along. The first mile felt AMAZING. I was so so so happy to be running. There were distractions everywhere. Everyone had energy. It was a great place to be. I remember hitting mile 3 and being amazed that I had already made it this far. The pacer was still right ahead of us. I remember saying to myself, "I hope to keep him in sight until at least mile 16". I felt good. And then, around mile 4.5, I got a shot of pain in my knee. There it was, that stupid freaking IT band. My heart sank and my leg gave out. I tried to recover as quickly as possible but eagle-eye Mike saw it happen. "Are you okay?" Crap. This was going to be a long marathon. And then, a miracle. The pain subsided and didn't return. I am not really sure how that worked, but (totally ruining any surprise) my IT band left me alone for the entire remainder of the race.
We hit a little climb around mile 5 and John ran ahead. So, here we were, as we had been for so many weeks before. Me and Mike - out for a long run. After the climb, I was tired. I took a Gu packet and panicked a little. If I was this tired at 5, what was I in for? By mile 6 I felt great and felt great through the 11th mile.
I have to reflect a bit more on miles 6-11. Seriously, that part of the marathon was the best run of my life. I was warmed up, I had energy, and I felt like kickin' some ass. The people cheering on the course were unbelievably supportive. My bib had my name on it, so people would cheer me on by name which was amazing. There was a big, long hill that we had to climb that I hardly even remember. It was just a great day to be running. Defiantly, my favorite part of the marathon.
Around mile 12, the crowd had subsided and the half marathoners had split off from the full group. The herd thinned, and we were clearly in for the long haul. I started to get tired. I took another Gu packet and drank Gatorade at all the water stops. We passed the mile 13 marker and saw that my time was 2:13. I had been running for two hours already. I just needed to do it again. But, I was tired.
People were everywhere. Folks out on their front porches cheering us along. The first mile felt AMAZING. I was so so so happy to be running. There were distractions everywhere. Everyone had energy. It was a great place to be. I remember hitting mile 3 and being amazed that I had already made it this far. The pacer was still right ahead of us. I remember saying to myself, "I hope to keep him in sight until at least mile 16". I felt good. And then, around mile 4.5, I got a shot of pain in my knee. There it was, that stupid freaking IT band. My heart sank and my leg gave out. I tried to recover as quickly as possible but eagle-eye Mike saw it happen. "Are you okay?" Crap. This was going to be a long marathon. And then, a miracle. The pain subsided and didn't return. I am not really sure how that worked, but (totally ruining any surprise) my IT band left me alone for the entire remainder of the race.
We hit a little climb around mile 5 and John ran ahead. So, here we were, as we had been for so many weeks before. Me and Mike - out for a long run. After the climb, I was tired. I took a Gu packet and panicked a little. If I was this tired at 5, what was I in for? By mile 6 I felt great and felt great through the 11th mile.
I have to reflect a bit more on miles 6-11. Seriously, that part of the marathon was the best run of my life. I was warmed up, I had energy, and I felt like kickin' some ass. The people cheering on the course were unbelievably supportive. My bib had my name on it, so people would cheer me on by name which was amazing. There was a big, long hill that we had to climb that I hardly even remember. It was just a great day to be running. Defiantly, my favorite part of the marathon.
Around mile 12, the crowd had subsided and the half marathoners had split off from the full group. The herd thinned, and we were clearly in for the long haul. I started to get tired. I took another Gu packet and drank Gatorade at all the water stops. We passed the mile 13 marker and saw that my time was 2:13. I had been running for two hours already. I just needed to do it again. But, I was tired.
May 2, 2010
I woke up at 3:30am. Well, actually, I woke up at 2:30am and fell back asleep until 3:30am. I forced myself to lay there for 2 hours with my eyes closed. My mind raced for 2 hours. I tried my yoga meditation and breathing techniques to try to calm down and fall back asleep. No such luck. Before I knew it 5:30 was here and this day was ready to start.
Now, I had tried to prepare myself in every way for this day and tried to imagine every moment of it. As soon as I woke up, I knew that there was no way that any of the things that I had imagined would ever compare to what this day would actually be like. For example, John knocked on our door at about 5:35, we opened it, and he greeted us with a very enthusiastic "LET'S DO THIS!" We ate bagels with peanut butter and Clif bars. Then, John went to get ready and left us to do the same.
Step 1. Body Glide. With my stick of body glide in my hand, I rewound through 18 weeks of training trying to think of every place on my body that had ever chafed. Arms, chest, upper back, lower back, legs. I applied it liberally.
Step 2. Clothes. I put on the clothes that I had laid out for the warm weather situation. It was already 47 degrees and was only going to get warmer.
Step 3. Stretch. Now, normally, I don't stretch a whole lot before runs because I stretch during runs. Today, I wouldn't have time to stretch during the run. So, I sat on the floor in our hotel room and made sure that my legs felt good.
Step 4. Ibuprofen. I had eaten. I should be okay. I was very nervous about this step. But down they went. 2 Ibuprofen.
Step 5. Teeth. Brushed 'em. I had to make sure I could smile for pictures
Step 6. Shoes. Putting on my shoes was sort of a momentous moment. It was time to go. This was it. I was lacing up my shoes for one big ass run.
