Bootlegger Marathon...here goes nothing logical.
First of all - i’m eternally miffed my running watch (Garmin 310x) DID NOT SAVE MY SPLITS. I know my time was 04:20:XX....but man I would have liked to know my splits. For the most part I kept my miles under 10min/mi, and I got into a great groove about mile 6 for sub 9:30 miles, but after the first half I stopped looking at my watch.
I went into this marathon 3 weeks into mono, but I felt fine and didn’t have any problems completing the distance. Originally I signed up for this race as a check point for my 50 miler in August and when I found out I had mono I can’t say I really thought about missing it. Despite being undertrained I figured the previous two weeks of minimal/zero running would be akin to a taper and I’d have fresh legs for the marathon - this worked out pretty well actually!
My original plan was just throw a bunch of gels in my sports bra and wing it.
Yea right, also not all GUs have caffeine - how did I JUST FIGURE THIS OUT???
I left for the marathon at 12:30AM and got back to Huntsville by 2:30pm so 14 hrs + a marathon wasn’t too bad for a cute little saturday run...LOL, it kind of felt like I ran/drove 14 hrs just for the chocolate milk (this isn’t that much of a lie).
The course: stupid hilly, like constant elevation change and TONS AND TONS AND TONS of climbing. The first half wasn’t bad, sort of hilly but it catered to the half marathoners so they didn’t include crazy climbs, however that meant we had to deal with a little traffic but YOLO if you’re into halfs. The second half of the marathon included a bitch of a climb. That usually means it’s an amazing downhill afterwards right? not even close, it was a bitch of a descent because OH WAIT LETS THROW IN MORE LITTLE HILLS. I like to take a personal affront to that because, I mean, why not when you call a marathon a ‘training run’.
Ended up 5th woman overall, 1st in AG and the prize was a flask...which I really only see using to carry my chocolate milk in the near future. I’m pretty sure the course was long after the 26 mile mark - the last 4 mile markers were randomly splashed along the course (the mi 23 sign showed up at 23.8 mi) so that kind of put me in a bitchy mood because of all the mental games I play the last 10K. HOWEVER, if weird mile markers, no coffee at the beginning, hilly routes and few runners don’t bother you I would absolutely recommend this race for a training run in the future!
I will say that using a distance you like to ‘race’ as a ‘training run’ messes with your head; I had to keep reminding myself I’m not in THIS race for the half, i’m in it for the marathon, and i’m not in the marathon for 26, i’m in it for 50 mi. I do need to find more cushioned shoes tho, my brooks PureFlows are not meant for these distances and you really start to feel it after 20ish miles in your toes/heels.
- How my toes feel.