Phoenix Marathon and back to blogging

I was planning on starting to blog again, and figured I’d wait until post-race to start. That way I don’t feel like I need to “catch up” over the past couple of months and write a post that takes a week to read!! :)….it’s a good starting point.  

Saturday was the Phoenix Marathon, and it was a painful one for me.  Somehow I pulled off a PR and finished in 3:31:46, a 3 min 14 second BQ, and honestly even though the course itself wasn't an overly challenging course, it was my toughest race yet. 

The morning started off a bit complicated.  Since most of the roads right around my hotel were closed off for the race, I opted to take the shuttle provided by the hotel.  We were shuttled to the finish line area, where all runners board buses to their start lines.  The half marathon and full marathon buses were located in different spots, and our driver (who was already running late) dropped everyone off right near the finish line and the half marathon buses. We all got off, in the dark, not sure exactly where we were, but had 15 minutes to find our buses (the last buses to the start left at 5 am and it was now 4:45). Most of the people on the shuttle were running the half, except for myself and about 7 other people.  Slightly panicked, we started heading to where all the people were, only to realize that was the half marathon busing area and we were told the buses for the full were almost a mile away, across the street.  No one wanted to be running yet, but we BOOKED it, because what a NIGHTMARE it would be to miss the last bus.  More stimulation than I wanted pre-race, but at least we made it :)

The day was windy, much more windy than I would have liked, and it picked up as the morning went on, but I crossed the start line and the finish line, so I’m calling it a success :)  This was a really really really hard race for me! (did I say that already??)  Most of the wind was a headwind, and it definitely made an impact.  At the half, I was right on pace to break the 3:30 I trained for (I averaged a  pace of 7:57)….exactly where I wanted to be, but the effort level to maintain that pace was harder than it normally is.   I knew all week that it was going to be windy, but I kept my fingers crossed that the “incoming weather” would change.  No such luck…except that it did not rain!! 

My quads started hurting (really just tightness) around mile 10, which freaked me out because that should not happen until MUCH later.  A lot of that I think is because I had been so paranoid all week about fixing my irritated IT band/hamstring, that I neglected to stretch and roll my quads enough.  I tried telling myself that they would loosen up later on in the race, but who are we kidding?? When does that ever happen??  I did forget about them for awhile though, and they weren’t as bad as I was afraid they would be.

After about mile 22, I had to pull back the pace a lot-the extra wasted energy started taking it’s toll, and I held pace until I absolutely couldn’t any longer.  I knew that a 3:30 was not going to happen, but I still knew I could PR, and the feet kept moving. My entire body was done, and I don’t think I’ve ever had to motivate myself so much to keep going.  When I crossed the finish line, all I could remember was one of the notes on our envelope that our bib came in saying that if you pause your Garmin at the finish, make sure to not block your bib number…so I held my arms up pretty much to my face level to stop it.  I’m surprised I remembered it, to be honest.  I then almost left the finish area without my medal…which would have been terrible!!! I was just about out of the finish chute when one of the volunteers asked me if I got mine, which I hadn’t, so he gave me one.  My brain was done, and my legs were done.

Once I got back to the hotel and showered, my legs loosened up a lot and I felt a lot better.

 The medal this year is pretty cool, and starting next year they are doing this cool “earn the bird” series where you can collect one each year, and I want all of them! Next year I’ll probably run the half, since it will be well into Boston training.

The race shirts were cool as well-a racing tank that I will actually wear!! I only have a few race shirts that I ever wear, so it was cool to get one like this!!

Post-marathon I know it's important to get something into your body, but  I just can’t stomach real food for awhile, so the muscle milk they gave out at the expo did the trick.  I took the extras home with me.

Now that the race is over, I generally take 4-5 days off from any running, even once my legs feel recovered.  The muscle breakdown during a marathon takes time to heal and return to full strength, and after completing multiple training cycles injury-free, I want to keep that streak going!  THIS article has some good tips for post-race recovery. It’s a little bit different for everyone, so find what works best for you!! 

Anybody else race this weekend?

How long do you wait to run again after a race?