San Antonio Marathon (Em Edition)

I've had a good week to reflect on the marathon and to try and figure out what exactly happened. For those of you that don't know I made it through half way before I started "hitting the wall"...hard. I tried to hang on and just finish the race, but I started getting random foot pains in my right foot at about mile 19. I dropped out at 20 because I could tell it was changing my stride and I didn't want to seriously injure myself long term by hobbling the next 6.2 miles. But by that time I was already running low 7's per mile.

Jer and me mean-muggin' before the race

I've never been more prepared to race the marathon than I was on that day. Mentally, physically, and emotionally I came in to that day ready to conquer 26.2 miles of downtown San Antonio. My mileage was in the high 90's, low 100's the entire season. I took my workouts by the horns this time around instead of being scared shitless like I was last year. I was also not afraid of the race itself, it was no longer an "unknown" for me. I feel like the taper towards the race was great, my legs felt very fresh leading up to the race. The funny thing about last Sunday was even though I was going through the missions at a slower pace this year compared to last, the miles seemed to come quicker this time around. This is one of the little things that reassures me it was not a mental problem by any means.

oh you know, just running next to Desiree Ficker, no big deal or anything

During the early part of the race I was completely fine, unphased even, by the conditions. Just look at the pictures prior to mile 12..."oh look, there's Em! She's having a freaking blast!" But then, out of no where, it starts getting ridiculously hard to hit 6:30's even. Keep in mind, most marathoner's "hit the wall" at around mile 20, mine was 6 to 7 miles prior to that. Something just wasn't right. I couldn't, and still can't really, figure out why my body was having this hard of a time hitting paces that I was easily hitting in workouts, on much more tired legs. My body was completely shutting down. During the middle of the night, after the race, I woke up because my legs were throbbing, as if I'd run the entire race. Again, this was another reassurance I didn't just wimp out when the going go tough - I put my body through hell that day, it just wasn't giving me the results it usually does.

It's a bird, it's a plane, noooo..it's the FOG!!  haha..still have that smile on!

I scheduled an appointment with my doctor earlier this past week to get a blood test. I wanted to see if a low ferritin level could have been the culprit, but with a level of 107, compared to the 8 I had in March, we knew that low iron levels weren't the reason for my massive blow up. It made sense too since my workouts prior to the marathon felt great. The doctor suggested that it was primarily because of the atmospheric conditions (completely shitty ass racing weather) and my previous history with my asthma that had led to me crashing on race day. That answer doesn't sit too well with me. Jer and I both ran a half marathon in Houston 3 weeks prior, and did a marathon simulation at a much faster pace than I went on race day, in very similar conditions (63, with 100% humidity). I didn't come anywhere close to crashing, in fact, I felt great! The only difference between the two days was that the weather the couple days prior to Houston were just as crappy as race day, compared to the marathon, where things had been very pleasant leading up to that day. Perhaps my body just freaked out and tried preparing itself for the worst since it didn't have time to get used to the nasty weather.

Regardless, I hate not knowing exactly what happened, especially when I know that I was so much more prepared for it. That's the downside of a race like the marathon. I came in more relaxed...like NOT throwing up before the race like I did last year, and ready to take on the world, well the marathon anyways : ) It is very frustrating, especially knowing I don't really have much in the way of results to show for this past season. I trained trough all of the races I did, in hopes of being that much more prepared for the marathon. It's a real bummer to say the least, but one of the great things that has come out of this is figuring out what kind of person I am when things go horribly wrong. Last Sunday was the day I had been training for since June! Day in an day out went into preparation for November 13th. Well things didn't go anywhere near as planned and I still came out of it yearning to be a better runner, even though it's looking more and more like I didn't have a whole lot of control of what happened on race day. It's made me realize that I have a serious passion for this sport of mine, and that makes me really excited about the future! One of the best things that did happen that day was seeing my best friend, my inspiration, my husband  finish SECOND OVERALL WITH A 3 MINUTE PERSONAL BEST!!!! I mean seriously people, he ran that much faster compared to last year in MUCH crappier conditions. I was/am really proud of him. He trained his butt off and it really paid off for him. It definitely put me in a much better mood knowing that he killed it.

My better half

So that's that. I never want to be one of those people that only talks about the good/great races and never mentions the complete blowups. For those of you that are wondering, I've had quite a few people ask me, NO, I will not being doing another marathon within the next month in hopes of hitting the trials standard. It was NEVER the plan to race another marathon if things didn't go right in San Antonio (Jer and I talked about it a good amount before and during the season). I was already cutting it pretty close, for me, if I had qualified, to compete at the trials just two months later. The plan was, if things didn't go the way we planned, then I'd focus on having a freaking blast in the early months of 2012..oh you know, like indoor races and what not : ) There will be plenty of time to talk about the winter and spring season though, I don't want to get ahead of myself, which I already am. Oops!

I will leave you with a quote from one of the greatest, living, coaches out there.

"The genuine athlete must have a strong spirit, vigorous and sane, not easily demoralized or defeated. This resolute balance, allied to intelligence, is the mixture necessary for success" -Vigil.