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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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