I began writing this a week or two after SLC back in April. When I was about 3/4 thru it I got sidetracked for various reasons and have just finally managed to get back to it and finish it up. So, for what it's worth, here's my summary of our adventures in SLC this past April.
It was quite an experience. A flood of emotions went through my mind as I crossed the finish line. Joy, exhaustion, pain, and a great sense of accomplishment. As I recall, it was last fall when Sue mentioned to me that Sherry was going to challenge Ross and myself to run the half marathon in Salt Lake City this year. Almost immediately I liked the idea although I wasn't sure about committing to it. I started to run a couple of years ago, but my effort lasted about a month. Beginning in the summer and no clearly defined goal probably led to my giving up quickly. But here was something to shoot for.
I began to do a bit of running in December, but Christmas and weather kept it to a minimum, so nothing got seriously underway until a week or so into January. The months of January and February were challenging weather-wise, but I kept at it and began to build some stamina. I was originally under the impression that the SLC Marathon was during the summer. I think, because the last half marathon Sue had run with Sherry and Curtis was late last summer (I didn't realize that wasn't at Salt Lake City). It was nearly the end of February when I was informed the SLC event was in the middle of April. Suddenly my training time was down to about a month and a half! So I kept at it and tried to increase my distance more quickly than I had originally intended. I ran regularly but had only a couple of 6-mile runs under my belt as my longest efforts before the event was upon us.
Sue and I flew to Salt Lake City on April 15th, arriving a day after Sherry and Curtis, who had driven down from Sand Point.
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In Thais and Leslie's backyard Thursday afternoon. |
We enjoyed a nice afternoon and went and ate dinner at a small "health food" restaurant. Then that evening we went to a nearby park and ran a quick three miles around the park together.
Friday morning, we took our time getting ready in the morning then headed down to the Salt Palace to pick up our race packets and look around the pre-race expo. After we we spent some time browsing around the expo, we headed over to The Gateway to walk around and do a bit of shopping. It was an enjoyable afternoon. Finally we headed on home to get dinner going.
We skipped the official marathon's Pasta Dinner, and made our own. Sherry had a great recipe and her, Curtis, Sue and Thais ran over and around each other in the kitchen fixing dinner. It was a great meal and we almost managed to leave no leftovers. Everyone tried to get to bed earlier because the marathon started at 7 AM so we would be getting an early start.
I had run a quick 3-miler Wednesday evening before leaving Oklahoma. After the run I was a bit troubled by some pain on the inside of my left ankle. Thursday morning it wasn't any better, but I hoped it would ease by Saturday. Unfortunately, after our group run Thursday evening, the ankle was even more sore on Friday. I was definitely getting concerned as I was getting ready to run more than twice as far as I had ever run before. At the pre-race expo, a booth was selling a new kind of athletic tape, "KT Tape", endorsed and used by professional athletes and Olympians. It claimed to help a lot of different sports injuries and said it came with clear, illustrated instructions for application. The price wasn't bad ($12.99 for a package), so I finally decided to take a chance and try it. As we got ready Saturday morning, I taped up my left ankle altering the instructions for taping up shin splints a bit since my problem was in my ankle rather than my shin.
When everyone was ready, we took a quick group photo in the living room for posterity.
The intrepid runners |
Finally, we all loaded into Curtis and Sherry's SUV and headed to the race start. We arrived at the marathon/half marathon starting area round 6:40. It was packed, with long bathroom lines and people handing off drop bags to be taken to the finish.
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Arriving at the starting area. |
It was cool (temp about 50) and a bit windy, so it was a bit nippy in the light running clothes we all had on. Sue and I stood in a bathroom line for a few minutes, but since it didn't seem to be going anywhere we all headed for the starting line. Standing in the middle of the crowd eased the chill in the air quite a bit from the mass of body heat and the effect of blocking the wind. Finally, an official at the starting line (the SLC mayor?) began formally welcoming everyone and introduced a recently returned vet who sang the national anthem. After a bit more talking the race finally got underway. We slowly shuffled with the crowd toward the starting line, and once we got to it, we broke into a trot.
