St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend 2011

I can't believe it's over.  I am officially a 1/2 marathoner.  All of the training and hard work paid off more than I ever imagined.  My goal going into the training was to finish between 2:10 and 2:15 which means I had to average about a 10 minute mile the entire time.  By the time race weekend arrived, I was really hoping to finish in about 2:05.

We headed to Memphis around 2pm Friday afternoon.  We stayed with my best friend in Marion on Friday night.  Kristin was running the race also.  Friday night we went to Pete and Sam's to carb up for the race.  I had lots of bread and lasagna.  We were up early on Saturday morning just trying to get ourselves prepared.  The weather was perfect for a race.  It was about 47 degrees and partly sunny. My parents met us in Marion and we finally headed into Memphis about 7am.  We finally got downtown and to the start around 7:30.  We hung around a little bit and then finally about 7:50 I made my way to my corral.  I started in corral 7 so it was actually about 8:12 before I ever crossed the starting line.  It took about 2-3 miles to actually get out of the worst part of the crowd.  I started off a little slow and kept telling myself to not overdo it even though I felt really good.  I am not a very good pacer, so I was scared I would start fast and run out of energy early on.  About 2 1/2 miles in I caught up to and passed the 4:10 marathon pacers that were at the front of my corral.  At this point it finally hit me that I could actually finish really close to the 2 hour mark.  I passed my parents again at mile 3 (Scott, Clint, & Connor (Kristin's husband and son) had decided breakfast was more important so they had gone to eat).  Luckily they were able to keep track of us on the St. Jude Marathon website.  It updated when we hit 3.1, 6.2, 10, and the finish.  It also gave them estimated finish times based on our pace when we crossed each marker.  I crossed the 3.1 mile mark at 0:28:33 which was a 9:12 mile pace.  About mile 4 we entered the St. Jude Campus.  If the sight of parents and families of the kids of St. Jude doesn't move you, I am not sure what will.  It was AWESOME!!

I crossed the 6.2 mile mark at 0:56:23 which was a 8:58 mile pace.  I was still feeling pretty good and hadn't really realized that I had sped up any.  I think the biggest help was that the racers were becoming more spread out and it wasn't nearly as congested. 

Around mile 9 I started to realize just how bad my feet were hurting, so I grabbed a drink of water and some GU and kept going.  I noticed that I was starting to slow down, but not by much.  The best I could tell I was still keeping about a 9:20 mile pace. 

I crossed the 10 mile mark at 1:31:38 which was a 9:19 mile pace.  I knew at this point finishing around 2:01-2:03 was looking realistic if I could just keep up the pace.  My body was starting to hurt really bad and I kept asking myself "What in the world was I thinking wanting to run a 1/2 marathon??" and "It's only a 5K left...You can run a 5K in your sleep...just not with legs that feel like they are about to give out on you."

From Mile 11 to 12 was the worst.  Then I hit mile 12 and it dawned on me that I was almost finished.  Only 1/2 mile until the marathoners split off from us and we were on the home stretch.  At about 12 1/2 miles we turned the corner and could see Autozone Park (the finish line was inside the park on the baseball field).  Something inside clicked and I was able to dig down deep and pick up the pace to the finish.  Once I passed the mile 13 marker, I actually entered the stadium and was on the home stretch.  I hit my stop watch about the time I crossed the finish line.  It said 2:00:06 so I figured it was actually off a little from my official time.  I saw my parents in the stands, waived, got my medal and a foil blanket and was headed towards the water and the stairs.  As I started up the stairs I spotted Scott in the stands and yelled "2 hours" to which he responded "and 6 seconds."  Somehow I had timed it just right and my stopwatch and my official time were the exact same.  Thanks to the tracking system Scott was able to see my finish time withing seconds of me actually crossing the finish line.

My body hurt pretty bad after it was over, but I got lots of water a little food and some rest while we waited on our friends to finish.  Now that I have had a couple of days to recover, I think I would do it again.  Not anytime soon, but I would run another one.

The St. Jude 1/2 Marathon is an awesome race to run and supports an awesome cause!!  I recommend it to anyone looking for a fun race.  It has some rolling hills, but is not too hilly.

