Green Bay Marathon

Looking at my list of posts that I started to draft but never finished, I noticed that I never wrote about my experience with the Green Bay Marathon that I ran at the end of May.

The morning of the marathon, we woke up to the sound of rain. In the hours leading up to the race, it rained. And it rained hard. And it rained some more.

Jody and I, like a lot of others, huddled in Lambeau field, not wanting to venture outside until the last possible moment. Then they called people to the starting corrals.

Standing in the starting corrals, it continued to rain and did so even after the starting gun went off.

But then, after the first few minutes, the rain stopped and it never started again. Even better, the clouds stuck around. There were a couple moments where the sun peaked through small gaps in the clouds and turned the course into a sauna. I cursed the heavens but let out a sigh of relief when the sun disappeared again.

My goal was to run a sub-5 hour race. I spent hours using Races to Remember to calculate my splits. What happened if I started off really slow? What would be the fastest pace that I could realistically hold for the last 6 miles -- after encountering the dreaded wall that I have hit each of the past two marathons? I calculated even splits, negative splits, "anti-cramping" splits, and even options in between. I became dangerously obsessed with the site.

What it all boiled down to was that I convinced myself that no mile for at least the first 12 should be faster than 11:00 min/mi. For the most part, I accomplished this.

Next, depending on how I felt, I could stick with this pace or increase it by a little bit. I knew if I stuck around the 11:00 min/mi I could reach my goal (a time of 4:55 averages to about an 11:15 min/mi pace).

I felt really good at the halfway point. I did my best not to get too excited. I tried to maintain a pace as close to 11:00 min/mi as possible but gradually inched my way south of the 11:00 min/mi mark.

Then, something crazy happened. As I approached mile 20, the spot where I crashed and burned last year, I caught up with the 5:00 hr pace group. I had previously thought that this group was behind me, but apparently, when I stopped twice to use the bathroom (around miles 2.5 and 5), they had passed me. Anyway, the leader of this group abides by a walk-run philosophy. They run for about .75 miles and then walk the last quarter.

When I caught up to them, they were running. And they were running fast. I ran with them. And I continued to run with them. They were going too fast for my liking, but I did not want to stop or slow down. Something clicked in me where I was determined to pass them! At one point, in my head, I screamed "Please start walking!" because I did not think I could maintain the pace ... which was closer to 10:00 min/mi. Just about as I felt my legs start to burn, the leader of the pack yells "And we're walking!" Thank goodness!

The moment when I caught up to the 5:00 hr pace group.

I kept running!

For the first time running a marathon, I did not let my head get in the way. I told myself that I was going to bust through the wall at 20. I was not going to stop!

For the next six miles, I kept the legs turning. When I hit a rough patch, I focused on my breathing to relax me and get my mind off my aching body.

When I approached Lambeau field (mile 26), surprisingly, I felt strong. I felt good. I ran my lap around Lambeau and even flashed a smile and thumbs up to the camera guy.

A thumbs up and smile in Lambeau ... at mile 26.

When I exited Lambeau and hit the slight incline to the finish line, I pushed myself to finish strong.

It might be hard to see, but at the far right is my "sprint" finish.

Not only did I achieve my goal of running a sub-5 hour marathon, I crushed it! My "gun time" was 4:55:04 but it took me a few minutes to cross the starting line. My watch and chip time gave me the same number:

I'm not sure what is next (okay, I have an idea), but I am going to remember this feeling (and what it took to reach and surpass my goal) for quite some time!