Did You Win?

Facebook Marathon Photo Album

Three days removed from the big day, I can finally start to get some perspective on the big weekend. I can honestly say that Saturday was filled with so much emotion, ranging from anticipation to excitement to dread to frustration to exhaustion to accomplishment.

The day began at 4AM (CST). Sarah was able to sleep the night before; I didn't sleep that much. We were dressed and down in the lobby of the hotel to catch the shuttle to the start line at 5AM. At 5:15 we boarded the shuttle to head towards Centennial Park and the start line. From there we had a wait till race start at 7AM. (A great of time was spent waiting to use one of the porta-potties in the park). At 7AM was walked over to the start line. Even though the gun sounded at 7, for most people it would be some time before they started the race as each runner was assigned a corral to start. I started the race in corral 17. At 7:33, the race began.

An important side note to insert. The usual temperature for the race at the start is mid-50s with a temperature around 65 at the finish. Nashville experienced a freak heatwave marathon weekend. The temperature at the start was 62. Mind you, this was hotter than any of our previous long runs.

Starting out was exciting racing towards downtown Nashville with a huge crowd cheering us on. Not to mention being in the middle of 30,000+ people. We kept a decent pace for the first part of the marathon. Kudos must go out to the marathon organizers. They knew the heat was coming and pull out all the stops. They had 3 times the water stations set up and extra medical stations standing by. As the heat rose, we hit every water station, one cup of Cytromax (Gatorade type drink), one cup of water to drink, one cup of water to pour over our heads (and, if available, a run through a water hose to help cool off).

The first psychological wall was at mile 11, where the marathon and half-marathon split. Our coach Phil warned us about this. At the point the half-marathoner only had a little over 2 miles to go to finish. We rounded the corner and were met with the sign "Marathon - 15 miles to finish". The next wall came a couple of miles later as we crossed the half way mark, by the point the temperature was getting hotter and we were starting to have to walk. I was keeping track of the the mile splits and for some reason mile 14 seemed to keep going and going. Finally, when my watch said 20 minutes, I figured I must have missed the marker for mile 14. Five minutes later imagine my feeling expecting to see the marker for mile 15 to be greeted with the sign for mile 14 (it took us 25 minutes to make the mile). Immediately my mind raced with thoughts of us not finishing the race in time, of us running out of strength and energy to complete the race. We picked up the pace for the next couple of miles (even one that over half of it was uphill). It was on mile 16 that we passed a 1st Tennessee Bank sign which announced to everyone passing by that the temperature at this point was 84 degrees.

Miles 19 and 20 were back in downtown Nashville again and we met back up with the half-marathon crowd again. Shortly before the start of mile 21, we broke off again and watch the half-marathoners race downhill towards their finish line as we had 6.2 miles to go. At this point, we were running small goals... to the next street, to the stop sign, to the water station. From mile 20 to 25, we saw 4 people carried off in ambulances, we assume, due to heat exhaustion. Finally, passing mile marker 24 (with 2.2 miles to go) we knew the end was finally in sight. At mile marker 26, I took a picture with a disposable camera I had with me (see photo album up top) and the camera fell out of my pocket. A passerby stopped me and reunited me with the camera. From there it was a .2 mile dash to the finish.

Once rounding the last turn, there's no way to describe the mixture of emotions. 5 months of hard work, 26+ miles in 5 hours and 43 minutes... people were cheering and at this point, I was the only person approaching the finish. I waved to the crowd to get them to cheer some more and the did, I saw my sister and brother-in-law cheering me on (I missed Sarah on the other side of the lane) and crossed the finish line at 5 hours, 43 minutes and 13 seconds after starting.

I was finished. I had run a marathon. Shortly afterwards, family members were calling... all asked the same thing, joking "Did you win?" You know what? I ran 26.2 miles, I raised $1,800 to fight Leukemia and Lymphoma. I did win.