Mississauga Marathon Race Report

Sunday May 16^th, 7:25am:  Completely freaking out….

Ok, how did I get here?  Why am I doing this?  This is not going to be fun.  In fact, this is really going to hurt.

These are the thoughts going through my head this past Sunday right before the start of the Mississauga Marathon.  Then the voice of my coach (fellow Running Free athlete Bob McGrath) popped in my head saying ‘Think positive.  You can do this.  If it was easy, everyone could do it.  You have done the hard work already.’  My friend Michelle was running the half and was beside me until we crossed the start line.  She gave me a big hug and told me I would be fine.  That would be the last I saw of her, she was gone on her way to a half that was only 20 seconds off a pre-baby PB!

When the gun went off I didn’t want to start moving but the thousands of people around me did not give me any choice but to move forward.  Just under 3 minutes after the gun went off I crossed the start line; hit the start button on my Garmin and off I went.  I have to admit, I did get goose bumps.  The excitement and anticipation in the air, the adrenaline of all the other runners, the cheering of those watching… it was really motivating.  Knowing that I wasn’t the only one embarking on this journey, that we had all trained, done the long runs, the tempos, the hills, logged the hours, sweated it all out outside and inside and now here we all were, together at the start.  But that’s why we run, to get that adrenaline rush, the sense of accomplishment, pushing ourselves beyond what we think we are capable of.

The first few kilometers of any race are always the interesting ones as you try to get comfortable with your pace and your breathing.  You spend a lot of time dodging people.  Running along Burnamthorpe with thousands of people in front and behind was overwhelming.  So many runners!  All different people, running styles, strategies, shoes, and gadgets.  I knew I was in this for the long haul so I tried to slow my pace down.  I tried just breathing through my nose to see if I was working too hard, but due to some congestion issues, that meant I couldn’t breathe at all.  Not a good thing.  About 3k in a friend from the gym caught up to me, gave me a little pep talk and told me to slow down.  I was doing about a 5:15 pace, which was much faster than I should have been doing.  He wished me luck and pulled ahead, never to be seen again.  Around the 4.5k mark I saw my friend Ryan (who is a fan of 15 and 1’s).  Had a brief little chat with him and then watched him take off.  This guy barely trained and still posted a PB!  He truly is an example of mind over matter.  I’m very proud of him for doing so well.  And that’s all the people running the race that I saw.

5k in: feeling good, right on target.  10k:  still feeling good.  Turn off for the full:  got a little teary eyed.  I really just wanted to run straight and do the half.  But no, I made the right turn and kept plugging away with the other marathoner’s.  About 15k I hear someone yelling at me (I had one earphone in) and lo and behold, it’s Bob in full Running Free gear to help me out.  It was really cool to see him.  I tried having a conversation with him, but that me slower, so I stopped talking.  For those of you who know Bob, you know that he can talk, so it really didn’t matter that I wasn’t.  Bob was a fantastic person to have with me during my first full.  He pushed me when I needed pushing, brought me potato chips when I dropped my salt pills, handed me water, made me take gels when I didn’t want them and basically just kept me moving when I wanted (and tried) to stop.  At the half-way point I was still feeling pretty good.  My goal was 4:20 and I was at 2:03.  Bob was taking pictures and my favorite picture from the day is the one he took just before the mat at the half-way point; I was smiling and waving.  Normally in my race pictures I’m looking at the ground.

Up the hill from the underpass, just around the 22k mark another Running Free athlete was there to cheer me on.  Darren Osborne came out to watch part of the race and see me.  He has some water and a gel for me.  He was standing at the start of an out-and-back so I saw him and heard him twice.  On the second pass, I grabbed the gel and he gave the water to ‘the dude on the bike’.  Thanks for coming out Darren!  By this point we were running past some pretty nice houses but I didn’t really notice them, I was distracted by the hills.  This was supposed to be a flat course.  They weren’t massive hills, but still they were enough for me to question why I had the need to run a marathon in the first place.  But, for every up hill, there’s a down.    It’s about the 25k mark that everything starts to blur together.  I know I was still running, I was still hitting the marks I wanted so that was good, but I really don’t remember a whole lot.  That might be a good thing.

The 30k mark was a big point for me.  I’d only ran 30k once before and that was during Around the Bay.  According to my watch, I had actually beaten my ATB time by nearly 30 seconds.  At the next water station Bob took my water belt since I wasn’t using it.  The plan of getting water from every water station was working.  And since they were every 2k, all was well.  A very kind person had set up a sprinkler on the route down to the water, which was great.  Very refreshing.  Because of the heat of the day and the fact that I’d now been running for 3hours, the water felt really good and was much colder than I had been anticipating.  It was also about this point my ‘power song’ came on and that was what I needed.  All during training the lyric’s of ‘it’s almost over now’ and ‘no one ever really dies’ helped and they helped again.

33k things started to go downhill a little.  I started to cramp and I felt myself slowing down.  I still had 9k to go so I really need to dig deep.  The clock at the 35k mark hurt to see because I was definitely slowing down.  For those that know, the end of the course has changed.  I ran the 10k last year and then watched my friend’s fiancé run the marathon the next day so I knew where the end used to be.  It was really unfair that we had to run past it at the 36k point.  Only another 6k to go.

