PF Changs Rock N Roll Marathon 2009 Race Report

As I reflect on yesterday’s race at the PF Chang’s Rock N Roll Arizona Marathon and compare and contrast to my 3 previous marathons, I have come to several conclusions:

Conclusion #1: This is the first marathon I can confidently say that I ran to my maximum potential. There is not one moment that I regret. I know I gave 110%. In fact, in the final 10 miles of the race, I almost cannot believe that I found the strength to keep running. It was almost like it was beyond my training, beyond my ability.

Conclusion #2: Running with a strong partner (or two!) makes A WORLD of a difference. In those final 10 miles, I wanted to walk SO BAD. I was ready to forfeit the 4:00 goal many times, but I was never ready to forfeit crossing the finish line without my friends.

Conclusion #3: Competitive marathoning (meaning racing with the intention of achieving a difficult time goal) is has a lot more to do with mental stamina then physical stamina. I did not understand this until yesterday. You have to find a way to overcome the constant barrage of negative thoughts to tell your body to keep going.

Here is the not-so-short story of my race to a sub-four hour marathon yesterday:

Malinda and her husband came by to pick Joe and I up around 5:30 in the morning. We arrived at the start line around 6:30, giddy and excited. After standing in line for porta-potties twice, we checked our bags and headed for our corrals. We shivered a bit, but it really wasn’t too cold. It was around 53 degrees. I wore a long sleeve technical shirt over my tank, which I planned to hand off to my husband when I saw him. At the expo the day before I bought some cute green Asics running shorts that had pockets across the back like the RaceReady kind. I debated about wearing them, but finally decided to go with my tried and true Nike+ shorts and hot pink Target tank. The weather report was calling for 78 degrees as a high, so I knew I needed to go with as little clothes as possible. I also wore my Adidas visor which served me well as the course runs into the sun for many miles and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

After several cell phone conversations, Sheila found us in the 4:00 corral shortly before the gun went off. Before long, we were moving forward and out across the start line. Here’s a pic I snapped with my cell phone of Malinda and Sheila in the corral:

I appreciated the corral system so much more after running the Nike Marathon last October and experiencing the chaos that that happens when there are no corrals. We got up to pace pretty quick even though the crowd was quite dense. Sheila, Malinda and I found it was a bit of a challenge to stay close with so many runners, but at least they were running fast. For the first 10 miles, we found ourselves keeping up with the pace guy holding the 3:50 sign. We knew we were running a little too fast. There were several times we tried to slow down, but it didn’t seem to last long.

Mile 1-10 splits:
1 – 8:56
2 – 8:56
3 – 8:50
4 – 8:42
5 – 8:48
6 – 8:43
7 – 8:47
8 – 8:43
9 – 8:49
10 -8:56

As you can see we were much faster than our 9:07 average pace goal. It’s a hard decision to make when you’re out there. How fast is too fast? If you’re feeling good, why not run a little faster than goal pace? I know from experience that can get you in trouble at the end of the race. But since my Garmin was showing about an average of 8:50, I figured I’d just go with it. It wasn’t that much faster than the goal.

The during the first 10 miles we chatted with a few runners and took note of all the cute running clothes the other women were wearing. I even asked some girl what kind of shoes she was wearing because they were really cool looking and the brand on the back did not look familiar. Funny enough she was European, and the brand was nothing I’d ever heard of. Sheila was on and off her cell phone checking in with her family to be sure she didn’t miss them. I can’t believe it, but she was even text messaging! I can’t text message when when I’m sitting, much less running a marathon!

Mile 10 is about when I started to realize we couldn’t go on at that pace forever. I think Sheila and Malinda knew it too. We started checking our paces against each other periodically. When we all had readings of 8:30 – 8:45 we’d say “ok lets slow it down because we’re going to do ourselves in at the end”.

Joe and Curtis (Malinda’s husband) saw us at the Biltmore and that was a nice boost. I was able to toss him my long sleeve shirt. They went down another few miles and we saw them again and I was able to change out one of my empty water bottles for a full one. It was ice cold and tasted good. The bank clock we ran by at about mile 12 said 56 degrees. It felt WAY hotter than that.

The photo our husbands took after we passed them around mile 9. We surprised them because we were faster than expected, so they only got a shot of us from behind. Malinda is in the blue waving, I'm the one with the pink tank top.

