1st Marathon Down!

Zetti

Barefooters
Feb 17, 2012
1,031
899
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The weekend weather forecast had been looking sunny all week, so naturally I assumed rain for race day. A nice upper 50s lower 60 drizzle would be perfect I was thinking. However, as race day approached, the forecast got sunnier and warmer. By Friday afternoon the forecast read 78 and sunny. Well, at least the spectators were going to be happy! :)

That night I managed to completely change my diet by eating a full steak and half a chicken breast, accompanied by the usual salad. Well, worst case scenario I end up stopped up, not letting loose…so I figured no harm done. J I finished off a seasonal Oktoberfest brew and played a game of apples to apples with the family.

The following morning I woke up rested and ready for my first marathon. I ate my usual bowl of cereal and two pieces of toast with peanut butter. I rolled out my legs, stretched minimally and off we were. I ran this even with a buddy of mine so we chatted merrily on the ¾ mile warm up to the starting line (I have family that lives near by the starting line). Upon arrival we went straight to the port-a-John line. We got there with 20minutes to spare so I figured that we would have plenty of time to use the facilities and get into the chute. Well…we ended up waiting in line of 19min and 45 sec leaving exactly 9 seconds to empty the tubes and 6 seconds to get from the port-a-John to the chute. Luckily the race was super small (under 200 in the marathon) so our timing worked like a charm.

The gun went off and we set out dodging those individuals who decided that they were going to run sub 3.30 marathons and 1.3 halfs but in reality would be lucky to finish under 4.3 or 2 respectively. Nothing against taking your time and enjoying a race, but geez….why in the name of running would you go to the very front of the chute if that is the case?!? By the time we dodged the overly optimistic runners we reached a beautiful bike trail that circled Spring Lake.

The course was beautiful and already warm at 8am. Unfortunately the marathon course was a repeated loop around the lake but that’s about all I have for complaints. As usual the aid station crew was super friendly, helpful, and encouraging. I head the classic comments as well as those comments of disbelief mixed with passive/aggressive condescension. You can’t help but chuckle when you hear some of those comments.
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8 mile mark...all smiles

There was a 1.5-2mi stretch where the road was really torn up and I was very glad I had my Lunas in hand to make for the most enjoyable race experience possible. I slipped them on for that portion and easily slipped them off once the road/bike trail became reasonable. It was by no means un-runnable, but I will definitely say that it was much more enjoyable to have the min shoe option. I’m all about relaxing and enjoying the run, so it worked out nicely for this race!

The first 13miles went very smoothly. My buddy and I were oscillating between 8.30 and 8.45 min/miles so we were happy. For 16 miles or so we chit-chatted and cracked jokes, but somewhere between 17 and 18 we got real quiet and realized that we needed to focus on the task at hand. By mile 19 I realized that I might end up gassing around mile 21 so I grabbed a GU just in case from an aid station. At this point, my ability to rationalize and recall that I should change NOTHING from my training was outweighed by my bodies craving for calories. Just before mile 20 I ended up taking the GU (orange flavor) and man was that a mistake. Not only was this my first GU ever, but it had been warmed to a super tasty 84 Degrees Fahrenheit! The warm, sticky, way too sweet goop oozed out of the tube and I almost lost it. The second it hit my tongue I knew it was a huge mistake! Oh well, down the hatch it went. It also left a very unpleasant sticky residue on my hands that just about drove me mad until the next aid station. One Gatorade and one water later I could still feel the slime of my bad decision in the back of my mouth. Luckily I was able to hit the aid station again after a short loop to add an extra .5miles to the course.

Somewhere around mile 22 my body decided that all basic functions including breathing were a little too much to handle, so it slowed time to a crawl so that I could savor each fraction of each second. By this time my buddy had stopped to walk due to a bum knee but he told me to keep going. As much as I would have loved to stop and walk with him, I knew it would have been my demise as (for me) walking is the next closest step to death….I stop to walk and bad things happen. So needless to say I carried on.
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beautiful day for a run

By mile 23 and 24 I wished I did not have a watch on, to check every 27.3 seconds, to see if I was nearing the next mile mark. I had never before felt like 3 miles took such a long time to complete. Based on the handful of people I passed from that point I think they too were feeling the drag of the last few miles. About ¾ a mile from the finish we wrapped around the back of the brewery that was putting the marathon on, and they had a time mat laid out and they were announcing runners as they went by and people were cheering. When my name was announced someone in the crowd yelled “AND HE DID IT BAREFOOT!”. At that point I figured it was a member of my family or a friend, but I still don’t know who it was! In any event, thank you to that kind soul as the cheering that resulted from the crowd was enough to push me through the last little bit.

When rounding the corner to the finish line, a halfer who was sitting on the ground jumped up and said to those around her…. “HEY…that’s that guy I was telling you about!” I immediately was reminded of the immense pride in being part of the wider barefoot running society.

