2011 OC Marathon - Lesson(s) learned / Ego revitalized

Lesson 1: I've learned a very important lesson from running this particular marathon.  I'm not allowed to eat Mexican food the night before a marathon.  No matter how tasty and how much of a craving for it's deliciousness! I felt the heaviness of the food (from too much meat and the greasiness - I try to limit my oily foods to only once in a while) right after dinner and it sat until I woke up at 3:15am this morning.  I used the restroom once before we left the house, twice before the race started, and THREE more times DURING the race!  The heaviness FINALLY alleviated after the last time I used the porta-John. And it was then, I could finally concentrate on the race.

I was particularly cranky this morning because of the my stomach issues and was already anticipating a slow race.  Even so, I tried to put the thoughts behind me and encourage myself to just have fun - after all, it was kind of a last minute marathon we decided to do. Other than the stomach problems, everything else felt good.  My legs, my breathing, not incredibly hot even though the sun was blazing at 7am.  The OC marathon is a point to point course, so there was hardly any zig-zagging unlike the Surf City USA marathon. There were some really gorgeous areas that we passed, particularly between 6 and 8 mi.

It became very windy during some parts of the race, particularly the over pass over the 405.  The spectators and volunteers were awesome as usual and I was pleasantly surprised by the officers cheering the runners on.  A couple even gave me a high five, which brought a big cheesy grin to my face.  

Lesson 2:  My threshold of "hitting the wall" has increased and now instead of being at mile 18ish, it's more at mile 22.  I am able to talk myself through difficult times and I even started to pick out certain people ahead of me and try to catch up to either pace them or pass them (Thanks for that tip, Joey!).  

Lesson 3: Don't always trust the mile markers.  I realize that my Garmin isn't always in synced with the mile markers.  It usually goes off about 0.1 to 0.15 mi before I hit the markers.  But I noticed that between miles 17 and 20, my Garmin was completely off the markers!  My Garmin read 19.88mi when I *just* passed the 19 mi sign.  I was worried that I had screwed something up and yelled, "Does ANYONE know what mile we're on?!?"  No one else seemed too concerned and I heard someone say, "Um.. I think 19?"  Not that that really helped out any, so I tried to convince myself to not let it mess with me too much.

Me and mile 8 - Delirious with excitement!

No significant soreness post race: quads are a bit sore and the inside of my right ankle is a bit swollen from getting a tiny bit sloppy in my form.  It makes me excited to know that I did so well including the bathroom breaks... but a tiny bit bummed to know what could time I could have gotten if I didn't have to take them.  At least, with the newly learned lessons, I can strive for that sub 4 marathon  at the SD RnR... but I would be completely elated with a 4 hr to 4:12 time - a time to beat my PR from last year's marathon.  Ego has been revitalized and this marathon has completely fueled my desire to finish up the last 3 marathons scheduled this year!

I am extremely grateful to Tiffany for her hospitality, getting up at 3am to drop us off at the start line, and ride the bike around the route to cheer us on.  She does this, without any complaints, and because she loves to show her love and support for both Joey and I.  She is an amazing woman and I know that a couple of sushi dinners on us can't even begin to repay what she has done for us.  So, thank you, Tiffany.  Love you!

The siblings

Thank you to Lan Bui for coming out!  You don't know how happy I was (or maybe you do, just by the photo you took of me)  see you before making my way up that hill on mile 14!

I want to hug you, Lan!!!

 Thank you to Joey for being my inspiration and patient with me as I continue to improve my running.  You are amazing and I love you with all my heart.

Joey at Mi 8 - Lookin' fresh and smilin'

Official Finish time: 4:15:31
2011 OC Marathon Garmin Stats