Savannah Marathon: A lesson learned the hard way.

The race didn't start until 8am and I was staying 1.5 miles from the start which was super convenient.  I stressed out trying to find my running partner a little (so many ppl!) but I found her!  We started out in corral 3 and off we went.  Ok, so our goal was to see if we could hold the Boston qualifying pace of 8:12 min/mile.... which is what we've been training towards.  I felt fairly confident I could hold it, but unsure if I could carry it through the full 26.2 miles, but I figured I would TRY.

Well, that didn't really work out for me.  I'm not sure WHAT IN THE WORLD happened, but after months of training FASTER and HARDER than I did for my first marathon, and honestly feeling much stronger this time around, I started to lose it at 13 miles.  Yeah, 13 miles.  That's only half way people!  I started freaking out and and knew I needed to slow down if I wanted to finish the race.  So I told Lisa to go on.  I tried not to count down mile by mile, but at mile 18, I was so done.  I had tanked.  Completely lost it.  Was so ready for the race to be over.  I was so angry and disappointed too. I couldn't believe my body was doing this.  I wasn't even at mile 20, and I had never felt this way during any of my long runs.  How was this happening???

Around mile 20 I decided to have a "come to Jesus" with myself.  I looked around, and with the sun shining and all the runners around me, I reminded myself just exactly what I was doing.  And I decided to be proud of myself that I was finishing my 2nd marathon in just one year.  And I was going to be happy that I had a healthy body and legs to carry me through the finish line.  So even if I had to walk/run those last 6 miles,  I was going to finish gosh darn it! 

As humbling as it was, I walked/ran those last 6 miles.  I never once walked during my first marathon, and honestly never even thought about it.  I distinctly remember how strong I felt at mile 21.  Ugh, it still makes me mad.  I did however, force myself to make sure I was going to finish under 4 hrs.  There was no excuse.  I pulled out a 3:49 on my first marathon (in 35 degree weather on a hilly course), so I knew over 4 hrs was just me being lazy.  (ok, the words lazy and marathon probably shouldn't be used in the same blog post, but whatever.)

So I took a gorgeous day, totally flat course, perfect weather, and totally blew it by going out too fast. I'm just not ready for that yet. I need to stick with my marathon #1 masterfully-paced-race plan: going out slower and gradually increasing my speed.

Final results: I finished in 3:57 and honestly, I was just so happy to finish.

So there you have it.  I learned the hard way what it feels like to go out too fast and hit. the. wall.  Oh, but you just wait Savannah.  I'll be back next year, and there will be a PR.

How I really felt

fake smile and pretend you don't hurt.

Peace out Savannah.  See you in 2013.