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Waiting in the crowd for the start. |
For the first couple of miles, it remains pretty crowded as everyone jockeys for position and tries to find the space to run at their own pace. You find yourself working around a lot of slower runners while faster runners weave in and out working toward the front of the pack. We hit a nice, easy pace of about 10 minutes a mile and maintained that easily for the first several miles. The full marathon broke off from the half marathon at around the 4 mile mark so Curtis left our small group and Sherry, Sue and I kept going together. We stopped around the 5 mile mark for a bathroom break. There was a fairly short line but we still ended up there for 8 or 9 minutes before we all got our business taken care of.
We took off again and kept our 10 minute/mile pace. Around this time, my right ankle began to bother me, feeling much like my left ankle had been the previous couple of days. The KT tape I had applied to the left ankle was doing a great job and I wasn't having any problems with it, but I was starting to think I should have taped up the right ankle too. We chugged along with Sue usually out in front of Sherry and I by 15 or 20 feet. Finally around the 8 mile mark, Sue broke into a walk. Sherry and I took her right up on the walking idea and we did that for a couple of hundred yards and discussed how we were all feeling, before beginning to run again.
Somewhere near 9 miles when Sue and I began walking again, Sherry kept on going. Besides my right ankle I was beginning to get quite a bit of pain in my right calf also. For the first time, I began to wonder a bit whether I would be able to finish. At first, if we'd walk the pain would go away and I'd feel fine, then we'd begin to run again and after just one or two hundred yards the pain would be right back. Sue was being bothered by some bowel distress so we stayed together to encourage each other through it.
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The course goes thru the park where we ran Thursday evening. |
On miles between miles 10 and 12 we walked more than either of us really wanted to (probably almost half of those two miles were walked), but we were trying to save up what we had left for the last mile. From mile 11 to mile 12, the course is uphill. Although it's a fairly gentle grade, it's at a point in the race where you're going to be pretty worn out. Despite the amount of walking we were doing at that point, I still took some satisfaction in the fact that when we did run we were passing those around us who were running too.
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Approaching mile 11 as Sue wonders why I'm not running. |
We finally arrived at the 12 mile mark and began running the final mile. As we began it, I was thinking "only a mile left...no problem", but we probably had only gone about a quarter mile before I was feeling the pain in my right ankle and calf and hoping I could keep going the entire mile. I was determined though, even if I had to slow down to a limping run.
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On the last mile! |
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Sue and I near the finish. |
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Me, somewhere near the finish. |
We had to wait another two and a half hours or so for Curtis to finish the full marathon. While waiting the bag drop line to pick up our bag, Curtis called my cell phone to give a report on his progress. He was having a hard time by then and estimated he'd be another 40 or 45 minutes on the course. When we thought he should be getting near the end, we took up positions around 70 or so yards from the finish line to wait. And wait. It ended up taking him longer than he had guessed because it was getting more and more difficult for him the closer to the end he got.
Finally, we saw him come into sight. He was looking a bit worse for the wear, but he wasn't going to walk across the finish line! Sherry ran to the finish to greet him as the rest of us cheered him on. It was hard for him, but Curtis broke the 5 hour mark with just a few minutes to spare.
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Curtis waves to us as he approaches the finish line. |
After giving Curtis a few minutes to recover a bit, we went to check out our times before heading home. My time was 2:35:20. Everyone told me that wasn't bad for my first half marathon, but I definitely feel I could do better, so I'm looking forward to the next opportunity to beat that time.
We got home and we all got cleaned up and relaxed for a while before heading out later to get some dinner. It was a long, tiring day but very enjoyable too. Sue and I flew home the next day, arriving in Oklahoma City to a cool, rainy day.
I thoroughly enjoyed the short vacation, the half marathon and the visit with my family. Here's hoping everyone can come to OKC next year and participate in the Memorial Marathon! And looking forward to some of the younger ones participating too.