Columbus Marathon

Well, I survived the Columbus Marathon this last Sunday. I wanted to run a 3:30 and was able to better that goal by running a 3:24.39. I was 574 out of around 16,000 runners, 8th out of 133 in the old lady division, and 74th out of 1,502 total women. Fairly pleased, considering that this was my second marathon in 7 days. The odd thing now is, I'm not sore at all. Compared to last week after the Towpath Marathon, which I could hardly walk for two days. I think the slower pace may have saved me this time. I ran about 20 secs. slower per mile. If I would have known that my legs would be ok afterwards, I would have ran harder!

The morning started out earlier, since we didn't stay in Columbus the night before. Mark and I, got down to Columbus and parked at about 6:30am which meant we left the house alittle after 5:00 am. After finding a bathroom, we got to the starting line around 7:10am and had to push and shove our way through the crowd to find the 3:30 pace group which was being lead by Darris Blackford. I figured that if I stayed with him, he would most definitly lead me to my 3:30 goal. I just couldn't believe how many runner there were. The last time I ran Columbus, there probably was half the runners there were this time. My plan was to run with Mark(he was running the 1/2) until he split off and then just go from there. The gun sounded and it took us about 45 sec. to reach the start line. Once we got going, we had to dodge alot of runners who should have started back farther. That really pisses me off!! The first couple of miles were slow and my leg were cold and stiff. My right calf was also bothering me until I started warming up at about mile 8. At that point, Mark started to drop and I was getting into my rhythm and started focusing on the task at hand. By mile 10, all aches, pains and coldness were gone and I felt much better. I knew it was coming, but at mile 14, I had to make a pit stop, which cost me only 30 sec. Thank goodness I only had to pee! From that point, I worked hard to catch back up to the runners that I had been running with and eventually passed them. I started to drink gatoraide at mile 18 which I think helped a ton! From about mile 18, which was around the OSU stadium, I would have one good mile and then struggle with the next mile, but I kept on pushing through it. I don't care how fast or slow you run a marathon, the last miles are long and painfull. At that point, it's all mental and how well you can deal with the pain. On those last couple miles, I always tell myself that any one can run 2 miles and try to catch the runners infront of me or try not to let any runners pass me. When I finished, I saw a couple of friends. Ron Ross was right behind me and I ran into Michael Patton, who ran a sub-3 hr race. Good job, guys! I actually felt pretty good when I finished and could tell right away that I would recover better than last week. I finally found Mark in the crowd, and we both waddled back to the car. Mark ran a 1:54 for his 1/2 marathon. Glad it's over and on to this Sunday's 52 miler at Run With Scissors.

When I woke up yesterday, I was just alittle sore and stiff. I swam 1 and 1/4 miles at the Y.

Today, I ran 6.5 on the trails and lifted weights, with only alittle soreness in my right calf. At this point, I'm not sure if I will run the whole 52 miles or just run 26 miles. I'll decide later.