Iowa Marathon

If you keep up with my blog, you might be surprised to see me writing about another marathon, as I just ran my trail marathon 5 weeks ago.  Well...I decided that while I was in shape, and seeing that the trail race was in September and at the beginning of the fall season, I thought it wouldn't hurt to look for another race.  Seeing that I have lofty ambitions of being a 50 stater as well...very lofty ambitions...I was looking for a new state that was also drivable.  It was between Kentucky and Iowa, with my leaning towards Iowa, my parents were talking of coming up that weekend anyways to watch the Wheaton football game, and I felt like my plans were falling into place.  It would have been totally crazy (and selfish) of me to drag the entire family with for a 28 hour round trip excursion, but with my parents watching our boys, it turned out to be a nice getaway with Christian, all the while running a marathon :)

So, off we went at 2:30 on Saturday - I got to the expo literally as it was closing, almost left my chip and bib there (oops!) ate dinner at a nice restaurant in downtown Des Moines, and then checked in to our hotel for the night.  In the morning when my alarm went off, Christian asked if I felt rested and ready to go (seeing that Reid is still quite inconsistent on his nighttime sleep and up 2-3 times on average) and I said no:)  My body was saying, "more!!  more of this sleep..."

It was a little chaotic getting out of the hotel and finding parking, so Christian dropped me off and I literally was jogging to the starting line...just what you want to be doing before you run 26.2 miles, right? :)  But I did make it to a spot I felt comfortable starting and willed myself to take a deep breath and get in the right mindset...'cause like it or not, I had a 4ish hour run ahead of me.  This is the first marathon in a while that Christian was able to not worry about anyone else but himself, so he captured lots of the race as well as ran 4.5 miles with me when I desperately needed it.  I was so grateful he was there for me (in both mind and body!)

 

Here is the pack of elite men.  Good thing Christian has the picture, because I definitely don't see them :)

The next 3 are me approaching Christian at mile 2.  You can tell from my smiles I'm not too exhausted...yet.  After 17 marathons, we have a pretty good system worked out (when possible).  We map out the course, pick a side for me to run on and him to stand on, and it truly helps me mentally knowing where I can look forward to for support.  I typically see him far in advance, and he does a great job spotting me as well.

 

Christian loved this sign :)

 

This was the place we ate dinner at the night before.

The next 3 shots are at mile 10.5.  I had started running with a guy around mile 7, and I could tell about mile 10 that I was going too fast if I wanted to finish the marathon in a respectable time.  The runner I was with was a first time marathoner and attempting to speed up as the race went on, but he was going just a bit faster than I was comfortable doing so I was glad to have Christian there so I could stop for a minute or two.  I told him immediately that I had started out too fast and was in question about how I would do...not good to hit a mini-wall at mile 10...oops!

 

The next two are just across the boulevard at 14.5.  I was still feeling tired, but has slowed my pace a little and was trying my best to settle in a more comfortable groove.  We did run around the track at Drake University at mile 12 - that was a pretty cool experience!

 

Christian left at this point to head out to mile 18 where he was going to join me for up to 4.5 miles.  I got in a nice groove for miles 15-17.5, so seeing Christian at 18 was just what I needed.  I willed myself to run until mile 19, then stopped for another little break.  Christian did a great job encouraging me through that stop, and continued to encourage me until he left me at 22.5.  We had also passed that guy I had been running with from miles 7-10.5, so it made me feel good about the game plan I went with.  (Oh, I forgot to mention that in our conversation and my telling him about my 2 children at home, he was surprised I had 2 kids and said I didn't look old enough, and he had me pegged at 26...haha, I'll take it :)).

Once Christian left, I knew I was getting close.  I'm actually proud of myself for not walking the rest of the race because mile 24-25 seemed like it was really 2 or 3 miles long!!  I kept telling myself, if I needed, slow down, but don't walk.  And I didn't :)  The race turned the corner right before mile 26, and as I got closer to the finish, I was shooting to hit under 3:56.  Shockingly, there was Christian cheering me on...that I did not expect!  It was fun to get that surprise as I'm busting my butt across the finish line ;)

You can tell from my face that I was in full concentration mode...just a few more steps and I can stop running... :)  That was my ultimate goal.  It's always an amazing feeling to be walking after running for such a long time.

 

Whoo hoo!  Marathon #17 completed in 3:55:49.

Thank you mom and dad for taking on kid duty, and thank you my sweet husband for supporting my slightly psychotic running ambitions.  I couldn't have done it without you.