my first poll (please vote!) and more misc marathon ramblings

please vote in my poll above.

i know it is a little late to add thoughts on the marathon. it seems so long ago. but now i am using this as kind of a diary so these are a few things i dont want to forget. not sure if i made it clear in my last post but this race was the first time i ever ran with an ipod. the first song i heard was 'die another day' by madonna. at the time this was very inspirational for me. i knew at that time although my shin was hurting i would make it to the end. this song title now seems sad because of the young boy that died on the course. moment of silence and reflection.

i also forgot to add my comments about the balloons. when i first heard of these pace objects at the expo, the thought of them started getting into my head. i only recently bought a garmin which i had planned on running with because i felt bad asking others - namely linda and coach bean 'how fast are we going?' for the last 5 months. i was frustrated to learn during one of our training runs that brian thought that the instant pace was garbage since if you just moved your arm to fast you could get an artificially fast reading. the average pace was ticking me off because
i want to know what my pace is NOW! my first phrase as a child was 'have it now!' which still rings true today. well to a point. it did take me awhile to buy this garmin. so i am finally content with the lap pace - average over the last mile. to make a long story short - TOO LATE, i left my garmin in the car the day of the marathon. i was so worried about getting my trash bag on (see www.runnersworldtulsa.com slide show) to stay warm. once i realized that i forgot it, (at starting line, with about 2 minutes til gun time), i had to rely on what else - the balloons. for some reason what i pictured was a big red helium filled object with a large white typed print that read 5:00. this image reminded me of that party favor you get as a kid with a large red balloon with the yellow string that you punch repeatedly. just asked jason and he called it a 'knucklepuncher' if that helps anyone follow. in my imagination they would float high like it was the Macy's parade on but on a much smaller scale. so when i saw these small yellow things on a stick of all things (things 'on a stick' bother me) with hand written black marker i was disappointed. this was going to take concentration just to find them. all that registration money for the race and sign up fees they charge their runners for training and this was all the globo gymers could come up with! maybe my expectations were to high. so the anxiety that these dumb balloons had caused me had temorarily gone away. i became more upset that i forgot my garmin but it was time to go. for the first half of the race i appreciated the 'balloons on a stick'. after i lost the 430 and kept looking back for the 445 and after that group past me i was hating these yellow things. but the fact they were there at the end and i was racing them i appreciate yet hated them at the same time. so i am glad that my RunnersWorld Tulsa trainers do not concentrate on pace. i like running based on how i feel although i am still working on saving more for the end. i plan to work more on negative splits in the future. maybe the sticks cost so much and since we dont have them kathy can give us free training? no. i think she just has a good heart.

in my last post i also forgot to mention some of the other things marvin said to me. during the short time i ran with him i learned what a great coach he is. he told me 'keep your head up. drop your shoulders.' and other pointers i cant remember now. this was really encouraging, helped me relax, and probably allowed me to finish my race sub 5 even though the help was so late in the race. i was looking at him out of my side vision and he wasnt even looking at me. he said ' i am looking at your shadow'. i didnt even see my shadow. if i remember correctly, if i started at 8, and this was almost 5 hours later, it was almost 1 pm. we were running west on 18th just before the boston turn. our shadows would have been behind us. either marvin has eyes behind his head or maybe he really is an angel. regardless i would love to hire him as my personal trainer bcuz somehow he knew what i was doing wrong and how to correct it.

i did really miss my fellow team bean members during the race because i have never run a long run without at least one of them. i did want to ask if anyone wanted to try to run together but this was to touchy of a subject. i didnt want anyone to feel obligated to stop when i stopped, whether to walk or use the restroom. what if i needed to stop for good or one of the others did? i wouldnt want anyone else to feel like they had to take care of me but i wouldnt want to leave one of them. so this is why i bought the ipod and by no means did this replace my friends. i think i could have done even better (faster) if one of them was by my side. when jenni was right next to me for the first several miles i felt strong. we barely talked as we were both listening to our music just knowing that she was right there helped so much. i am a little scared to do another run of this length without my friends around me. and i dont just mean beaners but any of my friends.

my sadness or post race depression has worn off now and i am excited and proud of my marathon. i have been told several times by various people that i should be proud of my sub 5 time for my first time. i am finally starting to glow. i feel so much closer to my running friends now then before and plan to hang out with them for as long as they will let me.

photo courtesy of, well stolen from, marathonfoto