627 Miles

That's how many miles I ran in preparation for the Ogden marathon, and it only took 4 days of the flu the week of the race to ruin it. I was hoping to qualify to run the Boston marathon again, but I realized at about mile 12 of the race that it just wasn't going to happen. I hadn't eaten much all week and my body wasn't recovered back to it's full strength. I was still full of hope the morning of the race and ran the first 13 miles at the pace I needed to qualify, but I could tell without a doubt that was all I had in me. I started to feel sick and nauseous, and it only got worse the more I ran. I just wanted to lay down on the pavement and sleep, or throw-up. I felt disappointment and relief at the same time as I realized the pressure of time was now gone, and all I had to focus on at that point was finishing.



Of the 7 marathons I've run I have never wanted to quit one as bad as I wanted to quit this one. Those last 13 miles were miserable to say the least. My pace went from 8 minute/mile in the first half to about a 13 minute/mile in the second half, with some miles being even slower. I tried to keep running as much as I could, but I was so nauseous that I had to walk several times. I've never had to walk so much in a marathon before. I can usually push through body pains and keep running, but nausea is a different story. I couldn't get anything down except water the last 13 miles, and even the water looked extremely unappetizing. I have already experienced getting an IV after a marathon due to nausea and not drinking enough, so I forced myself to drink water at each aid station.

Marathon #7 didn't turn out to be lucky in the sense that I had originally hoped for, but I realize now that I was still extremely lucky and blessed. I was lucky that I was able to finish the race, and I was lucky that I was able to do my first 13 miles as fast as I did because I don't think I could have finished if my first 13 were anything like my last 13. I didn't break the record for my fastest marathon like I was hoping, but I did break a record nonetheless! It was my slowest marathon! My previous slowest marathon was Boston, and that would just be sad if Boston was my slowest marathon forever! (I was also sick for Boston, but it was more of a heat stroke/dehydrated sick) That's the main reason why I want to do it again. I didn't get to experience it to it's fullest potential of amazingness.


During the last 13 miles of complete misery I had to ask myself what I was going to do about not getting my time goal, but the thought of doing another marathon to try again produced extremely negative thoughts and a few swear words in my mind. Therefore, I just accepted the fact that I wasn't going to go to Boston like I had been dreaming about for the past several months.

After finishing, throwing up, taking an anti-nausea pill, and getting some sleep I was able to think a little more rationally, or some might argue that I was back to thinking irrationally like my normal self. I thought about all the little sacrifices I had made in the past months like getting up early and running in the dark, battling with Boston to get my run done, taking Boston to the gym day care when I lost the battles, following my training program religiously and not missing a single speed workout, watching what I ate, doing several races, etc. It was too much effort to throw in the garbage just because I got a little flu at the wrong time. I thought about the other times in my life when I had a goal I didn't reach, and I just accepted it and moved on. Those are some of my most regretful times. I wish I would have tried again! I want my kids to learn to keep trying when they fail at something, not just give up and move on. So I decided I'm going to try again! Someday my kids are going to reach for goals they won't quite make, and I want to be able to tell them by word and example that it's ok to fail, but they have to try again. Even if trying again means they fail again. I don't think that I will for sure qualify for Boston just because I'm trying again, and I don't think my kids will accomplish everything they ever wanted to just because they try again, but it's worth a try and that's all we can do. It's much better than not trying and feeling the regret later on, or the uncertainty of what would have happened IF we tried again.

Alright, I'm off my soap box. I'm not sure what marathon I'm going to do to try again since we are moving to Texas next week. I did find two marathons that are on Saturday in Texas at the end of October. Most of the big marathons are on Sunday in Texas which is a huge bummer to me, but at least I have a couple options. I'm just not too thrilled about how far away they are because that means I'll have to keep training for 5 more months.

Oh, and I also wanted to write down that my time was 4:25. Only about 45 minutes slower than goal pace :), but missing it by a long shot is a lot easier to handle than missing it by one minute! And thank you to my husband, dad-in-law, and sis-in-law Jay and family for coming to cheer me on and support me! I really appreciated that!