Before you know it, it was 6:30. Time to go. We grabbed our bag and walked to the bag check and gave them our things. Then we headed over to the start line. At this point, I was going nuts. Christina took some pictures and said goodbye. We situated ourselves at the back of the first corral (sub 10 minute mile pace). We waited and watched people determine where they should be. I looked around and saw all of the yellow bibs (half marathon runners) and felt very proud to be wearing a green bib (full marathon). About 5 minutes to go, Brad shows up - the 4:15 pacer. I remember looking at that sign thinking, "can I really run a marathon in 4:15?" and feeling terrified. Whatever. It was here and I would do what I would do. After a few minutes we heard the national anthem and then the gun. It was go time.
Now, I had tried to prepare myself in every way for this day and tried to imagine every moment of it. As soon as I woke up, I knew that there was no way that any of the things that I had imagined would ever compare to what this day would actually be like. For example, John knocked on our door at about 5:35, we opened it, and he greeted us with a very enthusiastic "LET'S DO THIS!" We ate bagels with peanut butter and Clif bars. Then, John went to get ready and left us to do the same.
Step 1. Body Glide. With my stick of body glide in my hand, I rewound through 18 weeks of training trying to think of every place on my body that had ever chafed. Arms, chest, upper back, lower back, legs. I applied it liberally.
Step 2. Clothes. I put on the clothes that I had laid out for the warm weather situation. It was already 47 degrees and was only going to get warmer.
Step 3. Stretch. Now, normally, I don't stretch a whole lot before runs because I stretch during runs. Today, I wouldn't have time to stretch during the run. So, I sat on the floor in our hotel room and made sure that my legs felt good.
Step 4. Ibuprofen. I had eaten. I should be okay. I was very nervous about this step. But down they went. 2 Ibuprofen.
Step 5. Teeth. Brushed 'em. I had to make sure I could smile for pictures
Step 6. Shoes. Putting on my shoes was sort of a momentous moment. It was time to go. This was it. I was lacing up my shoes for one big ass run.
Before you know it, it was 6:30. Time to go. We grabbed our bag and walked to the bag check and gave them our things. Then we headed over to the start line. At this point, I was going nuts. Christina took some pictures and said goodbye. We situated ourselves at the back of the first corral (sub 10 minute mile pace). We waited and watched people determine where they should be. I looked around and saw all of the yellow bibs (half marathon runners) and felt very proud to be wearing a green bib (full marathon). About 5 minutes to go, Brad shows up - the 4:15 pacer. I remember looking at that sign thinking, "can I really run a marathon in 4:15?" and feeling terrified. Whatever. It was here and I would do what I would do. After a few minutes we heard the national anthem and then the gun. It was go time.
Let's start from the very beginning...
John and Christina arrived in Portland Friday night. It was great to see them. We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and then headed to bed. We woke up Saturday morning, had pancakes, sausage and fruit and then got ready to head down to Eugene. We got in the car around 11:30 and I called Carolyn and Laura to let them know that we were on our way. On the way down, we stopped at the outlet mall and stretched our legs a bit. Then we stopped at Subway to grab a bite to eat. Believe it or not, standing in front of us in line at this random Subway just north of Salem, was Laura. We chatted with her a bit about nerves, how the past few days have gone, and the plans for later in the evening. We decided that we would meet up with her later and eat pasta dinner together.
The next hour on the road seemed to take forever. About half an hour out, John notices our GPS and says, "hey look, we only have a marathon left to drive." I think that is when I got excited. 26.2 miles. The next day, I would need to move myself 26.2 miles. It didn't seem scary anymore - I just wanted to do it.
We got to the Hilton (the event hotel), picked up our packets, got our goodie bags and our t-shirts, and then went and sat in the bar so Christina could have a drink :) Laura met us in the bar and bought us a round in thanks for letting her join us for dinner (see, great running partner, huh?) I had a beer and it was amazing. I felt every nerve in my body let go. We ate our pasta dinner and then headed to our hotel to check in and get some sleep.
I laid out my clothes. I planned for various weather conditions. I made sure everything was in order. I laid down at 9 and was asleep at 9:30... Tomorrow was going to be a very very very big day.
The next hour on the road seemed to take forever. About half an hour out, John notices our GPS and says, "hey look, we only have a marathon left to drive." I think that is when I got excited. 26.2 miles. The next day, I would need to move myself 26.2 miles. It didn't seem scary anymore - I just wanted to do it.
We got to the Hilton (the event hotel), picked up our packets, got our goodie bags and our t-shirts, and then went and sat in the bar so Christina could have a drink :) Laura met us in the bar and bought us a round in thanks for letting her join us for dinner (see, great running partner, huh?) I had a beer and it was amazing. I felt every nerve in my body let go. We ate our pasta dinner and then headed to our hotel to check in and get some sleep.
I laid out my clothes. I planned for various weather conditions. I made sure everything was in order. I laid down at 9 and was asleep at 9:30... Tomorrow was going to be a very very very big day.
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