Memphis Marathon 2006

Well, it's over.

Saturday was the big day. Getting to Memphis was a bit interesting. The worst winter storm in about 5 years hit St Louis on Thursday. It rained all night Wednesday night/Thursday morning, and started to turn to ice and sleet by noon. Judy and I had originally planned on leaving around 5pm after I was done working, but with the weather the way it was, I decided to stop working at about 2pm so we could get on the road a bit earlier.

Loaded up the car and got going about 2:40. Roads were pretty bad - took so a good hour to make it to I-55 on the south end of town (about 15 miles), but once we got going south things improved a bit, eventually getting to just rain after another hour or so. We stayed in Sikeston, MO Thursday night - which is about the 1/2 way point between St Louis and Memphis, and home of Lamberts ... home of the throwed rolls, http://www.throwedrolls.com/ ... good food there, and all the yummy rolls you can catch and eat, heh.

Friday we got up and got going, getting to Memphis shortly before 11am. We headed to Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken, which has great chicken... yum. We went and checked into our hotel in downtown Memphis. We had some time to kill so we went to the place to pick up our Marathon packet and check out the 'expo' which has several run related vendors set up selling stuff. Somethings were really cheap, but didn't find much to buy myself. Judy got a pair of shoes and some odds and ends.

We then headed to the airport to pick up Marc and Zoe. After some missed signs we got to the airport more or less right as Marc and Zoe were coming out of the baggage claim, so all worked well. Headed back to the hotel, got everything unloaded and up to the room. We then went back to the Convention Center so Marc and Zoe could pick up their stuff and shop a bit. Marc didn't have any running pants, so he managed to find a few things to buy for the predicted chilly morning. Then after a brief rest, headed out for dinner, walking down to the Peabody Center and then onto Beale Street.

We found a place on Beale Street that had 20% off all pasta dishes for racers. They oddly didn't seem prepared for the number of racers coming in and ordering pasta. We got there early and beat the 'rush' but there were some people that arrived shortly after us that were still waiting for food when we were leaving. Hit a Ben and Jerry's on the way back for dessert, yum.

Was a bit restless that night, but managed to fall asleep fairly early. I woke up shortly after 4am and couldn't fall back asleep, 5:30 alarm went off, so it was time to get ready. Dressed, headed down for a hotel breakfast of a croissant and some breakfast bars I brought along. Marc and I then went outside and ran up the street a ways and back, to check out the weather and so that I could 'go' before the race (seems to shake things out a bit). Felt brisk, but not too bad, was right around 30 or so at that time, so it was going to be 32 or so by race start, but was going to be sunny and light wind.

We all got our bathroom going out of the way, then headed to the finish line (At AutoZone park where the Memphis Cardinals play minor league baseball, nice stadium though) to check our bags with stuff we'd need at the finish line. We then headed to the start. We were in coral 6 - quite a ways from the 'real' start line. They started by corals, and as each one started, the groups behind would move up. There were about 6000 people starting the race, from what I could tell they were expecting more, but the bad weather in the midwest prevented some people from making it. So we finally got going, crossing the starting line about 6 minutes after the 'start' of the race.

The first mile of the race Judy, Marc, Zoe and I ran together - well as together as we could, zig zagging in and out of people and avoiding potholes and such. Judy was planning on doing a run/walk strategy for the 1/2 marathon, so at the 1 mile mark, we said goodbye to her and pushed onward. This actually seemed to work out well for me - I never warm up as much as I should when running, so this slower first mile seemed to help loosen things up - I didn't have to stop and stretch anytime during the run.

They had pace setters for people wanting to finish at a certain time. 4:45, 5:00, 5:15 and so on. People running holding a stick with the time on it, heh - that had to be rather annoying to do for 5 hours or so. We passed the 5:15 pace setter, then the 5:00 pace setter, and then the 4:45 pace setter. When we passed the 4:45 pace setter, I thought it would be nice to finish in 4:45, but I figured I would lose speed once I was not running with Marc and Zoe. I seem to fade at the end of all my 'long' runs and I expected to fade today as well. I thought it would be nice to stay ahead of the 4:45 pace setter until after mile 20.

Shortly after mile 12, at Sun Studio, the 1/2 marathoners split off and Marc and Zoe headed towards the finish line and I headed on solo. It was great running the first 1/2 with them, helped pass the time and kept me going a bit faster than I would have gone if I was solo - helping me 'bank' some time to be ahead of my secondary goal of 5 hours (the real goal being FINISHING, heh). I crossed the 13.1 mile mark in around 2:20 by Garmin time which I started right about when crossing the start line - and 2:20 was about 16 minutes faster than my 1/2 marathon time in September, so I was feeling pretty good about that.