I finally crossed the finish line a 3:51.33 which put me at 8:50min/mile
I ended up 3rd in my age group (again it was a small race) and was overall happy with the experience. My buddy came in just a few minutes behind me and we commemorated for 10 minutes or so, stretched for another 5 and took off. Ends up I am making a bad habit of leaving before the results are posted and not picking up my award. This time I think it was a bottle opener so a huge bummer as I would have gotten some use out of that! :)
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Happy to be done and in one piece!
(and check out those stars and stripes shorts in the background)
Overall I would consider my first marathon a complete success and a total blast. I by no means intend to stop here and look forward to many marathons to come (maybe even an ultra some day).
A huge thanks goes out to you guys for your support, knowledge, and banter! There’s no way I would have been able to complete this even injury free without you!

Post-race follow up:
So the only things that were sore on Monday and Tuesday were my quads. No calf soreness, no foot soreness, to hip soreness, wohoo!! Looks like with 2 days off I will be able to get back to running. I don’t plan on any high mileage for the next week or two, but I am stoked that I feel as good as I do. Went on two decent walks on both Sunday and Monday so I’m sure that helped as well. My feet were almost not fazed by the distance (I’m sure it helped that I donned the Lunas for 4 miles or so) and resorted to a slight tingle for only an hour or two after the race.
 
not sure why its so hard to post pics here....I think its me...haha
Will try later :D
 
I think the problem why you are having trouble uploading photos is because you are directly linking to your Facebook page to pull them in here. Try saving those to your hard drive first, then point this site to them.

Once you get those sorted out, I would like to share this on the home page.

Congrats!
 
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Lovely running and thanks for sharing.

Did the brewery offer the runners any refreshments? A local brewery near here sponsored a Half I ran in June. It was over 80F for the event and the free IPA after the run went down quite nicely. I remember the beer better than the run.
 
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I think the problem why you are having trouble uploading photos is because you are directly linking to your Facebook page to pull them in here. Try saving those to your hard drive first, then point this site to them.

Once you get those sorted out, I would like to share this on the home page.

Congrats!
Yeah...I need to resize the pics first...I tried directly uploading but they are very big pics.
Will get that done this evening :)
Thanks TJ!
 
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Lovely running and thanks for sharing.

Did the brewery offer the runners any refreshments? A local brewery near here sponsored a Half I ran in June. It was over 80F for the event and the free IPA after the run went down quite nicely. I remember the beer better than the run.

Not this year....last year they did :(
And last year you got a sweet bottle opener as a medal for placing, this year they went with plaques....just not the same :p
They did have finisher mugs though:barefoot:
 
Thanks Dutchie and Chris!
 
Congrats Zetti! Sounds like your training and racing were spot on, except for the GU-goof. And sub-4 hours for your first marathon is awesome! (Not that I know anything about marathons.) Hope to see you around these parts a little more often. Tell your boss you need BRS's " support, knowledge, and banter" for a strong work performance too. Looking forward to the pics . . . .
 
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Well done Zetti, well done. Awesome time for a first marathon (any marathon for that matter. A sub 4 is a goal of mine, someday). Typical first time gu experience, nasty little things. Great report and I look forward to seeing the pics when it goes to the home page.
 
Wow! And, congratulations!

Welcome to the "I survived a marathon barefoot" crew. (Well, nearly barefoot, heh)

Under 4 hrs - Impressed. I think my days of 4 hr marathons might be over... Close, but probably over.

Again, congrats.
 
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Awesome man, sub 4hr on your first! And an age group placing too... nice! I had an orange GU experience exactly like yours on my half marathon earlier this year, only I should have known better I had them a couple times earlier. But it was way worse during an actual race than it was while I tried them in training. I'm going to try grapes for the first time racing in mine (I've tried them in training and quite enjoy eating them now on long runs now). I envision my upcoming marathon going similar - I'd like to be one of those who can pace myself for 20 miles and then pick up the pace and race the last 6, but with most all my races I tend to slow down throughout, feeling my worse about 3/4 of the way, and only picking up the pace with the finish line is almost in sight, maybe a 1/2 mile or so on my best ones.
 
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Congrats!!!! See? I knew you could do it!!!
 
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Pics are up...that was way easier TJ!
PS: are those too big....I already reduced them to 5% of their original size...but they still look pretty big! haha:barefoot:
 
Right on there Lee...I'll have to have a talk with him....:D
Pilot....I'll go completely bare next time :barefoot:
Dama & Jen...don't get any ideas! :p
Thanks Tristan and Rick

Dang I miss you guys...
I need to get back here more often!
 
Yeah Zetti!
Way to represent the Michigan Chapter!
Wasn't Ann Arbor your first ever 10K?
And here you are five months later with a great showing in a full marathon.
Way to go!
 
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Yeah Zetti!
Way to represent the Michigan Chapter!
Wasn't Ann Arbor your first ever 10K?
And here you are five months later with a great showing in a full marathon.
Way to go!
Hey Board, thanks!
Yep....first 10k (of course I did a half last year at the same event...I was training for the marathon but had an ITband setback :banghead: ).
Either way it feels good to have this one under my belt! :barefoot:
 
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