St George Marathon 2014
Have you ever wondered how fast you could walk a marathon?
Have you ever wondered if you had the patience to walk 26+ miles? I had the
unique opportunity to find out last weekend. Granted I jogged a little of the
race. But not very much of it. I mostly had to dig deep to just walk the race.
My Hamstring Injury:
On August 21st I decided that I could manage some
speed training. So I started with 2 intervals of half mile each, and added one
more every week to top off with 6 on September 17th. My running
still felt strained from other problems I’ve had this year. But I really wanted
to see what my goal should be for the upcoming marathon. The speed intervals
have always been a very accurate indicator for me of what pace I could
accomplish on Race day. The intervals were telling me that a marathon in the
3:40-50 range would be possible. But the last 2 interval sessions were hard on
my hamstring. After the Sept 11th session my hamstring bothered me,
and then on Sept. 17th my hamstring was screaming at me. On the track
I kept thinking, just one more, and then after that…just one more…until I got
to the 6 I wanted. Well this was a big mistake. Now my hamstring was shot.
Really painful. I took days off. Then when I tried to do my final long run (20+
miles) that Saturday, my hamstring was in allot of pain. I only got 9 miles and
then went home. I pretty much only ran 6 and then walked to freestone to get a
ride home. So I took more days off. And more days off. And more days off. I
took the final 2 weeks off. I would sometimes run across the living room to see
what was going on. But it still hurt. And then 3 days before the marathon I did
a little test on the treadmill. It didn’t seem good. All indications were that
my injury was still very real. I kept thinking that maybe I’d skip the race.
But Noah kept saying that maybe if I just tried to run the race, that maybe my
leg would warm up and be fine after a few miles. I know that sometimes this
happens…and it’s easy to give me hope.
The Race:
I decided to toe the line and hope for a miracle. And maybe
after doing no exercise at all on Thursday and Friday, maybe I would be healed
for Saturday. But there was no miracle for me this time.
So I started the marathon with the 4 hour pace group. Still
hoping that my hamstring was better now. It wasn’t. I made it to .65 before I
started to walk. It really hurt. I thought I’d walk a little and see if I could
warm up the muscle and then be able to run. Any time I tried to run it was so
painful that I figured if I had any chance to finish that I needed to stop
running at all. So I walked for a really long time. Over half the marathon. In
the middle of the marathon my pace was 15 minute mile average.
At some point in the second half I started to feel that I
could jog a little bit sometimes. Mostly just a jog in place and then barely
moving forward. One thing I learned in this marathon was that even a slow jog
is faster than a walk. This isn’t true for everyone. One of my sisters can walk
very very fast. But for me, if I could jog very very slowly, my pace would
start to improve from walking pace. And when I was walking, the slowest joggers
were passing me by.
It was interesting to walk because I could take pictures and
I could observe people. People back here were working so hard to accomplish
this marathon. It was a very determined and impressive group of people. I was
also very impressed with the crowd support. People who cheered and clapped and
encouraged me. I was walking. But they seemed very impressed with me and yelled
wonderful words of encouragement. I was glad that they didn’t go home after the
fasties had passed. And then there were the volunteers. They would rub icy hot
on the back of my legs at every aid station. I needed it. I was so grateful. And
the guy who sits in his back yard playing “Eye of the Tiger”…he was still there
for me. I yelled “Thank you” to him, “I needed you today!” His back yard backs
up to the race course, with a slope in between, but I’ve come to count on him
being there every time. I anticipate it.
As I was walking along I almost stepped on a fist size
spider. He was all brown and fuzzy and gigantic. I jumped back in alarm. I’ve
never see a guy like him out of a cage. It seemed surreal. I wish I had taken a
picture of him. It would have been worth an extra minute of time.
Noah was texting me that he’d come get me at Snow Valley,
but I decided to see how far I could go. I tried to get my salt tabs and some Tylenol
out of my pack and dropped them. I texted Noah that it would be really great if
he could bring me some more before 12:00.
When I was about 15 miles in, I noticed by the time on my
watch that my friends might be finishing. This was a little hard to think
about, that I still had so far to go. But I was happy for them and hoping that
they all made their goals. Noah texted me that he saw Karen come in. Then he
took the girls back to the hotel and headed out on his bike to find me.
He got to mile 23 and then waited for me. I was so happy to
see him. He rode alongside me and it gave me such a boost that I was able to
find a steady jog that I could keep till the end. So I jogged the last 3 miles
in. Noah stayed with me for 2 miles and then he parted ways to go get the girls
again.
Before he left I refilled my back pack with water, for the
first time during the race. I was feeling so much better the last few miles
that I forgot to take my last gu. I take them on a 5 mile schedule.
I was glad that I got to experience the race in a different
way. I was glad that Karen came back to see me finish. I was glad that my
husband made the effort to help me finish. I was glad for good volunteers and
crowd support. I was happy to share another training and marathon season with some of the Sweat Sisters. My friends ran so well and that brought me joy.
I am now paying for this experience. Even walking this race
led me to have a huge bruised, swollen hamstring the next day. And now 4 days
later I still feel like I couldn’t even cross-train, not even swim. I can
barely walk around. So I may not have done the right thing. These are hard
decisions to make. I am committing to take some real time off running now. At
least 4 weeks without even attempting to run. Not even across the living room.
I have to try this. It’s time for a reset.
Thank you St George for another beautiful day in your
Canyon. The Vitamin D was good for me and I have a very valuable experience to
remember.
