Colby and I went to pick up our race packets Saturday for the Bob Potts Marathon and I was crazy excited to see I was getting a PINK race shirt!!! This was a very small marathon (500 people) and there was also a 5k. The race packet pick up was so easy and it was a nice change from the crazy expo at Pittsburgh last year. The race director is a teacher at one of our school buildings, so we know him and it was nice to see lots of familiar faces helping out with the race.
I got up at 4am to start eating breakfast (PB bagel, banana and a little cereal). It was only about a 20 minute drive to get to the race, so we didn’t leave until 5:45 because the race started at 6:30. I FORGOT MY GARMIN but thankfully realized about 2 minutes into our drive so we quick turned around so I could get it. I would have been so upset to not have my Garmin! When we got to the race everything went so quick and I wish we would have gotten there earlier. We went to wait in the potty line near the start and I realized it wasn’t moving and it was almost race time. I needed to find my friend Amy because we were running together! I went over to the race start and started to panic. I couldn’t find her anywhere and Colby’s family and my family were looking through the crowd. About 2 minutes to the start I found her and was close to crying! I couldn’t have survived without her!!
The first few miles went by fast and it was so nice seeing friends and family. I even knew a lot of the people running the water stations. Around mile 8 my hips started aching (not good that early) and my stomach was feeling crazy. My goal was to take a vanilla GU every 4 miles (about 40 minutes) and by mile 12 my stomach was aching and I couldn’t get down a third GU. I was drinking my usual lemon-lime gatorade, but it was really starting to heat up outside. After getting a new gatorade from Amy’s daughter at the 13 mile turn around, I tried to keep drinking but it was painful. Between miles 13-15 I tried to take the third GU but only got about half of it down and that was it for me. 2 1/2 GUs for a marathon was not going to be enough but my stomach was in knots. I gave up on Gatorade around mile 15 and started taking water from each water station.
I think it was mile 17 when we stopped for a potty break and my parents were there. I talked to them a bit and told them it wasn’t going as well as my marathon last year and that it was going to take me longer. After that, I could barely run more than half a mile at a time. Poor Amy stuck by me as my body started to fail. Every mile after that I tried to walk the water station and run to the next but almost always fell short. My run slowed down to about a 10:50 pace shuffle and I kept thinking my stomach would just feel better if I could throw up. I knew that would be horrible because I would be so dehydrated and it was at least 80 degrees. Amy stuck by me and after lots of tears we saw the end coming up. After running 25 miles on a trail, we had to run up a road and go up a small hill to get to the college stadium track. Half a loop to the finish…
Looking good eh? Don’t worry, I’m totally faking it and trying to pull myself together…
We planned on getting a great photo hand in hand at the end as the professional photographer was right at the finish. Little did I know that I could feel the gatorade that I had stopped drinking over 2 hours ago start to rise 
No picture of it yet posted on the official website, but I’m sure it is there. I puked green gatorade everywhere just past the finish line like 4 times. Since the finish was at a stadium everyone was there…friends, family, students, everyone. One of my other teacher friends was the announcer and announced every single finisher’s name as they got to the track. At least he didn’t comment on my grand finale! Colby thought I would be really upset, but I couldn’t stop laughing. Running a 5 hour marathon was something I never want to do again. If my stomach could have held up and I could have gotten the GU’s down I think it would have been a great race. I still had a good time and I feel more proud of finishing this marathon than last year’s. This year was just so much harder between my stomach and the hot weather. The volunteers surrounded me in a second after I got sick and made sure I was okay. I felt 100x better after getting that gatorade out of my stomach, sat down for a bit in the shade and had a 7up.
Amy… my rock!
Amy and her husband and me and Colby. Don’t we look so cute?? We match!
Colby has been battling horrible IT knee pain for the past few weeks and was in a lot of pain yesterday. He finished around 3:30 (official times haven’t been posted yet and there was no chip timing) and was very happy with his time. We both did a lot of walking yesterday, but I guess that can be expected from a hot marathon day!
Today, I am in crazy pain. So much sorer this year than last year (last year’s marathon was 4:28 and that extra half hour was tough). I’m kinda over battling stomach issues this year and trying to get calories in during long runs. I definitely think I will take a break from marathons and go back to halfs for awhile. My legs are achy today but my back and stomach are the worst. My back is insanely sore and my stomach is still upset. Hoping it relaxes a bit so I can get through the week! I’m sure I will have more pictures to post as my Dad sends them to me and the professional ones are posted. Do you think they will post my puking pictures??? :)