Official Stats:
FINISH: 2:00:06 - 9:10 min/mile pace
Overall Finish: 1264 out of 6783
Gender Finish: 469
Age Division Finish: 103/782
5K Finish: 0:28:33 - 9:12 min/mile pace
10K Finish: 0:56:23 - 8:58 min/mile pace (Ranked 116 in age division)
10M: 1:31:38 - 9:19 min/mile pace

 

Little Rock Marathon 2011

So we survived the 1/2 marathon and relay on Sunday despite the fact that is was FREEZING!  Next year I will definitely wear long sleeves if it is that cold.  Lesson learned.  We got up Sunday morning thinking the sun would be shining by 7am.  WRONG!  It stayed cloudy until about noon.  We got downtown about an hour before the race started so that we could get parked and get over to the starting line.  I kept my coat on until the last minute because I was wearing a tank top and capris to run in and I knew I would be frozen as soon as I shed the jacket.  Heck I was already freezing even with the jacket.  Finally a few minutes before it started Scott and I shed our coats and got into our corral.  It took us about 4 minutes to actually make it to the starting line once the race started, but our chips didn't start timings us until we started the race.  I had the 1st leg our our four person relay team.  It started out in the River Market, then made its way over the bridge into NLR.  My 2 miles in, my hands were completely frozen.  I was so cold in fact, that I couldn't seem to keep a consistent pace.  I missed the 1 mile marker, but when I looked at my watch at the 2 mile marker, it has been 20:30 so I am guessing my pace was 10:15 for the 1st 2 miles.  I made mile 3 in about 9:30, mile 4 in 10:00, mile 5 in 10:20, and mile 6 in 9:30.  I finished my 6.2 mile leg in 1:02:12.  I was hoping to finish between 1:05 and 1:10 so I was super excited about my time.  Once I had started running, I finally warmed up except for my hands which froze the entire time.  As soon as I finished, I couldn't get my coat back on soon enough.  Wendy ran the 2nd leg our the relay, her sister, Jordan ran the 3rd leg, and Bass ran the final leg.  We finished the entire thing in 5:18. 


Scott also did great at the 1/2 marathon.  He finished in 2:40.  I was soo glad I had plenty of time to make it back over to the finish line to watch him finish.  He and I started out running together but got separated within the first mile.  Since the first 6.2 files of his 1/2 marathon was the same course as my 6.2 miles, I was able to watch him as he passed that point.  After watching him finish, I told him I wished I had run the 1/2 also.  I might do just that in October at the Soaring Wings 1/2 or December at the St. Jude 1/2.  Only time will tell.....

Scott and I before the race and already freezing!

Wendy, Bass, Scott and I before the Race

This was just after mile 5.

This was just after mile 5.  Mom was a little slow and only got Scott's back.

Scott getting close to the finish line....

And there he goes.....

With our pretty medals

Bass finishing strong for our relay team

Almost there....

Runnin the relay.....

That's right. I am officially signed up to run a leg of the relay in the Little Rock Marathon! I can't believe it. We are going to run on our own during the week and them meet up on the weekend for a long run. I have to admit, I was doing pretty good going to the gym until I got sick over Christmas break. I had actually ran 6 miles a couple of times before the break. Last week I thought I was going to die running 3. That's what a couple of weeks off and a lot of eating bad food will do! I am still trying to get back in the swing of things...but that ends today. I log my miles on a calendar at home so I can see how much I run each week. I am going to try and post my weekly totals on here to help keep me accountable. My team is made up of Bass, Wendy, and Jordan (Wendy's sister). We have finally decided on a team name: 3 Girls A Guy and A Relay. Wendy and Jordan ran the relay a couple of years ago and I'm soo excited to be running it with them this year.

To one up me, Scott is running the 1/2 marathon. He signed up back in November and has been training for a while now. I was going to just go an cheer him on, but now I will be running too. I am pretty sure I am going to get to run the 1st leg so at least we will get to start out running together and then I will be done in time to run back over to the finish line and watch him finish! I guess my 6.2 miles will look pretty low compared to the 13.1 he will be running. Oh well! It will be a great time!

Since we are both running I have enlisted my parents to come down for the weekend and be the photographers of the event and to celebrate my dad's birthday which will be the week before the race. I don't want to miss getting pictures of this! It will be a great accomplishment for both of us.

52 days to race day!! I better get to running!