Women Rock Marathon 2012

Yesterday I ran the Women Rock Marathon in St. Paul.  Promises of being fed grapes, a fast course, and hot firefighters got me into a race that I really had no business doing.  I signed up for the marathon in May- right after I completed the 50 mile ultra.  I was on a high and thought 26.2 would be fun to do. But a summer of being plagued by all kinds of muscle and tendon problems kept me from training my best. In July I went into what I called "survival mode"- training only every other day.  I had to do that or there was no way I was going to be able to do the run.  I threw out junk miles and only ran tempo runs and long runs.  Well, that plan and a huge amount of rehab got me to race day.  The Wed before the race I went out for a quick 4 miler.  EVERYTHING hurt.  Every ache and pain I had over the summer came back to haunt me.  I sat in the parking lot by myself and cried.  And then at that moment I got a text from a friend that pulled me back from the edge.  She texted "the race clock does not know your story.  Run without your watch."  That is so true.  We, as runners, have highs and lows, we have accomplishments and struggles.  We have things in our lives that we have no control over.  When we toe the starting line, the only person who knows your entire story is you.
Race day was beautiful!  The start of the race was cool with little humidity.  It was so inspirational to be at the race with all the other women runners!!! The course was a lot tougher than I thought it was going  to be.  The hills (and there were many of them) tired me out.  I started out doing really well and I was soooooo happy!  It didn't make sense to me that I was doing as well as I was but I was going with that. I knew I should not start out too fast, but my theory was that since I did not know if my hammie and Achilles would last the whole race that I would run fast while I could. For the first 13 miles I was in 7th place!!!!!!  What a great feeling!  By mile 17 I had been passed by a few runners and then. the. wheels. came. off.  But I don't want to dwell on that.  I did the best I could with what I had for that day and I am pretty proud of that!!!!  I finished with a 3:43 (14 minutes over my PR but so much better than I thought I would do!), 17th out of 237 and 2nd in my age group.  Yeah, that makes me feel proud, but seriously, the thing I am most proud of is that I DID IT!!!!!!  Now to rest...
PS - I did NOT wear a watch!!

After-race celebration with my ladies!