My alarm went off! The day has finally arrived. I didn't have any trouble getting up. I was really excited. Didn't sleep very well. I was excited and there was a lot of noise in the hall, all night long. People slamming doors and talking loud in the halls. But, I didn't feel tired at all.
I got up and took some things down to the car. I needed to eat my bananas and bagels before it got too late. I ate 3 bananas and thought I would eat the bagels while driving into the starting line. I had packed a clear bag to put into the "gear drop off point". I packed a change of clothes and my marathon shirt to exchange. I had read that they had a changing tent to get out of the race clothes. The changing tent included showers. I wanted to make sure I was ready for that.
It was 5:30 in the morning and I was ready to go. I headed down to the starting line.
The capital building was about 6 miles from the hotel. Madison does the same thing as Nashville and blinks their red lights during the night. Atlanta didn't do that.
I had picked out a parking lot I was planning to use and went directly to the lot. I noticed right before getting my ticket to park that there were some spots on the street. Parking on the street was free on Sundays and Holidays. I backed out and went to park on the street. Perfect spot, within a block or two from the starting and finishing line.
Time to get myself set. It is really here! I got myself all ready. Put the gear on and Sunscreen. It was going to be a sunny day for sure. The forecast hadn't changed the high was 88 degrees with high humidity. It was most definately going to be a hot one. First thing I did was go and find where the water was and the porta potties were. I located these things for the full marathon runners. Time to check in my "gear". No line to check in my gear. Probably because I was kind of early.
Started drinking water. I drank water when I was thirsty. I probably drank 3 small glasses. I had to go visit the porta potty 2 times while waiting.
It was 6:15. It was time to start stretching. I needed to stretch extra since for my morning runs I have been really really tight was makes it more difficult to run. I was surprised that most people were just standing around. I was stretching and makeing sure I was loose. Didn't want to walk around too much and use energy. Also, didn't want to stretch too much and use too much energy. I finally got to where I felt loose.
They were starting the wheel chair marathon runners at 6:50 (10 minutes before the full marathon).
Then they were starting the half marathon at 7:10 (10 minutes after the full). The half marathon was starting on the other side of the capital. This mitigated the number of runners that you were starting with. It was a bit crowded, but not too bad.
We didn't have corrals to stand in, but the pacers had signs they had showing the pace they were going to run. I stood in-between the 4:15 and the 4:30 pace runners. I was focused. Didn't talk to anyone.
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| 20 Minutes BEFORE THE RACE - GET FOCUSED |
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| THE MARATHON FROM ABOVE - READY TO START |
They made the announcement about the weather and what they would do if it got too hot and the heat index went too high.
They started the wheel chair runners (those are the real athletes!). It was about that time.
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| THE REAL ATHLETES |
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| 1 MINUTE BEFORE THE START OF MY FIRST MARATHON |
TIME TO START THE RACE!
The gun sounded to start the race and we all just stood there until we could begin running. You could see the heads bobbing up and down in front of us. The head bobbing was coming closer and closer. I had my NIKE PLUS set on Marathon. All I had to do was hit the button to start my timer. Finally the head bobbing go to me. I was about 30 yards from the start line (not too bad). So I walked/runned to the start line. I passed the start line. The race had begun. After so much training and planning it was here!
The crowd along side was great. People shouting and cheering. TV cameras taping, etc. It was exciting. We turned to the other side of the capital building. This was the side that the half marathoners start at. That was awesome! Probably about the best part of the race. They had the running course about 10 yards from side to side with all the half marathoners standing their cheering. They had about 2500 half marathoners running the race. They were loud cheering. It really pumped me up. But, I have to watch my pace and not go too fast.
