HERE IS MY RACE REPORT:
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I’m training my first Marathon. It will be run at the Cross-Country Marathon in Tampa, FL on Nov 18, 2007.
http://www.tamparaces.com/X-Country/index.htm
So I found a local park that has trails across rolling fields and through woods. The park is called the Miccosukee Greenway. I drove by myself Sunday around 11am. There were a few other people at the park. I’ve run the half marathon distance last February at the Tallahassee Marathon, so I knew there should be no problem finishing. But as I got out of the truck, stretched, and began preparations I had a sense of excitement and nervousness. Part of it was due to running an official race rather than training, and part was due to running in a new place. Another new thing was that I was wearing my new Saucony Triumph 4 running shoes. I know you’re not supposed to change things for a race, but my Nike Shox were completely shot and I got new shoes the night before.
The weather was beautiful. It was sunny, without a cloud in the sky. The temperature was about 69 degrees farenheight with a slight breeze. I had prepared an ice chest with three 20oz bottles of Gatorade, and 2 bottles of propel. There were also 4 powerade gel packs in there too. I set the ice chest in the back of the truck, finished my stretches, set my iPod Nike+ to the half marathon distance and started running.
It was only then that I realized that due to operator error (mine), I had blown the podcast upload and wouldn’t be hearing phedipidations or any other podcast during the run. Fortunately I had a 40 min music loop that I went through about 3 ½ times. I loved the first time through, but by the end, it was pretty boring.
The park is a series of adjoining properties that have been pieced together. This means the boundaries go back and forth with the park being a lot longer than wide and with it being very narrow in some places. The trail was essentially a long oval, with many places where each side was separated by a few feet, and others where it was separated by several hundred yards. It was very pleasing to the eye, and refreshing to be outdoors on such a lovely day.
My run began with about a ¼ mile uphill run. I always start out pretty fast (for my speed) and I completed the first mile in 9:08. I turned back on the loop at 3 miles and was back to the starting point at 5 miles. By this time my pace had slowed to around 10:13. I chugged an entire bottle of Gatorade and started out again. After 1 mile through rolling pasture, I started down a woodsy trail, and fell. As I rolled, my iPod status button must have been pushed, because it told me I fell at mile 6.06. Since I was going downhill, I fell downward pretty hard and landed on both hands and then rolled over my right shoulder. I hopped back up and kept running, but now I had dirt all over my back. This continued to be an annoyance for the rest of the run.
This time I kept the loop short, and circled back at only about a mile and half. I didn’t seem to be sweating as much as usual, but I was extremely thirsty and didn’t want to get to far from the water. I started out again, this time going 3 miles. I was still feeling pretty good about the run and my pace. As I came back to the truck for the third time, I stepped in a large pile of dog poop. This pissed me off very much. I really, really don’t like dog poop on my shoes. So I was running along, trying to swipe my shoe sideways on the grass. I was very hot and tired at this point, and wound up taking a walking water break and downing the rest of the second bottle of Gatorade. I really lost some time at this point. I grabbed up the third bottle, took it with me and started out on my last loop. It was uphill again, through the fields and into the woods. I think the cross country run is much harder than the street running I do in my neighborhood. My mental toughness was fading, and I was having doubts about my ability to run.
As I ran my last mile (uphill by the way) I hit a peak of 10:21 min/mile. As I forced my way uphill, my thoughts were on the marathon, and how tired I felt. I really felt some dismay as I realized that at that moment I would only be at the marathon halfway point. I was really feeling like I should be much stronger at this point in my marathon training. I mean, I’ve only got 35 more days before the marathon, and here I am feeling wimpy about the half marathon. I finished the race going downhill and hit an 8:20 pace, finishing strong. My total time was 2:10:14, which is a personal best and beats my other half marathon time by 7 minutes.
At several points during the race, I though about how people all over the world were joining in to run together, and I imagined being shoulder to shoulder with them. It was a nice feeling of camaraderie At another point near the end, I was passed by a group of 3 high school age boys running in great form. I felt jealous of the easy smoothness and speed of how they ran. Granted, I was at about mile 9 for me, and it looked like they had just started – so I should cut myself some slack.
I’m happy I ran this race with you runners of the world, and thanks to Steve and the race coordinators for making this event a reality. Run long.
