Saturday, Pre-Race Preparation → Sunday Finish
First let me state that the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon has been one of the greatest experiences of my entire life!
Starting from the beginning…
I woke up on Saturday morning at 5:30 slightly exhausted from a less than full night of sleep. I had tried to get everything ready for the morning so that I could just get up and go. My mom drove me to the airport for my 7:55 flight to San Diego. I had packed all of my running supplies in my carry-on just in case something bad could happen. The airport was fairly empty so getting through the checkpoint was easy and I was through to the gate area within 15 minutes.
On the plane there were some people talking about the marathon, exchanging information and talking about their training. We were delayed on the runway for approximately 20 minutes as the flight attendant told us that the luggage conveyor belt had stopped working, so there would be a possibility our bags would not be arriving with our flight. I was fairly concerned, but I had packed all of my running stuff in my backpack, so it would have just been an annoyance. The flight went by quickly sleeping the last 20 minutes, and waking up to a wet ground and a slight drizzle. When I got off the plane I could see my bag sitting on the luggage trailer, so I walked inside and waited for the conveyor belt.
I called the shuttle for the van to come pick me up and waited about 20 minutes. My roommate Dave was also being picked up at the same time, as he had taken a different flight than Team in Training. We got to the Double Tree and were quickly given a room. They gave us some warm chocolate chip cookies, which were really good, and we went up to the room to get everything settled in.
After sitting around in the room for about 20 minutes and laying everything out, I went downstairs to see if the other team members had arrived. When I got down to the lobby, the line to check in was about 25 people, and everyone looked really excited. At this point it was about 11am, and some of the other team members were talking about getting some food. We decided to meet at 12pm and head over to Trophy’s, which is a pretty cool restaurant, decorated in sports memorabilia.
I ate a “Pismo Beach” which was linguine with clams and some good sauce. I knew I would be eating pasta later in the night at the Inspiration Dinner, but I figured that the more pasta I ate, the happier my body would be in the morning during the race. We finished eating and planned to head over to the expo to pick up our race numbers and check out the event expo. Some of the people decided to go to the store and pick up food for the morning, and I wanted to go to Target or Best Buy to purchase a digital camera. Dave (my roommate) came along with me on our trip to find the Best Buy, which was only a couple blocks away, and it didn’t take too long to find a camera.
After shopping we walked back to the hotel and called Caroline, Jamie and Sandy (the people who went food shopping) and met them in the lobby to head over to the San Diego Convention Center for the expo and Inspiration Dinner. We nearly forgot to transfer as none of us knew the trolley system, but everything worked out and we made it. After walking a few blocks and enjoying the beautiful San Diego scenery we made it to the Convention Center and picked up the race numbers and goodie bags. The expo wasn’t too exciting, just a bunch of vendors with samples and overpriced merchandise, but we did find some cool giveaways (Odwalla juice, spf chap stick). After exploring all of that we decided to rest as both myself and Dave were really tired from the already long day, and still had the Inspiration Dinner and last second race preparation to attend to.
We sat for a while and talked with some of the team members that we happened to see while sitting outside on some steps near where the Dinner would be held. After sitting there for probably 45 minutes we made our way toward the inspiration dinner with some friends and walked into the side of the Convention Center and there was so much energy from all the cheering. We didn’t quite know what to expect, or what was going on so we stood there and cheered. After a few minutes we were redirected to go outside and come back in. Then we realized that these people were cheering for the participants, and it was all the coaches and supporters from all the chapters across the nation. It was an incredible experience to be cheered for by hundreds of people at the same using cowbells, horns, thunder sticks, towels, clapping, hollering, and probably a vast number of other methods.
The line of people walking in turned out to be the food line for the buffet. We got our food: lots of pasta, marinara and meat sauce, salad, croutons, and some bread, and then looked for a table to accommodate us.
The dinner was chock full of emotion. The speakers were excellent, one of the speakers that really left an impact was the top fundraiser for Team in Training who raised $103,000 during this season. There were numerous people in her life that were being afflicted by cancer but she refused to give in, and now she was participating in the marathon festivities. The other speakers were very funny, gave us some pointers, told us that if this were our first marathon, it would change our lives forever.
