Marine Corps Marathon

Well it's done. I've registered for the 34th Marine Corps Marathon held in Washington DC October 25, 2009!!! I am soo psyched!
Training starts depending on which plan I follow. Hal Higdon's Novice II has me starting June 15.. Jeff Galloways 25 week 'Time Goal' plan starts May 11... right after Indy. I still have to decide...

I need to get through tomorrows LM first! ;)

I DID IT !!!!

Well, I guess I can officially say I'm a 'marathoner' !! I completed my very first marathon yesterday at the Quad Cities Marathon in an official time of 4:55:51.





Wow, where do I begin?? So many things to tell! Well I'll start with the Marathon and work back to Saturday. I woke up Sunday morning feeling even more nervous than I was two weeks ago! I think that was because I was going to be out there all alone instead of having my friends with me! I told myself that the last 5 months weren't for nothing so I calmed myself down and got dressed and tried to eat my oatmeal.. blah.. Kevin and I left the hotel about 6:30 for the short drive down to the start and along the way I ate my powerbar and drank some more water. Got parked easily and there were already a lot of people walking around, music going and a few vendors already set up. There was a building across the street where most people were, so we went inside to keep warm! It was pretty chilly out there and I forgot to bring my t-shirt with me to the start.. Stretched out, hit the bathroom, and at about 7:15 went back outside..

Kevin also got pictures of my 'inspirations' I had on me.. I got a lat minute good luck email from Kathy H. Saturday morning with lots of good thoughts for me in it and one of them was what I put on my back.. I got lots of comments about that along the way and lots of 'good luck' shout outs too along the way. too! Another one was what I wrote on my arm:

There were I believe 3600 runners and the starting area was getting really full so I figured I better find my pace group. Kevin said 'good luck' and gave me a big hug and away I went into the crowd of runners. They were packed really tight in there but I made my way up in between the 4:30 pace and the 4:45 pace group. My reasoning for this was that I was planning on staying close behind the 4:30 group (10:18) pace and NOT to let the 4:45 (11:00) pass me.. more on that later.

Kevin actually found me in the crowd (he has a way of doing that!) right before the start. That's me in the bottom right corner, in front of the bald guy.. I've got the white hat on. We sung the star spangled banner I THINK!!? Right now I can not recall what we sang!! I remember singing, but I was so nervous I guess it didn't completely register!! Then the gun went off and away we went! Started off and immediately turned left to go up the I74 bridge which crosses the Mississippi River into Beddendorf Iowa. The hill up the bridge was a little steep and very long. I managed fine and heard somebody say they thought that was the only hill.. HA! Yeah, right!




Coming off the bridge into IA we made a right and went up another hill, and well, it all went downhill, I mean uphill, from there!! I could compare it to the second part of Lincoln Memorial easily. We wound around Beddendorf a while then headed south along the river's edge which was very pretty! for a few miles.. but that was hilly too! Sort of weird but we would be up on the biking trail, then had to go down into the parking lot then back up to the trail about 3 times. The trail wasn't a continuous path.. there were 'exits' down into the parking lot which we followed. That accounted for more hills.. we were now in Davenport but didn't spend a whole lot of time there.. made a loop out and back in which you could see everybody ahead of you then once you turned, everybody behind you.. and that 4:45 was quite a ways behind me!! yeah!! I could still easily see the 4:30 pace group ahead of me and my garmin was sitting right at 10:20 so I was feeling very good about that.. Another bridge back over into Illinois (another big hill) and the 10 mile marker was on that hill.. Kevin was outside our hotel watching for me and got a couple of pictures. It was great to see him and he really cheered me on big time!! GO Kari!! YEAH!! Kari!! I think you could hear him a mile away! That's the picture to the right.. The gal next to me started laughing and I explained that he was my husband!! Too funny!! We went out and back for 3 miles and kevin was at the 13 mile mark too which was only about a block or so over..

The bottom picture is mile 13...





Next it was over to Arsenal Island for 6 miles.. Arsenal is actually the Army base. It was pretty interesting seeing everything that was on the base and there were also a ton of sailboats in the river pretty close to the Island watching the marathoners go by. Around 17 or 18 I could tell I started to slow down a bit and the Garmin said 10:30.. that's alright.. I could still come in right around 4:35.. stuck with that pace for those 2 -3 miles (by the way the 4:30 pace group wasn't visible anymore!) I told myself just make it to 20 and it's all flat from there on out. Then we hit the last bridge to go back over the river into Illinois. HUGE hill at 19.5 to go up and it pretty much did me in.. I slowed up a little more to get up the hill, but stayed that way until the finish..

