How Do You Know if Someone ( LIKE ME!) Ran a Marathon??

Don't worry,

After months and months and months of training I was sort of not at all ready for the Portland Marathon weekend.

But here is how it went down.

In two parts.

PART ONE

I knew that I had an incredibly fun weekend ahead of me.  Until it snowed somewhere and Erika's flight to Seattle was CANCELED. We just knew right then that the weekend. Was. Ruined.

Luckily, with much cunningness, and the fact that she had paid for a ticket and it was not her fault that it snowed, she was able to get a new flight out the next day to meet us in Portland!

On Saturday, TriGuy and I kidnapped Ann Marie at the craaaaazy early hour of 11 am, and we were on our way!

I was trying to be zen on the drive.

And during lunch.

And during the expo.

I was not very successful.

Though I did enjoy running into Zoe from RunZoeRun, who was manning the Nuun booth all by herself!

That evening at the hotel, Erika and I reviewed what I would wear on the run.  I had brought layers.

Also:

Having settled that decision, I also chose not to wear my fuel belt.  Instead, I stuffed 2.5 packets of Sport Beans into one package.

With nothing left to do, we all went to bed. I slept a bit the night before the race.  One of my biggest concerns was that there was no microwave in our room and I didn't know how I would get hot water for my oatmeal.

This may seem like a small thing, but if I didn't have hot water, I wouldn't be able to eat my gluten-free oatmeal, which meant I wouldn't be able to eat anything for breakfast, and how would I run-twenty-six-point-two-miles-with-no-food-omg-that-is-impossible-I-will-have-to-drop-out-of-the-race-and-I-worked-so-hard-and-people-came-all-this-way-to-run-with-me...

It was a long night.

At about 5 a.m. I finally took TriGuy's advice and called down to the front desk to request hot water. They happily provided me with a full teapot.

It was a wish come true, and all was well in my world again.

Originally, I had packed just enough oatmeal for breakfast, but then thought it would be better to bring more.  It was a great idea until I realized I had to pour most of it out into, um...

What exactly?

I improvised.

In hindsight, I probably could have just asked for a bowl.

Anyhoo, after breakfast we met up with Ann Marie and hung out with her in-laws and TriGuy for awhile, taking pictures, stopping at the port-a-potties, and finding our corral.

The race announcer started us off with a moment of silence for Boston.

We then sang the national anthem, followed by Sweet Caroline.

Before we knew it, our corral was racing walking increasingly more quickly to the starting line. I may or may not have hyperventilated into my hat for a moment, and then we were off!



Stay tuned for PART TWO!!

UPCOMING POSTS: PART TWO, THEN WE WILL BACKTRACK TO MORE SUMMER RACE RECAPS AND MARATHON TRAINING

I linked up with Yeah Write's Moonshine Grid this weekend. Come see what's going on there, and maybe submit one of your own posts!

The 2013 Athleta Iron Girl Race Recap Part 2: the part where I actually race.

If you missed the lead in to this race, check here.

I was hoping my new plan of starting at the left side of the swim wave would keep me out of the washing machine and away from slower swimmers.   It may have worked if I hadn't been sidetracked by other issues.

Issue #1:

I "drank" from the lake several times.

Issue #2:
No matter how much I swam, that second buoy never got any closer.

I really need to work on my upper body strength so this doesn't keep happening.

Issue #3:
As I rounded the third buoy I got a solid clonk on the head.

She was super apologetic though and we kept swimming.

After the swim I went through T1 agonizingly slowly and started biking.

I felt really good.  Being on a familiar course was helpful, and I was glad that I had made progress on my cycling skills compared to years past!

OLD ME:

NEW ME!

I got to the turnaround where I almost did not actually make the turn.

I should really work on that.

On the way back I still felt good, but rode my brakes pretty hard on the narrow, steep turn-off of the expressway.  The girl behind me was a little annoyed.

I guess New Me still has some work to do.

The run was good.  Nothing scary/exciting happened and I managed to keep my pace just under 9 minute miles.  I hustled to the finish line to claim my wonderful finisher's medal.

I found Christy, who had already finished, gone home, showered, and grabbed some post-race food.

I high-tailed it to the food tent and got some delicious wraps, some Chobani yogurt, and, of course, coffee!  But, as I was drinking said coffee I felt something touch my lip.

So, I guess that made up for the lack of "exciting" moments during the race.

I love this course and will probably do this race again.  Athleta/Iron Girl was very organized, had great swag (hello Athleta t-shirt!), and had phenomenal course support.  And thanks to fellow FitFluential ambassador Axel, I found out that Meghann is from FitFluential too! How did I not know that??

Also, somehow I managed to shave 5 minutes off my swim from 2011, giving me a 5 minute PR!!


That said, the Athleta Iron Girl gets my official seal of approval.

So, who's joining me next year?

I joined the lovely people at Yeah Write again this week! Check out the great writing submissions by clicking the button!

UPCOMING POSTS:  5K RECAP, TRAINING RUNS, MARATHON RECAP