As the dinner concluded we were all spent, and decided to hail a taxi instead of enduring the 30-45 minutes of commuting and dealing with a mass of people on the trolley system. That was one of the best decisions possible! We got back to the hotel around 8:15 and began making sure that everything was ready for the morning so that I could just get up and go. It took me a while to get everything ready, as I had to charge my new camera, figure out my plan for the race, and settle down after the dinner and the anxiety that occurs before running a marathon. I got to sleep around 10:30 and planned to wake up at 3:45 on Sunday morning…
During the night I woke up once, and then woke up 3:30. As soon as I got up, I began making sure everything was ready. The first thing I did was put the camera battery into the camera and programming the time and other details. I started hydrating and getting my stuff on. At this point it was starting to feel real that I was about to run a marathon, but I wasn’t sure what to expect. I ate a banana, a quart of Gatorade, some saltine crackers and then attended to minor details: band-aids on the nipples (I saw later in the afternoon why this is very important), body glide to prevent chaffing, stuffing my bag with GU packets and Gatorade crystal formula.
We made our way down to the lobby around 4:25, and talked with the coaches and waited for the buses to pick us up. The 4:30 bus was full so we waited until the 4:45 and talked with some of the teammates and kept hydrating.
The bus ride was fairly quick and we arrived near the start of the race. It was around 5AM and there were already a few people at the race, and everybody looked either really tired but ready to go.
The next while wasn’t too interesting; just people watching, figuring out when to put on my garbage bag for warmth, though I was using a sweatshirt that I could put in the bag I would receive after the race. This bag was full of great stuff (food, change of clothes, and an understanding that when it was received, my race would be complete. We didn’t see anybody we knew until about 5:30 and then hung out with them until after dropping off the bags and heading to the starting area.
I arrived at the starting corral (#10 for me, with an expected finish of 4:20 – 4:30). There were only a few people in my area, and we listened to the pre-race information and the National Anthem. We were ready to go, but it still didn’t feel real until the horn went off and we made our first steps toward marathon immortality. We passed through the archway and I began my running VERY slow. This probably annoyed a lot of people behind me, as they had to run around me, but honestly, I was taking the beginning of race in stride and letting my body warm up properly over the first 6 miles. I chose 6 miles because if I could relax the first 6 miles, my body would be fairly fresh over the last 6 miles where most people “hit the wall.”
The crowd was scattered at the beginning as it was just after 6:30. Some people had come out on their balconies for the start and were now clapping. The Team in Training supporters were out in full force from the beginning, being sure to show their support at all times for as many people as possible. There was a group of bearded men dressed up with dresses and huge boobs, doing some awesome cheering that really fired up a lot of people. The bands we passed were playing some good tunes and getting everybody running pumped up and I would assume stoked to be out there running. On the small inclines and declines it was awesome to see the number of runners in front and behind.
The first 6 miles were really easy; I am looking on the race details and the first 10K(6.2 miles) I ran in 1:12:00. That equates to about an 11:36 mile for the first 6.2 miles, which is exactly the pace I wanted for the beginning, just to get used to the course and make sure everything was functioning at the end of the race. The course was scenic for the beginning as we ran passed Balboa Park and headed into the city, passed Petco Park, and toward the freeway. The course was a lot less crowded than I had expected. The course being ~90 feet wide was more than enough to get around people, or run abreast with people. There were many Elvi in the race, I ran with some of them for a few minutes toward the end of the race and have a video. I saw a Reno 911 Cop in my corral at the beginning, and a few people with wigs, but Elvis was the celebrity of choice for most dresser-uppers.