Turned left at the bottom of the bridge (mile 20) and we could see and hear everyone coming in for the finish just up the road to the right.. We went left for 3 then back to the finish..I must say that was the hardest part seeing those people getting ready to finish and knowing you still had 6 more to go.. I kept my pace up, alright it was pretty slow, but I did not stop! Not for the entire 26.2 miles.. not once. I did take 2 steps at mile 22 for water and decided that hurt much worse than running!! The 4:45 group passed me at around 21 or so and I told them about it!! ha! My legs hurt and my feet really hurt at this point but I kept telling my self 'Today is NOT that day" (thanks Kathy) and 'Don't Quit!"..

The very coolest thing was at mile 23!! It was a huge 'brick Wall'! It covered the entire path and you ran through the middle of it!! Cheerleaders were lined up as you went though and when they saw you coming they started doing a cheer for you and gave you high fives.. That was by far the neatest thing off all 26.2 miles.. I wished I had a camera on me!! I turned my Ipod off at mile 25 so I hear the crowd..

What a feeling to finally see the big 'FINISH' banner in the air!! Crowds cherring, the announcer telling the names of the finishers as they crossed the finish, and there was Kevin! I tried to smile but the emotions were flowing at that point.. As I was coming in the announcer announced my name and that I was from Springfield.. He then went on to say that this was my first marathon!

THAT was really neat hearing my name!! Once I crossed the finish I went over and gave Kevin sweaty kiss and a hug and he tried to get my picture but the emotions started flowing again so that had to wait a little bit!! The clock time said 4:57..

I am extremely happy with my time knowing that I kept up a 10:20 - 10:30 for 20 miles and given that it was a very very hilly course!! Not flat like Chicago.. people told me I should try Chicago but I didn't listen!! haha.. no I am really happy but I might give Chicago a try next year!

So back to Saturday.. we first went to the packet pickup and expo which was pretty good size!! Bought a nice brooks zip up jacket with the QC marathon logo on the front and back.. and that was it for my purchases.. milled around there for a while, talked to the pace group guys to decide if I should do that or not, and I was really happy to see Springfield represented at the Lincoln Memorial Half Marathon table!! Tim and Tammy M. were there working the table so I talked with them a bit, then headed to the hotel to get checked in. Had a beer to relax my nerves a little and then headed down the street to dinner. Down the street on the square were the 'Blues Brothers' .. had to get a picture of that!! We found Blue Cat Brew Pub on the internet. It was a micro brewery so we decided early on that's where we would eat dinner.. Kevin had 2 or 3 more beers but I stopped at one at drank water!! Ugh! The sacrifices!!!!

So that is my first marathon experience folks.. The highs. the lows and the in betweens.. thanks for tuning in!

last two runs before Sunday..

Got in a 3 miler yesterday and I'm going to do a quick 2 miles today at lunch.. hit that snooze a few times this morning, then decided I'd just run at lunch..
After that, I am done... 'till Sunday.. weather looks perfect!! I am really psyched up right now and it seems like the week is dragging by!! Sunday can't get here soon enough!! I just wish everybody was going to be there again!! Kathy told me she even had a present for me last Sunday for after I finished! What a thoughtful thing to do!! It will have to wait tho.. didn't complete my first marathon quite yet!

13+ miles

Met Kim N. at Panera this morning at 6:00 a.m. and we did a little over 13 at a darn good pace!! We were right at 10:00 for all but the first mile or so.. pretty good!!

Kathy H is in North Carolina, and Patti and Kathy were thinking more like 7:00 a.m. to run.. I had to be back home by 8:45 at the latest so we could get to Lincoln by 10:00 a.m for a football game, so I said I'd just go it alone unless they really wanted to get up at 5:00 a.m.! Can't blame them, especially after last Sunday's run!! Plus they get to be done with their long runs.. I had one more left!!

Anyway Kim emailed yesterday to see what mileage I was doing Saturday..turns out we were both looking to run about 13.. She has been nursing a sore calve and was needing to take it slow and easy.. I can do that!!!!! Actually I was thinking I wanted to get a good hard-ish run in today, since I've been tapering forever! A good run a little on the hard side was what I needed to get my out of my taper slump.. 3 weeks is waaay too long.. Funny thing is Kim's easy is my hard!!

