Warning: Ridiculously Long.  I am always pro-skimming, so pick and choose, my feelings won’t be hurt.  It’s just that this was an epic event for me, my first marathon, and by writing everything that sticks out, I’ll remember it for later.  Cut to the chase: 3:51:44 and a BQ.

We arrive in Scranton and the Expo just in time for a panel discussion by three well-known runners on how to run Steamtown.  Leaving the auditorium, I recognize Audra (Dogpound) who has Fran (LongIslandChick) with her.  Audra and I have been PMing (private messaging on the RW forum) for months about this race – we had the same goal, so decided to team up and run it together in a no-pressure, “run your own race” way.  I’d never met her before, but knew she had some great tattoo work on her arms so she was hard to miss.  Hugs and introductions, then Nick and I leave the Expo.

Getting in the car, Nick (who was the BEST support a gal could have during a marathon) suggested we drive the course from the Scranton end (the finish).  The written course directions were all over the place though, and we were getting lost until Nick noticed the race markings on the road and just followed them.  So we managed about 10 miles, but then there’s a trail that you can’t drive, so we gave up there.  Still, it was great to drive that portion of the course, familiarizing myself with the final hills and the rollers before that.

After the course tour, we go to the FE (Forum Encounter for you non-forum readers, where forum folks meet up in real life) at an Italian restaurant.  Totally fun, sweet people, lots of laughs and chatskies, then back to the hotel, but not before making a plan with Audra and Fran to meet at the buses at 6:15 the next morning.

Racerbabes at the FE: Fran, Audra and Me.

While on the bus, Audra and I had a lot of time to talk about running and game-plan thoughts.  Her main focus was to start easy and stay relaxed for the first few miles – an idea I embraced because I knew if left to my own devices, I’d go out at goal pace from the start.  And while we both wanted to run 3:45, that was her cutoff for a BQ, so I knew it’d be wise to follow her lead.  I should also mention that besides doing a bunch of marathons before, she’s also an Ironman three times over, so much adoration on my part.

The race starts. The canon goes off (yeah, a real canon), and we cross the mat, I press my Garmin Start button (I think) and about a minute later, I realize I somehow fucked up this most elementary thing.  The Garmin hasn’t started, so I press the button for real this time, realizing that now I have to do math (add 1:07) for the whole damn race.  Oy.  Like I don’t have enough to think about.  But in the end, it was the best thing that could have happened because I paid less attention to the total time.

On to the run: The first couple miles I was thinking, “supposed to be really easy, this feels kind of easy but not really easy, oh my god, can I do this for 26.2?  It’s early, I don’t know how it’s supposed to feel, etc”.  I don’t breathe a word of this to Audra because I know it’s first-time freakdom and that it’ll get better, it has to.

And it does.  She keeps us at a calm pace for the first couple miles and I start to loosen up. We both figure 8:30s are what we want to shoot for as goal pace, so we follow Audra’s chant of “nice ‘n easy”.  Feeling good.

Btw, I never run with anyone save an occasional shorter run with my fab friend Lara, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to like this “running with somebody” thing, but it turned out that Audra was an instant BFF and we chat sparingly, but easily.  At one point, I’m thrilled with how easy it actually is to talk, like I hear my words and feel my breathing and I sound relaxed.  Yay, confidence is returning.

Audra zooms through the water stops, so impressive, while I was able to hold off for the first ten miles, thanks to my handheld and the cool temps.  Speaking of the handheld, it was absolutely wonderful to race with, and if I wasn’t Nick’s woman, I’d totally marry it.  Seriously, I imagined myself having to stop dead at tables to put cups of water in, but in reality, I ran through like everyone else, grabbing 4 cups in succession at each stop without slowing down.

I took a gel around 6ish, maybe 7, and at this point, I’m getting a little nervous about the time – we’re racking up more than I’d feel confident of making up later in the race, especially with hills in the second half.  We’d already done the steepest hill back at mile 4, and I knew we were soon to run out of good downhills, so at mile 7, I took the downhill a little harder and though it broke my heart some when I realized Audra wasn’t next to me anymore, I kept on pace.

