Fall Classic Marathon September 14, 2014

I saw the registration for this marathon and knew I had to do it. It starts at the Stanley Hotel and ends in Loveland. It is mostly downhill and takes place in one of my favorite cities in Colorado, Estes Park. It runs down the Big Thompson river and is gorgeous! Both Loveland and Estes Park were victims to the 2013 flood, so this marathon also raised money for the restoration of their cities.At first, I didn't think this marathon would get me into the 2015 Boston Marathon because registration for Boston takes place in early September. But, when I found out that I could register for Boston on September 15th, I got really excited. This was my last chance to qualify. I have been trying to qualify for Boston, ever since my first marathon in September of 2012. The marathon has been full of disappointments for me. All the calculators said I should be able to finish in 3:35, based on all my other race times. My first road marathon finish was 3:43:31, second was 3:45:11, third was 3:55:32, fourth was 3:48:08, and my fifth was 3:39:42 (Boston qualifying by only 18 seconds). I love the marathon, but I have never been happy with my finish times. Fall Classic Marathon was going to be my, "do or die", race. I was going to give it my all! I stood at the starting line of the race with a goal of 3:35.I knew this was going to be tough, but I had just ran Pikes Peak Marathon so I had the endurance. My speed seemed to be there because I had continued racing and doing uncomfortably hard runs. My body was pretty beat up from all the hard training, but no worse than I had felt before other marathons in the past. My husband drove me to the start at 5:30am and it was absolutely freezing. I started worrying that all of my shivering was going to drain all my energy. Steve, the race director, told all of us that the best advice he could give was to let the road carry you down to the finish. "Don't race!" he said. When the race started, I couldn't feel my fingers or toes. I also messed up when starting my new Garmin and couldn't figure out how to fix it. In the process of messing with my Garmin, the pace band flew off. Oh, well. I probably didn't need it anyway. After about 2 miles, the sun started coming out and I warmed up. I had decided to carry my own water, which seems so much easier than trying to grab cups of water and drink them without spilling all over myself. The only downside to doing this was that I could only hold the water bottle in my right hand. Every time I switched the bottle to the left hand, I felt off balance. But, I breezed right through most aid stations. Not stopping helped me keep a very even pace. I kept very close to 8 minutes/mile all the way to the halfway point. I had some bad pain in my left achilles and my right foot was starting to hurt, so I tried to put that out of my mind. I hit the halfway point at 1:44:39, which meant I could possibly finish in 3:30. I started worrying that I was going too fast, but I was feeling good, so I kept rolling with it. I started panicking when I hit mile 17. The mile marker said 17, but my Garmin said 18. What?!!! Is my Garmin off by a whole mile? It can be good if your Garmin is telling you that you have ran less miles, but when it goes the other way around, it is REALLY bad. There was no other runners near me and I wanted to know if anyone else was experiencing the same problem. When I hit the other mile markers, my Garmin was still a whole mile off. Then, I hit mile 22 and it matched my Garmin exactly. I screamed, "Thank God!" I just had to keep running and hopefully not need to use the bathroom. Then, some hills hit. Starting at about mile 23, the course became a 1% grade. Normally, this wouldn't seem like much, but my legs were pretty tired. My pace slowed to 8:24, 8:50, and 8:30 minutes/mile. But, when I saw that finish line, I got really excited. The clock read 3:31:35! My husband didn't make it to the finish yet. He didn't think I would finish that quick. Then, I went to look at the results, and I was 2nd in my Age Group. I have never podiumed in a marathon before. I also knew I could to register for the Boston Marathon the next day, since I had qualified by over 8 minutes. One of the best feelings in the world!When I got my age group award, Steve, the race director said that he put some of the mile markers in the wrong spot. At least I knew that I wasn't going crazy! I still love this race!!!!