Things really started to fall apart about 37k.  I’d hit the wall a few times before in training and that was not fun.  And it’s really not fun while racing.  I stopped.  Full on, completely stopped.  I just wanted to go to sleep on the grass, but Bob would not let me.  As he said, I’d come that far, why stop now?  But stopping seemed really tempting.  So, I kept moving.  I think I was probably doing the ‘dead man shuffle’ by this point, but I’m not sure.  At the 38k water station Bob made me take another gel even though I did not want anything.  I knew that I needed it, but that didn’t mean I wanted it.  By this point we are back on Lakeshore and it’s the final stretch till the end.  There were lots of people that looked like they were struggling just as much as me.  If they can do it, I can do it.  There were two ladies in particular that I kept passing and falling behind.  About 40k, I passed the one lady for the last time.  We’d been pushing each other all day.  (I saw her at the end and thanked her for helping push me and she said the same.)  Just before the 41k marker Bob asked me my time and I was at 4:11, so that meant 9 minutes to do a kilometer and a half.  Under normal circumstances a 6 min pace is completely do-able.  These were not normal circumstances.  The last 1.5k seemed so daunting.  I was pretty much unable to talk by this point and Bob had to yell at me to get me to even understand him.   I do remember what he said and it helped.  “It hurts, I know it does.  And I know you hate me and hate running but the pain isn’t going to go away if you stop and it’s not going to get any worse if you keep running, so just keep running.”

In true form (for me) I was staring at the ground about 10 feet in front of me and that’s all I was focusing on.  That and to keeping moving.  Then I hear screaming and my name being yelled really loud.  There were my friends who had run the half.  They’d come out to run me in for the last 600 meters.  Ryan, Chris Phillips and John Pereira (both RF athletes) and John’s daughter, Lydia.  It was great to have them there but at the same time I really didn’t want to see them.  I was hurting and did not want them to see that.  But they were great.  They cheered me all the way in.  I once again stopped.  With everyone on the side cheering, Bob on the bike and my friends running with me, I stopped.  I was crying except I had no tears to cry.  “You don’t stop when you have a crowd!” was all I heard from Bob so I somehow started moving again.   We came up the final turn and I heard one of them say, that’s it, you’ve got this.  Then I saw the finish line!  I’ve never been so happy to see a finish line in my life!  I got goose bumps running through the final stretch.  There were hundreds of people cheering on everyone, and then my entourage cheering me on all the way as well.  It was very emotional for me.  The second lady that I had been passing all day was right beside me and we both started sprinting (or what felt like sprinting at the time) to the finish, and she pulled up short.  I crossed the finish line, stopped my watch and then almost puked.  It was the best feeling ever!  Words cannot explain the emotions I had at that time.  And the pain I was in was unbelievable, but it was all worth it.  I had just finished a marathon!  Me!  Who would have ever believed it?  It was crazy.  And, I had done it in the time I wanted.  My watch said 4:19:10, but my official time was 4:19:08.  All I really wanted was my medal.  So I got one of those, the mylar blanket and 2 bottles of water.  Then came the huge task of lifting my foot so that the volunteer could cut my chip off.  That little stool seemed about 3 feet high.  Chris had to hold my hand while I lifted my leg.  I don’t think I actually lifted it as much as leaned against him until my foot was off the ground.

I suffer from what I call ‘runner’s brain’ where I get really stupid after I run.  The longer I run, the dumber I am.  Everyone was talking to me and telling me what to do and I couldn’t make any sense of it.  Chris took my water and pushed me towards the Gatorade table.  (Chris, having run a marathon before, knew somewhat what was happening in my very tired little brain.)  If Chris hadn’t kept helping for those first 10 minutes, I don’t think I would have been able to walk.  Then they all kept telling me to keep walking.  I just wanted to have a nap on the very nice piece of grass over the way.  Not going to happen.  Was listening to Ryan and John while Chris was handing me food (the best piece of orange I’d had in a long time!) when Bob re-appeared.  He wasn’t allowed to bike in with me.  Having Bob say that he was proud of me was a huge accomplishment for me.  Bob is a hard coach and he expects a lot from people.   But when someone does something huge and meets a goal, he’s very encouraging and supportive.  I would have finished the marathon, but without Bob I wouldn’t have done it in the time I wanted.   There, it’s out there.  Bob was right.  I’m never going to live that one down!

Overall, the whole experience was incredible.  I can’t say that I loved every minute of it, but I did love the whole experience.  The atmosphere, the course, the people.  I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who came out to see me and for those who stuck around for ages to see me finish.  You are all a part of my first marathon and made the experience what it was.  Even now I have a hard comprehending that I ran a marathon, but I know I did.  For anyone who thinks running a marathon is beyond what they are capable of, trust me, it’s not.  If I can do it, anyone can do it.  I had to work for every step of it, but the feeling you get after is so completely worth it.  The stiffness that afternoon and the next morning all mean that you pushed your body to a place it didn’t want to go to and you survived.  The expression ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ definitely holds true for a marathon.

Would I run another one?  Absolutely!  I’m planning on running the Road to Hope Marathon in Hamilton in the fall.  Would I encourage someone else to run one?  Absolutely!  You need to put yourself out there and try it.  Training is huge.  You have to do the work before hand, but if you stick to and believe you can do it, you can do it.  The Running Free logo ‘Believe it. Achieve it’ is true.