The runners really thinned out after the split, and I would pick people to follow for a bit, sometimes making some small talk and such. I ran with someone who had recently moved to Memphis and did most of the talking - I just was saying 'ya' and 'uh-huh' a lot. He had ran several marathons, then took a long break from running, this was his second marathon since being 'back' to running. I could tell that he was going to be going too fast for me to keep up for too long so after a bit I slowed down.

At every rest stop (which was more or less at every mile) I would walk a bit while drinking water. At a few stops I had poweraid but it didn't seem to be agreeing with me, or something wasn't anyway - and my stomach hurt a bit, so I then just stuck with the water. As I got farther and farther, I started walking more and more at the aid stations. I knew my pace was slowing, but I was still feeling pretty good.

Shortly before mile 18, the 4:45 pace setter passed me, I said something like 'I was hoping to not see you until mile 20' to which she replied 'I was hoping not to see you at all' or something like that, heh. I needed to go to the bathroom so stopped and quickly went at the mile 18 rest stop, had another Gu Gel, two waters to wash it down, and got running again.

Miles kept clicking off slowly but surely. The miles kept feeling longer and longer, and I would look down at the garmin and see that it was saying my pace was 13 min/mile and be like "what? I gotta be running faster than that!" heh. At mile 23 while walking an old guy passed me - I thought to myself "I'll pass him back when I start running again" ... but never did. Mile 25 was around St Jude's Hospital, ran down a street and back. As I was running back I saw the 5:00 pace setter - they weren't far behind, which concerned me a bit. I was still feeling pretty good, but didn't want to have to walk at the very end - so again after the mile 25 aid station I walked a bit, but not as much. Then got running again.

With about .6 miles to go, someone hollered out "only 5 minutes to go" to which I replied "more like 6 or 7..." heh. Ya, mb it was 5 minutes for people that passed by there an hour before, but not me (:

The finish was at the Baseball park, and entered in thru the outfield. Then ran along the warning track and then down the 3rd base line to the finish. Running on the warning track after running on crappy uneven and slanted streets for nearly 5 hours felt very good. I didn't have much energy left, but did manage to pick up the pace a bit - passed someone even. Saw Marc and Zoe and Judy in the stands near the finish (I had called them shortly after mile 24 to tell them I was on my way in), waved hi as crossing the finish. Someone offered me a blanket but said I felt OK, got my medal and got the timing chip cut from my shoe, then it was off to meet up with everyone.

After standing around for a bit and drinking the two bottles of water they gave me at the finish line and eating a banana that Judy gave me, I went and changed into my dry clothes. I then went into the post food area - had some hot soup, got a bagel, a soft drink, that sort of thing. After eating, we headed back to the hotel. Marc, Zoe and Judy had time to shower while waiting for me, so I had the shower to myself without anyone else waiting for it. Stood in there forever, and actually sat down to wash my feet cause I didn't want to stand on one leg, heh.

After sitting around for a bit, we headed off to the B-B-Q Shop, great BBQ. We ordered a bunch of food, got thru it all. Then they all ordered desert - but I had gone thru 7 Gu Gels during the marathon, and something sweet did not sound all that good to me, so for desert I ordered a pulled pork sandwich (:

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a place that sells really good cheesecake, with the idea that we would have it later before going to bed. We then looked around for a parking spot around Peabody Place (shopping center) so we could check out the water massage place since we all were in need. We couldn't find any reasonable parking, so we just headed back to the hotel, and walked the 4 or so blocks there. The water massage felt good, that's for sure. Then back to the hotel, sat around for a bit, was really tired. I was ready for bed by about 8pm, but I think I managed to stay awake until 9 or so. Was just beat, too tired to eat cheese cake even.

Sunday morning, got up, legs - especially my thighs - hurt quite a bit. Well, I guess they were just tired, didn't really hurt (as in they don't hurt unless I'm using them, heh). We got up, packed everything up, had breakfast at the hotel, and then it was off to get Marc and Zoe to the airport. After dropping them off, we had considered hanging around Memphis and have lunch at Interstate BBQ, which is suppose to be good, but we just felt like getting on the road, so off we went. Drive back was all right, pretty windy out, stopped for lunch at Texas Roadhouse outside Cape Girardeau, MO, and made it home around 3pm or so. 3" of snow on the ground at the house, don't know when I'll feel like shoveling the driveway (:

One funny note - with all the eating I did, I gained about 7 pounds over the weekend. On Thursday morning I weighed 186.x (don't recall what exactly) ... Monday morning I weighed 194.0 ... sheesh.

Results...

Marc 2:19:08 10:38 pace
Zoe 2:19:08 10:38 pace
Judy 2:52:39 13:11 pace

Me - 4:55:40 11:18 pace
splits of...
6.2 miles, 1:07:01, 10:50 pace
13.1 miles, 2:19:37, 10:40 pace
20 miles, 3:38:29, 10:56 pace