And that is exactly what we did today.. 13+ miles right at 10:00... the first mile or so were slow, but not after that.. I did stretch my calves once because I started to get a cramp..probably the humidty! Not only did today feel good, but my psyche needed the boost too!! I feel real good about Quad Cities right now!!

So I got 2 5.5 mile runs in this week, and 13 today, then I'll do 2 real short runs this week like I did before and I should be rested for QC.!

Quad Cities Marathon - 9/28/08

So my next attempt at this marathon thing is in 10 days at the Quad Cites Marathon in Moline..I can without a doubt bet we'll have much better weather!! It can't get any worse than Sunday!! Got registered and got a hotel room Monday.. The route looks great! Covers 4 cities and two states: Illinois and Iowa. Goes over the Mississippi River, up on I74, and onto Arsenal Island which is an island out in the middle of the River..At mile 11 we pass in front of our hotel and at mile 20 we run very close to the finish line so we'll get to see and hear the crowd that's there. A guy here in the office Blake, has ran the 1/2 marathon (both start together) and he said it's a nice scenic route. Said that he's heard something about a brick wall hologram at mile 23.. that should be interesting.

So I'm back to running and got 5.5 miles in yesterday. Will do another 5 or 6 tomorrow then 14 on Saturday with next week being a quick taper..

Here's a couple of videos from the Marathon:

Running with Hurricane Ike

What started out to be a fun, enjoyable weekend turned into nothing more than a pure and simple test of sheer will! 24+ MPH winds, gusts of 50 MPH, and driving rain couldn't stop us from going for it! We tried, we couldn't finish, but none of us felt defeated in the least!

Kevin and I got to Ameristar Hotel in St. Charles around 2:30 Saturday and quickly headed to the expo. We shopped a bit, he caught a heck of a deal on a good pair of running shoes, and I went a little cheaper and got out of there for $6. The shirts were again great this year, and I planned on bringing it Sunday to put on at the finish line. We walked around the casino, the really cool fountain, and checked out a cool sportsbar..

We heard that the Katy Trail went right under part of the Ameristar so we went out to find it... it was right around 13.5 miles, and Kevin said he'd be at the bridge around 9:00 so he could cheer me on at the 1/2 way point.. took some pictures of the trail, then back inside the hotel and got checked in.. Went up to the 15th floor and checked out our room.. Really really nice hotel room complete with a huge huge bathroom, TV to watch from the tub, king size bed and a sunken lounge area with chairs and a couch. Our room looked out over the river, Kathy H said their room looked over the other side which was pool side so we went to check that out too.. It was around 4:15 and we had 45 minutes to kill before meeting everyone in the lobby to head to dinner. Kevin said I needed something to drink.. I guess that meant I was pretty keyed up about the whole marathon thing and was in need of settling down. The drink worked.. Went down to the lobby at 5:00 to meet everyone and head to dinner .. we were able to squeeze into Jill's car since Kathy F and Rich were meeting us at the restaurant and since Kathy H and Don brought Haley, they didn't feel they should intrude on adult conversation. .. silly girl!!!! We missed you Kathy! So we ate at Favazza's Italian restaurant on the hill and it was excellent! Huge portions, very authentic Italian food and great atmosphere.. Had a nice enjoyable dinner and headed back to the hotel. It was 9:00 and the guys all hit the Casino, but the girls headed up to their rooms to get to bed.. I figured I'd be too keyed up to sleep, but I slept like a log.. That was the end of the 'fun, enjoyable weekend' I mentioned earlier!!

Woke up at 4:45 Sunday and headed straight for the window.. It had already started raining and the wind was blowing. Well, it doesn't look too bad I thought, and started getting dressed.. looked out again and decided I couldn't really tell what it was doing outside from that high up and on the dark river side, so I went out into the hall, down to the elevator area and looked out the other side of the hotel. where it was light up from street lights... Ike had arrived. It was pouring and blowing like nothing I had ever seen before! The nerves hit again and I wondered how I was going to get through 26.2 miles of that?? I decided this still wasn't close enough to the action so I went downstairs, and outside to get a bird's eye view. That just depressed me and I didn't want to see anymore so I went upstairs to finish getting ready.. ate my oatmeal and raisins, drank some water, got my fuel belt on, Ipod and Garmin and away I went.. Kevin was up by that time; he wished me luck and said he felt really bad for us having to run in that mess outside! Gave me the 'ol 'You didn't train the last 5 months for nothing' pep talk, and away I went out the door. 5 garbage bags in hand..

