Just the title of this post is insane to me. There are so many words that come to mind of
actually running my first marathon; tough, monster, long, amazing. Before and after the race it sort of has
changed back and forth of what I feel about it. But it still hasn't set in what
I actually just did. Having grown up
around my Dad running, I never really fully understood the true power of what a
marathon really is. I even remember in
March at Shamrock I was standing next to Howie in the J&A tent and asking
him all these questions like it was nothing.
Boy was I wrong. I think until
you actually run one you can't really compare anything to it. I give more props to everyone I know more and
more now that I have run one. The way I
think about it is that the more miles you pack on, especially the last 4 miles,
and the higher the level of tolerance and power for pain, strength, fortitude,
and emotions goes up. So here is my
first marathon recap and please bear with me since it is 26.2 miles of a recap.
ROAD TRIP
Everyone that knows me knows that I am born and raised in
Metro Detroit. I had left Detroit in
2009 and it was the toughest decision for me to ever make. But without that decision, I wouldn't have
all the amazing things I have right now in my life. So every time I go back to Michigan I get
pretty sentimental. It's my home, they
are my people, and everything about me is because of Michigan. The road trip went great. We got to Northern Virginia Thursday night
late but that was okay. Avery decided to
party all night until 1 AM and we only got like five hours of sleep. We left Friday morning early and got into
Detroit around 3 PM. I stayed with my
best friend, Chuck and his awesome wife, Kelley, all weekend. We got there and just relaxed before we met
my good friend Phil and family and my big brother, Scott and family. Chuck, Scott and Phil were my three groomsmen
(minus Tim) for our wedding. By the way,
we definitely missed Tim on this trip but I would rather spend time hunting
with him in December then him taking time off school for this.
FRIDAY NIGHT
Friday night we had dinner out with friends and it was fun
the first time all three of my closest friends have got together with all our
kids (six kids under the age of 8). It's
funny to think where we were ten years ago.
For dinner I followed Sam Wittenberg's recommendation from a Seminar at
Running Etc about marathon nutrition and made sure I loaded up on Carbs two
nights before the race. Dinner was
amazing and catching up with my friends was even better. Not getting home for three years makes the
short amount of time you have with friends even better.
DAY BEFORE
Saturday morning we met up with my amazing God Parents Uncle
Don and Aunt Shirley. They have always
been there for me. My Uncle Don worked
with my Dad and my Grandfather for many years and I they have always been a
part of my extended family. It was just
great to catch up with them and talk.
They absolutely loved Avery.
Avery loved them too.
After Breakfast Avery took a nap and we just relaxed (we
didn't get too much of that this weekend).
We met up with my brother and Melissa and had lunch at their house. I got to meet to check out their house all
fixed up and meet their new puppy, Max.
After lunch my brother, family, and Chuck headed downtown to
the Expo. I knew I wanted to enjoy
myself and embrace the marathon weekend.
We walked around and they put on a pretty good expo. I had to get my passport checked to get my
bib which was weird. But it is an
"international" marathon and all (Take that Amy Cash). Everyone had fun at the expo. Even my brother and Melissa almost got the
running fever. Saturday night we had
dinner with the Tickles and just relaxed.
It was funny because I got to watch my best friend freaking out about
his first half while I was freaking out about my first full internally.
RACE MORNING
We met my brother at the Cobo Hall People Mover station and
relaxed a bit before Chuck and I headed out.
We left the crew and Chuck and I jogged to the start line. I had chuck stay next to me because I knew he
was a little nervous and I wanted to enjoy the moment of starting with your
best friend in his first race. I
reminded him of all the things that everyone reminded me: No matter what it is a PR, don't go out too
fast and enjoy the moment. We talked for
a bit and we both put on our game face.
The one thing the race did have was a sweet electronic start display.
MILES 0-5
I started with the 3:55 pace group. I knew if I had my race I would surpass this
pace but I didn't want to go out too fast.
I listened to the advice of my coach (Thanks Ryan) and decided on
sticking with a slower pace. The group
was pretty large and it was tough to stay with during the first few miles and
up the bridge. I told myself to stay true
to myself no matter what. The bridge was
only two lanes for the bridge and there were a few times I had to jump the curb
to negotiate slower runners. The bridge
is as big as it looked. It didn't affect
me but it sure was fun to run down. Once
I got to the other side, I was in the land of Canadian bacon aka where all the
19 year old Americans used to spend time.