The boring parts of the race were the portions on the freeway and on long stretches of road where people were not present. A lot of the race details were a blur because I was in my own zone, focusing lots of energy on my body and making sure everything felt right. A memorable part of the run was going around Mission Bay, because it seemed so large, and then before I knew it, I was on the other side taking pictures from the other side. Like many people before me, I don’t remember much of the last 6 miles because I was in my own place trying to push myself to the limit. It wasn’t out of pain, just a feeling that I had to try a little harder than what I was doing. There were half mile portions that I must have been running at a 7 minute pace and just passing people, gaining energy from the crowd as they talked to me at a personal level. It was awesome having my name on the jersey, getting support from lots of people I didn’t know, and also from my coaches whom I saw at various portions of the race.
I’m not sure when my leg began to tighten up, but I assume it was along part of the embanked portion, so I just kept going because it didn’t hurt enough to actually stop. During the race I had a plan that worked out almost perfectly. I ate a GU packet before the race and then every 40 minutes thereafter. I finished my last packet with about the correct allotment of time remaining. I probably won’t eat a vanilla GU packet for quite some time. Not that they are gross (not incredibly exciting) but having 7 of them in a 4.5 hour time period is an experience in itself.
The weather was perfect, high 50’s or low 60’s at the start and cloud cover for essentially the entire race. I had decided to drink Gatorade for the race because it had worked for me on the 20 mile run in San Jose on that really hot morning/afternoon 2 weeks prior.
As I approached the finish, I knew that my time would be near 4:30, but it wasn’t a big deal when I finished. My finish time was 4:30:16, about 10:20 minutes per mile. I hope toward the end of the race when I was running really fast I was able to inspire some runners to put their last energy to work, find that will power to finish strong. During the last stretches I was running around an 8-minute mile and then at the last stretch I picked it up and basically sprinted the finish, or so I thought. Near the 26-mile point somebody told me that there was .2 left so I began sprinting the finish because I was certain I could hold up the pace for a quarter mile and finish the end sprinting. It was definitely not .2, more like .4 or .5. I made it quite far and then had to slow down to catch my breath, as this was the very finish and I had just begun sprinting. I picked it up a tiny bit when I saw the arch, finishing strong and in a way full of energy. I certainly couldn’t have kept running for too much longer, but another 3-4 miles would have been plausible with more water and energy. The grandstands at the finish were incredible, thousands of people packed into bleachers, cheering for everybody. By that time it feels like every single person is cheering for you. I can’t describe the feeling, but believe me when I say it was incredible. A culmination of the last 6 months, from when I first registered, to joining Team in Training, months of training and the trial and error associated with a long-term goal. Right when I stopped, I basically had no idea what to do, essentially lost after running for so long, knowing that I would reach this point eventually, but with no idea what to expect.
Literally as soon as I stopped running my body seized up and effectively shut down. Twice I tried to flex one calf, but it immediately tightened and told me that it wasn’t a good idea. For the next 30 or so minutes I hobbled around, trying to avoid vendors, picking up some bananas, a post-race body wrap and trying to figure out my next plan. I felt nauseous for the first 45 minutes after finishing, as my body tried to figure out what kind of physical stress had just been completed. I finished my Gatorade and then slowly drank some other water as I came back to a semi-normal state.
After the annoyance of not knowing where to go, walking toward the tent and then having to go back to pick up my bag, and then change and walk back to the Team in Training tent, which with no energy, a broken body and confused mind is quite a taxing experience. I remembered that I could get free beer, and that was absolutely the last thing in the world that I wanted. An Ice cold MGD 64, probably the most foul tasting beer in the world, though I’ve never had it, but I hate cheap beer, and especially Miller, so I’m assuming that beer is disgusting.
I made my way to the Team in Training tent and ate some chips, my banana, and some crackers and met up with my friend David who had finished and was icing his legs. Ice sounded incredible and he pointed directly behind us about 150 feet where the medical tent was located. I was set up with a pretty girl who was from San Ramon, who gave me 2 ice packs for my hamstrings. I walked back to where David was sitting; the site of me walking could only be experienced at a marathon, hobbling from pain, with a limp, and ice bags restricting my already restricted ability to walk. I wish somebody would have videotaped that and shown me later.
