Well as you can tell by the title, I DID IT!!!! Now we'll talk about my exeperience the drive out started rough as I didn't bring my GPS because I thought my friend's blackberry could direct us....it didn't do a very good job and after crossing the Queensborough bridge, we had trouble finding the LIE. FInally we drove to Astoria and got on the grand central to the LIE (Long Island Expresseay)to the Hamptons. I was really nervous because I wanted to carb up but the restaurant closes at 10, it takes 2 hours to drive and we started at 7:45 but with the mishap, we were behind schedule. I had brought 2 cans of Chef Boyardee in case the retaurant was closed. We got there at 9:45 and they were extremely patient letting us sit and eat long after closing time. I had a lot of pasta, bread and water so carbing up was done, now it was just go home and wait for the next day.
I woke up at 3AM and couldn't fall back asleep. At 5:30 I began preparing for the marathon. Oddly the last time I put on the peteroleum jelly to prevent chafing for a training run, it was real surreal but this time, the last time I'll ever have to do it, felt like just any other day. I had brought a zip lock bag of Frosted flakes and ate that. At 6:30 I woke up my friend, took a G1 packet and drank a 20oz of gatorade. So far everything was going as planned. We left at 7:00 as it says it takes 40 minutes to get to the start of the race from my friend's house. We arrived around 7:30 and I went to check the superfluous items, keys, cell phone and a G3. I had 7 GU goo in my shorts because my goal was to finish in 5 hours and these are supposed to be taken every 50 minutes. I also had a pack of SHotblock, which should be taken 15 minutes before the race. When I tried to check the things, they told me I needed a bag. I went to another table and asked if they had a small bag, the woman took my bag ticket and threw it away and told me that she didn't have one. I asked for the ticket back, and she gave me a T-shirt ticket and said it was the same thing. Then I see a big sign that said "Problems" so I went over there and told them of my predicament, they gave me a zip lock bag and mentioned she'd get in trouble by the person's whose bag it was. I didn't care, I put my stuff in it and walked back to the bag counter. I wanted to call my friend to see if she left yet but my phone had no service. As expected, they didn't accept my bag ticket so I went back to the lady who threw it away and told her i needed it back. She tried telling me that she didn't know which one it was but as it has my name on it I told her, "I DO!" and she handed me the box, I quickly found my tag and walked over and checked my bag. Then I started stretching, at 7:45, I ate all 6 shotblock gummies. Then I waited in line for the bathroom. Strapped to me was my fuel belt with two waterbottles of gatorade and one of water. When I got out of the portapotty, it was empty as everyone went to the start, so I walked to the race start.
Everyone was confused at the start, the race started but nobody seemed to realize it, so people kept telling us and we went. I started 8 minutes after the race oficially started. I was wearing a sweatshirt which I was going to take off 8 miles into it. The point was, the e-mail I got from my friend told me to run slower than normal for the first 8, then normal after that. I wore the sweatshirt to slow me down. It also said not to weave so when I got stuck behind slow people, I ran at their pace unless they walked than I went by them. Some moved over, then I passed them as I was not weaving. It was a relaxing part, I eavesdropped on runner's conversations and at mile 4 or 5, I realized I was sweating profusely and debated to take off the sweatshirt, but I didn't. There was a water stand by mile 8, so I poured water on myself knowing that the extra weight of wet clothing wouldn't be a problem because I was taking off the shirt soon anyway. I passed mile 8, and threw the shirt off, looked at my watch, which I had started the stopclock when I started the race and saw 1:26, the slowest I've ever run 8 miles, but that was the point. During this time I didn't sing any songs to motivate me as I kept telling myself that the race doesn't start till mile 8. Once someone remarked how they could see me Lebron jersey under the long-sleeve T-shirt so I pulled it up so he could see the "Sux" part, no reaction except "Oh:" I didn't keep with the gatorade every 20 minutes at this point because I was taking it easy.
Now the race had really started for me and I ran at my normal speed. The crowds thinned out by now so I didn't have to weave too much. At mile 6, the half marathon and marathon split, and after the split, cars are allowed to be driving so I did cross the street once so that cars would be coming toward me rather than behind. As I got on the road that ends in a hair pin turn(mile 11) some people on their way back cheered me on. I didn't return it, but just said "Thanks" as I wanted to conserve energy. A couple ran by and got excited because they were from Cleveland, and the front of my jersey said Cleveland they stuck their hands out and I gave them 5. THere were very few spectators but the few that remained would cheer me on and call me "Cleveland" I kept going till I got to mile 16, looked at my watch and saw 2:44, I had just run my second 8 miles 8 minutes faster than the precious 8, which is called a negative split and exactly what I intended. Now the hard part.