Once I crossed the bridge, I left the pace group.
MILES 6-10
Mile 6 through Mile 8 went along the Canadian waterfront and
was pretty chilly. But there was a great
amount of crowd support. By this time, I
was chopping off people left and right.
My goal was around 8:45 at this pace but I knew I was going a bit
faster. Miles 8-9 were in the tunnel and
got pretty warm in there. I expected
that since I read some other runner's blogs on the race. Going back up the tunnel was a bit tough but
I was fine then too. Once we crossed
back into the US of A, I got pretty amped.
On my way out of the tunnel, I was chanting “Murica, ‘Murica”. We turned and headed Southwest and went towards
Mexicantown. This was fun running this
part of the course. They definitely
should incorporate more of Mexicantown in the future of the race. I was still feeling pretty strong at this
point. My GPS lost track in the tunnel
and it took a bit too catch up. But I
ran on feel and I know I kept pace. My
watch told me I had a 9 minute mile then a 7 minute mile, so it was clearly
catching up on the GPS tracking.
MILES 10-14
Once I got to mile 10, I was getting pretty amped. I knew I was going to see my family soon for
the last time until the finish. Which
means I had the toughest part ahead without any support. At mile 13 I knew I was getting close and
when I saw my family, I felt invincible.
It was awesome to have my brother there too. When I got close, Avery just lit up and I got
to give her a kiss. There isn't a better
thing in this world then your own daughter lighting up when you come running
by. I kissed her and went off. On my watch, I was at 1:52 for the half, so I
knew I was 8 minutes in the bank for my goal of 4:00 (Thanks Kim).
If you are going to run a race, you might as well enjoy
it. So I decided to take a selfie and
send it to the #trainjanda facebook page just to make sure they knew I was
alive and also because the Free Press Race up was terrible.
MILES 14-20
Miles 14-20 went through Indian Village and I was pretty
nervous because I was feeling really good.
I ran next to a nice lady named Lisa from Syracuse. I partook in a beer too. Well, actually just a sip. At this point, I ran past my HS friend's
husband, Matt. I think I shocked him
when I ran past him. I also went past
the 3:50 Pacer and I knew I was tracking well for my goal.
MILES 21-25
At Mile 22, I kind of had a come to Jesus moment. At this point, I had killed my race and had
run further than ever before. By now, my
legs were starting to get tired but I knew I had juice left. At this point in the race, I was passing a
ton of Relay and the US only half runners.
This made it very difficult to pace myself. I also lost Lisa (hope she did well). I also called my wife and told her I was
doing well. I knew she would be
worrying and I wanted to make sure they didn't miss me at the finish. I also decided to call the training team via
Kim. When I called her, everyone was
still running. She was really confused
when I called her. She is like, why are
you calling me? I told her, I just
wanted to tell her I have ran further than I ever have. Kim called me back ten minutes later once my
buddy Steve finished his half. Hearing
Steve, Kim and Lori's voices really kept me going. I was in new territory with my mileage and
was all alone. At Mile 24 I lost my
music because my phone died from all the roaming in Canada and the tunnel. I was pretty disappointed but I knew I would
be fine. I will admit, this really
sucked at the time. I had some really
good jams to blast me through the last two miles.
THE LAST MILE
The final mile winded through the waterfront boardwalk. I was pretty excited to run this since it
opened after I moved. A few minutes into
mile 26 I started feeling my hands shaking.
I tried to shake it off but I couldn't.
I knew something was wrong because I was starting to get light headed
too. The last half mile was all
guts. I decided I needed to keep pushing
because I wasn't going to DNF on the last mile.
I also knew if I did slow down, it would mean it would be longer time to
me figuring out my problem. The last
turn of the marathon was a short steep hill that I didn't expect. At this point, I knew I was dehydrated and it
was really tough sledding. As I made the
last turn, I knew I had nothing left and was just hanging on with a thread
because everyone was passing me. I tried
to smile and be excited but by the time I finished I knew I needed to get
help.
FINISH
As I was walking through the finish area, Lori asked me how
I was doing. She knew instantly that I
wasn't feeling well. If she didn't have
Avery, she told me she would have jumped the barriers. The rest was sort of a blur. I kept asking people for help and where the
medic tent was. I knew I was going
through shock because I started to slur my speech. I finally got my way to the Massage tent and
thank god there was a Nurse who helped me out.
