I wonder how many people say I need to run 22/23 miles so I'm going to run a marathon this weekend. Well, I was one of those people this weekend. I signed up to do the GW Birthday Marathon in preparation to next month's Shamrock Marathon. Sure I thought about definately not racing this because I've never gone that distance in preparation to a marathon before. I got a ride from my friend, Raj, and we drove to Greenbelt around 8 a.m. The day started with high winds on a biting cold February day, I knew it wasn't going to be good when I woke up and I could hear the wind moving my bedroom window.Temperature at the start was in the low 20s and windy. There are three loops in this race at about 8 miles each. I started trying to do 8 minute miles for the first loop and I was able to maintain that despite the excitement of running a marathon. During the second loop my body temperature had dropped and the wind was making this unconfortable for all the runnders. My pace of low 8s was suffering because of the hills and I was becoming increasing tired. Once I completed the second loop, I was ready to call it a day but I got some inspiration after seeing the volunteers cheering on us. I don't know if I would have volunteered if the weather was going to be this bad. At the start of the third loop, I tried to find gels at the first station but I couldn't find any. I had Honey Stinger chews in my running belt but this was my first time trying them out on a long run. At mile 21, it started snowing sideways and my body was definately colder than ever. Yes, I like cold temperatures but this was unberable. I tried to follow this one kid with the sign "First Marathon Ever" and I was able to hang on to him until mile 22 1/5. I noticed he was slowing down so I had to make a move, either go in front of him and let him follow me or slow down too. I was feeling pretty good at this point and I was watching my watch because I wanted to finish under 4 hours. I started speeding up a bit and most of my motivation was the chilli and hot beverages at the finish line. At mile 24 1/2, there was the huge hill. Yes, thing was about a mile long. Not anything you want to see at the end of a marathon. I saw a bunch of strugglers up and down this thing. I kept telling myself, "just keep moving forward, don't walk, don't walk." My watch said 3:35 at mile 25 1/2 and I knew I had the under 4 hours time wrapped up. I went down a hill and then to a little trail and I could see the finish line. This was unlike all the marathons I've done. No huge sings or thousand of expectators, just a medal and great volunteers. My time was 3:44 and I can honestly say that I didn't race this thing. Sure I struggled when I hit the wall at mile 21 but I kept going and it was a great training day!