We continued icing ourselves for the last half hour and then I went back for more ice, hoping for the same girl, but instead somebody else helped me. I walked back slowly and rested until some teammates found us and invited us to sit with some other people. We hobbled over there and just laid on the grass talking. We exchanged congratulations and then went to get more food and as the nausea subsided I actually felt pretty good, other than the pain in my legs and fatigue. It felt incredible to be finished, but I wasn’t sure what would happen next.
We hopped on the shuttle bus back to the Hotel, I’m not sure how long the trip was, but I fell asleep for a while, waking up un-refreshed and wanting to get into bed immediately. At the hotel I prepared the ice bath, luckily the ice machine was right next to our room which made filling up a garbage can 6 or so times a lot easier than expected. Unfortunately because the ice was already in the tub, I couldn’t ease my way into the water, I could have gotten in and then added the water, but I didn’t think that far ahead and just knew it was going to suck regardless. The water was basically ice cold when I got in and the first 30 seconds was so incredibly painful that I wanted to get out, but better judgment forced me to stay. After the ice-bath I took a shower and then got into bed to hopefully take a nap before the Victory Dinner. It took a little while to fall asleep, and I got about 20 minutes of nap in.
We decided to forego the Victory Dinner and head out to dinner in the Gas Lamp district and meet up with the teammates after they had the Victory Dinner and we finished eating. We hitched a ride to the Yard House which is a cool restaurant with some many beers on tap, I would find out later in the evening the pain of going down many stairs, but it was almost worth it seeing a gigantic chilled room of nice kegs on tap. I ordered some Jerk Chicken which turned out to be a lot less food than expected, but one of the coaches gave me some rice and vegetables and it turned into a pretty filling meal.
After dinner we walked to Henry’s Pub, which interestingly enough had Karaoke night beginning just as we got there. I didn’t indulge in the awesome singing, but it was a really cool place and a lot of the Team in Training people ended up there. We hung out there for a few hours and my friend Trevor drove up and joined me at Henry’s. We left and got some food at a little Mexican restaurant with awesome music videos with old-school hip-hop and rock. We left and headed back to my hotel, and we decided to crash at our friend Teddy’s house near Mission Bay. I checked out of the hotel and we drove to Teddy’s. Getting there around 1AM we woke up the only person in view from outside and got inside. We hung out for a little bit before falling asleep.
I woke up at around 7 and walked down the street, not sure what to expect, but I just wanted to get my legs moving, so that they wouldn’t tighten up. Down the street I found a coffee shop and ordered a Spiced Chai Tea. Trevor called me and we decided to head back soon, so I picked him up some coffee and headed back to the house.
The drive to Claremont area wasn’t too interesting, some greenery, not too crowded on the road, but a bunch of tail-gaters and other rude drivers. Upon arriving I saw Danny, Trevors roommate whom I had met a few months ago, while I was in training. We hung out the remainder of the day, barbequing in the evening, listening to music the entire day and just allowing my body to rest. I was really tired from 2 nights of 5 hours of sleep and the marathon so I crashed at around 9PM and woke up at 6.
That is essentially where I am now, sitting on the balcony, listening to music trying to relax as much as possible. I’ll be down at the pool soon, hopefully it’s kind of cold so that my legs can get a bit more cooling down and increase the rate of this healing process.
Here’s some information about the race.
10K finished in 1:12
13.1 finished in 2:26
21 Finished in 3:43
Marathon Finished in 4:30:16
Second Half finished in 2:04 I am very proud of this, as it shows that I had negative splits (finished the second half faster than the first) part of this due to running slowly the first 6 miles, and picking it up to a sprint late in the race.
According to race officials there were 13,291 marathon finishers. There was also a Team in Training half marathon, which many of my friends were participating in.
This experience was incredible and I will never forget it. I have some pictures that I will post when I am back at home on my computer.
Thank you for all of the support throughout this training and race! It doesn’t feel right that it’s over now, and I will have to find some other big races to start training for because I am hooked to the energy surrounding this first race.
Ryan