She instantly asked my name, my wife's phone number and got enough
information to call Lori. By the time
Lori got there they were trying to get as many liquids in me as possible. Once she got there they stripped me down and
put my dry clothes on. At this point I
was hypothermic. My poor brother got here at the same time and he kind of
freaked out seeing me in such a bad state. They instantly took me over to the
medic tent and kept giving me Gatorade, chocolate milk and bananas. At one point I was cramping in my hamstrings,
calves, quads and shins and also shivering from being cold. Thank god for a great wife and medic staff
who helped me stretch a little bit and help me rehydrate. After about an hour I knew I was good enough
to head out.
It took me a few days to really figure out what went wrong
but I will talk about that later. Once
we left the medic tent, we headed out for lunch and finally got to talk to
Chuck about his race. I was pretty
stoked to hear he ran a 2:10. I had put
a ton of pressure of myself for this race.
It was my hometown, my first marathon and I didn't want to let people
down. I felt like everyone was riding on
me. I didn't want to let my pace team
down, my running friends who have helped me train down and all of the J&A
Training Team down. My real goal for the
race was 4 hours. Even though I knew I
could be faster, I didn't want to put too much pressure on myself. Instead, I nailed my marathon even with the
complications at the last half mile. I
ran a 3:48 marathon and was pretty happy.
I never would have imagined running that quick but I did. I kept to my plan of running slower the first
5 miles and picking up my pace as the race went on. I ran my perfect race and I am proud of
that. I also think I represented my
family, friends and training team well.
I can't thank them enough for their love and support.
AFTER THOUGHTS
This marathon was the single toughest thing I have ever
done. As an athlete most my life I can
say this was tougher than anything I did in high school football and
lacrosse. I would also say that running
a marathon is ten times tougher than running a half marathon. But it is also ten times worth it more
after. Two years ago I would have never
fathomed running a marathon in 3:48. I
would ever never even imagined even enjoying it. But I did.
And for everyone’s question, “Will I do it again?” Yes, but not for a while. I want to get my speed up before I attempt
again. But I will be running half
marathons like I drink coffee, all day erraday.
For my dehydration issue, I have had a few days to think
about it. I remember listening last year
to the nutrition seminar and distinctly hearing to take salt tablets before the
race or even during the race. This is I
did not do. I also think the temperatures
being well below my training temps made me think I didn’t need as much
water. As I look back, I probably should
of chugged more water. I did drink water
at every station but the temperatures made me feel like I wasn’t sweating as
much. I also probably need to try
different types of fuel. Energy Jelly
beans at freezing temps were pretty tough to chew. I also think I need to eat something more
substantial during the race like I have before.
Maybe a clif bar or something.
But I have no should of, could of moments. I ran my best and couldn’t be any happier
with the results.
I also want to give some thank yous. So here they go.
Lori, my wonderful wife for supporting me. Couldn’t of done it without you. I also want to thank our kids, Avery and
Tim. They are always my motivation to
keep pushing myself to a better me every day.
You guys are my everything.
Running Etc. – Thank you for the support. Especially Drew and Mark at the Virginia
Beach store. Drew since day one has been
a positive supporter of not just my running but to anyone who runs.
J&A – Thank you to Jerry and Amy for allowing me to be a
pacer. I never thought it would be so
much fun and it has changed my life more than I can explain.
Ryan – Thank you for all the words of wisdom and being the
awesome coach you are to the training team.
J. Wade – Thank you for inspiring me.
Kim, Amy, John, Mandy and Steve aka #deezrunninghoez – You guys
make running fun. You are simply the
coolest people on the planet and I enjoy every minute I have running and
hanging out with you guys. You made
training and running 170 mile months easy.
So thank you.
#teamawesome – I would name a few on here but there is more
than just a few of you awesome people.
There are so many of you that I want to thank. I love every second I get to run with all of
you. I am actually honored to be your guy’s
pacer and friend. I look forward to
watching you guys kick some ass at Harbor Lights.
The rest of #trainjanda – Thank you for embracing what the
team is about. Thank you for making it
easy to want to wake up every weekend and go run with you. Thank you for working hard and accomplishing
all your own personal goals.
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