TOW The Marathon

TOW = The One With... it's a naming convention that the show "Friends" used when naming their episodes. Such as "TOW The Embryos"... "TOW (The One Where) Ross Finds Out"...

A brief history: so way back in 2009, when Chris and I first went on the 3hree 6ixty 5ive program he created, one of my goals for 2009 was to run a marathon, even though I hate running. 2009 came and went, and then I carried the goal into 2010. It started off well enough, since I joined Team in Training with my cousin and some friends and we got our months of training going. But then with two weeks before the race, I wasn't allowed to run in the Rock and Roll Marathon due to fundraising issues. It was starting to seem like another year would pass with the goal still remaining on my bucket list...

Then during the summer, I found out about the Long Beach Marathon and made that my new goal. I told my old roomie Ben about it, he was down to run it too (making it his first marathon), and in July we started the training process.

Well, he started training. Me... not so much. I was running, but not as often, and not nearly for as long. I think since my 20 mile run at the end of May, the farthest I've ran is 6 miles.

A full marathon is 26.2 miles... big difference. And more than 4 months have gone by since that 20 mile run. So yeah, not that prepared for Long Beach. But that wasn't going to stop me.

A week before the big day, I almost switched to doing just the half marathon, due to my lack of training. But I've already done an official half-marathon before. And since the goal was to complete a full marathon - I figured regardless of how unprepared I felt, "go big or go home."

So we got to the site and off we went... Ben's a good runner, and I wasn't going to try to keep up with him. I expected him to finish in 5 hours, and he did (4:53). So I did my own thing, starting off by walking really briskly so as not to burn off too much energy, and then doing the run/walk thing around mile 8.

The first half was fine. Mile 13 came around and I felt like I still had plenty of energy. I was hydrating at energy stations, eating the gel packs... got a second burst of energy when we ran through CSU Long Beach, as they had different student organizations there to cheer on the runners - I even got a high five! And even before then, because I was running in my Team in Training shirt, I was getting some thumbs-up and "GO TEAM!' cheers from other runners who've probably been affiliated with TnT before.

And then came the last six miles. By this point, my legs wanted to die. They were cramping, sore, energy was low and I was out of gel packs. Fewer crowds were around b/c I was in the back of the pack so the majority of runners had finished. So I was alone, and having to mentally push myself through... I was warned about this. You're physically drained, but you're not going to quit now, not when you're so close... I was exhausted, running alone, and the music from my headphones wasn't helping as much as before. My cousin (when she ran the Rock and Roll) experienced all that. She said she had gotten emotional and wanted to give up too. But some of her family was there to cheer her on from the sidelines (seeing them a few miles before the finish), and one of the TnT coaches was there too to give encouragement.

I didn't have any family or friends in Long Beach, so it added to the whole mental challenge -- that fight of wanting to give up and feeling empty but trying to push through. I felt so stupid, on the verge of breaking down, thinking that I all I wanted was to see my mom and just get a hug from the one who loves me most, blah blah blah... I knew I'd be physically tired, but I wasn't expecting all of that... it was so unexpectedly tough.

At the last mile marker, when I was at my lowest, two ladies came walking up and asked me I was ok. I said I was hanging in there, and they told me to join them. One of them had already finished, but she came back to help her friend finish - pretty awesome of her, right? And then of course doubly awesome that they'd stop to encourage me and tell me to stick with them, and just talk it out as we continued our slow march to the finish. That helped a great deal. Right before we got to the 26 mile marker, so with just .2 miles left until the finish line, Rita (the one who had already finished and had plenty of energy left) was all "alright Ryan, I know you've got a little more left in you, I want you to run to the finish."

I'm pretty sure I gave her a look that said "uhhh no" while I mustered out an "I can't..."
She'd say "yes you can, finish strong!"
I'd say "alright fine, I guess I'll try".
She said "no, don't try, you got this!"

And with that, I relented, thanked them both, and gave that last push to run towards the finish line, to the photographer waiting there, who prompted me to throw my arms up in celebration before snapping the shot.

Apparently it took me 45 minutes to finish those last two miles, and my final time isn't great (6:45, compared to my time for the AFC 1/2 Marathon back in August, where I finished in 2:30) - but I don't care. I finished! I met my goal, I got it done, I can cross the item off my bucket list, and count myself in the 1% of the world that's completed a marathon. :)

And I don't plan on doing another full marathon any time soon... next big run: the Carlsbad Half Marathon - the first of the Triple Crown events I plan to complete in 2011!