Reflecting on My First (Unofficial) Marathon
Per the Galloway Method training plan, I ran a marathon ahead of the race to build confidence that I could finish on race day.
There are not many training plans where you run a marathon to prepare for a marathon, but mine had me doing exactly that. I didn’t have to run the full distance — I could’ve stopped at 26 and saved the 0.2 for race day — but I was so close, so I decided to finish it. I have officially run a marathon.
When I finally stopped my watch, I expected a massive sense of accomplishment to wash over me and while I was proud of myself for running a marathon, I mostly didn’t feel any different at all. Standing before me was this huge, seemingly unattainable goal, but now it’s in my reach. When we can touch the elusive, it loses its magic just a bit.
Don’t get me wrong, running a marathon is no small feat, but I think I’m constantly moving my own goalposts instead of relishing in victory. After I was finished, I spent the afternoon and evening thinking about what happened to cause my near-quit in the last two miles.
Things had been going great. I started at 6:30 AM, and was on track to finish in about seven hours. Right on target. I listened to an audiobook and ran massive, 2-hour loops to practice carrying more of my fuel on me. I wanted to mimic race morning as best I could. Saturday was my opportunity to practice whatever I needed to practice. Throughout the first couple of hours I felt like I was waiting for things to go awry. After my 23-mile run, I feared that I’d have another bad long run, thus crushing my confidence to do the race. I feared not being able to finish and not being mentally “tough” enough. But, that never happened. I was surprised at how good I felt. As the miles turned to hours, I knew that I’d have no problem completing the race on November 16.
I didn’t take two things into consideration: the temperature and the sun. Over the course of my run, the temperature outside went up about twenty degrees. I started wearing a jacket and finished with a slight sunburn. Because of this, I didn’t plan my hydration well. In the first couple hours, I didn’t drink much water; I finished my flasks of tailwind and took a few sips of plain water. However, as the morning progressed, I noticed myself becoming parched. At my refueling stops, I’d take huge gulps of water from the bottle I left on the porch. I was so thirsty.
This came to a head about two miles from the finish. I had reentered my neighborhood with the intention to do my normal neighborhood loop as the final stretch. At this point, my audiobook had ended and I ran out of podcast episodes to listen to, so I turned on some music. The sun beat down from the sky and shade was sparse. My feet hurt and I was ready to sit, but I had felt like that for at least an hour by then.
The issue came when I started to feel like I was going to throw up. That, along with being hot and tired from a long effort, led me to walking — and asking Kimberly to bring me some water. She did, and she offered me some words of encouragement and wisdom:
“You’re so close to the end, but you don’t have anything to prove. If you don’t feel good, you can stop. But, if you want to keep going, you can do that, too.”
With that, I refilled my handheld bottle and walked the last two-ish miles until my watch hit 26.2. I did it.
Hooray! I overcame the struggle and did it!
I think it’s important for me to note that while I was running by myself, training for a marathon is not a task one completes on their own. Everytime I looped back to my house on Saturday, a new encouraging sign was waiting for me. Kimberly would come outside and chat with me for a minute while I refilled my water bottles, offering cheers and “you can do it.” Things like that make a big difference — as do things like taking the lead on dinner and household cleaning/organizing.
In the past, I’ve been the cheerleader, so it’s a bit weird for our roles to be flipped, but I’m so grateful for Kimberly and my friends at Blue Sky Endurance who keep me going!
Now, I’m in the home stretch. I’ve officially entered the taper. From now until the race, my longest run will be seven miles. I’ve heard this can be a difficult time in a runner’s training cycle, that I’ll be hungry and tired; I might think I’m sick or injured; and I’ll feel stir crazy.
One of the best parts of training for the marathon has been experiencing every facet of difficulty and seeing it through to the other side. I don’t think the taper is any different — and if it it is taxing, well, you’ll be hearing about it.
Woohoo! Amazing job pushing through that last portion. It must feel great to have more confidence going into the big event. Kimberly is such an awesome partner; I'm glad you have an awesome community to support you on this journey. Good luck with the taper!