Hamptons Marathon September 26, 2009

What time is it? I remember wondering this countless times in the middle of the night only to find that it wasn’t time to get up. I wanted to get up but forced myself to lye in bed for the duration figuring it was what I needed to do. My first marathon was only a handful of hours away so sleep wasn’t so easy. I finally got up and ready around 4:45 A.M. after waking up my mom, who has been my racing enthusiast, and Jameson.
After getting dressed and fueled up my mom, Jameson, and I loaded up in the X terra for a nice, peaceful drive out to the hamptons. Well it was a drive to say the least. Despite the dog running into my rear window compulsively trying to attack passing headlights and getting her ear caught in the window we made it to the start/finish area.
By the time we parked and got settled to where we needed to be we had a little under 45 minutes to start. There was plenty of commotion and excitement around. Most of the commotion being Jameson seeing other dogs to scream at. Another interesting thing that happened before the race even began was that all this blood got on the back of my race bib, seemingly out of no where. No I didn’t poke myself with the safety pins, I’ve learned that lesson before. My mom was helping me with the bib and shoe timer and cause of Jameson’s constant pulling on the leash made my moms hand bleed all over.
Looking back on all the craziness of race morning kind of prepared me for the race in a way. I didn’t worry and wasn’t anxious at all. I didn’t have time to be. Regardless of that I still wouldn’t change a thing cause it added to all the excitement.
The time finally came to get in line and ready to go. After some last minute pictures I disappeared into the crowd and immediately struck up a conversation with another runner. Runners are some of the most friendliest people you will ever meet.
When the gun finally went off we wished each other the best and followed the sea of people in front of us. I never ran with so many people around before, it was quite interesting. Before I knew it we reached the split mark for the marathoners and the crowd of people immediately disappeared. Leaving me and the few other marathoners in my vicinity to trek through the beautiful country roads.
I remember all the aid stations and the support that were at every mile. I talked to a couple runners as I was running, but for the most part let my mind ponder on things and also focus on the task at hand. We ran along near wide open fields, near the beach, and even through some backcountry dirt roads. I remember at one point I felt like crying. I’ve gotten this feeling occasionally on long runs and I guess you can consider this a long run. The feeling comes out of no where, usually after the feeling that this is probably all a dream, go figure. Anyways after the mix up of hormones dissipated I got back into the swing of things maintaining my robotic like motion to the finish. My goal was just to finish. In the back of my mind I wanted a 4hour 30minute marathon but would have been happy just to finish. At mile 25 I realized I had about 15minutes to go till the 4 hour mark. So knowing this I stepped it into high gear. I was surprised by how much I had left in me. I think it had been the track work I did Monday nights. I blew past all these people. I wanted someone to step it up with me but I guess everyone at this point was spent. I remember being thankful for all the track work I did around this time of my race. I reached the finish line at 3 hours 52 minutes and 57 seconds. With excitement and awe being surprised I broke the 4 hour mark.
My Mom and Jameson were right there to congratulate me. The race was surprisingly easy. Don’t get me wrong it was hard and painful at times, especially afterwards. I loved every minute of it. It was easier in a sense that the training, the journey, to get there was the real challenge. Intervals, low blood sugar bouts, loss of a toenail…again, and early morning headlamp runs were just some (and still are) of the challenges I faced along the way. The funny thing is I brought this type of training onto myself. There were times when I had a run scheduled and forced myself to go do it, always glad and happy afterwards. Training really does help you be more focused.
So after I got my metal and tried to remember where I was again I found my mom and Jameson. I say this because at some point in the race due to lack of sleep and running this long run I didn’t know where or what state I was in. Maybe I was dreaming, this feels like a dream. It took me a while to stop moving. It was painful to stop so I had to walk around in circles with this confused look on my face for a bit. That was fine everyone else was doing the same thing.
After settling down I got some food and played in the athletes village for a bit before the long walk back to the car. When we finally arrived I got situated in the back seat and proceeded to hold onto Jameson for the entire ride. I was in such a good, positive mood I didn’t mind. I remember talking a whole lot, eating a whole lot and having to ask my mom to pull over a whole lot because of all the fluid I inhaled during and after the race. It was all in all a very good day and wouldn’t have changed any aspect of this crazy, fun, and exciting day.