The hamptons marathon has a steep hill from mile 17.5 - 19. I kept telling myself that I was close. I got through it. I noticed lot of people walking, in fact, it seemed more people stopped to walk/stretch/go to the bathroom than didn't. THe advice I received of "It's not worth it to stop" seemed wrong now. There weren't many gatorade stands in the beginning but I had mine and took a sip every 20 minutes. I hadn't used much even with taking a sip after the GU, as I did find something to wash it down with. At this point (mile 16 or so) I threw away the water bottle with water as there are a lot of water stations. As I passed mile 19, I told myself that the hard part was over and it's just smooth sailing from here. Now every stand had gatorade and water, which I liked. I think it was a good idea to put the gatorade stands at the end of the race rather than throughout. By mile 22 or so, I abandoned my plan to only take gatorade every 20 minutes but every time I saw a gatorade stand and every 20 minutes with the ones I had strapped to me. a couple times, they coincided but not often. At mile 20 or so, I realized that the hard part really did take a lot out of me. Mile markers seem to be very far apart now. The "Auto Pilot at mile 20 that carries you through the remaining 6.2" that my friend claimed work was not working. I kept looking at my watch at mile markers and it seemed that I had slowed to 15 minute miles. So at 24.2 I decided that there was no point to keep running since running wasn't much faster than wallking as I can walk a mile in 20 minutes.
I did this at the 2nd hairpin turn, (mile 24.2) it had been almost all uphill so the return trip should be downhill. BUt when I was looking at it, it still seemed uphill. When I stopped to walk, I was extremely dizzy but after walking for a little bit, I regained my equilbrium. As I watched 2 women passed me and one cheered me on, I said, "Let's go" and started runing, within 30 seconds they stoppped to walk, which was kind of a buzz kill for me. I started alternating between walking and running. I looked at my watch and realized that even if I walked all the way to finish, I would still finish before the 5 hour goal. This was patantly false but math had abandoned me in my tired state. I was around mile 25. I was happy that at mile 19, we met up with the half marathon course because the mile markers and every 5k markers for the half marathoners, gave me more indication how close I was. With the half marathon, you only add 0.1 rather than 0.2 to every mile marker for miles left. I saw I had 3 minutes left before taking another GU. I decided to walk tll then, I did so and then started runing and didn't stop till the finish. Before mile 20, I realized that even though the Dixie cups were only a fourth full, It was still less than the sips I take. So I took my sips, than threw away the rest. Now, I carried the cup taking small sips...it usually took about 0.2 miles to finish it.
At this point (after mile 19), I couldn't occupy my mind, it was really bothering me how far the mile markers felt. I didn't sing all the songs that motivated me, I was just exhausted. Before the race, I said if a woman passed me toward the end, it would motivate me to speed up. Many woman passed me throughout the race, never did I use it as a motivation point. Sometime around mile 25, an ambulance passed by which was really a buzz kill but I kept going. I ran by mile 26 and immediately looked for mile 13 for the half marathoners to tell me I was 0.1 away. I found it and other people cheered me on. I turned a corner and there was the finish line, I heard my mother scream and many other people cheering. I then kicked it and sprinted past the finish as I heard my name announced and I was from Brooklyn and it was my 1st. I received my medal and cape. Some guy who worked for the marathon chased me down and kept asking if I was okay and directed me to a water stand. I took out the last water bottle (I threw away the other one when it was empty) which was half filled with gatorade and showed it to him. I drank the rest then tossed the water bottle. I knew this was my last run so I wouldn't need it anymore. I then unstraped the fuel belt and threw it to the side for the same reason. The guy took this as a sign I wasn't okay. BUt I assured him I was, I could hear my friend and my mom calling after me but all I wanted was for the 5 minute countdown on my watch to expire so I could do my cool down stretches. I forgot to stop the stopwatch, realized it with about 2 minutes left of the 5 mintues so I stopped it and subtracted 3 minutes so my finishing time was 4:51. The official time was 4:56 and since in the beginning my watch was 8 minutes off the official time, I think it may have been 4:48, both logic work (the countdown and my memory) so one is true, one is false, I really don't know which one. But I did accomplish my goal of sub-5 hours no matter how you look at it.
