This was my third year coming out to the Valley of the Sun for the Rock & Roll. The first year I ran the half, and the second and third, the full. Last year I had a blast, and this year did not disappoint. I arrived Thursday, met my friend Jon at the airport (he was getting the rental car this year), and we went to a very nice golf resort in Scottsdale where my brother scrounged two comp rooms for us. Each room had a living room and kitchenette with coffee maker, microwave and fridge, so we didn't have to worry about pre-race breakfast and
all that, and this year the rooms overlooked the huge golf course, very scenic. Last year I had my husband and kids with me, and my dad and his wife were staying at my brother's house around the corner from the hotel. My dad has alzheimer's and couldn't process the noise from the kids running around, he was all grumpy and silent, my poor SIL was totally stressed with all the visitors, her kids were sick with strep throat and the flu-- it was the worst! So I couldn't be happier this year when my dad's wife decided they couldn't fly out, and my husband and the kids stayed home. Ahhh, the silence of the clean hotel room! No stress! The only fly in the ointment was that my left knee hurt like a bear since I got on the plane in Newark. I actually asked the flight attendant for ice and iced it the whole way to Phoenix. Same knee that hurt since NYCM, but now it was really painful. I was sure
I would drop down to the half, which Jon said I could do anytime up to the actual start of the race. I was happy to be in Phoenix, but I wasn't excited about the race at that time. I didn't like the half course, and thought about just not running anything, spectating instead.
Jon and I hit the expo Friday. At the expo, which was large and well-attended, we picked up our stuff and stopped by the booth of my brother's company, Paradise Bakery, one of the race sponsors this year. There we met one of the managers who got us two passes to the VIP staging area on race morning (there was no Stage Rocks tent this year, the Scottsdale Running Company stopped producing it)! She said Frank Shorter and Khalid Kanouchi (sp?) would be there, they had already been by the expo and had autographed her sponsor pass and taken photos with her. I decided right then and there that I was in for the full distance. I was icing my knee a lot and I would just hope for the best. I was not motivated for the run before the expo, but after hearing about the elite staging area, I was so psyched up. Because of the knee I decided to stay in my comfort zone, and printed
out a pace band for a 4:10 marathon. I would not wear head phones, wanted to practice pacing and focusing. Jon was going for a sub-2:50 and was getting more and more nervous. Every so often he'd start talking to himself about running a strategic race, saying it over and over. So we just tried to relax a lot on Saturday, stay off our feet. My knee still hurt Saturday, real pain under the knee cap, and I was worried. I took 2 advil Saturday night and kept icing. I showed Jon an article in Running Times about "shake out" runs, the elites do them, they are not warm up runs-- they get up about 4 hours before a race and just jog a very slow mile, just to get the blood to the muscles and get the stomach moving. He said he'd try it on race morning, and he did. 3:30 am Sunday he went out and did a slow mile.
I woke up at 4 am Sunday, and I swear, my knee felt fine! I'm like, WTF, but it really was about 80% better than it had been all week. I ate a bowl of cheerios and soy milk (I usually have toast or a bagel pre-race, and the cheerios did not sit well, but it was all I had), did a small shake-out run (I did a slow mile the morning of the Shamrock last March and PR'ed there, so it's a habit I try to keep), showered, got into warm-ups and we headed to the staging area with Fred, a friend of my brother's. His son was runing his first half-marathon (at age 15, he ran a 1:25!). The elite staging area was inside the beautiful Phoenix rock and mineral museum, which was both nice and surreal. My brother's bakery company supplied all the bagels, muffins, coffee, etc. The elites entered. Jon, Fred, his son and I grabbed a table. A guy at the next table asked me who my sponsor was! I just about died laughing! We started talking, and he told me he was a pacer for Haile Gebreselasie (sp?) when Geb ran his WR half marathon there in '06. He was on about 5 different pro racing teams. Then Frank Shorter walked in. I went over and asked him if he liked the muffin he was eating, we started talking, he was so nice! He signed my bib "For Aubrey, you can do it! Just have fun!" and his name. I tell you, I really thought about him saying "just have fun" a helluva lot late in the race. Then we took a photo. He was the only celeb I saw there. Then it was almost time to go, and even in the elite area there's a huge line for the woman's room. Jon came out of the men's room and said I should just go in there, he saw another woman do it. So I did. I walk in, head down, had to wait for a stall. Some guy came in and asked me jokingly if I was going to use the urinal. I said I would if I knew how! But those lines for the
women's room are ridiculous! There was a whole group of young women in the staging area, not an ounce of body fat on them but they did not look emaciated either, they looked great-- they were all attempting to qualify for the OT, and I hear 8 of them did. Jon actually ran with them through mile 22, they had Hanson's Team pace bunnies.
