Country Music Marathon Race Report

It's about time I post this race report, it's only been 6 days.

I admit I am not a writer. I'm not funny. I'm not witty. I'm not a great blog read. I don't post on this blog for anything other then having a running journal, so you all get to read some of my thoughts, even if it resembles vomit on a page. So I struggle with what to blog about. Sometimes I feel guilty for not being a daily blogger (or journal-er) But I'm pretty sure no one wants to read my daily thoughts or concerns, even if it is about running.

So when I have a marathon that I am super disappointed in and not excited to journal about, it takes some serious teeth pulling to get me to update the ole blog. So here it is... my sucky marathon #16 race report.

We (the hubby and I) made the 2 hour drive down to Nashville on Friday, and barely had time to get into the super crazy and crowded Expo before it closed. Here we are just after picking up our numbers.

As we made our way out of the Expo, I spotted this beauty. I found this to be funny. I'm kicking myself for not going inside and snapping a pic of the inside. Greg and I at the start line.

We were in Corral #6 out of 30. Greg ran the half marathon and I ran the full. We were able to run the first 11 miles together before splitting off. We went out way to fast (my fault) and with the hilly course, going out to fast, and the heat, this was a recipe for disaster. UGH.....

After Greg turned off at mile 11, I plugged into my ipod for some much needed tunes. By mile 14 I was feeling really tired. I had to stop many times to stretch my Achilles tendons. Not sure what was up with that. They were both screaming at me the entire run. At mile 17, we run past the LP field, which is where the finish line is. This totally sucked. Running past the finish line and seeing half marathoners finish, and even several full marathoners finish, messed with my head, and I still had over 9 miles to go. Oh man..... I walked for nearly 5 min at this point. Even though I never fully pulled out of my funk, by mile 19.5 I was feeling much better, and found I was running more then walking. I'm not against walking in a marathon. I walk through every water station, but to walk the amount I did was devastating and a blow to my ego. By mile 25 I was hot (temps reached 76*) and starting to feel really dizzy. I didn't want to walk during the last mile, but I was seriously worried I might pass out.

Finally the finish line.... Not happy with my time at all, but happy to have finished.

This marathon is super big. With over 30,000 runners, it could have been a lot more chaotic and frustrating, but all in all, not bad. I don't plan to run this one again anytime soon. If I do.... I will train differently and attack race morning differently, and maybe make sure I hadn't just run a marathon 2 weeks before.

As for the half marathon we were registered to run May 7th (tomorrow) It's been post-poned till June 18th. Our local area has been hit with some pretty serious flooding and the start/finish line looks to be right smack in the middle of all the chaos. We wont be able to run it on the new date. We have a church activity we are committed to. No worries... I've already registered for my next marathon (#17)... I'll post about that later.