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| HERE WE GO! |
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| RUN! RUN! RUN! |
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| VIEW FROM BEHIND ME |
The IPOD PLUS said 1 mile completed. I didn't see the 1 mile marker. I figured they didn't mark the mile markers, but then about 100 yards later I saw the 1 mile marker. I was interested to know how close my IPOD PLUS was. Looks like it was a bit short. I was hopping it would be off the other direction. In my head I got thinking that all my paces were inflated. How fast was I really running? I was going to use my IPOD PLUS to pace myself, but I decided not to do that.
After all the water I needed to go to the restroom. I knew they had facilities at the water stops. The water stops were every 1 1/2 mile. I got to the 1 1/2 mile marker and got in line to use the restroom. There was 2 porta potties. Each had 3 waiting in line. I choose the line with the least amount of women because guys are quicker. Waiting felt like an eternity. Finally was done and ready to run again. This threw me off my pace. While I was waiting I saw the pacer for 4:30 pass by. Didn't see the 4:45 pacer pass by, but I had some ground to make up.
I started running a bit faster to catch up. Not too much faster though I have 25 miles to catch up. I checked my pace with the IPOD PLUS and it said 8:15. Was that too fast or was it not?
My IPOD PLUS said mile 2 complete. This was a bit frustrating because I was not done with mile 2 yet, but I would have to get used to it. We ended up running into a park near one of the lakes. The park was wooded. I was thinking this is kind of fun. I am used to running all by myself but now I am running with a lot of people. We ran past some homes. Some were sitting out on their front yard watching. Every once in a while I would hear, "Go Scott". Our names were on our bibs that we wore. People were starting to walk already. I felt for them. We were even to mile 3 yet and we had walkers. I felt good and it was actually fun to pass them as well as some other runners. In my head I still had to make up time for the bathroom stop.
I had a few runners I was "running with". One guy was in bright yellow. I never spoke a word to him, but my goal was to stick with him. Also, there were some girls that were wearing red with shirts that said "We are running for Mary". Also, some other girls that were running that had bibs called "Dollar Pacers".
I started eating my goo at mile marker 5. I wanted to eat 3 of the goos at every 5 miles.
We now were on the other side of the lake and were heading up to the University of Wisconsin. Around mile 6 and 7 I pulled out my phone and took some pictures of the runners and what the race looked like.
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| MY RUNNING BUDDIES AT MILE 6 |
I felt good. I was not tired at all. There were a lot of spectators here. At one point there were fire trucks with the lights on next to the course. They were probably there for anyone having any health concerns.
We then turned onto the campus of Wisconsin. Up the hill to the stadium. There were a lot of people with cow bells. Some runners would then cheer to the cow bells. I wonder if that is what they do at the Wisconsin games or not. Who knows? It was kind of weird. There were some spectators all decked out with Wisconsin gear. Madison seems to be a college town for sure. Wisconsin is a big school. Passed by the Stadium.
With the heat I decided to eat the goo a few miles early. I needed the extra energy. I hope I haven't thown myself off.
Turned down University Road passing by the University buildings. The University is very nice. I think the weirdest building I saw the "Poltry Science Building". A whole building dedicated to Poltry Science. Turned up Observatory Road. It was starting to get a bit hot. There wasn't much shade on the road. Many runners decided to run on the sidewalk were there was a bit more shade. I followed that. Passed mile 9. I made it a point to touch each mile marker.
I saw the hill coming. It was huge. Before, I got to the hill you were starting to hear sirens all over the place. I figured some were having trouble with the heat. I needed to make sure I listen to my body. I felt good right now. I didn't know where the pacers were. What pace was I running? I had no clue.
Started heading up the hill. Most of the runners I was near walked up the hill. I decided to at least job the hill. I wanted to make sure I can say I ran the whole marathon.
About half-way up the hill the medics were working on someone. The firetrucks were there as well. I kept going up. Finally got to the top! The views over the city were great. Time to head down. The down part was easy. I tried to pick my pace up a bit more than normal on the down hill to make up for slowing down on the hill. I had made it up and down the big one. I got to the water stop near 10.
