Monday, November 1, 2010

Marine Corps 2010 - real quick.

Everything you ever wanted to know about yourself you can learn in 26.2 miles


oh how true is that statement. marine corps. marine corps. marine corps. what a total experience. if you know anything about me you know that i was totally freaked out by the 14th street bridge, keeping my 14:00 pace to ensure that i would cross said bridge/getting there by 1:15 pm so I could get across it, and just the whole thing in general.  I think I looked at the marathon's webpage 54 million times to read about the bridge and what time it would be cut off. I even wrote the cut off time on my hand {and that i had to be at the bridge by 4:45}.  I knew I had to do at least 5 miles per hour.  When i signed up for marine corps I told myself that this was it. i was going to do this one right. i was going to train hard. put in the crazy miles and pretty much rock the race as best as i could. ...then life happened, my job got busy, and i found it almost impossible some days to even get in miles. at times during training i questioned if i should actually do it or if i could do it. i started tracking my runs against my garmin to see how many miles i was beating my mcm bridge competition by. ...i just wanted to give myself some confidence going in and by competing with my garmin i gave myself some much needed confidence...

i will say that when boarding the plane on Thursday i told myself that i just had to trust what training i had done and be confident that i would cross both the starting line, the bridge, get up the hills, and cross the finish line. there was no point in second guessing myself. i just had to enjoy the time with my family and then the time spent on my feet running around DC.

i am not ready to do the race recap yet. i am gonna do it. give me a few days. let me wrap my head around it. but i do want to say that i am a SECOND TIME MARATHONER and i PR'd by 12 minutes and through it all I had a pretty great time.
i had mentioned a few months back that i was once told to dedicate the last 6.2 miles to someone. and i so badly wanted to do that but the last 6.2 miles were so brutal and took everything in me to just keep going. {my slowest miles were in the last 10k} and i couldn't think of anything but one foot in front of the other, don't cry it will only get your heart rate up, there will be a turn around, just keep going.

after 26.44 miles {hi, mcm your course ran LONG} and being called ma'am about 5 million times and getting crazy sunburned i finished in 5:41 which is a 12 minute PR! and then trekked to find my bag and my parents.

I feel like the marathon is a test of patience, endurance, will to succeed, determination, and perseverance.  You have to be able to push the "can't do its" to the side and tell yourself "i can i can". It is telling yourself that yes this hurts but it is a good kind of hurt. A marathon takes a strong, determined, focused, person.  I am so so proud of every person that stood at the starting line and everyone who crossed the finish line.

13 comments:

  1. Congrats Barbie!! It sounds like it was a tough race for you but a PR is pretty freakin' great! :) I can't wait to read the race report

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  2. Congrats! Not only did you make the bridge before it closed but a new PR too. Awesome that you had a great time!

    BTW, and sorry because this really bugs me when people complain about the distance on their GPS after a race, it will always report incorrectly on your watch. Look closely at the map it makes and you'll see it is not a straight line - they do not actually have pinpoint accuracy. Also, race routes are measured by the shortest possible distance, which means cutting each corner perfectly, which you could not possibly do.

    When I ran Chicago marathon last month, my GPS reported much higher than yours. Trust me, both courses are accurate length :)

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  3. YAY for you!!

    PR'd by 12 minutes!! awesome.

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  4. Congrats on your PR! Can't wait to read about it once you've had time to decompress... :)

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  5. Congratulations on your PR, 12 minutes is HUGE!! Relax and get some rest :)

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  6. I guess I don't know much about the MC Marathon, .. SO you have to get to a bridge by a certain time? That's craziness!
    Nonetheless CONGRATULATIONS!! 12 minute PR is fantastic!!
    I know how you feel about life getting in the way of training. But that's what makes the whole thing worth it, knowing you did the best you could through thick & thin.
    I can't wait for your more detailed recap.
    Again, CONGRATULATIONS!!

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  7. I'm sorry if I was offensive, I really wasn't trying to be. I have been accused by another commenter of tarnishing your day and that in no way was my intent. I really wish you don't take it that way. My opinion is that your accomplishment yesterday was great, and you should be nothing but proud of it.

    In case you didn't see my response to your comment on my blog:

    "Sorry really wasn’t meaning to call anyone out, and it is not about you, and why I didn’t mention any names. There were others too. It’s been bothering me for awhile and today decided to write about it…

    You raise a good question though. I’d like to think that I would have commented a congrats anyway as I’m truly interested in how everyone I follow did in their races this marathon season, and I especially love to see PR’s. My marathons are typically struggles (I fell short of my goal twice this year) and I fully appreciate the accomplishment of going the distance…"

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  8. Congrats on your second 26.2 and your PR!!! Way to go!

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  9. ohh that is the best quote!! can't wait to hear the full report, congrats on a PR

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  10. This is awesome! Way to push through, stay patient, and persevere!

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  11. Congratulations. Super exciting. I tried looking for you but there were too many people :(

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