I wish I would have written this a few days ago when my memory was fresher. But I’ll try and re-live the highlights as best as I can.
Last week I ran the OBX Marathon in North Carolina with my 2 sons. That was the first time that we had ever run a marathon together. It also was a great opportunity to bring the whole family together, and I got to meet my new grandson, Liam! We rented a house on the beach and there was me and Diane, my son Jason and his wife Megan, my son Michael and his wife Heather and their son Liam, and my daughter Kari and her husband David along with their daughter Payton. I also invited along my friend Melissa, who used to live in Denver and run at the Irish Snug. She now lives in North Carolina and I asked her if she wanted to run the marathon with us. She wanted to, but she knew that she wouldn’t be marathon ready at that time. So I asked her if should would run with me the last ten miles of the race to push me across the finish line, and she said yes! I was shocked that she said she would, and actually kind of nervous. If she was going to go through the effort of helping me out, I better do good!
The morning of the race didn’t start out too well. First off, I forgot to bring my prescription sunglasses on the trip, and all I had was a regular pair of sunglasses. I can see distance without my prescription glasses, but I can’t read too well. So checking my Garmin and pace band was going to be a challenge. The we underestimated how much time it would take to get to the start of the race because of some of the road closures, so when we finally pulled up, there was about 2 minutes until the start, and I still had to go to the bathroom. Luckily there were no lines but before I got over there, the gun went off for the first wave. Being that this race had chip timing, it wasn’t that big a deal to start right away, but you really don’t want to start out bobbing and weaving through all the “slower” runners. By the time I got back to the start line, the best we could do was get in the 4th wave, which wasn’t too bad. I checked my Garmin, and to my horror, it said LOW BATTERY. WTF??!! I have no idea why that happened, but this was not going to be good. My goal going into this race was to break 4 hours. I had never broken that magical barrier and I was determined to do it this time. My training went really well so I was really hoping to do 3:50. I got a pace band that had me starting out slowly for a few miles and then settling down to a 8:40 per mile pace. But without my Garmin, how the heck was I going to do that? I knew that my son Jason was going to try and be around 4 hours, so I thought I would stick with him for a little bit. After a couple of miles I looked over and was going to say something to him, but the guy next to me wasn’t Jason. Great, I lost him. I actually did spot him at about 3 1/2 miles and ran with him a little bit, but soon I pulled ahead.
So things seemed to be going well, and for the first 10 miles it was nice scenery and pretty much flat. But around mile 10 we hit trail. The first part of the trail wasn’t too bad except for the stones. It wasn’t like it was all stones, but there were plenty of them. Then a short while later, it turned into a double track trail where you could only get 2 runners wide. Then it started getting all these rolling little hills! Ugghh! I really hate trails and I did not train at all for this. There was actually one incline that I walked up. Luckily it wasn’t a long one, but still, that sucked. I believe the trail portion was about 3 1/2 miles, but it seemed more like 10! Once we finally hit the road again, my legs were sore.
At mile 13, my cheering section appeared. There was Heather and Liam on one side of the road, and Diane on the other. Diane was snapping pictures so of course I had to do some posing. The nice thing about seeing them was that it boosted my energy levels and my legs started to feel better.
At mile 15, Melissa was waiting for me. I felt really good and with her by my side, I felt my confidence soaring. I needed that confidence later on and I was glad she was there. Around mile 20, I got a vision stuck in my mind from my first ever marathon of me stopping at a water station and having my legs cramp up so bad that I couldn’t run anymore. So when I saw the water station, there was no way I was going to stop! I was carrying my own drink anyway, but I did think about how nice it would be to stop and rest a minute. NO! Don’t do it. I passed it by and said to myself that I only have a 10K left to run. Piece of cake.
And then there’s mile 23. That’s where you cross the Washington-Baum Bridge. It is 1.05 miles long, 82 feet high, with a 650 foot climb at a 4% grade. Nice. I knew that going up would be slow. According to Melissa’s watch, we were at our slowest at about a 9:20 pace. Going back down was no picnic either. My quads were screaming at me and my feet were jamming into the fronts of my shoes. Perfect. But Melissa told me not to think about anything but that the last 3 miles were going to be like running at the Snug. She was even describing it for me. “Okay now we are entering Cheesman Park, and now we are going down 8th Ave.”, and so on. Picturing that in my mind surely helped.
The last mile seemed to take forever though. We entered the town of Manteo, and the nice thing was that there were a lot more people to cheer you on. The last quarter of a mile I could see the finish line. I kicked it up a notch as best as I could and felt the joy of knowing that this damn thing was going to be over soon! We crossed the finish line and the clock said 3:55. I knew that we had to have started at least 5 minutes after the start, so at that point I knew that I had accomplished my goal. A little while later they posted results and my official time was 3:48:03. A 21 minute PR for me. I was stunned. But most of all, I was exhausted. I even got mad at one of the volunteers who told me to keep moving so I don’t get in anybody’s way, and I told him, “you try running 26 miles and then keep moving!”
I don’t know if my son’s want their times posted, so if they do, they can post it themselves in the comments. I know that Jason didn’t reach his goal, but hey, he finished! And I’m so proud of Michael. This was his first marathon, and he did not have a chance to train much because of baby Liam being born. I even thought that he would drop down and just do the half. But he wanted to try, and he did it!
Thanks go out to everyone that cheered us on (David, Kari, Payton, Megan, Heather, Liam, and especially Diane, my biggest supporter) Also, thanks to Melissa for getting my ass across the finish line. I really don’t think I could have done that well without her. I would love to return the favor Melissa, just don’t make me do Pikes Peak!
