Life on the Mason Dixon Line

Feb 14, The Marathon, 13.2 to end

Susan’s Point of View

My mood rallied once we dropped off the half marathoners. I think it was just checking my ego and taking it one interval at a time. I saw a T shirt that said, “All things are possible through Christ, who strengthens me.” That became a mantra of sorts. When I have done long training day in the past I have copied poems or bible verses on index cards to focus or unfocus (whichever way you think of it). That was hugely helpful. I felt like I was getting stronger as the miles ticked by. I was on track to hit my 2nd goal: 5 hours 15 minutes as of 19 miles. I slowed a bit through 20 and added a vest (Paul’s mom and sis crewed us and she had a bag of things for me) b/c it was really cold after it had rained on us for about 2 hours. I was still feeling great and looking ahead and all of a sudden I saw Paul. I knew that could not be a good sign. I was not sure what to do, I even considered hanging back and not passing him. OK, a good wife would have considered that option a little longer, but I scampered on up (as much as one can scamper after 21 miles) and greeted him brightly. He was not happy.

Paul’s Point of View

Miles 13 and 14 went well and, while painful, I kept my pace. On mile 15 we went down a slight hill towards the beach and on one of my steps the blister on my right foot exploded. It was so full of fluid that it soaked my sock and with every step I could literally hear my shoe sloshing like I had stepped in a puddle. After a few more steps the blister on my left foot popped also. It was no where near as bad but was just enough to be annoying. Now that the blisters had drained I could feel the skin ripping with every step. I knew I was in big trouble now and wanted to stop but decided to keep going. I was still able to make myself stick with the 4 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking. Although my pace had slowed I was still on track to make it by my “real” goal time (I had a main goal and a stretch goal). At mile 18 the blister on my right foot had filled back up and with every step I could fill the fluid ripping through my skin up the side of my foot but never relieving any of the pressure. All it was doing was making the blister bigger. By this time the chaffing on my leg was also really bad. This is the point when my pace really started to slow bad. I kept the same run/walk interval but at a much slower pace. I had already been dealing with the pain for around 3 hours and by this point I was more mentally drained from the pain than physically drained. Mom was right before mile 20 and I got some more Body Glide but this time all it did was burn my leg and didn’t help with the chaffing any. I tried some more on my foot also but it didn’t help that either. At the mile 20 water stop they had a medical tent and I seriously considered stopping but made myself go on. Right after I got through mile 20 it started getting colder and pouring rain. For the next 2 miles I switched my intervals to running 3 minutes and walking 2. After that I was hurting so bad that I just went to running when ever I could and walking when I couldn’t for the rest of the race. The entire final 6.2 miles all I wanted to do was stop but decided that I had made it this far so I was going to keep going. In the last few miles I knew that I should see Susan soon because I had lost so much time and when I did see her I thought she would be able to make the time she was hoping for, but she said she wouldn’t make it.

Tags: Marathon, Races, Running

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 5:00 am by Susan and is filed under Marathon, Races, Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.