Last year, I had to walk quite a ways to the starting corral from the Stage Rocks tent I was in. This year, the starting line was right outside the elite staging area door. The weather was great, about 48 at the start, mid to upper 60's at the finish, not a cloud in the sky, but a lot of shade for a good chunk of the course. Jon said there was a wind of 5-10 mph, but I didn't feel it. It was awesome. So Jon and I wished Matthew, the 15-year-old kid running the half, good luck, we high-five each other, and head to our corrals. Frank Shorter and
Khalid Kanouchi gave little speeches before the start, then the gun fired. I saw signs for the 3:45 pace team near me, but this year, I didn't even try to start with them. "Restraint" was my mantra. And I did hold back. I ran at a pace where I could easily carry a conversation for probably most of the race, trying to keep the average pace on my Garmin at about 9:10. Remember those cheerios? Well, they led to a pit stop at mile 9, then I stopped very briefly for a gel and water at mile 10. My knee started to hurt at mile 16, but with less
than 10 miles to go, I just took 2 advil and told myself to suck it up. And advil is indeed a miracle drug. I felt the start of calf cramps at mile 16, the result of severe undertraining (my longest run since NYCM was 12 miles), but I grabbed a salt packet at the next aid station and that seemed to keep the cramps at bay. I planned to start taking 45 second walk breaks at the water stations after mile 20, to try to keep the left leg going to the finish, and those seemed to help, though of course my average pace started dropping to a 9:23. I
timed each break and pushed on to the next water table. Not having the headphones made it so much easier to focus! I was surprised, because I love my music, but when I wore phones I never was able to think of the motivating things I had to keep me going late in the game. Without them, I remembered to concentrate on things I knew helped get me going. I was in some pain from mile 22 on, but it didn't really bother me. Marathons hurt. The spectator support was fantastic, especially a big group of teenage girls all dressed as
members of the glam rock band Kiss. I saw my SIL, niece and nephew spectating at the mile 26 marker, and paused to give them a hug before the final kick. 4:08:41.
I felt sick after I finished (maybe the salt I took) and had to stop for a bit at the med tent, where I iced my knees, then headed over to meet Jon at the VIP finish area (oh yeah, the passes were good for that too). On the way there, I stepped up on a curb and my left leg suddenly seized up in cramps. Man, did that suck! I fell right onto some old people next to me, who kind of broke my fall as I fell to the ground. I was screaming! I've never felt anything like it in 8 previous marathons-- hell, I never felt anything close to that in childbirth! It took about 20 minutes until I could stand up, then this med tent guy walked me over to the VIP area. I found Jon, and when I first saw him I thought for sure he blew his goal. He looked so serious, and when I asked him how he did he said "sub-3" and started going on about the course. I finally said, "what is your time?!" Turns out he ran a fantastic PR of 2:45, at age 41. I told him it must have been the shake out run that did it for him. Couldn't have been all those 22 mile training runs, and hard core speed work that he did! There was beer and decent hot food (pasta, chicken, coffee, iced tea, beer, soda, cookies) at the VIP area (tables with table cloths, shi-shi!), it was so cool! I even got to do the VIP baggage check, so my bag was right there. So much fun! We had VIP passes for the post-race concert (Kool & the Gang, heh) too, but we were too tired to go. All in all, just an awesome day, which we capped off with my brother and his family at a restaurant. Jon and I were both starving, we polished off everything!
I'm happy with my time, because I didn't train for this marathon and didn't really race it. But I'm bummed too, because I did train hard for Berlin, did several 17, 1 18, and 2 20 mile runs, and only did 90 seconds better. I think I had the physical training for Berlin, but not the mental discipline, and here I had the opposite-- little training but I had good mental fortitude. One day maybe I'll have both at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment