Coach Andrea and I completed the Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon this past weekend in 4:22:25 as finishers 674 and 675 of 1207 total marathoners. I was hoping to finish in under 4 hours, but that wasn’t very realistic so I’m really happy with my performance. The overall winner finished in 2:21:31. DAMN THAT’S FAST! Also, my mom walked the Mini-Marathon. For the full results check the the Marathon Website.
We flew through the first half of the race, and when the mini-racers split from us at mile 11, I felt great. Andrea, started having trouble at about mile 15, and we separated from each other somewhere around there. (I’m leaving out some of the boring details about me having to stop to pee.) I felt pretty good and continued to push myself. Then at about mile 19 it happened… I hit the wall.
Hitting the wall is difficult to describe. It happens in a very short time — probably under 5 minutes. What physically occurs is your body runs out of easily processed energy (glycogen) and start burning the hard stuff (fat). I don’t know very much else, but I believe that good endurance athletes can make this switch with only a little blip in their performance. In my case, the blip lasted around 5 miles. My body hurt all over and my legs felt like jello. I went from a pretty steady pace around 9 minutes per mile to struggling at an 11-12 minute pace. Beyond the physical issues, my mental state took an even bigger hit. I wanted to lay down on the side walk and quit. This wasn’t just a passing urge either, the idea that I couldn’t finish was my most present thought.
Thankfully, with the completion of mile 24, I got my second wind of sorts. I didn’t really pick up the pace that much (I must have a little because people stopped passing me quite so easily), but my emotions took a serious bounce. I knew that I could dust a 2 mile run in my sleep. So I forged ahead with new life.
A little later, something unexpected happened. I was about a half mile from the finish line when a too cheerful voice called my name. It was Coach Andrea about 50 yards behind with a huge smile on her face. I though, “okay, you have to pick it up or she will blow right by.” Well, about 30 seconds later she was right next to me.
At that point, I got my third wind, and picked up the pace to what felt like a sprint. I kept thinking that she wanted to pass me so that she could have the sibling bragging rights, but really, I just wanted to cross the line with her. (I later found out that she just wanted to cross with me too… or so she says.) I continued to accelerate with her staying right by my side until the finish line where we crossed at exactly the same time, down to the second. At this point I was so overcome with emotion about finishing with my sister (and not dieing in the process) that I almost became the mohawked man sobbing on a woman’s shoulder at the finish line. I staved off my emotions and received a nice kiss through a chain like fence with the Pea Pod.
The other really special thing at the race was that our families came out and cheered us on. Uncle CT brought cow bells all of the way from Texas for him and the Pea Pod to use. My in-laws and Andrea’s in-laws cheered us on and some of them had mini cow bells to bang. Of course we could hear my dad’s distinctive yells of encouragement. My step sisters in-law made Andrea and I signs, and my sign had a runner with a mohawk. Very Cool!
This was a really great family weekend. I had a great time even if I wanted to die for about an hour of it. I’m really proud of Coach Andrea and Mom too. Without Andrea’s training advice and encouragement I couldn’t have made it. Also, great thanks to my family for their enthusiastic support on race day. I am really luck to have them.
I just saw Iron Man and loved it. It is as good a super hero movie as I have ever seen. It is Right up there with the recent Batman, Tim Burton’s first stab at Batman, and the first Spiderman. Excellent movie, and far better than I expected. I don’t even know anything about the Iron Man comics, and I still loved it.