Country Music Marathon

Friday, after putting the older kids on the bus, Jared and I packed up and headed to Nashville. Lisa was kind enough watch the kids for the whole week-end so Jared could come cheer me on. I had kept a worried eye on the weather all week. The forecast for Saturday in Nashville was horrible. My perfect running weather is dry with temps in the 50s and low 60s. The forecast was calling for upper 70s and low 80s and rain. But it wasn't just rain, it was severe thunderstorms. A litle bit of rain has never cancelled a race, but lightning will. A few days before the race, the forecast improved a bit. The storm looked like it would hold off until the afternoon, so we crossed our fingers and hoped and prayed for the best. Kirstin texted me on the way down to check my email. I had an email from the race, informing me that any marathon runners who had not reached the 1/2 marathon split off point paced at 4:30:00 would not be allowed to finish. I was a little worried. I estimated my finish time to be somwhere between 41/2 and 5 hours. I was pretty sure I could make it to the split point in time but hoped it wouldn't wear my legs out too early. The worst part was it was just one more thing to stress about.

We went straight to the Expo Center downtown to check in and pick up my packet. I also switched from corral 20 to corral 15. I wanted a bigger head start on that storm and my long runs had been paced faster than orginally expected. We perused the different vendors and tried several samples of sports drinks. I tried to watch a preview of the course someone took while driving it. It wasn't really helpful and actually made me a little dizzy and nauseous. The camera work left a lot to be desired. Then we headed off to carb load. We thought picking a restaurant well out of downtown (1/2 hr) would help us avoid a long wait. I guess when 33,000 runners are trying to eat pasta there is no way to avoid a crowd. It was fun to listen to people around us, most of the people at Olive Garden were there for the race. Olive Garden did a great job handling the long wait and actually kept a continous supply of appetizer platters circulating outside while we waited. Kirsten, Heather, Amy, and Cassie were smart and ordered take-out. I'll have to remember that. By the time we left I was way tense from all the noise inside the restaurant. We finally made it to the hotel to check in around 8:30. We visisted with Tonya for a few minutes. Then, I did a little Yoga and hit the sack.

Amy had suggested we leave around 5. This is insanely early for me. I AM NOT a morning person!! Its a good thing we listened to her since we were in standstill traffic on the freeway for a good stretch of time. I'm sure the truckers were wondering what the heck had all those people out on the road at insane times on a Saturday morning. We were all glad to have Jared along. We didn't have to worry about parking and walking to the start line on time. He drove us a close as he could (before hitting closed roads) and we walked the last couple of blocks in. When Jared and I got in the car, Heather told us that the weather the night before kept showing tornados that had hit somewhere west ( I don't remember where exactly, maybe Oklahoma) that were supposedly headed straight for Nashville. Great! After waiting in insanely long potty lines, and checking my gear check bag in, the race was starting. Note to marathon planning people: Several hundred porta potties may seem adequate, BUT when you have over 30,000 people that have spent the last hour hydrating themselves, and all want to use the restroom as close to the start time as possible, you're going to have some major issues!!! Please keep this in mind! By the time I got to my corral, the race had already started and I had to hurry to catch up to where the other corral 15 runner were. As we waited for out turn to start, I really started to get excited. The fact the Black Eyed Peas "I gotta feeling" was blaring through the giant speakers only helped. I love that song and it always pumps me up.

Ready to leave the hotel at the insanely early times

The starting line

The size of this race was incredible, there was constantly a wall of people as far as you could see. The little local 1/2 I did in Ohio was nothing compared to this. I think the size of this one helped the overall energy level. The runners never got spread out by themselves. Having so many runners around helped pass the time. There was always some run to pass and run around. There were bands every mile and cheerleader groups dispersed throughout the course. We also had water/cytomax station every mile. I think in the other one there might have been 2 water stations. If there were 33,000 runners, there had to be 2-3 times that many spectators. Then count in the race volunteers handing us drinks, fruit, Vaseline swabs, goo gels, and those manning the medical stations and directing the course. The energy level was incredible. I barely used my ipod except for the Nike Chip part (which ended up be inaccurate anyway). I loved all the signs spectators had referencing the supposed tornado. My favorite was "run like a tornado is chasing you". I liked that one since I really did run faster because of the storm. I wanted to make the course split in time, and I wanted to finish as much as possible before it hit.

