A marathon effort and a little less wisdom....

Today: 42.2km
Week: 73km
Month:194km
Year: 2379km

I am sitting her pondering my efforts yesterday and mourning the loss of my wisdom tooth..... which I opted to have removed today thinking I would already feel sore so whats a little more pain. The tooth was a whopper and at one point I was wishing I was back running the marathon. I asked to take it home with me, so for all you gruesome types I will put a photo of it on my blog :-)

Where to start..... What a day! This was my second marathon and first attempt at the Sydney course. My Sydney experience could not have been more different to my Canberra debut.... but is just as memorable!
I have trained really hard for this run and can not blame being under prepared or injured. I was well tapered, well fueled, confident and ready to go. I arrived at the start early to cheer the half marathoners off and met up with Helen who was feeling really nervous. This took my mind off beong nervous and we chatted with other striders and Cr's before lining up at the start. Now my goal was to aim for 3:45, which would be a 3 min PB on a tougher course, but I felt ready for the challenge. I lined up behind the 3:45 pacer and we were off.

Now the next 10 km is where I made my mistake and broke the most important rule of marathon running.......... Do NOT start too fast!!! I am not sure how I managed to make this mistake as I was so conscious of it for Canberra. It was not until I reached the 10km marker that I realised I had not only made up the 20secs lost at the start but was now a minute ahead of my splits for 3:45. I don't remember even looking at my watch I just got a little caught up in the excitment and I felt really good..... so I did not notice that I was hovering around 5:10 pace with a few 4:55km's thrown in!!! At this point I thought to myself " I am going too fast" but I just kept running. I was feeling fantastic and loved running through the domain and centenial park. It was great to see lots of Cr's and strisders out on the course.

I got to the half way point and I was still 2mins in front of my schedule but I suddenly became aware that I was feeling really hot and there was not a hope in hell I would be able to maintain 5:09 pace the rest of the way. I ripped off my pace bands and decided I needed to change my goal from 3:45 to firstly finishing, secondly not walking and finally try and come in under 4hrs. I remeber just looking at the average pace on my garmin telling me 5:11/km and thinking "how did I let that happen?". The sun felt really hot by the 21km mark and there was not a lot of shade and I panicked because 21 km is a long bloody way to run in the hot when you have just dug yourself a nice big hole to try and crawl out off! For the next 5km or so I became really preoccupied with how I was going to maange to do this.....I could either try to maintain the faster pace and potentially walk the last 10kms or back off- so I slowed down and made sure I drank heaps of water at each drink stop.

Once I was heading out onto the western distributer I relaxed and just focused on my form and watched all the other runners coming the other direction. It is great to get to see the faster runners. At about the 30km mark people were suddenly stopping and walking. I remember Cindy (seans wife) telling me that Emma Murray had said to her before the Mountain champs that when she feels bad she just tells her self to just keep going. That became my mantra.... just keep going. Dont stop!!! People were walking up the hills so, I was aiming to catch and pass people and use that as motivation to not walk up the hills. At 36kms I decided to have some Jelly beans for a bit of a sugar hit but after 5 mins of trying to convince myself to swallow them I had to spit them out. Haha there was not a chance in hell my stomach was going to let me swallow them!

Deanne and Bernie met me at 37kms and I was so relieved to see them. I can not really explain how I was feeling.... I was just so overwhelmed to see them I was fighting off tears. We ran along and they chatted away and reassured me that I would finish. Just before the hills at the 41 km mark I had to have a short walk break because I started to cry for no reason and I needed to get myself under control.

I had been worried about those hills at 41km up to observatory hill but I could not have cared less at that point. I did not really notice them to much all I could think of was we were so close. At the top of observatory hill I was desperately asking Bernie how long a marathon is I had forgotten and could not work out if it was 41 or 42kms long. Damm 42km was the answer but I was reassured that we just had to get down the corkscrew and Ray and my family were waiting on the Cahill expressway. Once I popped out onto the Cahill I could hear my sister screaming. It was such a surreal feeling.... I felt like I was going to laugh and cry at the same time. Suddenly Ray was next to me and was ready to run the last 800ms with me but I strated to really cry and told him to go away. Thankfully he is understanding.... but just the sight of him was too overwhelming at that point. Ray and Bec need a special mention here. No one could ask for two people to love and support me more than they do. They put up with all my crap and still think I am great..... haha yes they are as crazy as me :-) Seriously without these important people in my life..... well it goes with out saying!!

Now the CR cheersquad deserves a special mention!!!! All I can remember is a sea of yellow and blue and a lot of chanting my name. Now if I had been thinking clearly I would have acknowledged all my lovely CR/Strider running friends but I felt like a stunned rabit. I think I muttered "oh my god" and Bernie said to me just focus on the road. I felt quite embarrassed that evryone was witnessing me looking like a complete wreck boo hooing as I ran along! Haha I still managed to hurl some abuse at an official that was trying to tell Bernie and Deanne that they were not on the right side of the cones and that they would not finish if they did not move..... I think I yelled "They ran the half, can't you see their bibs, stop yelling?". The final chute was amazing!! So many people all yelling and cheering! I saw Ewan from training in the crowd he gave me a big cheer and I almost cried again. I gave Amanda a smile and crossed the finish line and the I think the clock said 3:56:?? I did not turn my watch off straight away so I am not sure. To be honest I did not give a shit about the time, I was just so relieved to have finished!! Deanne and Bernie were there again and got me some water. I could not thank them enough!!!! I was really not thinking clearly the last 5km and I think I would have lost it with out them. It is an amazing feeling to know that there are such wonderful people who are there ready to give you support and lift your spirits even when you are covered in sweat, cry for no rational reason and have gu and chewed up jelly bean stuck to you! Deanne, Bernie, Bec, Kerry, Ali, Alison, Helen, Kulinda, Amnanda, Karin, Mark, Ewan and all my running friends (Striders and CR's..... you know who you are)- thankyou!!

That last 10km was hard work just to keep going. I did not feel woozy or sick, I just felt sooooo tired and emotional. All I wanted to do was cry for no reason. It was like I was watching myself but not really in control.
Finishing Canberra and more than achieving the goal I had set myself was an amazing feeling but today felt just as special. Yes I completely mucked the marathon up and would have preferred to not run it that way BUT I can not explain the sense of achievment I felt yesterday. I certainly earned my finishers t-shirt thats for sure!!! I could have easily given up and stoped and walked to the finish but I was determined to see it through. I kept telling myself this is what its all about.

Will I do another one...... for sure!!! Would I run Sydney again..... definaltely!!! Would I do it differently..... without a doubt!!! That was one tough course and I would love to do battle with it again some day. Oh yes and I will remeber the first and most imoportant rule- do not go out too fast!!!

Splits: 5:36, 5:03, 4:55, 529, 4:56, 5:07, 5:18, 5:16, 5: 35, 5:09, 5:17, 5:12, 5:11, 5:09, 5:09, 5:08, 5:17, 5:09, 5:23, 5:14, 5:14, 5:34, 5:36, 6:05, 5:40, 5:27, 6:19, 5:25, 5:56, 5:20, 6:04, 5:49, 6:01, 5:58, 5:26, 6:06, 5:47, 6:17, 5:51: 6:13, 6:43, 5:53, 3:34 (5:27 pace)

5km-26:01
10km- 52:28
15km- 1:18:23
20km- 1:44:36
25km- 2:12:46
30km- 2:41:15
35km-3:10: 35
40km- 3:40: 51
42km-3:53:27
Finish- 3:57 ( take off about 20sec for the start)