Entry by:
rstocks3

Run for the Red
2007-05-06
Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania
United States
American Red Cross of Monroe County
42F / 6C
Sunny

Run - Marathon
Total Time = 3h 22m 21s
Overall Rank = 57/402
Age Group = 40-49
Age Group Rank = 14/86




Pre-race routine:

Woke up at 3:45 am. Derek (boyddr) was leaving Horseheads at 3:00 which
would put him at my house around 4:15. I had a bowl of oatmeal around 4:00
and made sure I had everything for the run. Salt tabs, fuel belt with gels,
gatorade, plenty of clothes, gloves, HRM, wallet, oh yea........toilet
paper!! Check!! Derek arrived and we left for the Poconos.

We met up with Kristen (SweetK) about 30 minutes before the start. She is
awesome!! Driving 2+ hrs to cheer us on and schlep us back to our car! Thank
you, thank you, thank you!! Check out the awesome pics she took in her
album!!


Event warmup:

We arrived very early which was nice because we had the bathrooms to
ourselves for our first couple trips. I kept going back and forth about what
to wear, it was in the mid 30's when we arrived but as the sun came up it
warmed up to a balmy 41!! Decided to go with tri shorts, a long sleeve
underarmour and my Snickers Marathon tech shirt and a pair of disposable
gloves.

My warm up consisted of about 10 minutes of running and using the
porta-potty 3 times in the half hour before the race started.You would think
that would have been enough!! (More on that later) I felt a little foolish
warming up for a 26 mile run but felt that it was the right thing to do.



Run


Comments:

Standing at the start line I got a little anxious as I thought to myself
"Here we go, you're about to do a marathon! A few years ago you hated
running and now you're doing a marathon." I got over that and wished Derek
good luck and have fun when the gun went off.

My nutrition plan was going to be a gel every 15 min, 2 salt tabs before the
start and 1 salt tab every 30 min and water at every water stop. Gatorade if
I felt like it. My chocolate milk/banana/peanut butter recovery drink was
waiting for me at the finish line!!

In the first 300 yds I realized that I didn't start my foot pod. Derek
suggested I just start it at mile 1 but I figured it was just 1 more
distraction that would mess up with my nutrition plan. I left it off. I
think it was about mile 1 that I left Derek and tried to find my "happy
pace". The trouble was that I couldn't get my HR out of the 160's!

On my long runs in April my AHR at an 8:00 pace was in the mid 130's. Now I
am starting off in the 160's and I can't get it to come down. My RPE was
about an 8 but my HR was Z-3! I finally decided to ignore my HR and see what
happens. I wasn't about to back off to 9 min miles just to slow my HR down!
I felt comfortable so I went with it.

I met up with Bill around mile 3 and struck up a conversation with him. We
talked and ran together for about 8 miles. We passed Kristen at mile 9 and I
felt great except I had to pee and my stomach was thinking about searching
for a throne. As we were talking Bill mentions that he tends to overhydrate
and has to pee all the time. His wife told him to "just pee, everyone else
does it." His response was that "normal people don't". :) I didn't have the
heart to tell him that for the last mile I was silently relieving myself and
the next water stop I would "flush". :) As we came up to the next water stop
I told him that I had to use the porta-potty and take a dump, he had to pee
so he went to. I grabbed a gatorade and a water before entering the potty.
Sat down, slammed down the drinks, took care of business, wiped and ran out.
We exited at the exact same time! He looked at me and said "You didn't
just......" I said "Oh yes I did, I have this down to a science!!"

After about mile 11 Bill dropped off the pace and I wished him a great run
and continued on. Around mile 14 I met up with a woman who turned out to be
a triathlete. She had done the Chesapeake Iron Distance race but was
disappointed in how flat it was. She had just done Boston a couple weeks ago
and seemed to be in amazing shape. I ran with her for a while and she
dropped off the pace. At this point I am still feeling very good and holding
a very steady pace.

Between mile 15 and 16 I met up with Hanna. (Friend #2 in SweetK's album)
She was awesome! This was her 9th marathon and was just a machine, looking
very comfortable. She struggled going up hills but just coasted down the
hills. We had some good conversation and before I knew it we were at mile
22!! I was still walking through the water stations taking gatorade and
water at each one. I missed a couple gels here and there but overall stuck
pretty close to the nutrition plan. After mile 22 there was a pretty big
hill and that was the last I saw of Hanna until the finish.

Miles 23-26 had a few hills that were eating people up. I think I passed 30
or so people in the last 3 miles. My pace increased a bit when I knew there
was only 5K left. At the water station after mile 24 I tried to get some
kids to throw water on me (thanks for the idea marmadaddy!!) and the
confused look on there face was priceless! By the time they figured out I
was serious I got a little splash on my back. Frome here on out it was just
a cruise to the finish line. I passed 6 or 8 people after I entered the
school grounds. When I got to the track for the last .2 miles I was on cloud
9! I felt like I could have gone another 5 or 6 miles. I saw Kristen at the
finish and just could not get the smile off my face. Thank you again
Kristen, you are great!!! BTers ROCK!!! No doubt about it!



What would you do differently?:

Absolutely nothing!!



Post race


Warm down:

Some volunteers were trying to get me to sit down but I felt spectaculer and
just walked over and had some water, bananas, oranges and stretched out a
bit. I forgot to tell Kristen to bring the cooler in with her so I ran out
to her car to get my recovery shake and ran back to the track to catch
Derek.

I talked Kristen into going up to the bleachers and get a picture coming
into the stadium then we would have tome to get a picture at the finish as
well. As we waited up there for Derek to come into the stadium he came up
behind us and suprised us. How did we miss him? I felt terrible, not only
did we miss him coming across the finish line but we (or I) made him climb
stairs after he just ran a MARATHON!!! Sorry Derek!!



What limited your ability to perform faster:

Nothing. More training. I am very pleased with my performance in my 1st
marathon!!



Event comments:

The volunteers were amazing!! If there is an organization that can assemble
volunteers it is the Red Cross!! I will most likely do this race again next
year.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]