Mommy’s First Marathon – Missisauga

Date: Sunday May 11th – Mothers Day!
Location: Mississauga
Sport: Road Running Race – Marathon
Website: http://www.mississaugamarathon.com/index.asp

Well I must say….4:30AM comes very early!

After lots of hard training & direction from “coach” Bob, and a pre-race pep-talk the night before, I was ready to take on the Marathon with no nerves – in my mind today was another set of training intervals that were going to take me all the way to 42K.

As I was in bed early last night, the family “elves” put together a Mother’s Day Surprise for me as they knew I would be up early. Perfect start to a great day! A funny card, mommy-goodies to pour over, some oatmeal, hydration, and a swig of java, kept my mind off any pre-race jitters as I puttered around quietly making sure I had everything I needed.

I parked at the Cawthra Community Center, jumped on one of the buses and it took me to the start line stress-free – so glad I did that as there were lineups of cars getting into Square One and the bus got me there fast. The first familiar person I saw was Andy from the shop – as I was all decked out in my “new Team Gear” he spotted me right away. I was starting to get excited and seeing the seasoned Marathoner before the start and exchanging “luck” made me feel confident and ready to get on the road!

The plan was to warm up at 6:15 pace, and go water station to water station and try to keep that average, and if nothing else my primary goal was to make sure I took my gels every half hour, and stay hydrated. My Garmin clocked me ~6min behind gun time, and based on how I felt I kept that pace right up til ~26K only stopping at the 30min marks to have a gel & managed to run through the aid-stations, grabbing Gatorade, & sometimes “wearing” Gatorade J. I felt great. On the way to the turnaround I saw Esther Tam motoring along – I think she was 4 or 5K ahead of me based on positioning…I thought to myself…she is a machine!

I heard the long run out to the turnaround was just that…long, and as I came up to 26K I got a dizziness I’ve never felt before. I stopped to shake it off and managed to pick up the pace again – I slowed a bit to avg 6:22 and managed to better my 30K ATB by 18min, as I was @ 3:11 at the 30K marker. Success I thought to myself! Now all I have to do is 12 more. Well each of those KMs were like a painful test – and each one felt longer than the last – I’m thinking this is what they call the wall although while I was climbing that wall of pain I never really thought of it like “the wall” – I used every ounce of strength & brain power to just keep on moving. Relentless Forward Progress – its like a mantra now.

My family was coming to see me finish so I focused on that to keep moving. I realized with 5K to go that going sub-4:30 was out of reach, and I made peace with that as I battled the brutal wind coming off the Lake… there was no time for ego’s here – just finishing what I came out to do today. My knees were aching, my quads and hams were getting really tight – the coaches words circled in my mind “Its not supposed to be easy”…you got that right! 3K…then 2k…over the bridge with 1K to go and to my joyous surprise was my 4.5 year old son Luke – wearing his Spiderman Hat, swimming goggles and holding a rolled up sign they made this morning. He ran with me for a few hundred meters and was so excited – spectators were cheering – but then he got scared, he thought mommy was running away and started to cry – unfortunately Grandma was still a few hundred meters behind us so I stopped, did what any Mom would do, held his hand and we walked. When he finally settled and Grandma almost caught up I said “Mommy has to finish her race & run!” So off I went, I think I lost 2min – but seeing him in those funny goggles was worth it – and as I came around the bend I heard “Mama Mama” from Hayden my 2yr old with Daddy filming me– that made my day – now all I had to do was cross the finish line……

My First Marathon – Finally in Team Gear – 4:42:21 – A Perfect Mothers Day!