I pulled my cell phone out and texted Heather that I was at mile 10. In case the automatic notification didn't work.
I decided to walk at the water stop and drink the water. It was really getting hot. I got 4 cups of water. 1 for dumping down my back, 1 for dumping on head and 2 for drinking. Pouring the water on me felt really really good.
Started headed up toward the other side of the town. Were were passing half marathoners. The half marathoners were on mile 3 and we were on mile 11. I felt for the half marathoners. They could have been half marathon walkers. There actually was a half marathon walker race. If you ran then you could qualify.
While we were running many of the spectators held signs up. Most of the signs were directly towards individuals. One of the signs I remember was around mile 11. The sign said, "Hurry up and Finish, I'm Hot" and another "This seemed like a great idea 3 months ago". These signs made me laugh and keep going.
The water stops had a contest going on. The most creative water stop would win some award. During these miles we ran into the Christmas Water Stop, Hawaii water stop and the party water stop. The Christmas water stop was all decked out with Christmas lights and even Santa Claus. Kind of made me laugh a little bit. Santa must have been hot. The Hawaii stop was very creative. The party stop was handing out Bloody Marys for the runners. A lot of runners were drinking the bloody mary.
I was starting to see more and more walkers. More runners who have a goal of 4:00 to 4:30 were starting to begin to walk due to the heat. This part of the course was shaded. There were some medium size hills on this part. At mile 12 the 4:30 pacer came up behind me. What? I am confused now. I was almost certain the 4:30 pacer passed me while I was in the bathroom. But, somehow I got in front of her. I don't remember passing her. I stuck with her for quite a while. I wanted to pass her and get about 200 yards in front of her for the water breaks. Everyone else was doing like I was doing. Walking at the water stops and then running. Now it was getting hot.
At mile 12 I started getting chills. I felt the chills was a sign to slow down. So I had to let the 4:30 pacer go on. I was frustrated and thought in my head that I had trained for 7 months to not get the pace I wanted. Finally in my head I realized that my main goal was to finish.
You could hear sirens most of the time during this part of the course. Lots of runners were running into trouble with the heat. I wanted to make sure I wasn't one of those.
I slowed my pace way down. At the mile 16 mile marker the water stop was a welcome sign. I slowly jogged to it. The pace of the race had really slowed down. Many runners were walking that were on the 4:30 pace. I was getting frustrated because I had been training for 7 months and had to slow my pace way down. But, the last thing I wanted to do was not finish or run into a heat illness.
With it being so hot many of the houses pulled their garden hose and was spraying the water at the runners. Some had sprinklers set up so you could run through the sprinklers. This really helped.
We ran past Madison's baseball stadium. They must have a minor league team. I was relieved to know that we were now heading back to the Capital. We are on our way to the finish line. I still have a way to go. We turned down Sherman which is the street heading back. The sun now was striaght up. It got really hot here. There was no shade on the 4 lane road. This was a long stretch. This was a 2 mile stretch. It was hot and I was not running my normal pace so it felt like it went forever.
During the run from 17 - 19. I lost track of the mileage I was at. I thought I was at mile 15, 16, etc? I had no idea. Was I beginning to get disordinated? That is a sign of heat exhaustion. I was a bit worried about this. That kind of made me a bit nervous. I asked the guy that I was running near and he told me that we were about to pass mile 18. I had some chills starting to set in around now. I decided to slow down a bit more. The water break came right on time. I also made sure I took my goo food with me to make sure I get some food into my system. I couldn't check my NIKE PLUS devise because it was somewhat off. So I couldn't trust the PLUS. We just kept running know it really didn't matter what mileage we were out. The finish would be the finish.
In between mile 19 and 20 was Tenney Park. Madison has 2 lakes it is next to. They have a water way that connects the water ways. Boats run through the water way to go from one to the other. Lots of people were at the canal. The course went down the bike path of the water way. It was really getting in hot. I was struggling with the heat, but I only had 6 miles left. I am getting close.
