Life 'n Legos: Raleigh City of Oaks Marathon

Well...I finished. I ran 2 marathons 1 week apart and 56.5 miles in 8 days. To say that I am exhausted would be an understatement. I will recap yesterday's race to the best of my ability.

The week following the Marine Corps Marathon left me feeling pretty good. I felt like I probably had it in me to run City of Oaks, but had decided that if I was feeling bad by the time the marathoners split from the half marathoners that I would just drop to the half. Many of my seasoned marathon friends and TNT coaches kept telling me what a horrible idea it was for me to run 2 marathons so close together, they said there is NO WAY I would be recovered, regardless of how great I felt. I let them all know my plan and left it at that. After kickball on Thursday I started to reconsider setting out with the intention of running the full. When I tried to run to catch some balls in the outfield I quickly noticed that I had no explosion left in my legs. They felt dead, heavy, and tired. I knew this would make for a VERY long marathon. The more I thought about it though, the more I wanted my mom to see me finish a marathon, I wanted to run the full because that is what I fundraised for, and I wanted to run for the people who are battling or have battled cancer. I also wanted to run for bragging rights and sense of accomplishment. I've never been one to get a runner's high...in fact, I kind of hate running. I'm not really sure why I decided to run, I think having a weekly goal helped me to focus on something other than the fact that I miss my husband (but this is for another blog post). Anyways, I attended the TNT inspiration dinner on Saturday night and it really got me amped up to run on Sunday.

There was some crazy energy, wonderful stories of survival, and LOTS of encouragement at the inspiration dinner. I shared a table with some of my running buddies and we shared some memories of the season, talked about races we had recently done, and I got to meet their spouses. We were reminded of what we had trained all season for and shown our fundraising numbers. We raised quite a bit of money for cancer research...and that was all I needed to hear to convince myself that I could finish this full. After some quick singlet decorating I headed home to get some sleep, I was going to need it!

Sunday was fun and had a completely different feel from the MCM. MCM had the advantage of being a HUGE race (40,000 marathon runners) and the entire course was lined with people cheering. The energy was completely insane, I couldn't hear (and didn't need) my music almost the entire time. One thing I struggled with was that there were only 3 times I saw someone I knew or someone cheering for me personally was at mile 12 (Maddi), mile 16 (Elaine, a TNT coach who was there with the MCM team), and at the finish. When exhaustion sets in its really nice to see someone get excited, look you in the eye, and cheer for you. COO was a MUCH smaller race, only 1,000 marathoners (2,500 half marathoners, a few hundred marathon relays, and a few hundred 10K runners). It was kind of like going from a Super Bowl game to a high school football game. People were excited, the energy just wasn't the same. The majority of the course took place in an area where no one was able to get to to cheer, so we were seriously lacking on the fans, but the fans that were there were incredible. At mile 2 or 3 a random TNT coach came up to met to see how I was doing. My 3 coaches were at several points throughout the race offering encouragement and advice. When I literally thought I was going to fall asleep while running, Paul ran with me for about 3 miles. When I got a burst of energy and felt like a rockstar, Diane was there with cowbells and cheers to keep the energy up. When I was about to finish, Elaine was there telling me how crazy I am and that my pace didn't suck (which it did...but oh well). There were TNT cheering stations and water stops throughout the race, they went crazy whenever they saw anyone wearing the purple. I saw friends waiting on their relay teammates that high fived me as I ran by. And the best part of the race was seeing my mom and Bill standing with Mikey right before the finish line. I was able to grab him and carry him across the finish, it was such an awesome feeling! The photographers loved it too (even though Mikey wouldn't look at the camera). While it was a completely different atmosphere that MCM, it was still a good one and I'm glad that I ran the full.

The race itself was not easy (not that any 26.2 miles is). I started off running with Christy and her friend, Christy (they were running the 10K). I ran the first 4 miles with them before I told them to take off since I couldn't maintain that pace for a full marathon. They finished with a great time! After I saw them at the 10K finish I was starting to feel really tired and dreading the next 4 hours. The City of Oaks Marathon is a HILLY course that tests your mental toughness from the very beginning. We started at the NC State bell tower and ran around downtown. The 10K ended at Cameron Village and the rest of us continued on through some neighborhoods that lead us to Meredith College. From there, we split off from the half marathoners and took off down the greenway. We ran to Crabtree Valley Mall and eventually found ourselves at Shelley Lake. From there we turned around and went back to the half marathon split. We finished the half course from there, taking us the the 440 on ramp (past Meredith) where we turned around and headed back down Hillsborough Street to the bell tower. I was feeling terrible until right after I turned around at Shelley Lake (around mile 17). I was just fatigued, my hamstrings hurt, and my stomach wasn't feeling the greatest. I stopped for a potty break around mile 12 and Advil around mile 14. I stopped for one more potty break just after mile 17 and it was just enough of a break to get something going in me. After that I majorly picked up my pace, shaving almost 2 minutes per mile off of my pace. I felt energized and only found myself walking 2 short times after that (which is less than I walked at MCM). Mile 21-23 was straight up a STEEP hill...I decided to walk this one. There were some very kind gentlemen offering beer right before the climb, so I decided to partake. I mean, it was going to be a long slow climb anyways, may as well have a beer while I'm doing it. I didn't walk the whole way up, only until my beer was gone, that hill totally killed my pace. The only other time I walked was from 25 miles to 25.2 miles, I wanted to run the entire last mile and have the energy to sprint it in at the end, so I took a little breather. It was right as I started to run again that I saw TNT training buddy, Laura. She would usually go out to training early and then wait for everyone else to finish after she finished her long runs. She would cheer people on at the end and run it in with us. This was no different, she had run the half and stuck around. She was there at 25.2 miles with a sign and a lot of energy. She let me know that I was crazy and gave me that final boost of energy to get it done. Seeing a friendly face at that point in the race was crucial. A half mile later I saw Elaine and Todd, who also reminded me that I was crazy. They let me know that all I had to do was get over this little hill and it was downhill to the finish (a nice change from MCM). I crested the hill and saw my family and almost lost it. I was so happy and proud of myself. I was so happy that my mom got to see me finish a marathon and it was so special to carry Munchky across the finish line.

When I checked in at the TNT tent one final time I was given a special 26.2 pin and offered a massage from the Chiropractor they had there. He was magical, it felt so awesome to get stretched out after the race. After we went home I gorged myself on food, showered, got in bed, and didn't move the rest of the day. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Now...on to my next crazy adventure!