Jared and I had mapped out some spots for him and Tonya to stand and cheer. We made our decisions based on the route. There were several points that he would be able to see me at multiple points just by walking a couple blocks. We also picked spots at the end where we thought I might need some encouragement. I couldn't find him at the first two spots. I figured he had a hard time parking and just didn't make it in time. Really, he was there, there were just so many people that neither of us saw the other one. Some where around mile 7 (I think), the course doubled back and I passed Kirstin coming the other direction. I was way excited to see her since I hadn't seen Jared or Tonya at that point. I saw Tonya at about mile 9. The boys were excited to see me and I had to laugh at Austin. He was holding his sign for me as high as he could, but he was holding it backwards so I have no idea what it said. I saw Jared at mile 11. I made it to the course split in time. The official standing between the cones said "half crazy people stay right, full crazy to the left". I thought that was pretty funny.

me at about mile 11

My 13.1 split time was 2hour 10 minutes. Which is a minute faster than I ran my half marathon in 2006. The morning started pretty humid, but as the race progressed the humidity really dropped. I could feel a huge difference. Then the breeze picked up and I knew what was coming. I didn't slow down much even though I had made the cutoff point. Miles 13-18 made a loop and followed the Cumberland River. We were on a trail for a little bit and it was beautiful. As we turned back towards our final loop and the finish line the sky the direction we were headed was a dark gray. My legs were starting to feel the effects of having fun faster than normal at about mile 17, but looking at the sky, I knew there was no way I could slow down. I saw Jared around this point. He said, you're doing great, there is just a little hill up ahead but it'll be easy for you. Um....I was suspicious as soon as he said that, and when I saw said "little hill" I was not amused. Maybe it would've seemed easy at the beginning but not a this point. Its a good thing he wasn't around still or he would've got some dirty looks.

mile 17
(Jared kept running ahead of me and stopping to take pictures, after he did this a few times I started to get annoyed. He was making it seem like I was running so slow. I finally told him to cut it out)

At mile 18 the sky started spitting rain at me. Which, I might say was a great improvement from being spit on be gross running men. Seriously, if you need to spit make sure someone isn't passing you at that moment. I swear I would've pulled out some kick boxing moves on the next person that spit on me. By mile 19, the skies had opened and it was pouring with some lightning mixed in. At this point, we were running by the LP field before making our final 6 mile loop and ending back at the field. Shortly passed the 20 mile mark the course was barricaded by multiple police cars. We were being diverted to the finish. This is when I realized that official was right. We really were completely crazy. The storm unleashed it fury fast, and for all we knew that tornado was coming. We had left the hotel at 5am, it was now after 10am, we hadn't seen the news for over 5 hours and honestly I didn't check before leaving. Some things are better left unknown, At the very least, its not safe to be outside during a lightning storm. Instead of running for cover, or being relieved that we were being diverted for safety reasons, there was a ripple of murmuring. You could hear it, as soon as that barricade came into view. I was just as bad. I wanted soo badly to run around those police cars and keep going. Only 6 more miles, we were so close. PLEASE!! The storm had hit 2 hours early. If it would've even held off for an hour, I would've been done. Yep, I thought, FULL CRAZY!!!

I was on the side of LP field with the half marathon finish. This has lead to my results being all mixed up. I sent a result correction form in, so hopefully they can change it. Currently my certificate states I ran a 1/2 marathon in 3 hour and 33 minutes. I don't think so, I ran 20 miles in that time. At the very least, change it to read my real 1/2 marathon split time. My friend Kim was lucky enough to be closer to the side with the full marathon finish, so she was diverted there. When I finished I grabbed some grub and headed off to retrieve my gear check bag that was holding my ginormous water bottle and Gatorade (courtesy of Jenn J). I was a nice wife and didn't make Jared carry those in his backpack and he ran from point to point. Then I tried to shield my phone from the torrential rain and called Jared and then the girls to meet back up with everyone. In all the chaos caused by the storm, I completely forgot to stretch! I always stretch!! I stretch even after running 1 miles let alone 20. Despite the ice bath I took the effect of not stretching was disastrous (which by the way, I think Jared enjoyed dumping bucketfuls of ice on me way too much. He took some sort of twisted pleasure from watching me freeze to death)

The gang after the race when we are sweaty drowned rats (Heather, Kirstin, Cassie, Amy, and me)

Stayed tuned for more marathon weekend fun................