In between mile 20 and 21 I heard the news I didn't want to hear. Red Flag. Yuck! That meant that they turned off the timer, but would keep the course open for finishers. They then highly encouraged everyone to walk. Everyone stopped running when the announcement was made. I was a bit frastrated at the time, but I was really hot. I didn't know what they were going to do. Where they going to make us stop without finishing the course? The course around mile 22 goes close to the finish line. My first concern is that they would make us stop at mile 22. But, until I hear otherwise I keep going. I slowed to a walk. Everyone was telling us to walk. I decided that I would walk when the course was directly in the sun and then run when we were running in the shade. The course turned through a neighborhood.
Then we ran by the lake.
This was the hottest park of the run. There was no shade and a lot of sun. The water stops were still open so we were able to get water. I walked during this part along with all the other runners. I had a couple runners that I walked with. The walking was a brisk walk. I was actually passing some runners while they were walking. I hated walking after all this training, but I felt to keep from getting too hot I needed to. Mile 22 -23 were on the bike path right by the lake. There were many people around. It wasn't blocked off. There were other runners, walkers and bicyclers around. This was the only part of the course that I felt was underorganized. With all the runners walking it was hard to tell who was running the marathon and who wasn't. But, I recognized most of the runners from the marathon.
We finally got to the end of the bike path by the lake. That was a relief. It sure was hot during that portion. Because it was 2 miles I decided to run to a certain point that I picked out and then walk to another point that I picked out. This worked pretty well.
Then we passed mile 24. Only 2.2 miles left. I picked up to a very slow jog around this. I was getting pretty hot, but knew I was almost there. Most all the runners at this point were walking. It is hard to keep the motivation to keep running when everyone else is walking. I did resort to walking a few times during this last little bit.
I heard on my IPOD PLUS 400 meters left around mile 25 or so. My IPOD PLUS thinks I am finishing the marathon. It was about a mile off from the 26.2 miles. I guess that is not too bad, but I need to calorbrate it to be closer. That was a bit frustrating to hear that the finish was coming for the IPOD but I still had a mile left to go.
Then up Washington (The street towards the capital). Everyone started to run at this point. It was exciting! We all knew we had walked some of the race but we were coming to the finish so we started to run. We ran up the hill towards the capital, around the corner. We hit the spot with the barriers to keep others out. Now this was real, we were finishing the marathon. I had almost ran 26.2 miles to finish the race.
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| THIS IS HARD (NOT A GREAT PICTURE) |
There was a large crowd there at the finish. They had bletchers for everyone to watch. The bletchers were full of people.
I pulled my IPOD headphones out of my ear so I could hear the crowd while I was finishing. It was exciting!
Some held a sign near the finish, it said "Now you are not just a runner, but you are a marathon runner". Pretty cool sign. I then sprinted to the finish.
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| I SEE THE FINISH LINE! |
I saw a few runners I wanted to pass. I passed them into the finish. I ran hard into the finish. I then crossed the finish line!!
I DID IT!!! The question was what was my time. I did walk more than I wanted. Basically, everyone who did not run the marathon under 4:15 or so walked due to the heat.
I heard them announce on the speaker, "GO SCOTT, GOOD JOB AT FINISHING THE MARATHON". They didn't make the announcement I typed out for them. As soon as I crossed the finish line. The volunteers were waiting to hand out the medals. I received the Official Medal!
I then remembered that I had my NIKE PLUS still going. I then ended the workout.
According to my NIKE PLUS:
27.06 miles, 5:11:26 time, 11:30 minute mile pace, 4070 calories
About 1 minute of the time should be deducted for the time I forgot that I was running the NIKE PLUS when I finished. I was focused on the fact that I finished. I was fairly sore. In relation to the time, I was disappointed with the time, but no one was happy with their time. I heard a lot of people talking about it around the finish line. They were unhappy with their time. But, it is hard to be happy with your time when mostly everyone running a pace less slower than 4:15 walked at some point. It was hard to keep the motivation going when everyone was walking. My main goal was to finish and that I did.