Splits for miles 11-15:
11-    8:58
12-     8:51
13-     8:54
14-     8:58

Those were the beginning of the end of our unbridled energy. On mile 15 we turned into a neighborhood and the course suddenly felt like it was going uphill. Looking at the garmin stats, I know that this area was actually very flat, it just felt uphill. There were some great water stations through these middle miles. A lot of the volunteers had elaborate, well thought out costumes. There was a “nerd” water station where everyone was wearing thick rimmed glasses and high waisted pants. One guy held a sign that said “only XX more Furlongs to go!” with a bunch of math drawn out underneath. I thought it was pretty creative. Another water stop had people with masks and capes; I think it was the “superhero” waterstop. There were lots of cheerleaders, teens and pre-teens in costumes yelling cute little cheers. I really enjoyed those parts. The first 15 miles were pretty well supported.

*photos from azcentral.com

The bands, on the other hand, were hit or miss. I was getting pretty ticked off by the end because it seemed like so many of the bands were between songs or playing something slow, or even just playing quiet background music while they took a break.

During miles 15-20 things started to get hard.

Miles 15-20 Splits:
15 – 9:19
16 – 9:06
17 – 9:16
18 – 9:17
19 – 9:08
20 – 9:07

There was a good crowd in Scottsdale which was right at the end of mile 19 and the beginning of mile 20. I’m pretty sure that’s why we managed to keep our speed right at pace for those miles. In Scottsdale we passed under a spot where the photographers were positioned on a platform. Sheila and I discovered at the Nike Marathon that they like to only get one person in the picture, so we pulled close and linked arms, hopefully forcing them to get us all in the photo. I’m excited to see that one.

All three of us almost to mile 20, heading into the old town Scottsdale area.

Once we got on to Scottsdale road, I was really starting to feel the fatigue. We were through all the exciting locations and now it was just a long haul to the finish line. My parents were stationed at mile 22, so I did have that to look forward too. We passed mile 20 at 3:00:xx according to the gun-time clock that was at the mile marker. I didn’t look at my watch but I knew we were about 2 minutes behind the gun, so we had almost 62 minutes to run 6.2 miles. Even with my very foggy brain, I was able to compute that. “Ok girls” I announced to Sheila and Malinda, “all we have to do is stay under a 10 minute mile and we got this thing in the bag!” All we needed to do was NOT walk.

Miles 21-23 splits:
Mile 21 – 9:15
Mile 22 – 9:21
Mile 23 – 9:13

I am honestly surprised that the average splits are this low. On mile 22 a wind came up and we were running directly into it. I was sure that I was slowing down because of it. Luckily it was only about a half mile before we turned and then wind was at our side. I know there were several times during these miles that I looked down at my watch and saw a current pace between 9:30 and 9:50. I could hear Malinda saying “CRAP!” several times as she looked at our pace on her Garmin. “don’t look!” I said at least once, “its not going to do you any good, just focus on keeping running”. I knew keeping a 9:07 pace was now irrelevant. We just needed to be careful to make it to the finish line without stopping.

Good shot Dad took at mile 22 of Sheila and me. I look better than I felt.

There’s a hill right at the beginning of mile 24 where the road makes a bridge over Tempe Town Lake. It’s not very steep but at that point it seemed very difficult. The Garmin shows the hill being about 150 feet elevation gain over about a quarter of a mile. I sensed that Malinda wanted to charge up it, but by the way she had been grunting and breathing, it didn’t seem like a good idea. I said “just ease up the hill, don’t kill yourself here, we need to conserve energy!” and that mental image of being gently pulled up the hill somehow powered my legs to the top.

Mile  24 – 26.2 splits:
Mile 24 – 9:25
Mile 25 – 9:25
Mile 26 – 9:14
Mile 26-26.2 – 2:18 (av. pace 8:27 min/mi)

As we neared the turn on to University I cautioned the other girls that I had nothing left in the way of a kick. They all agreed that they didn’t have much left either.  It’s exactly 1 mile between McClintock and Rural Road and wow was that one long mile. Every stop light we got close to, Malinda asked me “is this where we turn?” Malinda and I had driven up to the finish line the day before, so she knew that once we turned, we only had to deal with a few more minutes of pain.

I wanted to walk SO BAD. All through out the last 6 miles of the race, I kept thinking that if I had been running the race by myself, I’d be stopping to walk by now. I kept thinking that there was no way I was going to make it to the finish line running. My legs were done, and yet step by step, they kept going. I was just following Malinda and Sheila, willing myself not to lose them, and thinking about how exhilarating it would be to finish all together.

At the mile 24 marker I told myself that I WAS going to allow myself to walk, in just two miles (the finish line). Something about not thinking of it as the finish made it seem less far away.

