A fate far better than Pheidippides

In 490 BCE, Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, ran from Marathon to Athens (about 25 miles) to inform the Athenians the outcome of the battle with invading Persians. The distance was filled with hills and other obstacles; thus Pheidippides arrived in Athens exhausted and with bleeding feet. After telling the townspeople of the Greeks' success in the battle, Pheidippides fell to the ground dead. In 1896, at the first modern Olympic Games, held a race of approximately the same length in commemoration of Pheidippides.

On May 1st, 2011 I ran 13.1 miles of the Cincinnati Flying Pig Half Marathon in 3:14:44 with my oldest son, Jacob by my side. Well, technically he was 30 seconds ahead of me. He kinda sorta ditched me that last 100 yards as he wanted to sprint in to the finish. I wanted to as well, but we'll get to why that was harder for me later. This finish was significant to me in more ways than simply running my first half marathon. It was me doing something I truly thought was impossible just 6 months prior. I accomplished it under different, less than favorable circumstances than I had originally hoped for. And lastly, I finished when I truly questioned if I could.

The events that lead up to the Pig were not easy. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I did not follow the 7 P's. So I was more undertrained than I should have been, and I would have liked to have been. My husband was on the injured reserve list. This was huge to me. It sounds so silly to say that I doubted I could run this without him. But I found through my anxiety when he broke his foot and the realization that I was going to have to do this on my own that I rely heavily on him. It wasn't just about the running. I have had a huge anxiety of crowds since I was a little girl. I blame it on a Conan the Barbarian show at Universal Studios Hollywood when I was 7. We were exiting the show and I was bumped, and I fell. I ended up getting stepped on as people kept filing out. In my 7 year old mind it was traumatic. I had to go to the first aid station with cuts and bruises. Even now I find that I get a little itchy, sweaty, heart pounding in my ears nervous when I am faced with large amounts of people. The start area, the beginning of a race, certain areas along the course and of course the finish area was a huge concern to me. The fact that there are literally walls of nothing but people was unavoidable. My other concern was that Aaron was to be my seasoned coach along the course. I was going to look to him for that positive reinforcement that I was at a good pace, I was looking healthy, making good time, that I could do it. I needed his motivation. I was going to have to find another way. Jake was going to run in his fathers place. Which solved the problem of the $75 bib number, I questioned how motivated I could be while I ran with my 13 year old son.

We arrived to the starting area in the rain with thunder and lightening. There were just as I suspected far too many people. Aaron veered off to look for the volunteer tent my company, Hospice of the Bluegrass was to be at. That left me with Jake and Tim to find our coral. I grabbed Tim's shirt as he barreled through the crowd to the busses so we could drop off our backpacks and to the outhouses for a final potty break before we started. We split at the busses and Jake and I found ourself stuck. We could not get inside the gate to get to a coral. The race started and we inched our way forward and found an opening in the gate and just merged in. It was insane! I am not even sure what coral it was, but we were in it, like cattle. We had no other option than to run or be run over. Around mile 2 I noticed Tim ahead of me. We ran with him for a short distance and then hit the first outhouses at mile 4. That was 15 minutes!! Now I see why people just pee in bushes on the side of the course! I texted Aaron where we were and he sent me back that I was making excellent time. My cross country son asked me why I was walking and running walking and running. I told him I interval run, I can't just run. He asked me why, and I told him because I have one lung. "One lung? Are you a mutant? Why?" I told him about the car accident and how my body had grown accustom to it but it is hard to run longer than 3 minutes at a time. "Does dad know this?" Hahaha. I love that kid. I told him that yes, his dad knew that little fact. Some motivation he was turning out to be and we were turning onto Gilbert Ave. Which to me looked like mount Everest at the time. As you are running up Gilbert you pass mile marker 7. On the other side of the road people are running down, this is mile 11. It plays tricks with your mind when you are pushing hard at your pace and you see people at mile 11 coming down. Ugh. We made our way up Gilbert and turned to Eden Park. Everyone mentions what a bear Eden Park is so I was expecting it to be just impossible. When we reached the top I found that it wasn't all that bad! Gilbert was far worse to me than Eden Park. We got to mile 9 and I was ready to pick up my intervals once again. About 6 paces in to the run interval and the pain in my knee made me stop. I could walk with low pain, but running was like stabbing the outside of my right knee with a knife. Up to the top of Eden Park I found myself ahead of Jake, waiting at few points for him to catch up. Now he was the one chomping at the bit to go. I needed something....

Laurel texted me that she had just seen Tim at the split where the full and the half go in two different directions. This is a very crowded area for spectators and I knew this corner well from being there every year to cheer on Aaron and Tim as they ran. A familiar face was just what I needed. As well as shedding my long sleeve shirt, hat and Jake had been dragging around a hoodie that I tossed but he went back to pick up. That kid will not throw anything away. I tried to tell him that it is protocol, but he wouldn't let it be left behind. I focused on finding Laurel and the girls in the crowd, and when I spotted them I was overjoyed. I gave her the stuff and she ran with me up to the corner. It was just what I needed, I can now appreciate much better why we chase our runners around the course with signs and noise makers and even run a little bit to motivate them. It makes a huge difference mentally.



I kept trying to keep up with my intervals, but it was getting increasingly difficult. I was running for maybe 20 seconds of my 1 minute intervals and walking the rest. We passed mile 12 well on our way to finishing. This is about the place were I went completely numb. Tunnel vision of just finishing. We rounded a corner and I told Jake were nearly there. The back of his foot was bloody from a blister, I knew I had blisters on my toes, I could feel them. We approached mile marker 13 and while I should be wailing in pain I simply giggled. I knew that medal was as good as mine. Aaron had texted me that he was at the finish area handing out the mylar blankets. He was going to be on my left hand side after I received my medal. Jake wanted to run in, I told him to go ahead. of course this was not good for some of the spectators. They were yelling at me that I needed to sprint in for a good photo. If they only knew....



I got as close as I could and gave it my best "sprint" as I crossed the finish, hands up. All I wanted at that point was my husband. I got ushered through a gauntlet and I spotted my man with arms loaded down in mylar. Once he saw my face it was all over. He ditched the blankets and I kept hobbling through the gauntlet... medal... blanket... chip removal... water... banana... fruit cup... Aaron wanted to introduce me his friend Kevin. Kevin was coordinator of the finish line volunteers and was gracious enough to put him to work so he could participate in some fashion this year. Little did I know that Kevin is a running celebrity in the blog/podcast circuit. If you are interested in training information and interval running, Kevin is your man.

So there you have the (very) long of the short of it. I ran. I survived. I may even do it again. I learned that even when gripped with fear, I can do things that I think are impossible. I can do them under circumstances that I think are impossible. And I am fortunate that I did not fall over dead at the finish. A huge thank you to my Chief for believing in me. My son for putting up with me. My amazing friends for encouraging me. My in laws for keeping Noah and Annika yet another year so we could do this insane thing called marathons. And to the Vogel's for yet again, being our partners in madness. Lastly to my God, how wonderful it was to be surrounded by your glory at 6 am. In the rain, knowing that you created a perfect morning for 13.1.