Beautiful day for a run in Myrtle Beach. The full moon was up and waiting for us at the starting line. I hadn't trained for the full because I didn't want to push my knee recovering, but I'd signed up for it last March along with some friends (who also hadn't trained for it).
So we had a plan- we'd run the 1/2, then walk/run the rest. The course had an 8 hour time limit, and we felt like we could manage to finish and earn our medals this year. Last year, when we'd all trained and were ready to run the full, the race was cancelled due to snow.
MR had signed up for the 1/2 and although he wasn't ready for it, he decided to run it anyway. There's a difference in being able to pull a 1/2 out of your pocket and a full. I am certain there are more long term physical consequences to running a 1/2 when you shouldn't and running a full when you shouldn't. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself.
We ran together until the 1/2 split off after mile 11 to go to their finish line, and the full kept going forward. I tried pacing easy for the first few miles because I thought I would be running/walking the second half. If I would have known I was going to be walking the entire second half, I would have increased my speed at the beginning.
I also failed to start my garmin when we crossed the start line. I pushed a button and it beeped at me, but I guess it wasn't the start button, because when we were approaching mile 1, I went to look at my garmin and it was all 00:00, 0.0s. oops. When we ran past the mile 1 flag, I pushed the real start button, so everything was off by a mile. MR had his watch on & he had us at 10:20 for mile one, so I'm just going with that.
Our splits for the half were: 10:20, 9:53, 9:43, 9:32, 9:36, 9:30, 9:17, 9:07, 9:09, 8:48, 9:08, 8:53, 8:36, (and an 8:02 pace for the last .17 to the 13.1 split).
After I got my 1/2 split time, I walked back a quater mile to my hotel, used the bathroom, took off my jacket, put on my big knee brace, and waited for my friends who were going to finish the 1/2 with me. They said they were going to be running a slower pace, so I figured they weren't far behind. At this point, I was feeling really good. I know I had another 6 good miles left in me, and wondered if I could have finished if I'd really tried. But I thought long & hard about what the consequences would be of pushing myself and my dear little knee too much. I didn't want to have to wait 2-3 weeks for recovery or re-injure my knee and wait even longer. So I decided it was in my best interest to just wait for my friends and run/walk the rest with them and have a great time in the beautiful sunny weather. I'm certain I made the right decision now, but oh, how I wanted to run & run & run.
I ended up waiting 29 minutes for my friends. This .51 miles was a whopping 57:44 pace :-) because I walked to the hotel, stood around & walked back to the 1/2 point. One of my friends wasn't doing great and needed to walk, so we started walking. Lucky for us, her husband had peanut m&m's. That is super fuel, by the way!
We had a wonderful time walking & talking and enjoying the day. My friend's hips didn't allow her to run at all, so we just walked (except for a couple of times when there was a photographer taking photos & we acted like we were running). We got passed by all kinds of people, all ages, shapes, and disabilities. Our pride was gone, we were only there to enjoy the journey. More than once we were grateful that we'd left the cash & credit cards in the car because we were walking by deli's & restaurants that smelled delicious from the road.
MR had a nap & a couple of beers & met us around mile 25. He said he'd run in with me, so I started running to the finish line with him. The he left me because he had to run to the nearest port-a-potty, and I decided to keep on running. I managed to pass the dear sweet grandmother wearing a mechanical knee brace that had passed us a couple miles earlier, and finish in just over 6 hours. It was certainly the most fun I've had being a participant in a marathon. My official time was 6:00:11. It's my new ru-ck PR. I forgot to stop my watch at the finish line, and remembered only after walking & getting my medal, then walking back to the finish line to get pix for my friends.
Splits for the second half were: 15:23, 15:35, 16:06, 15:21, 16:03, 16:02, 15:40, 16:35, 17:46, 18:23, 18:16, 17:30, (started running again) 8:53, (last .15 had a top speed of 6:34 but I think I only ran .07 of it and walked the rest after I finished).
I managed to finish the marathon and have a good time. Those two don't always go together, so I feel like a winner! We spent a long time in the hot tub the rest of the afternoon and ate too many crab legs for dinner. Perfect way to end a great day.
I'm looking forward to planning more races this year. I'd like to do the ultra again in September, but doing it in September cuts out training for anything in October or November since I need a long time to recover from 50+ miles. Choices, choices. I think I might actually get MR to commit to a full sometime too. Lots to look forward to! | 