I finished reading facebook and it seems it was actually worse than I thought. Many runners complained about dizziness and being disordinanted. One runner on facebook thanked the medical crew who helped him when he passed out around mile 22. He woke up in the ER. Yikes! I didn't see anyone go down, but I sure did hear a lot of sirens helping people. I noticed this evening on my bib that they had Heather's phone number on my bib in case I went down. Also, a lot of runners on facebook didn't finish. Only 420 full marathoners finished the course and had a time recorded (below 4 hours). According to the web site they had about 1800 runners sign up for the marathon. Looks like I was in good Company on this one.
I also went on You Tube to see if anyone posted any videos from the marathon. There was a video of the start of the race. But, the most scary thing I saw was a video of someone receiving CPR right after the finish of the half marathon. I am glad I took care of myself and walked when necessary.
The website for the Madison Marathon posted that everyone from the marathon and half marathon were out of the hospital. No one was seriously injured. That is great to hear.
After the race they had lunch for everyone. I was staggering a bit since I was sore. They had lots of things for you at the finish line corral. They had chocalate milk, cheese, turkey, chicken and vegie sandwhiches. I did not feel like eating anything. I passed on the chocalate milk, but knew I needed to eat something since it was around lunch time. I had no clue what time it actually was. I selected turkey sandwhich and gatoraid to drink. I stumbled over to the gear pickup to get my stuff. Once I got my stuff I looked for the massage tent. All marathon runners get a massage. I was slowly walking trying to find the tent. I located the tent and signed up. There was a 40 minute wait. That worked out good. That way I could go and get another sandwhich I was starting to get hungry and the sandwhiches were small. I went over and grapped another sandwhich. Spoke to Heather while I waited.
I tried to find the information tent to switch my shirt out but I no one knew where it was. I asked a couple volunteers to see if they knew where it was. He did not and he couldn't contact any one on his radio. He thought all the volunteers had left. I tried to find the mens changing area and shower. No such luck couldn't find them. I probably should have done a better job of memorizing where everything was. I figured it would all be near each other.
Time for the message. It felt good but really hurt. I was really sore in the shoulders and thighs. My calves were not sore. When she messaged my shoulders it was painful but no so bad that I needed to get up. Kind of like stretching. The person doing the message recommended that I go to a fast food place on the way home to Iowa. I don't think my stomach could handle fast food. So she recommended getting a bag of chips and some gatorade to replenish all the salt I lost out of my body during the the marathon. Since it was so incredibly hot.
After the message I slowly walked to my car. It was time to leave. I had finished the marathon. I headed back to Iowa to see the family. I changed my shirt to the marathon shirt. It wasn't that small after all. I stopped and picked up some chips and gatoraid and headed back. The drive seemed quite a bit shorter coming back then going. I guess it was the anticipation of getting there and stopping so many times on the way up for bathroom breaks.
After stopping to get the chips and gatoraid I removed my shoes and socks and took a first look at my "runners toe". It looked horrible. I actually hurt during the run but not enough to worry about. It was swollen and blistery. On Monday, it was bumped by one of my kids and the toe nail basically had to come off. It didn't hurt too bad, but I lost a toenail to the marathon. I need to keep it from getting infected and let the new toe nail grow back.
It is Monday, May 31, 2010 now. I have finished the course. I have a medal. I am already setting plans for my next marathon. I would like to run on this fall since I wasn't really able to record my time for this one. I am going to look and see if I can find one. I am most definately trying to run the Marine Marathon in Washington DC in October 2011. The course runs by the monuments and National buildings. I actually look foward to running the race when it is not so hot. But, at least now I can say, "I finished a marathon!".
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| I DID IT! MARK THAT OFF MY BUCKET LIST. |
