Another 1/2 marathon

Last weekend, I ran my 4th 1/2 marathon. The Heels & Hills in Las Colinas. I wasn't really looking forward to it since I didn't feel like I was on top of my game. I had been running since my full marathon but I hadn't been extremely serious about it.

I nearly missed the start of the race because this Swiss apparently still doesn't know the difference between am and pm. Funny enough my alarm didn't go off at 5:30 am since it was set for pm. I woke up at 6 in a panic. Not a good start...

I headed over to Las Colinas with no breakfast, had a difficult time finding a parking spot, got my bib and ran into a bunch of friends (guys) that were pacing the race in skirts. They looked hilarious. Some of them had taken their mission very seriously! I ended up with two extra shirts (the one I had on and the shirt I got for showing up to the race) and car keys I needed to get rid of for the race. Thankfully, I saw that a friend was taking pictures at the finish line so I stuck  all my junk with his stuff!

We all lined up at the start line and CZ and I found ourselves with the Steve's. Steve P stuck with CZ and GQ ended up pacing me.

Oh before, I continue, I need to point out that the race was on Sunday morning. On Friday night, Anthony and I went out with some friend of ours. We were playing poker and drinking until 1 am. I didn't go to bed until 3 am. I napped on Saturday in the middle of the day, which meant that I wasn't tired when it was time to go to bed... and then the whole alarm clock fiasco happened. Now back to regular program:

When I realized that I was dehydrated - I am talking about the pasty mouth, feeling like you have a bunch of flower in your mouth kind of dehydrated - before mile 1 and then looked down at my Garmin and saw that we were running a sub 7 min mile. I figured I'd be cooked before mile 5! Obviously, I had forgotten who was pacing me... he wouldn't let me get away with anything. He just pushed the pace and dragged me through 13.1. He asked me to make sure to stay focused, not to cheer for the other runners - unlike at the 1/2 on the same course last October - and to stay on his shoulder. GQ ended up being my water boy, my mouth piece - he'd thank the runners shouting "good job!" for me and a great pacer. He didn't allow me to speak but kept talking during the entire race, giving me encouragement, kicking my butt when I needed it and placing target on runners in front of me and pushing me to "wheel them in".

I crossed the finish line in 1:33:20, a 7:07 pace. Who knew? I thought a 7:30 wouldn't be possible. A PR by 9 minutes! Couldn't be happier! :)

My first marathon!

On January 17th, 2010, after over 25 weeks of hard training, I ran my very first marathon, the Houston Marathon. I was confident that I had trained well and felt that a BQ (Boston Qualifier) was within reach unless something went terribly wrong. I thought that my goal time was 3:40:59. It turns out that it was in fact 3:45.59 since I am turning 35 at the end of the year and would change age category by the time Boston rolls around in April.

The day before, I had flown in from Dallas by myself, checked into the hotel, ran into some friends in the lobby and headed to dinner with my coach Vishal, his girlfriend Ashley and other friends, among them, Shaheen who dragged us to IHOP for dinner. I hadn't had lunch that day because of my flight schedule, the expo I had to head to and just the lack of availability to food around my hotel. Needless to say that 2 blueberry pancakes didn't exactly hit the spot! I headed to bed early and thought I'd fall asleep. Not so much... the lovely hotel was hosting a wedding dinner, in a tent, on the terrace, under my window. I might as well had the DJ in my room. I could understand his every single words. At 10, I called the front desk asking if the lovebird were planning on wrapping their party anytime soon. They informed me that they were supposed to stop at 10:30.

The next morning, I met all the other runners before the crack of dawn in the hotel lobby. The cool people at the hotel had breakfast ready for us! I ate, got ready and was wondering when I'd start getting nervous. We all walked to the start line together. I ran into Vish and talked to Ellie, a girl that Mark had introduced me to. She told me not to stick with the 3:40 pace group, as she had ran with that same pacer on previous occasions and that he wouldn't get the group in at or under 3:40. I got a little nervous when I realized that I'd have to self-pace myself.

The gun went off, I started running and immediately realized that I needed to keep myself from going too fast. I ran into Marc who was planning on running a really fast marathon. He took of after a couple of miles. The first ten miles consisted of me running, looking at my Garmin and say "Oh shit" and then pretty much come to a halt to drop my pace down. My lower back was hurting, which worried me since I hadn't had lower back issues since I had started running. I past the 13.1 marker without any problems but I knew that the race was really only starting.  I saw some familiar faces along the way. Including my friend Sharon, who drove all the way to Frisco and surprised me with a huge "Go Sabine" sign before the 1/2 way mark somewhere. I had prepared for a lot but that certainly wasn't a scenario I had reheared. It took me a quarter mile to get my breathing under control from choking up! I also saw Michelle B and the speedy gang, inc. DZ and CZ as well as Steve H. would was yelling at me to go get' em.

After the 1/2 way point, it started to become work. At 20 miles, my legs were starting to get tired and that's when other runners around me seemed to start dropping like flies. Every aid station seemed to bring more casualties. People would stop, fold over, etc. it wasn't a pretty sight. I was very happy to have my fuel belt, which allowed me to look at my feet, try to ignore everybody around me and power through the casualties.

Somewhere past mile 22, I saw Bruce, who ran a bit with me and told me I'd get in in 3:35, I think he said. I had no energy left by then but I remember mumbling "better than that!". At mile 23, my legs become lead. It became an incredible effort to put one foot in front of the other. To add insult to injury, the last aid station was in the middle of an incline = runners cemetery!  Again, I was very happy to have my fuel belt!

I crossed the finish line in 3:33:39. 24th in my division! My first marathon ended up being a resounding success! Boston 2011 here I come!

Bib	Name	City	State	Cntry	Div	Age	M/F	Event
2598	Norris, Sabine	Dallas	TX	USA	F30-34	34	F	Marathon
Checkpoints 10k Mile 9 Half 30k 0:49:51 - 1:45:08 2:30:16 Finish Pace Proj Time Official Time Overall Gender Div 0:08:09 3:33:39 714 111 24

Over the final 7.5 miles 

You passed 173 runners

And 12 passed you

?