After the marathon, at the mercy of Helga

What you can’t see is the massage therapist lady working on my feet. She is rocking my world! Two words: OY VEY! My left foot has just recovered from the marathon. Not because I ran very hard either. I had planed to. But my plan did not exactly work out.

It’s not that I didn’t get the training in, infact, I did (I still have a solid blue toenail on my right foot to show for it). But I made a complete rookie mistake and didn’t rotate my shoes in training nor bother to pick up a new pair for the race. DUH!!!!! I did the same thing for my first 1/2 marathon and ended up with a stress fracture as a result (hobbling around Atlanta on high heels after the race surely didn’t help either). You’d think I’d know better. BUT I blew off getting new shoes, ignoring that voice inside that told me to or I’d be sorry. And sorry I was.

Race day was great save for that lovely 4:30am wake up call. The organization at this race was far and away better than many other larger races I’ve partcipated in. Corral groups were easy to find, pacers were easily identifiable, friendly and accurate. We ran in fog for about the first 8 miles which was great. I got in with a group of friendly guys with whom I shared the common goal of finishing around 3:45. We were having a great time. I felt comfortable and we were on a great pace to meet our goal. Then mile 12 hit. Was the group speeding up or was I slowing down? I look at my Garmin and they were picking up the pace but nothing excessive. By mile 13 my stride gets a bit weird and my left knee and hamstring are hurting. I find it has become really hard to keep up with these guys all of the sudden and I’ve got some kinda stabbing thing going on in the ball of my foot. “Suck it up, this is what it’s all about” I tell myself. By Mile 14 I am left in the dust. By mile 16 I can no longer stand it. I walk. It sucked.

I tried running again but my foot is in bad shape, I’ve been here before and need to be careful. So at around mile 16 I figure I can finish if I take walk breaks but I’ll do what I can to make the best of the experience. Since I am resigned to a lack luster performance in terms of time, I decide this will now be the Tanya Dillard social marathon experience. I decide, since I’m kinda bored and I’m not the least bit winded, I would be a good will ambassador on course, chatting it up with anyone who would respond. On any other day this would have been appreciated but I can tell you if you want to be deemed most unpopular on a marathon course, start striking up conversation with folks around mile 18. I found myself amusing, not sure many others did. Unfortunately for them their looks of agony only made we want to “help” them more (in my mind I’m distracting them with my talking, and therefore helping them. Yet in their minds I think I’m probably just another drain on their energy supply and thus, annoying). I think I was most estatic when I got to the fuel station that was playing Michael Jackson ( “pretty young things repeat after me say na na na”). Mile 22 I think, great for me, bad for everyone else.

Around that time my friend Judith caught me and we finished the race together. As I loped in I was greeted with a finishers medal. What? No Snickers Bar? What the? You have to be kidding me! All that and no chocolate, caramel, peanuts and nougat (we all love NOUGAT!). What. Ever.

Judith and Me after Marathon

Turns out you could load up on Snickers Marathon energy bars all you wanted, they manufacture them in this little town of Albany, Ga (which is in the middle of NOWHERE!) hence they were giving them away right and left and were even given as fuel on the course. But if you wanted a good ol’ fashioned Snickers bar you’d have to hit the 7-11. Or play pretend with your “marathon” bar. Boooooooooooooooooo!

But, I have to say I’d do it again! Not because I felt great at the end, (yes it is an accomplishment to finish, I get that). But because it was a great way to get in a lot of exercsie on a really nice day. If I were to exercsie like that on my own I’d have to take along food, calculate water and bathroom stops. But on a marathon all that is handled for you! It’s great! Binge exercise alone is typically boring but at a race people are cheering, sometimes music is playing (we even had some cheerleaders; “H-U-S-T-L-E!”). I can get my mind around long runs like that. So my advice for any of you considering a marathon is to go for the experience and the exercise, not so much the time goals. Yes, it can be a goal just to complete the race and have a good time!

Yeah I love ‘em too….. Ok, not really (it’s a 3 way tie between Twix, Peanut Butter Cups and 100 Grand) but I kinda hope they are part of the prize pack at then end of the Snickers Marathon in Albany, Ga this weekend.  I will be running with my friend and pilates savant, Judith.  This is, like, her 1 millionth marathon or something, but for me it’s actually my first. Don’t get me wrong I’ve run for a long time and all kinds of races, from sprints on a track to crazy 35 hour Adventure races in the wilderness, but I have never actually completed a road marathon. For many years my thoughts on the matter amounted to; “that’s no race, that’s an exercise in self torture”.  But for some reason this go round when asked I said “yeah, I’ll finally do it”.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d didn’t feel remotely that casual about the training involved, indeed it has not always been fun (frankly, black and blue toenails aren’t cute), esp as I find that I’m trying to regain any of the fitness level I enjoyed 2+ years ago before all hell broke loose (THAT, my friends, is a tale, no, a book, for another time). Yes, training has been eye opening. What used to be such an easy and casual pace is kicking my butt! Quite humbling. Combine that with the supercrud that spread like wild fire through Greenville recently from which I’m not sure I’ve truly recovered, and you have the making of what could be a real “event” around mile 22 or so (I only ran 21 while training and let me tell you THAT does not mix with Florida humidity, Red Wine and a wedding reception Dance Off….incidentally I “brought it” on the dance floor…). But…. dare I say it… I am looking forward to it. I’m not particularly scared or nervous (how scary can it be? there’s no repelling, kayaking in the dark or single track mountain biking right?) but I am actually looking forward to seeing what I can comfortably tolerate. This is a clear departure from my running mentality in the past which did not include words like “comfortably” and “tolerate”.  (Let  the record show “signs of personal growth”)

I welcome the departure. For now, I’m just happy to be able to run again and feel good in my skin, that’s all I need to be happy with my marathon performance this weekend. Well… and maybe a snickers:-)