Where were we ...
Saturday morning J and I head out for a short run at 6am to stretch our legs and test out the temperature. It was warmer than I thought, definitely planning on wearing shorts for the race. Our run ended at Walgreens, not because we planned it that way, but we bought so much we couldn't have run any more. We walked back to the hotel with bags full of bandaids, drugs unavailable in Canada, water and items we forgot to pack. Then we met up with some of our group and headed to Paris for a carb-loading-buffet-breakfast. God bless the buffet.
After a visit to NikeTown and some gabbling ($6.87 up), it was time for the RBF meeting. Jeff, Reece and Jess collected Dawnie and I from our hotel, and we headed to the Marconi Grill for dinner. It was so great to meet other BTTers, we had a great dinner like we had know each other for years ... I supposed reading about each others lives makes that kinda true.
I must let you in on a little secret. Have you ever heard nothing but good things about something or someone, and wondered if all the hype was true? Like say ... is Jeff really a super-amazing-hipster or does he just have good PR people working for him? Well I'm here to tell you he is all that and then some! The then some ... he is an artist! Oh yeah give him a crayon and your dinner choice ... I think Reece has a pic of the masterpiece!
Dinner and meeting these awesome BTTers was fantastic and made Vegas even more special.
Marathon Number 3 ...
Our alarm went off at 3.40am. J and I got ready, packed our bags then headed down for breakfast. Remember the challenges I mentioned before. Well this is J's first marathon, the one big piece of advice I kept saying over and over like a stuck record was don't try anything new on race day. We were told the restaurant would serve us breakfast at 4am. When we ordered our oatmeal like we always have, they said NO. It was too late to order room service, so we ended up with a stale toast white bagel and super strong coffee. Luckily we both were okay and our bagels stayed put.
Our group of 24 made our way to the start ... here's a pic of all of us, taken by someone who was obviously still loaded, but I think it looks very late night in Vegasy - I'm in the middle front with pink shorts
My plan was to run a 4.45, I figured I ran 5 hours in Niagara comfortably and walked 4.5 miles at the end, so 4.45 wasn't a stretch.
The first 3 miles felt really great, I got into a nice pace almost right away. I saw Jeff at the 3 mile mark. Running up the strip was awesome the miles just disappeared. Around 5 I felt a twitch in my right foot, I am foot obsessed due tto all the problems I have had with them over the last few months. As we entered Freemont Street, the twitch had numbed two of my toes. The half marathon turn off was just ahead ... the thought did cross my mind ... should I? No, a few more minutes and my foot will be fine. My pace was great for the next couple of miles, my legs felt strong, but the twitch wasn't leaving.
Just before mile 9 I found a port-a-potty with a smallish line. When I started running again I noticed the twitch had turned to an uncomfortable throb .... I don't think it like me stopping. But I had something to look forward to, Jeff, there he was at mile 9 and completely brightened my mood. I quickly stopped retied my shoe in hopes it was too tight then was off again. I ignored my foot, hoping the pain would disappear from lack of attention, everything else felt great. It all really started to feel bad around mile 11 from here on, I stopped every couple of miles took off my shoe and massaged my foot. It helped for about 10 minutes then it was back again. When I was running my pace felt good my legs still felt really strong, but I was losing a lot of time sitting on curbs with my shoe off.
By 20 I realized the pain wasn't going anywhere no matter how many ibuprofen I took. Finishing in 4.45 was not happening, 5 hours was looking unrealistic. I started to shut down mentally, my body went into just finish mode. There was one positive element during all of this called Jeff. He biked along beside me, keeping me going, telling me jokes, feeding me pretzels and living up to his super-hero status.
Besides for my foot problem, the worst part of this marathon was the mile marker at 25. At the last waterstop, there was no mile marker, but one of the volunteers said you have one to go .... so I thought I was running mile 25 and the next marker would be 26. I can't begin to describe the emotions when I saw mile 25.
I wanted to cry.
I wanted to kick the sign.
I wanted to run back and make the volunteer run the rest.
I wanted to push Jeff off his bike and steal it.
Using his superhero mind reading powers, Jeff asked if there was anything I needed ... then looked at me and said "not the bike" ... damn superhero goodness.
Jeff stayed with me till 26 then rode ahead to cheer me in. In the final 200m the owner of our local running store joined me to get me across the line.
Final time: 5.20
Vegas may not be the best marathon I have ever done, or the most organized, but it will be the most memorable. I couldn't have asked for better people to go with, get to meet, and most of all support me throughout.
ha! Defintely not the most organized but it was very memorable. You were such a trooper out there to push through your problems. Glad Jeff was such a help. I know he was for me too and I think he did a good job going between us - like a true superhero!
good job getting through it ali! thats a bummer about your foot but fortunately you had a superhero to help spur you on to the finish. sounded like a good time in the end. nice work. i have a feeling you'll be back!!
Great report. Thank you for sharing your story of struggle and a well earned Marathon FINISH.
Great job Ali! too bad about your foot. A well earned stolen bike if you ask me!
Congratulations on another marathon. despite the bum you still pulled it off.
aww, ali, you're too kind.
you REALLY kicked some butt out there, though. running while in pain takes so MUCH effort, and you pulled through and added another notch to your marathon belt. congrats, lil sis!