Columbus Marathon Race Report

Hello again!  It has been a while since I have posted and I thought I would do a race report about a little run I did this past Sunday, the Columbus Marathon.  This is the second marathon I have completed (six if you count Ironman as a marathon, but I don’t).  My first marathon was a major learning experience, as I learned what the “wall” felt like at mile 20 during the marathon.  I also made several nutritional mistakes during my first marathon in 2003 and have learned a lot about nutrition, tapering and training since that disaster.  I felt very good about my fitness levels going in to this marathon, and actually was excited about doing it. The whole week before the race, I just wanted it to be Sunday already. I hated waiting around, not doing much physical activity that week.  I was getting so pumped. I did have some setbacks, though, the week before the race. My back was really messed up and my knee was killing me.  I spent the week icing as much as possible, borrowed a magnet from my friend Susan Bradley-Cox (which seemed to help by the way) and went to see my friend and chiropractor Mike Sullivan.  So I did a lot the week before the race to help reduce the pain.

On Saturday I did not do much walking at all. I ran an easy 2 miles in the morning, and basically spent the rest of the day lying around, hydrating and eating.  I had dinner around 6:45pm, as I like to be in bed by 9:00am on nights before the race. I woke up on Sunday feeling good, had my normal Panera bagel, but skipped the coffee.  I knew I was not going to be using caffeinated gels so I decided to do the whole thing without caffeine. I went out for a short 6 minute run to get my stomach churning, and then made one last visit to the bathroom. I met up with Rodney (my client) and we jogged to the start line.  I had on a lot of clothes since it was cold, and took them off just before the start. I had lined up with the 3:30 pace group (goal race time was 3:30-3:35), and George was our fierce leader. He has paced over 40 marathons so I felt pretty confident that he would get the job done.

We finally started the race, and our first mile was almost perfect, 7:53 pace. I knew that George was aiming at 3:28:00-3:29:30 for our finish time so I assumed so of the miles would be under 8:00 pace. I felt good when we started. I was very comfortable, not breathing hard, etc.  I did notice at mile 7 that my right calf was already tight, but I tried to ignore it.  I tried my best to stick to my plan of walking every 10 minutes, but it did not work out as well as I wanted it to.  I probably walked every other or every third aid station for 10-20 seconds and then got back right after it. I took a small bathroom break around mile 7, and that was it.  So our miles through 13 looked like this:7:53, 8:03, 7:53, 7:54, 7:47, 7:46, 8:00, 7:58, 8:00, 7:54, 7:52, 7:59, 7:37 (oops)!  We were always on pace or slightly under, so I knew that if I had a bad mile later in the day it would still be ok.  I refueled around mile 14, and yes I did run with my Nathan fuel belt and it was awesome! Because there were so many people with the 3:30 group, if I did not have my fuel belt, I would have missed a lot of aid station.  It was hard to get over to the side to hit the aid stations if you were stuck in the middle of the running pack.  So at mile 14 I noticed my foot and my right calf were feeling not so good, and I feared the worst.  And right around mile 15 I started to cramp.  My toes, arches and right calf were as tight as could be.  I tried to run through it, but it got so bad at some points that I had to stop to stretch. Other times I was able to run through it by pushing off of my toes and stretching my toes out.  This cramping would shift back and forth from right to left foot for the remainder of the race, which was very hard to deal with.  Miles 14 – 18 were still pretty good, with a 7:51, 7:55, 7:48, 7:55 and 8:05.  Miles 17.5 through 20 were up hill so I knew that was going to be a struggle, and it was.  My quads were getting tired and the cramping was getting worse.  Mile 19 was 8:43 and mile 20 was 8:34.  I was still drinking my Gatorade Endurance, taking my gels, and drinking water with the gels.  When I got to 20, I tried to visualize a 10K; that was all that I had left.  I started to get a second wind and at mile 22 I yelled to myself, “I am going to f*cking do this!!!”  I felt pretty good through mile 23 (21-8:24, 22- 8:17, 23-8:09).  I still was cramping at this point but was able to manage it.  Miles 24-26 were a different story. I mentally was hurting, as well as physically hurting and I started to play that game where you try to determine “what is the slowest pace I could go and still go under 3:40.”  I was trying to focus up the road ahead of me and really try to not walk unless I absolutely had to.  Mile 25 was mile slowest mile, with a 9:02 pace.  Once I hit mile 25 I knew I just had one mile left, but it did not matter. My legs hurt so bad, and I was so ready to be finished. I dug deep within myself and told myself that if I started walking I could only walk for 20 seconds, no matter how I felt.  So that is what I did. I think I walked two or three times during the last mile, and ended up with a 9:01 pace for the last mile, not too bad considering how I felt.  Once I got to 26 I knew that I could make it. I turned the corner and headed to the finish line.  I crossed at the finish line with a time of 3:34:29!  This was over 20 minutes faster than my last marathon, and was good enough to qualify for Boston (although I do not think that I am going to go next year). I was very happy to be finished, and just wanted to find Eric after the race. 

I was overall happy with my result and realized just how hard marathons are!  I think they are harder than the Ironman, although some would disagree.  My quads have been very sore this past three days, but I am starting to feel a little better after swimming a couple of times.  So my season is now over for this year, and I have next year to look forward to: St. Anthony’s, Triple T with Nikki Ditsch, maybe a 70.3 race and some others.  Until next time…Thanks for reading.

Beth Atnip