Perhaps you’ve read the quickie report already, well this one gets into all the details and it’s gonna be a long one, so grab a coffee or whatever you like to drink, sit back and relax. Hopefully reading this won’t tire you out any more then it did for me to run it…lol. It was an early morning start with the alarm going off at 5am. I grabbed my outfit that I had laid out the night before and headed to the bathroom to wash-up and dress. Next I sat at the table and made up my breakfast, a bagel with peanut butter and a banana. The bagel was a tad dry, must find a better place to buy one next year.
Breakfast done I started to do the last bit of getting ready like pinning my tote to the back of my shirt. Wait! Where is my jewelry case with the pins??? I tore apart both suitcases, my shopping bags and looked everywhere. I panicked. Oh no, it’s gone! Someone stole it! I went through everything again 3 or 4 times and was really upset. I called security. They were awesome and came right away. I was in tears. This certainly wasn’t going to help my mood for the race. Security left and I finished getting ready. Then the light came on, oops my missing jewelry case was safely hidden in a side pocket of my suitcase. Now I felt really bad. I phoned to apologize for the false alarm. Thanks to my silliness we left the room at 6:20 instead of the planned 6 AM. Oh well the start line was only just outside the hotel and down about a block.
As we made our way out of the hotel we passed a long line of runners waiting at Starbucks. Good thing I had my diet coke and did not need coffee. We ran into some of the Calgary gang in the lobby and made our way outside. The street normally busy with traffic was full of runners. There were coming from everywhere. At the back was corral 32. OMG, 32 corrals. So glad I was in 13. We headed on making our way through tons of runners. This was going to be nuts. We started to head to corral 3 to wish a friend luck but decided that would take to long so we just went to our corral. As we waited we spotted Richard’s Mom and John. Great we gave them our extra layers as it was already quite warm and they were no longer needed. Funny I still saw lots of runners in long pants, shirts, jackets, and gloves. I stood there in shorts and t-shirt actually thinking I was going to be too hot. I was wishing I was wearing a singlet. Oh well. Tina Turner and Elton John walked by. Tina stopped to chat for a bit and a photo. Now that was cool. She looked amazing.
I took the last few photos as our corrals moved up. I even took a couple of videos as earlier corrals started off on the race. It took about 15 minutes for our turn to start. Just before we headed out I stashed the camera in my pouch and waited for the horn. The first corral got a gun start and the rest of us got a horn. I wished Rich one last “Good luck”, the horn tooted and we were off. I smiled as I crossed the mat to start. Despite all the cool things I saw and there were lots I left the camera in my pouch, coach’s orders. As each K passed I felt great. I watched my Garmin and was on pace with a few seconds to spare. Doing the math in my head I kept tabs on things. At 5k I was feeling great. Wow, 41 minutes. My best 5k in eons was 38 minutes so this is good. Not too fast, not too slow, just right for where I needed to be.
Again I passed things I thought about photographing but didn’t. I laughed when I saw others taking photos. Cool maybe I can search Flickr or elsewhere to link to someone else’s shots. My next goal was to make 7k in my first hour. I did that with a minute or so to spare. Right on! I’m doing this! Visions of Mark buying me that beer danced in my head. I sipped half of my gel/water mixture. I passed lineups at aid stations, didn’t need to go. I did sip water at some of the aid stations and ate some of the chewies & pretzels in my pouch. I even ran passed the bar where the guy was giving out free beer. He had a tray of half filled plastic glasses. I did see other runners stop for one…lol. Oh yeah somewhere along there or earlier I had seen Josh Cox going by in the other direction. He was running strong and made it look so easy. He was back behind a few runners but must have passed them later as he won the marathon. For me finishing would be winning. I saw that on a shirt somewhere. Penny and Howard from Calgary also passed me somewhere in there as did Martin Parnell, the MQ250 guy.
On to 10k and still doing fine. Somewhere between 10 and 14k I started to lose time. I decided just shy of 14k to drink the last of my gel mixture to see if that would help me get my pace back. This was the only time I took my camera out. I snapped a photo of this cool guitar balloon archway. I think I took 3 photos and then the camera was once again safely stowed in the pouch on my fuel belt. At 14k I had fallen a tad behind and was just past the 2 hour mark. I needed to be under it to make my 3 hour goal. My secondary goal was to beat last year’s time of 3:16:45 and I was well on target for that with time to spare. My other goal of finishing was definitely not going to be a problem.
A quick beat instrumental song played on my shuffle and I added my own lyrics “Pick it up Dawn, pick it up, you can do it, you can run faster”. I sang that to myself over and over. I did manage to pick it up briefly but could not maintain it. I found myself struggling to stay under a 9 minute pace. I smiled and kept telling myself I was a Rock Star. I never noticed the marquis that was going to display motivational quotes. I was too into my run and getting it done. I got a stitch in my side but it passed and returned later but only briefly. The knees were doing just fine. The training I had done was good for that at least. At 15k no longer on track for 3 hours but still doing okay, I kept smiling. Onto plan B and keep moving as best as I can. The 2:58:00 mark went by with about a mile to go.
The finish was ahead. They had changed how the race started, the meander in the middle and now I could see the finish was different as well. The two races finished parallel to each other.Cool! I like it that way. John Bingham was in the middle announcing the finishers. I yelled to him as I ran by. He laughed and made a comment over the speaker. I was done!!! My Garmin said 3:13:15. Well that’s better then last year so I’ll take it.
Got my medal and began to fill the tote I had removed from my back. I ran into Margaret another Calgarian, she was finishing her full. Richelle is also her coach. I meandered through the food area gathering what I needed and drinking water. No rush I still didn’t have to go. No pain, the knees were tired but not in pain! Another improvement over last year.
Once out of the food area I made my way towards where the Bret Michaels concert was to be and the beer tent. Along the way I found a place to sit and ice my feet. Now what a great idea. They had large trays of ice and plastic sleeves for you to put on. I iced my feet for about 15 minutes before heading to find my free beer. My feet felt like new. I would do the same with my knees later. Found my beer and watched the concert. Bret Michaels was amazing. He had pink shirts for sale so I bought one. The place was packed and hard to find anyone. I didn’t find Richard or his Mom but did see Penny & Paul from Calgary. Time to go, I meandered through Mandalay Bay chatting with other finishers. Next stop was to get a margarita. I got a “Wakeup Call” – Cappuccino & Irish Cream. That did the trick. Heck I felt I could have run the race again…hmmm maybe I should have one of those before the race…NOT! I spotted Rich in the lobby, he was headed for a massage. He was sore but had a great race finishing around 1:51!
Back in the room I sipped my drink, made notes so I could write this without forgetting things and iced my knees. Well that’s it about the race. I’ll tell you about my one party night in another post. This one is long enough…lol.
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