Better late than never.
Saturday, November 8, I made my way to beautiful Savannah to run the marathon. I had run the half portion of this course the previous two years and I loved it. I think it’s a wonderful course, that’s flat and fast. This year, I decided to do the full. Lindsay, my roommate, and I left my house around 4:45a to make it our assigned parking garage by 5:30. As we neared our exit ramp, we were caught up in traffic. Dead stopped. And it wasn’t due to road closures for the race. It was for a city construction project. How inconvenient. This led to me feeling extremely anxious and the urge to use the bathroom was ever increasing.
We decided to maneuver around the traffic jam and take an alternative route. I know Savannah pretty well, so I knew another way to get to our garage. This was a risk, because I was certain we would come to roads that were already closed for the race. And we did, but we still made it quicker than if we had waited out that traffic jam. We parked and quickly finished getting ready. I had to load up my UCan superstarch in my fuel belt. Most of it exploding into my car (I STILL have white powder stains in there. That stuff is impossible to remove.) We made sure we had everything we needed, then quickly made our way to the start. We stopped at some vacant porta potties and went right in. Then we walked over to gear check for Lindsay to drop off her bag. We just kept walking to keep warm. We stood in the bathroom lines for one last emptying of the bladder and then headed to our separate corrals. I was in corral 6.
I made sure my watch was fully on and was able to sync up to the satellites (something I’ve had trouble with in the past). I met with some friends in my corral and was thankful to talk to them before the start. I then shed off my outer layers, keeping my socks on my arms as arm warmers, and we made our way to the start line. The gun went off and there we went.
Pre-Race Layers!
The first mile of this race is completely bottle necked. You’re dodging people, trying to find an open space to settle into your groove. Plus, the first mile is up a small hill. My heart rate shot up, and I made sure to keep my pace slightly under my goal pace as a warm up. We turned to the left (I made sure I looked ahead and KNEW which way we were turning so I could stay on the inside to reduce mileage) and then it spread out a bit. I had my gloves on, and my arm warmers, and I felt pretty good. Very comfortable. I had purchased a pace tattoo that I put on the inside of my arm. This was a LIFE SAVER. I made sure that I was within the projected pace that it had me at. It became part of a game – I would pass a mile, then check my tattoo to see what my next time would be. It was a great distraction.
Race Pace Tat
Around mile 8, I saw my best friend and her family. They were sporting tshirts they made with an incredibly embarrassing picture of me (not in my right mind) and had the words “Turn Down For What” on it. It made me laugh out loud. It was great to see them all and to get a quick boost. I kept glancing at my tattoo and my watch and kept seeing that I was 2-4 minutes ahead of the projected pace, but I felt good, heart rate was in check, so I went with it. There’s not too much to report about the meat of the inside of the race. It was a bit of a mind game when the two distances parted. Half marathoners went to the right, and us marathoners went to the left. The field REALLY spread thin then. I kept my head up and kept pressing on, even up the highway ramps they had us running. The course, still, was beautiful. We ran around Savannah State University and that picked me up some. One girl looked right at me and said, “You are kicking so much ass right now!” That lit me up. I high fived her and kept repeating that as I continued on.
I was feeling pretty beat up, yet extremely proud of my pace, around mile 16. But I kept repeating my mantra, (“You can. And you will!”) and my new friend’s mantra and just kept going. At mile 20 I saw my sister! It was SO refreshing to see a familiar face that far into a race. I got a little teary and ran over to highfive her – and accidentally poke her dog in the eye. She was on an out and back portion, so I got to see her twice. That gave me the energy to push through. I could either invite the wall to take over at mile 20 or I could smash through it. I gritted my teeth and dug deep.
I kept getting closer and closer, and kept passing more people who were walking. Walking was never an option for me. I ran the entire thing. I turned the corner, entered the incredibly long finish chute, and cross the finish line with a time of 3:55! SUB FOUR!
I saw Dave and the kids and went over to see them over the fence. Deb came around and hugged me. I asked her if I did it and she said, “Not only did you do it, you CRUSHED it!” It was awesome. I walked through the finish area, grabbing water, banana, almond butter, then met up with my spectators: Deb, Dave, their kids, Meghan, and Lindsay. We hugged and discussed a little bit. Lindsay gave me my Recoverite, which I swear by. I drank that, and we slowly made our way to Meghan’s car.
Meghan, Lindsay, Deb, and I went to J Christophers (my favorite breakfast place in Savannah) for breakfast where I devoured three huge blueberry crunch cakes. Worth it. Drank coffee, warmed up, and relished in my accomplishment. It was great!
My coach, and best friend, Deb and I at breakfast!
Overall, I do love the Savannah marathon. I don’t think I’ll do this one again, just because of my budget. These Rock ‘n’ Roll events are incredibly expensive.
Up next:
Guana Back to Nature Trail 50k.
Can’t wait to run distance slowly and just enjoy what I’m doing and where I’m at. Bring it on!
and miles to go before I sleep... 