Date:
October 6, 2013
Location:
Milwaukee, WI
I used to
say that my favorite day of the year was the first day that it’s warm enough to
drive with the windows down. Now I’d have to say it is the first day that it’s
warm enough to run outside without needing multiple layers. That day finally
came in April, after what felt like the longest winter of my life. I’m sure
I’ve experienced similar, if not longer winters, but this was the first year
that I continued running through the winter months. And although at times it
was miserable, it really paid off. Shortly after my PR at the Shamrock
Marathon, I also had a half marathon and a 5K PR! As I said in my Shamrock recap, I wanted to start focusing on becoming a faster marathoner. So,
inspired by my recent success and the wonderfully warm weather, I set a pretty big
goal at the beginning of the summer: breaking the 4-hour barrier in Milwaukee.
And so
began a very busy, exciting summer of training which included a lot of shorter races and some cross training to prepare for my first triathlons! Most importantly though, I added speed workouts on the track. I was certain that adding these into my training plan was the key to running a sub-4 hour marathon. BUT, I
made the rookie mistake of doing too much too soon. Instead of easing into it,
I was pounding my legs every week. And soon
enough, my legs responded with shin splints that I just could NOT get rid of. I
would rest for weeks at a time, only to have them come back. Overall, I lost almost
two months of training. Of course I cross-trained when I couldn’t run, but it
seemed that my dreams of a sub-4 hour marathon were shattered. Needless to say,
I was crushed. I had felt so ready at the beginning of the summer, and now I
was struggling just to get enough miles in before the race.
But, I wasn’t
going to admit defeat yet (or maybe I was just in denial). I decided to start
the race with the 4:00 pace group anyway, and just hold onto that pace for as
long as I could. I knew this approach was risky. Starting out with a pace that
is too fast for you to hold for the entire marathon is a good way to ensure
that you bonk at the end. But maybe all the hours I'd put in when I could train was enough. And if not, I still wanted to push myself to see what I was really capable of.
And did I mention there
would be five of us running in Milwaukee! Besides Jin and me, three of my friends
in my PhD program, Nicole, Frank, and Si, would be running their first ever marathon!
We arrived in Milwaukee on Saturday for the race expo and to eat a big
carb-filled dinner. It rained all night that night, but miraculously the skies
cleared up just as we arrived at the starting point.
The race
started in Grafton, WI… 26.2 miles north of Milwaukee. We would literally be
running 26 miles to the city! You can see the route when looking at a zoomed
out map of the state! It’s pretty crazy and intimidating to think about that.
In fact, I tried not to think too hard about it.
As they counted down the start, I turned on my Ipod shuffle and… nothing. It was dead. I had charged it all night, so that meant it was literally dead. I wasn’t too surprised… it was pretty old and had definitely served its time (I’d won it in a drawing more than 4 years ago and I’d taken it on every run ever since). But of course it had to choose this moment to break. This is going to be the longest 26 miles ever.
The first
half of the race, I felt great. I stuck with the 4:00 pace group the whole time
along with Si who was also hoping to run a sub-4. Water stops were
tricky though… pacers run right through them without slowing down. We didn’t
want to run hard to catch up each time – that would be a terrible idea. So it
would pretty much take us the entire distance from one water stop to the next
to catch up again. It really put into perspective how hard it is to keep a
certain pace… I would only slow down for a few seconds to drink and it’s crazy
how far ahead the group would get in that time.
The scenery
along the course was beautiful. For the majority of the time, we were running
through tree-lined neighborhoods or by open fields. In Indiana the leaves
haven’t changed color very much yet, but this far north, the autumn colors were
vibrant. As beautiful as it was, the scenery didn’t vary much at all, and since
I was with the pace group, neither did the people around me. So after a while,
staring at the same scenery, the same people’s backs, with no ipod, and no
course entertainment, it got to be pretty boring. It was nice having Si there
to talk to every so often.
Since we
were running through rural areas and the suburbs, there would be long stretches
with hardly any spectators at all, then suddenly there’d be a huge group of spectators
that spread for a quarter mile or so. I began to notice the same people and
their signs at these spectator points, like they were moving from point to
point along the course. It was pretty cool, and each time they all shouted “Go
Caitlin!” as I ran by. One woman that I saw multiple times held out a poster
that said “touch here for turbo boost!” I hit the poster every time and
imagined getting a speed boost like in Mario Kart. One of my favorite moments
in the first half was at mile 7.5 when we ran by Concordia University. This was
one of the spectator points and we also caught our first glimpse of Lake
Michigan as the path took us near the edge of a cliff. With the wind blowing off the lake and the massive
crowd... it was invigorating.