The 5 minute countdown expired and I collapsed down to do my cool down stretches. My friend's husband told me it was a bad idea, but I knew I had to do it. I lifted my leg and started. My dad helped me keep it straight. I wasn't very friendly at this point because my dad didn't realize when I was going to switch even after telling him that when my hand reaches "4" I was switching. So I called out switch. As I went through, my thighs cramped a lot. I kept looking at a snack stand and my friend kept asking if I wanted anything but I couldn't form the words that I wanted fries. As it was misty rain and 60 degrees, perfect running weather, bad everything else weather, they seemed to be getting impatient, but I told them it would take 30 minutes and I wanted to finsih my stretches. Suzanne, the woman who cheered me on in between 24.2 and 25, found me and gave me a bottle of recovery water that they give you for free. I had my mom take off my tag and retrieve my stuff. Finally I finished my stretches, chugged teh G3 recovery and the recvoery water realizing the recovery water was very salty. THis helps most runners but I knew from previous experience it doesn't help me as my body overheats and I get the chills, which is exactly what started to happen at first but once i overheated, I never went to the other extreme. I posed for pictures with my friend and my parents and then walked to my friend's car. I realized my arms were killing me along with my thighs especially. I made my way to his car and then sat in the back seat with my legs spread out across. My calves began cramping majorly and I kept stopping it by putting one foot on top of the others and pulling my toes back but lifting my leg to put on the other hurt bad and took a decent amount of time, meanwhile I was still cramping.
My friend's husband got lost on the way to the restaurant and we were going near my friend's house, which was about 40 minutes away. During this time I badly needed sustenance. My friend had caramel in the car, so I tried that after being assured she had water. Now that I had water, I took another GU packet as I had 2 unused ones (I brought one extra in case I ran slower than expected and 1 was given to me at mile 17). I was really tired and lightheaded and I badly wanted to get to the restaurant. I had been championing steak the whole previous day and since I finished so that's where we were going. FInally we got to the restaurant and I couldn't get out of the car. My friend offtered to help, I grabbed her arm but didn't want to pull on her as I knew she couldn't support my weight. I managed to get to my feet. I grabbed the waist of my pants because I literally couldn't lift my arms. I shuffled my feet toward the restaurant and made it very slowly feeling the worst I've felt ever from running. I got to the resaurant, still wearing the cape and sat down next to my mother, who gave me a sweater and other clothes. She told me to go the bathroom to put on pants but I absolutely refused to do any extra walking. As waitors came by I kept chanting "Beer, I need beer, someone get me beer" The waitor poured me water but I was done with that; I needed calories. Finally he asked what kind of beer, I said Coors Light and he brought it and I took a sip and it was freezing cold and refreshing. As I kept eating and drinking I started feeling better. When we left the waitor congratulated me, shook my hand and told me that I look much better now than when I walked in. My dad was happy to see color restore to my face. I was still sore but I could lift my arms at least. I turned the corner to recovery.
After that, I went back to my friend's house and took a long shower, which I desperately needed. They went to sleep, I tried to sleep but somehow couldn't. I was in a lot of pain but my head felt fine unlike when I finished. I redid the math, and realized that my last 10 miles I averaged 12:27 miles, which includes all the walking I did between mile 24.2 and 26.2. By extension, there is no way I was running 15 minute miles between 20 and 24 as I thought I had been. My math or memoy was wrong when I made that calculation at the time. Now for the first time, I had a regret, maybe I could have finished without stopping. I started getting an itch to try again but that faded quickly. I kept telling myself that most people I saw walked at some point so I was fine. The rest of the day was spent resting, going to dinner, and resting some more. I was really sore and stairs were a problem, especially down. I didn't fall asleep till midnight even though I went to bed at 10. THroughout the day, people were texting and calling about my race. I welcomed all of it. Next day we had breakfast and drove to the city. When I woke up this morning (same day as driving back to the city) it finally settled in that I had run a marathon. It feels amazing and the regret I had from walking is long gone. I'm so happy I did it, but I would never do it again. The one thing I don't understand is despite all the fluids I was drinking during the race, I never had to go to the bathroom. During all my long runs, I had to go to the bathroom but just held it. I never did, I guess I was burning it off that quickly. I tell myself now that given how bad of shape I was when I finished, if I hadn't stopped to walk, I may have collapsed or even not finished. Who knows if that's true, I"m never doing it again.
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