Was down in El Paso, Texas visiting my daughter and son-in-law. Since the first ever Ft. Bliss Marathon was occurring while I was in town, I decided to enter it. Won't be often that I can get a race entry for only $45. My son-in-law dropped me off the morning of the race. There was a marathon, half marathon and 5 K all going on and not a ton of people there. I figured it would be my one chance to place in my age group. Less than 60 registered marathon runners and I only saw one other woman. She was running the same pace as me for 6 or so miles. Turns out there were four of us and I actually could have taken third place. The race covered a lot of the main base of Fort Bliss. I saw it intimately. The roads were not closed and even with the marathon and half running the same course for the first 12 miles, I was pretty well alone the entire race. No crowds, no cheering, but good support at aid station by the soldiers. I took off my long sleeved shirt and gloves at mile 1. Good indicator it was going to be a hot day. Almost the entire race was run on concrete. That took a toll on my legs. I could feel the pounding and tried to find any opportunities I could to run on gravel - but those were few and far between. I kept up a steady pace, but the day was pretty warm (low to mid 70's and heat reflecting off concrete) and it got to the point that I was not having any fun, my legs were hammered and there wasn't any real reason to finish. I kept myself going for about 5 miles thinking how fun it would be to take third place - but when it got to the point that I didn't even care about that, I knew it was time to drop. Jenn and Jeremy were waiting at the next aid station, so came back and picked me up. We went back to the Fitness Center to get a massage. I could see how few runners there were left on the course. The other woman I had talked to earlier dropped at about mile 16 and her husband was picking up speed. A few more minutes and I would have been in last place which would have been even more demotivating. Driving to the finish, my legs were throbbing. They actually felt more trashed then after a 50K race. No pain - but they ached and throbbed. On the bright side - taping my foot and wearing my orthotics seemed to keep the Plantar Fasciosis at bay. First DNF in a marathon. But I am fine with it. I am actually glad I didn't keep pushing because it was going to be a miserable 90+ minutes and I don't enjoy that kind of misery.
| 