Portland Marathon race report

So, I did it. It wasn't even that bad, despite the unpromised rain!

I went to bed early and slept until 2 a.m. pretty well, but from 2 to 5 I tossed and turned and had nightmares about being late. Finally I got up and started getting ready.

Usually on race mornings I take a shower to wake myself up, but since my hair is such a pain in the behind right now (it gets wet and bleeds pink), I decided to forgo the shower and just clean up and get dressed. The hotel was serving breakfast downstairs, and happily they had perfect runner food: for me, a cup of coffee, a bagel and cream cheese, and a banana with peanut butter.

I could only choke down half the bagel, but it was fine. I finished getting ready upstairs, then headed out to Aleks' hotel to meet her, Danielle, and Heather.

Danielle, Heather and I were all wearing pink skirts and tops and pink cowboy hats. We were a sight.

We headed down to the race start with just enough time to say goodbye to Aleks, who needed to line up ahead of us, and find a place close to the pace we planned to run. Right when we got close to the starting line, a woman behind me totally stepped on my shoe and pulled it completely off!
Fortunately, it was easy enough to get back on, but that was a freaky moment - all these bodies moving forward and my shoe isn't on my foot!

We started out running a comfortable pace, and pretty much never left it. I knew from the first mile marker we were running between 11 and 12 minute miles and we were a little more than 10 minutes back from gun time.

Between mile 4 and 5, both Danielle and Heather had to go to the bathroom, but there was a pretty significant line. I turned my watch off so I would capture only our run time, but at the next mile marker I figured out that we lost about five minues waiting. I decided then that if I were to really enjoy this race, I needed to stop playing with math and figuring out pace and projected finish time and all that. It's not like I was going to be fast no matter what; why would I torture myself with something totally irrelevant?

So I put my HRM on heart rate/time in zone only, so I didn't know what time it was or how long we'd been running. They still announced the time at every mile marker, but I stopped working so hard to do the math and figure out where we were.

By mile six, I felt like being done running...but weirdly, from mile 8 to 18 time just flew. Seriously, suddenly we'd see the balloons for the next mile marker and I'd be like, wow, we just past the previous one a minute ago!

This was probably for a few reasons. When we stopped for five minutes, we ended up behind a lot of slower runners; so for much of the rest of the race, we were passing people. So we always had someone new to look at.

Another reason is just Danielle. She was singing, yelling, being crazy, and just thoroughly enjoying herself. I tend to get quiet and inward when I race; she becomes super-fun and her energy is just infectious. It's amazing.

It started to rain maybe around mile 7 or so, which was unexpected. But it was a light rain, and it felt refreshing. It rained until past mile 20 - almost to the end, but not quite.

The one major hill was completely no big deal. You go up before going over the St. John's Bridge, but we just powered up and it was over way before I expected it to be. The bridge itself was gorgeous and reminded both me and Danielle of the bridges of the NYC Marathon.

Plus, we knew that after the bridge, the course was largely downhill. Heather's boyfriend Ben met us on the other side of the bridge to run the last eight with us, and at one point he ran to a friend's house to get a beer. The four of us took turns taking swigs until it was gone; I used it to wash down a GU. Way better than water!

We realized around mile 23 that not only were we likely going to break five hours from our start time, we could also break five hours gun time, if we hustled. We picked up the pace pretty significantly from there, with cheerleader Danielle egging us on. But man, at this point, it hurt. I'm sure we weren't running that fast, but my heart rate was 10 bpm higher than it had been all race, and I was nervous that I'd burn out before the end.

When we hit the chute, Danielle wanted to run hard. She grabbed our hands and basically pulled me across the finish line. I barely remember this part - I was totally in a daze. When we stopped running, I felt completely out of it - people were coming towards me with space blankets and medals and I was confused. They kept putting things in my hands, like water and chocolate milk. I was worried someone would try to take me to a medical tent.

But within a few minutes, my head cleared and my heart rate dropped, and all I wanted was to see the family. I couldn't eat or drink; nothing sounded good. I picked up my finisher's shirt and called John to see where he was.

Well, he and the kids hadn't bothered to come out and see me race, at all. I was so hurt. I said goodbye to the girls and walked alone back to the hotel.

When I got there, I burst into tears. I just couldn't believe John would think that I wanted him to come all the way down to Portland and that I'd think it was okay for him and the kids to just wait for me in the hotel and not see me at least finish. I know it was raining, so I didn't expect them to be all along the course, but you'd think they could show up towards the end and just see me go by. It hurt that John actually thought I would want the kids to stay in because of rain.

I'm like, no way! We live in the rain capital of the world. I've always lived here with the belief that if you were going to do something, and it rains, you still do it - otherwise you'll never do anything all winter! So of course I wanted him and the kids out!

So, anyway, we got over that. I guess.

In re-reading this, there's one thing I failed to mention. The cowboy hats and pink outfits got us a ton of attention - duh. But the nice thing about it was that it seemed to make other people - like onlookers - happy. They cheered for us and yelled out to us, and it gave us a boost every time (in fact, it made Heather and Danielle run faster!). I think there's something good to not being anonymous in a race - it makes you keep moving, and it makes things just a little more fun.

And the cowboy hat, after the first couple of miles, wasn't even annoying. I don't like running in hats usually, but once I got used to it, it was fine. I'll post pictures when I get them.

So, our final time was 4:49:41 - not my slowest marathon, but the slowest (outside of Ironman) in which the pace was totally within my control (meaning, I was the slowest of a group that was staying together). And interestingly, Danielle and Heather hadn't trained at all for this race. But since they're both personal trainers and extremely fit, they had no problem getting through it.

Now I'm focusing on weight loss. I've been heavier than I want to be for more than a year, and I'm ready to commit to fixing it now. This week I'm back to shakes and protein - the week 1 of the 20/20 program - and perhaps I'll do this for a few weeks to kick-start some weight loss and start feeling better about myself. We'll see.

I don't feel bad about this race; seeing all the people out there of all shapes and sizes running faster and slower than me made me remember how amazing it is to run a marathon at all, whether it's in four hours or five. But I just know I can be better than I am right now, and I won't be satisfied with myself until I am.