Now I’m on my own and it’s different, I’m alone, checking out the other runners.  At one point, I’m behind a cluster and someone to the side is telling his friend, super loudly, about all the operations he’s had on his feet and about the car crash and the cuts from putting out signs until the rest of us start rolling our eyes and making jokes about it.  Then this one woman and I start running faster than normal to get away from that horrible, boorish voice which is absolutely ruining our zen morning.  I see her again after the race, btw, and we laugh over our getaway.

The course is very rural with small towns and everyone is out on their porch or on the street cheering us on.  It’s touching, such incredible crowd support (and I usually don’t give a crap about such things).  Lots of people even put out their own tables with water or candy or bananas.

And the bands!  School bands and some of the cutest little groups.  There was the senior citizen brass band composed of, yes, senior citizens, but not without the token teenage drummer, standing a little off to the side by himself, looking bored out of his mind, like Grandpa made him do it.  So funny.

As far as gels, I had a flask filled with 4 (and some water for thinning).  I also took an extra gel pack for fear I might drop my flask, so better to be safe.  However, and I’m glad I did this, when the time came for the second gel, I used the pack, because I knew it’d be harder to eat a straight gel nearer the end of the race, if I wanted all of them.  It worked out great because at the end when I was dying (yes, I’m getting there), I was happy to empty my gel flask.

We get to mile marker 13, and I hear this girl say to her partner, “We’re halfway!! woohoo!!” and like the wet blanket I am, I pipe up with, “hey, you know what they say, the halfway point is 20 miles”.  Which is how I was considering the race, btw.  Half at 20.  I take an S-cap.

I was doing body checks, and hearing in my mind all the wise forumites who say 13.1 should feel easy, and it did.  I was keeping the pace in the 8:30s, and was more concerned with feeling normal than making my original goal.  The Garmin start button idiocy helped with treating the outcome more casually, but more important was that I had a lot of leeway for that BQ (the old lady consolation prize), a 15 minute window to play with.

First 15 splits:
8:50
8:55
8:43
8:25
8:41
8:36
8:42
8:20
8:34
8:33
8:34
8:41
8:35
8:35
8:33

We get to the trail section (which was lovely and cool) and there’s Nick, camera in hand!  He pulls a great trick when, about 1/4 mile on, there he is again!  I yell out, “How the hell’d you get here so fast?”  His reply, ” I have a car.”  Lol and duh.

I’m still feeling good at 18, I’m not keeping 8:30s because the trail was a natural slowdown, as were some rollers, so at this point, I’m around 8:40s.  Again, totally cool in my head with it, knowing I’ve pulled some good miles, whatever will be, will be, and as long as I feel good, I’m golden.

Around mile 19, I start getting hot and need more water.  There was a little hill there and I went up too fast, could feel my heart rate going overboard, so I decided to walk a few feet.  Please note, I’ve only ever walked once on a long run, never during this training cycle, but going into the race, I made a deal with myself that it was fine to walk if I needed to, so I did.  It was only a short distance, but it seemed to help, and I got going again.

Miles 16-19:
8:49
8:36
8:35
8:57

Once I did my little walk, I said “screw 8:30s, I’ll be happy to keep it in the 8:40s if I can feel comfortable.

Now through the whole run, my legs felt good, even to the very end.  I mean, they were tired, my whole body was tired, but I had no tendon or muscle twinges at all. However, what I did have, and I think I noticed around mile 19, was hurting feet.  My toes were smarting bigtime, but I sucked it up.

Miles 20-21:
8:47
8:43

Then in mile 21 or 22, I made a huge tactical error.  The waterstop cups were half full, so I did my requisite 4 cups, but that only filled my handheld halfway.  What I should have done, was stop at that point and fill the thing up completely, because I ended up walking/running a few more times when I probably could have held it together better.  I know this in retrospect, because my ugly finish was punctuated by an empty handheld hanging off my stupidly weak hand.  But we’re not there yet.

