Marathon #2!! - Tales Of 26.2 Miles
I can't believe that I’m typing this but… I ran a second marathon!
*jumps around in excitement, but carefully because… so. sore.*
I truly thought that this marathon would be easier. It was on flat ground and I already knew what to expect generally speaking.
Now that I'm on the other side of things, that’s hilarious because this was definitely much harder!
Leading up to Saturday I was cool as a cucumber. Once Saturday rolled around though, the nerves emerged. It was different this time around though. I was feeling nervous physically more than mentally and emotionally like last time. I busted through a lot of the initial fears that I had with the last race and had a strange sense of trust and confidence that this race would be whatever it was meant to be.
And of course, it was!
It all began at 3:55 a.m. last Saturday morning. The alarm went off and I was immediately awake. I don’t use an alarm in my daily life. I wake up naturally (which means that Lily wakes me up usually) so when the jarring blare of an alarm fills the room, I’m up!
I decided to do my morning practices really quickly. Journaling, breath work, and a 5 minute mobility video. Those three things are staples in my morning. If I can get them in, I’m good. That was followed by some water, breakfast, and gathering up all of the things that I needed before heading out the door and making the 2.5 hour trip to the start line.
With each passing minute I became more and more nervous. My stomach wasn’t feeling that great and I had to stop at a gas station to poop on the way.
This has been one of my big worries with marathoning.
I feel like no one talks about it even though it’s a thing! The fear of having to poop during a race. If you have a hard time believing me, peruse running threads on Reddit to be enlightened of this curse.
Anyways, we get to the race and I hit up the porta potty two more times before the start with hopes and prayers that the third time is a charm and I do not have anymore pitstops to make.
*spoiler alert, the third time was the charm. thank god.*
9 a.m. rolls around and it’s go time.
It’s a beautiful morning. Overcast, 65º, nature all around. Life is good. I went into this race without a planned pace. Since I didn’t run the previous three weeks (or hardly at all since April) I had no idea what my goal was. I just knew that I wanted to be faster than my last marathon and I was confident that I could make that happen.
I took it slow and settled into a pace that seemed reasonable and comfortable for me. All was good for the first three miles. Then I started to feel sick. Nothing major, just slight discomfort and overall just feeling very blah.
I was in a good headspace though and I willed it away for a bit.
Around mile 8 I started running with a guy who was playing leap frog with me basically the whole time. We ran and chatted for about 3 miles and what a blessing that was because those 3 miles flew by! I was feeling on top of the world.
I love the running community. Everyone is so friendly, supportive, and interesting. You can learn a lot about a person when you’re running with them. This guy, John, had a goal of running a marathon in all 50 states. He’s from North Carolina and came to PA just for this race so that he could check the state off the list. So cool!
After 3 miles together John had to slow down and I kept cruising, feeling so good. That quickly changed though because I was starting to feel it and being alone, I was getting in my head. It seems as if I can run about 8-10 miles without any issue before I start to experience some type of pain. And when running 26.2 miles, not even being halfway there, and hurting - that’s a tough place to be mentally. I was motivated by my desire to beat my half marathon PR though, so I kept pushing on and did it! Another boost in my mood to propel me further.
By mile 15 I was in lots of pain and starting to feel nauseous. Down my mood went. That’s the thing with marathon running from my very limited experience. It is such a rollercoaster. One minute you feel like you’re on top of the world and the next you want to crawl in a ditch and never get out. At this point I wanted to choose the latter. Instead, I kept going.
I had to take three “throw up prevention walks” which is exactly what they sound like. I chose to walk for brief periods of time to prevent myself from throwing up. It worked. I did it three times and by mile 22 I was determined to push through and finish this thing.
I didn’t know how I’d make it to the finish line but I did and I did it 26 minutes faster than my previous marathon.
I was so happy to be done! And I was so happy to have done it!
It’s a strange thing because you willingly put yourself through hours and hours of pain and suffering. A lot of people don’t get it. But, the confidence that I have gained from running 26.2 miles is impossible to overlook.
I know that a lot of people, like myself, have a marathon as their bucket list goal. It’s quite the goal! It sits alongside things like skydiving, traveling to some amazing location, swim with dolphins, write a book, go to a specific concert, see the Northern Lights, etc. Now, it’s not like you can just go do most of those things after a hard day of work. They take time, money, traveling, and enough desire to make it happen. But having a marathon on the list is a whole other thing entirely. It’s not just showing up and running a marathon. It’s months and months of consistently training for one single day. It’s putting your physical body to the test and pushing its limits. It is hard, hard, hard. But, being on the other side of two of them now, I can tell you that it’s worth it. It is worth the sacrifice and commitment to hours of training each week. It is worth the questioning and worry that you’re not ready. It is worth the blisters and tight hamstrings and tired legs. It is worth it all because once you cross that finish line you come out the other side a changed person.
I have no desire to sign up for another race or to run more than 8 miles anytime in the near future (or maybe ever) but this chapter of life has taught me a lot. The main thing being that I am capable of much more than I ever imagined. Last year at this time I wasn’t able to workout without getting sick. Now I sit here and tell you the tale of my second marathon.
It’s never too late to challenge yourself and to achieve a seemingly impossible goal. It’ll be the hardest and easiest thing you ever do. Just show up each day and put one foot in front of the other. Don’t quit. Keep going. And you’ll go further beyond that finish line than you ever believed possible.
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