Mandatory fashion report: Black Triks skirt, yellow marathon maniacs singlet, Brooks Adrenaline shoes, black runners cap, diamond studs.
The weekend of the Skagit Flats Marathon started off on the wrong foot. My 9 year old son, Alec, woke with a slight fever on Saturday morning. He didn’t seem too bad, and I decided to proceed with my plans to drive to Mount Vernon with Alec and my mother. I figured that a 3 hour drive would give Alec plenty of time to nap and we could sit around the hotel room and watch movies for the remainder of the day: a perfect way to fight off whatever bug was trying to take hold. The bug had other plans…
By the time we checked in Alec was feeling worse. I left him with Grandma, rushed over to pick up my race packet and pick up some take-out Italian for a late lunch. When I returned to the hotel room and unpacked lunch, I noticed that they had forgot to include my pasta and bread. I had eggplant and salad, pretty skimpy for a pre-race meal. I sent my mom out for a few snacks later in the evening: she came back with cookies. I was greatful for anything. Alec continued to get worse as his fever came on strong so I decided to call it an evening and get all of us to bed even though I was still hungry. Alec tossed, turned and coughed all night (we were sharing a bed) so I barely slept.
I was up the next morning feeling OK. I had a quick cup of black coffee and an energy bar before rushing off to meet my ride. Alec didn’t look like he was feeling any better, but grandma assured me that he would be just fine and they would meet me at the finish line. At the start, I meet up with Hippo (I didn’t know Soundrunner was going to be there, so didn’t look for her). The race starts and I bid Hippo a nice run as he bolts into the rising sun.
I don’t remember much about the race itself, except that it is through absolutely flat, treeless, spectatorless farmland. I could tell it would get tedious. By mile 6, at the half marathon turnaround, I was already bored. Mile ten was slightly more interesting since the leaders started appearing on the back side of this out-and-back course. A ray of mental sunshine hit me at mile 11 as Hippo ran by shouting a greeting to this goddess. He was looking strong and fresh but was out of sight way too soon. At mile 15 I started playing a game of adding some striders the last 100 yards of each mile. That held my interest for 5 miles, then my legs started complaining. About that time I became pre occupied with the turkey vultures soaring overhead, I was sure they were waiting for some insanely bored goddess to give up and they would come sweeping down to finish her off. Mile 21 I finally allowed myself to plug into my MP3 player although by that time the music just annoyed me. I trudged along and passed under the finish clock. I could have sworn it said 4:10:38. Oh well, I finished. I got my medal, a hug from a few Maniacs and set out to find Alec. He was all bundled up: pale and wilted in the stands. I decided to get him home ASAP so I bypassed the food and headed for the car. I stopped briefly to chat with Hippo, making sure he would join us in Portland for the pre- race dinner. He looked like he just returned from a weekend at the Spa, not like he had just run 26.2.
As you can read, it was a totally uninspired race for me. But I did finish and felt I gained some mental strength from the whole experience.
Here is what went right:
That night, I checked the final results. My time was 4:07:38. Good enough to place 2nd in the 45-49 age group although they were only giving awards in 10 year increments so no hardware for me.
I felt good enough after the race to drive 3 hours home, do some yard work, and play with the dogs.
I had no soreness or fatigue the next day. I ran on Tuesday and Wednesday and my legs felt fresh and springy.
I can’t wait for Portland!