As we went through the last water stop we heard the announcer saying “you are at the last water stop, the finish line is just up the road and around that turn” and I thought, “oh this would be a good place to walk for a moment and take a cup of water before the finish”. I thought about suggesting it to the girls, but I knew if I did, they might agree and I could screw up all of our finishing times. I looked at my watch and it said 3:45. I wasn’t totally sure how far the finish line was, but I remember thinking that we were probably going to make it under 4 as long as I didn’t walk. I thought about my blog and all of you people rooting for me to make this sub-four hour goal and I how much I didn’t want to disappoint. I thought about every comment that said “I believe in you! You are definitely going to come in under four hours!” and I tried to remember all the hard training runs I’d put in and how much I deserved this sub-four hour time.

So I kept going. I drank from my water belt and watched Sheila’s feet just in front of me.

We rounded the corner on to Rural road then made a quick zigag before we got to see the finish line. When it finally came in sight, Malinda was picking it up and got about 10 feet ahead and Sheila was doing the same right in front of me. I thought for a moment that I was going to be the last of us to finish.

Then Sheila shouted something to me and reached back her hand and yanked me up to her side. Those final hundred yards were both agonizing and amazing. I held on to Sheila for dear life as we ran towards the finish. I was running fast, but even with the finish line 100 yards in front of me I was feeling like wasn’t going to make it. I wondered if I would drop of exhaustion seconds before finishing. I wasn’t even aware of the crowd, or the cheers or anything else around me. All I could think about was getting to the finish line.  We finally came up to the finish and I saw the photographers and thought, “how the heck am I going to make this picture look like I’m not in agony?” Sheila and I grasped each others hands and threw our arms in the air and smiled, rolling over the finishing mats and to a immediate stop. I didn’t even see the finish clock, but I did remember to hit the stop button on my Garmin.

Immediately after finishing the only thing I could say was “Holy crap, that hurt.” My world started spinning and I actually contemplated sitting down right there in the finish chute. I kinda walked in circles and looked at Sheila and Malinda, who’s faces echoed my pain. We were all in total shock. I looked at my watch, and it read 3:57:27.  We beat four hours by two and a half minutes! I was elated. It was almost unbelievable. I felt like I had achieved the impossible.

I was very very glad that our chips were the disposable kind and I didn’t have to deal with getting the chip off my shoe, like I had in years past. As we started to wander down the chute to get our medals, I heard my name called out from the sidelines. My friend Courtney who was visiting from California was there. She’d just run a 1:36 in the half marathon (um, wow) and leaned over the fence to congratulate us. I excitedly showed her my watch. She knew I had been hoping to beat four hours and was very excited for us.

I had her snap a few photos with my camera phone. Here they are. Can you see the pain on our faces? This was probably 3 minutes after coming over the finish line.

Me, Sheila and Malinda right after finishing.

Me and Malinda, still in pain!!

Courtney was at the finish line congratulating us.

After that we made our way through the food line and then to the trucks to get our bags. Somehow we lost Sheila, but we knew she had been talking to her family on her cell, so we weren’t worried. Malinda and I finally met up with our husbands who where both very exited for us. We took some more pictures without all our belts and gear in the family reunion area:

Malinda and me 20-30 minutes after finishing. We were starting to feel like real people again.

Our wonderful husbands and race crew.

Malinda and I gushed all the way home talking about everything that happened and what we had been thinking during those tough periods when no one had words to talk. Despite the fact that I took 3 gels, had plenty of Gatorade and 6 endurolytes through out the race, I still developed a terrible headache which started about a 20 minutes after finishing and progressively got worse until dinner time. It was a warm race, with temperatures peaking at around 72 degrees by the time we crossed the finish line. We were totally salt encrusted, so it must have been the loss of electrolytes that caused the headache.

Well that’s about it for the interesting details of the story. In retrospect, I know there is NO WAY I could have run that fast without Sheila and Malinda by my side. What an amazing day. I almost feel like now that I’ve gotten down below 4:00 I don’t need to run marathons any more. I don’t have any goals past that, and a Boston qualifying time of 3:40, well that seems beyond my natural ability.

Oh and last minute good news, I just checked the results again and it looks like they officially fixed our times. Funny how a minute and a half is THAT important. But gosh darn it, I worked hard for that minute and a half! My chip time is now consistent with my watch, officially its 3:57:17, whohoo!!!!

This post is long enough. I could go on and on, and no doubt I will all week. I still have tell about the fun things I purchased at the expo and meeting blogger friend Jill! More to come!