My first marathon happened after I had already run my very first 50K. I already knew I could do the distance. My husband decided that he too wanted to do it so we both signed up to run the St. George Marathon. For those of you unfamiliar with the climate of St. George, let me explain. I love it here. I can run year round. In December and January, when the rest of the world is freezing and trying to dig their way our of feet of snow, we are enjoying beautiful sunshine. The trade off is a few weeks in the summer that can sometimes be blistering. We see our first 100 temps as early as May, often though in June. We usually spend six weeks straight at 100+ degrees. I will happily made the trade of a few weeks of hot for no snow. The St. George Marathon runs the first Saturday in October. That means your peak week is usually the first or second week in September. That means you have to buld your highest miles when it's hot. Let's get back to training for my first marathon. It was miserable. My husband and I would go out early, a few times starting around 2am. I don't do that anymore. My husband really struggled with the heat. I do okay as long as we're moving because we create wind as we run. The morning of the marathon was warm. We had had cloud cover over night so we didn't cool off too much. At the starting line, it was cooler and windy. They were handing out trash bags because it was starting to rain. I had on a jacket with a hood and gloves but I still took the trash bag. As we started the race, I tossed it to the side of the road, like many others. My plan was to run with my brother and sister-in-law. My husband had sprained his ankle two weeks before the marathon playing softball so he was on his own (he did finish). St. George has a mass start so there are people everywhere. It's easy to get cut off and that's what happened to me. My brother and sister-in-law got through but I didn't. I watched as their lead grew over the next few miles and I never could catch up. By mile 5, I was alone and wet and cold. I remember coming into an aid station and letting my arms drop. They tingled for the next 2 or 3 miles so I decided not to let them drop again until I crossed the finish line. Somewhere along the way, I couldnt't get my nutrition open because my fingers were too cold so I stopped eating what I brought and ate only occasionally on yhe course. I was so cold that I didn't think about dehydration but I stopped drinking too. I finished that year in 4 hours and 40 minutes. That was about 20 minutes slower than my projected finish time. I heard later that most people ran betwee 10 and 30 minutes slower than usual. I friend of mine told me she had a friend that went home and weighed her clothes and shoes. They weighed 10 pounds. We waited at the finish line for my husband to finish. He came in nearly 2 hours after me but he did it on a sprained ankle. It was several years later before he decided he wanted to do the marathon again.
I learned a few things from my first marathon. First, I was never going to do St. George again. It was too hard to train for. Second, never say never. I changed my mind about 3 weeks later and have now done this race six times. Third, regardless of the conditions, eat and drink. This race and recovery didn't have to be as miserable as they were. Pushing myself a little bit and not dwelling on my misery would have helped too. I have looked back on this race many times and each time I grateful I did it. It was a learning experience for me. Hopefully it can be a learning experience for others too.
Thanks for checking back with me. I'm supposed to be training for Ragnar Napa Valley but I think I may have broken my foot. Hope things are going well for you. Check back again soon.