If you’ve
read my other race recaps, you know that the halfway point can be where things
start to get rough for me, either mentally or physically. And of course, right
on cue, around mile 13 I felt myself losing energy. I could no longer comfortably
maintain the 9:10 pace of the 4:00 pace group. So over the next few miles, the
pace group got further and further away until I could no longer see them. It’s okay I told myself, you knew that this would probably happen. As
hard as it was to finally let go of the goal I’d spent months hoping to attain, I
accepted it, and kept pushing on, hoping that I would at least be able to set a
new PR.
By mile 18
I had slowed to a 10-minute mile. By mile 20, I was down to 10:30. I still had
six miles to go, and every step was a struggle. It was disheartening to see the
4:05 pace group approach and pass me. Then the 4:10. I knew I had to stay in
front of the 4:15 if I wanted to PR. Without music to listen to, the only thing
in my head (besides a random line from a One Republic song) was my own voice telling me how
hard this is, and how bad I felt. Just
walk for a few seconds, you’ll feel better, the voice would try to tempt me.
Then, No, no, you can’t walk, you’ll
regret it. You only have to push it for a few more miles. It was a constant
battle. I remember passing a spectator at some point and I must have looked really beaten down because she said, “Come on
Caitlin, stay strong, just keep putting one foot in front of the other. You can
do it!” So then the voice in my head kept chanting, one foot in front of the other. Stay strong, stay tough. I might
have even said this out loud a few times.
Around mile
23, I saw a familiar figure in the distance, stretching his calf against the
curb. I waved maniacally at Jin as I approached him. Honestly I was surprised I
hadn’t passed him until now. He hadn’t trained very much for this and last time
he ran with minimal training, I’d passed him at mile 13 when his legs cramped
up. He started running with me and I said “just 3 more miles, we can do it!”
Motivated by my own words, I picked up the pace a little, but he had to stop
and stretch again. I knew if I stopped I would never get moving again, so I kept going.
Soon after
that, I turned onto Lincoln memorial drive for the last 2.5 miles along the
lake. I was still feeling miserable and I was paranoid that the 4:15 pacer
would be passing me any second now. Sure enough, he did, taking my PR with him.
This was when I reached my lowest point of the race. Here I was, absolutely
killing myself, and I wouldn’t even have a PR to show for it. Then I took in
the scene of the blue expanse to my left, and realized how stupid I was being. Running
isn’t always about being fast and setting PRs. I’m running a marathon next to a
beautiful lake right now! I’ve felt like crap for the past 6 miles but I haven’t
let up even once! That is something to be proud of.
At mile
25.5, I spotted Si’s boyfriend, Nathan next to the path holding his phone up to
take my picture. I was so excited to see a familiar face among the spectators,
I struck a victory pose.
A few seconds later, Jin caught back up to me. “Okay,
let’s do this,” I said, and used all my remaining energy to match his pace as we
turned into Veterans Park. The spectators lining the path all kept saying the
same thing: “The finish line is just around that corner!” but the path kept
winding on and on to the right, and I still couldn’t see it! This was
definitely the longest final 0.2 miles I’d ever experienced. Finally I shouted
– with probably a little too much gusto – “I see the finish line!” I felt like
I was sprinting down the final stretch, but it was probably still just a slow
jog. I crossed the line with Jin at 4:15:41 (chip time). Just two minutes shy
of a PR. But at that point, I can honestly say I didn’t care about that at all.
I beamed as I accepted my medal and a high-five from Frank who had already
finished and was cheering for us as we made our way to the finisher’s area.
Training for this race had been such a roller coaster… I was just grateful that I had been healthy enough to get to the starting line and run the race. We cheered on Si and Nicole as they crossed the line and joined us in the finisher's area. I am so proud of my friends for beasting their first marathon! Check out that happy group of finishers. And those galaxy shorts!
I can now proudly say that I’ve completed 5 marathons, which
means I’ve already reached 10% of my goal! That is definitely something worth
celebrating. And thanks to the Lakefront Brewery, I did just that.
Next up: The Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati
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