Redding Marathon
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
So I did it. I ran a marathon! Yahoo! And boy are my quads screamin. All that downhill worked them.
How the day went- got down to Redding around 6:30 and picked up my race packet-then my mom and I drove up to Shasta Dam where the race start was. It was still dark when we arrived and the wind was bitter cold. Luckily they had a clothes drop off so we were all able to stay
warm until the start.
Speaking of the start- right as I was lining up I meet a woman named Kelly and we hit it off immediately. She and I ended up running the whole marathon together. It was awesome!
I had a good pace to start(didn’t go out too fast) as I had 4 miles of serious downhill to begin. Kelly and I could see we where towards the tail end of the pack- but by mile 5 we began passing people.
The run was beautiful as it followed the Sacramento River the whole way. At times as I looked back I could see Mt Shasta majestically standing above the river.
The course was mostly downhill with some climbing from miles 12-14-then downhill to mostly flat the rest of the way.
I felt really great until mile 18-then the wall hit. I had a really hard time after that. It’s like things just stopped working. It happened when I hit the bike trail which was mostly flat. I had the hardest time continuing to run and wanted to walk. It was such a mental thing. I just wanted to walk…and walk…and then my mind would be -no don’t walk it makes it harder. I really struggled with finding a rythym. I could hit good rythym for a while then my mind would tell me I was tired…blah,blah,blah…..So with Kelly’s encouragement and little things to focus on with my form- we were able to cross the finish line. My time- 5:07:50. That’s an 11:25 pace. Need some work-yeah- but I finished! And at least I was under 12 min miles.
Fuel-I used the Carbo-Pro (finished only 2 servings-not enough), aminos,vo2max,thermolyte. I took one half espresso clif gel and after that is when I began to not feel good. Ummm.
One really fun part of running this is my mom was at all the spots where spectators could watch. I enjoyed looking into the crowd and spotting her as I ran into the area. She was so cute, dressed in pink and taking pictures. It helped so much to see her there and I found I was looking forward to seeing her each time. She was a rock star in her support of me!
At the finish my dad, mom and brother-in-law were there. What an awesome way to end my day- family and Olive Garden!
How the day went- got down to Redding around 6:30 and picked up my race packet-then my mom and I drove up to Shasta Dam where the race start was. It was still dark when we arrived and the wind was bitter cold. Luckily they had a clothes drop off so we were all able to stay
warm until the start.Speaking of the start- right as I was lining up I meet a woman named Kelly and we hit it off immediately. She and I ended up running the whole marathon together. It was awesome!
I had a good pace to start(didn’t go out too fast) as I had 4 miles of serious downhill to begin. Kelly and I could see we where towards the tail end of the pack- but by mile 5 we began passing people.
The run was beautiful as it followed the Sacramento River the whole way. At times as I looked back I could see Mt Shasta majestically standing above the river.
The course was mostly downhill with some climbing from miles 12-14-then downhill to mostly flat the rest of the way.
I felt really great until mile 18-then the wall hit. I had a really hard time after that. It’s like things just stopped working. It happened when I hit the bike trail which was mostly flat. I had the hardest time continuing to run and wanted to walk. It was such a mental thing. I just wanted to walk…and walk…and then my mind would be -no don’t walk it makes it harder. I really struggled with finding a rythym. I could hit good rythym for a while then my mind would tell me I was tired…blah,blah,blah…..So with Kelly’s encouragement and little things to focus on with my form- we were able to cross the finish line. My time- 5:07:50. That’s an 11:25 pace. Need some work-yeah- but I finished! And at least I was under 12 min miles.
Fuel-I used the Carbo-Pro (finished only 2 servings-not enough), aminos,vo2max,thermolyte. I took one half espresso clif gel and after that is when I began to not feel good. Ummm.
One really fun part of running this is my mom was at all the spots where spectators could watch. I enjoyed looking into the crowd and spotting her as I ran into the area. She was so cute, dressed in pink and taking pictures. It helped so much to see her there and I found I was looking forward to seeing her each time. She was a rock star in her support of me!
At the finish my dad, mom and brother-in-law were there. What an awesome way to end my day- family and Olive Garden!