The girls were downstairs already sporting their lovely black plastic attire.. I put mine on, left the others on a table for whoever needed them, and we climbed onto the bus.. the bus had pulled right up under the big awning so we were still dry at this point. On the way over to the start, we looked out the windows and seriously wondered if they'd call the races off..but there wasn't any lightening so probably not.. Ok, so no lightening... Tornado?? Yea, a tornado would surely call off the race! Dang, no tornado either... The line into the Riverport parking lot was really backed up so it was quite a long wait to get off the bus.. The race was supposed to start at 6:45 but it was already 6:30 and still a line of cars were coming in so we figured they'd postpone it a little like they did last year.. Eventually the bus pulled up and let everyone off.. After getting over the shock of the cold rain and wind we went over to the bag drop, dropped off our bags and headed to the port a potties.. I took off the garbage bag and put on my rain jacket I brought.. zipped up, put the hood up but was still getting drenched.. We huddled together in the start area and decided that we were all getting a free derm abrasion treatment from the driving rain hitting our faces.. We would just look at each other and laugh because we were all thinking, what the hell are we doing??!!! We had to stand around about 10 minutes which normally would be nothing, but we were just wanting to GO.. get it done! We started, and thanks to the guy on the mike who from his car was cheering us on.. lots of whoo hoo's and 'hell yea's' were heard and I was amazed at everyone's enthusiasm in running the race despite the weather! kathy's boss told her to 'run fast and dodge the puddles'.. funny guy! Our shoes were squishing before we even started running so the puddles weren't going to make a difference at that point.. we were fighting the wind most of the way and sometimes you couldn't go forward because it held you back! At one point tho the wind was at our backs and that was great! It only lasted 2 miles tho and we turned back around and headed straight back into the wind.. so much for the break.. At the water stations you'd throw your cup down and the wind would throw it back at you, or they'd be flying around from being blown back up off the street.. the rain felt like ice pellets on your face and my neck hurt from keeping my head down so much.. the volunteers had these 'oh I feel for you' look on their faces..Lots and lots of encouragement from them along the way.. We kept on going and eventually you got a little used to the wind and rain...

At mile 9 I heard somebody say 'only a mile left' and I thought, Oh, that's just not funny!! But a little bit down the road I heard '.8 left '.. What??? Looking up, I realized where we were at.. we were headed down the hill that at the bottom turned to the right and took you to the 1/2 finish line.. but as we turned the corner the road was blocked with tape and they were yelling out 'everybody finishes just up ahead, it's been cut short at 10 miles'... WHAT??!! NO Freaking way!! I thought the weather was actually getting a little better! Why quit now?? Then I heard: 'Marathoners - the katy trail is under water'.. OH Great!

I saw a few people ducking under the tape before their chip crossed over the finish line. Apparantly they were marathoners not quite ready to throw in the towel yet.. I too stepped out at the last second and started running back the way I came.... I wasn't ready to quit yet either.. where would I run tho?? Follow the course?? What if I get back a few miles and they are shutting down the course?? I don't know St. Charles at all!! My heart said keeping going, but my head won and told me I better stop.. I had rememered that Quad Cities was in two weeks (at least I was about 90% sure) so I decided to register for Quad Cities!

Patti and Kathy came in soon after me and she spotted Don so Patti and I went to pick up our bags.. the park was pretty much under water and a muddy mess!! So we sloshed our way to the tent to get our bags, sloshed our way out of the park to dry (sort of) land and headed to the hotel.. Kathy was already there and she and the guys were waiting for us under the awning.. we then headed up to the room to get a shower.. my Mom, sister and Kaiden were on their way and would be getting to the hotel soon.. I felt really bad that they got up so early to drive down and watch the finish.!

So my first try at a marathon wasn't to be, but I gave it my best shot, everybody gave it their best shot! Like I said, we didn't feel defeated at all.. in fact, I think we're all feeling pretty good right now that we even had the guts to get out their and run at all!

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6774000