Race: Go! St. Louis Marathon
Date: April 6, 2014
Result: 5:05:39
Charity: National Children's Cancer Society, Inc.
Amount Raised: $270
The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Me Struggling
Not sure if a steak dinner was the best idea the night
before a marathon, but I kind of didn't do anything right prepping for this race,
so why start now? We attempted to have dinner at the Old
Spaghetti Warehouse but the two hour wait was a bit much so we said screw it
and drove back to the hotel and ordered room service. I chilled in bed with a belly full of ribeye and put my race gear
together while watching and ultimately dozing off to the two NCAA Final Four
games.
About the gear – I planned on wearing my charity shirt that
I picked up the day before for running for team National Children’s Cancer
Society, but it was too tight (read: I was too fat) and a bit chafe-y. Luckily I had one other clean technical shirt left
in my luggage so I ran with my Ragnar shirt.
I was upset because I left my Adidas running shades at home, so I had to
pick up a pair at the Expo. As for the
shoes, the NB 980’s which I bought for this race were
heavier than the racing flats I've been used to, and the extra cushioning
didn't really offset this fact, because they just got heavier and heavier as
the race went on. 
It was a great move to book the Sheraton which was two
blocks away from the start corrals so I didn't have to worry about getting there on time. I woke up at 1:30
in the morning but just couldn't fall back asleep. Tossing and turning for the next five hours, I finally wandered up 14th street from the hotel at 6:30 while
the kids were still knocked out from two days of museum exploring and decided to take a selfie while the runners began to assemble at the start line.
After the anthem, Jackie Joyner Kersee had a few words at
the start and before I knew it the race was underway right at 7 am and
Coral C started to work their way to the start line. I had time to check and make sure my GPS watch
was working and off I went, hanging with the 4:00 pace group throughout the downtown area until I felt
the need to slow down a bit. And that point
was right after running through the Budweiser Brewery around mile 5.
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| The Budweiser Brewery |
At the bottom of Holy Hill, which is actually a 2.2 mile
long stretch of three consecutive hills, a priest was sprinkling runners with
holy water at mile 6. I instinctively
did the sign of the cross as I was blessed and started working my way to the
top. It’s actually a race within a race
where you get a separate time for this stretch. I could really feel myself expending so much
more energy versus running on flat ground and even though I knew there were
hills, I was just not experienced enough to successfully tackle them.
I was also getting worried that I would miss the point where
the marathoners and half marathoners would split their course and didn't study the
maps well enough to remember where it was so I kept checking around me for
other marathoners who had on gold bibs. All
I could see behind me was a sea of bouncing blue bibs and began to freak out. There weren't many full marathoners to begin with (1394 finished); the event is heavily geared more toward the half marathon where there are about 12,000 runners. Turned out the volunteers did a great job at
the split and at mile 9.5 I was pointed to run towards the park ahead as the
half-ers were turned around for their home stretch run.
Seeing my entire family in Forest Park at mile 12 was one of the
coolest things ever. I actually didn’t
see the kids right away, and spotted Mae first about 10 yards down course taking
pics when I look off to the side and saw I had just about passed them. A nice lady next to the kids was frantically pointing
my own kids out to me like I was long-time estranged to them. It was kind of a funny moment. I ran back and picked up Maya and gave her a
hug. Miles and Marcus were cheering me on and gave their hair a quick tussle. Ah, my family, I thought. I handed off my hoodie to Mae, gave her a
quick kiss and kept going. Immediately everything
felt lighter and more comfortable in the 48 degree air as the sun began to
break through the solid cloud cover. 
That’s when an angel in Sauconys swooped in to help me
out. “Come on, keep running, let’s
go.” I looked over my shoulder and noticed this runner was directing her words of encouragement toward me and so I pulled out my ear buds and tucked them into my pocket and began running with
her. The person she was originally running with was
well ahead of her and I guess she needed to adopt a new running partner. I reluctantly agreed.
Small talk revealed that she was running her first marathon
and was looking to knock a few items off her bucket list in her midlife
crisis. I told her about my quest for 50
and couldn't tell if she believed in my goals since I was in such bad shape at this point
in the race. But her determination kept
me going and I kept running, abandoning my walk/run approach and managed to
keep running for the next 5 miles because of her. Every time I wanted to stop, her
vocal support made me keep going. Turned
out she was a 20 year veteran, an Army Captain Commander about to make Major,
and thought her can-do personality was perfect for what she did. I did my best to reciprocate the encouragement, as she was battling her own problems with calf cramps, but it wasn't easy.
Around mile 21 my left quad really decided to shut down on me and just
absolutely had to walk it off. I told
my temporary bff to run her race and thanked her and off she went. She probably would have finished 10-15
minutes faster if I didn't hold her back, and I’d probably still be out there somewhere
between miles 17 and 18 if it wasn't for her positive mental attitude. She really
wanted me to finish with her and I feel sort of bad that I couldn't, but when
running a marathon, you really do need to run your own race. But I’m grateful for the time she spent running with me. Thanks Debra!
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| The home stretch - all downhill from here |
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| Frozen custard sandwich in hand |
My favorite sign I saw on the course: "DO EPIC SHIT." I laughed and high-fived the sign holder because I thought to myself, that was what I did in Madison and it didn't work out so well.
Registration: $0
Flight: N/A
Hotel: Sheraton St. Louis City Center $214