The weird thing I’m finding, because I feel like I’m starting to die, is that my pace isn’t being killed as much as I’d think it would be for starting to feel truly exhausted. I’m surprised I’m not doing 10:30s frankly.  But the one nice thing is, lots of people are walking, though they all look stronger to me than I do, and even in my discomfort, I’m passing people that passed me earlier, so that was a nice boost.

Miles 22-25:
8:51
8:59
9:56 (I walked up the evil hill)
8:54

It’s hot, I’m really feeling miserable, my feet are hurting bad and I want this to be over 5 miles ago, but I’m almost done.  I don’t know what my time is and I don’t care.  I just want to stop running.

Finally, the piece de resistance, the last mile with the hill that seems like a mountain at that point.  I was out of water and didn’t notice anything except what was in front of me.  People on support bikes would be “it’s less than a mile, c’mon you can do it” and I was just thinking “thanks, but fuck you.”

I come to the top of the hill and there below is the Finish Line, it’s all downhill from here!  So here’s where my kick should of come in, but there was no kick, there was no nuthin’, I tried to run and felt all wobbly legs, would walk some, then freak out because I couldn’t even stand up straight anymore, yet here is the finish to my marathon, some great finishing photos, yikes.  Eerily reminiscent of my last half, sigh.

Mile 26: 10:25
Not sure of .2 because I left my Garmin running.

I shuffle over the mat and immediately get sat in a wheelchair and handed a bottle of water, then someone reminds me to stop my Garmin, so I have no idea what time I got.  I’m feeling shaky as hell and mad that my big day ended up so ickily, but then Audra passes the finish and I call out to her, so we trade stories and she helps me up to find a place to sit that’s not medically related.  I’m feeling truly deflated about my finish, but as I start to gain back strength, realize that I, Flo, just friggin BQ’d!  My first time out, I BQ’d!  Hey, that’s no small potatoes.  In an instant, I feel great.

Sweet Audra, btw, mentor extraordinaire, missed her BQ by a hair, but got a PR, so it was a success for her as well.  I have her to thank many times over for keeping the brakes on in the beginning, I think that really made the race be as good as it was till it wasn’t.

Anyway, we go find her mom and Nick, and Nick tells me he has photos of the entire finish, but I’m not allowed to look at them, they’ll bother me too much.  What he is able to offer me is a huge bouquet of flowers, so I felt like Miss America with a medal.

She and I go back to the runner’s area to find Fran, which we magically do among all those people.  She got a PR as well!  Happy girls.

I was going to take a shower before the drive home, but I was so beat, I hugged all my new friends, then  Nick and I leave.  As soon as I’m in the car, I take my shoes off to find blood blisters on both second toes (under the nail and over the top of the toe) and regular blisters on the underside of two toes, not to mention whatever’s lurking beneath my red toenail polish.  Oh, so that’s why my feet hurt.

I loved this marathon.  The size was wonderful, 1892 entered (1582 finished), the crowd was great, the buses to the start so easy, volunteers amazingly helpful and friendly.  I’d do this one again for sure.  As for the course, I knew ahead of time from reading blogs that the elevation chart on the Steamtown site is way more simple than reality.  Lots more ups then pictured.  But my downhill training proved enough, quads were a-ok throughout.

Before I sign off, I want to thank you sweet fabulous people yet again – you were with me every step of the way.  Between you, Nick, Audra, and the rest of my fabulous gal-pals on the Women’s BQ forum, I had the ultimate support crew.  I’d like to say “party at my house!” but I’m a sucky host, so cyberhugs and smooches will have to do.  You deserve something for getting me through this thing.

And with that, I leave you with a series of finishing photos, scary as they are, I really couldn’t stand up anymore.  Don’t worry, everything’s fine – I even forgot to take ibuprofen till just now and it’s past midnight, so all my parts are feeling fine.  But yeah, this looks, and was, embarrassingly brutal.

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