The short version: good race, beautiful day, 4:21:14 (chip) 2nd of 14 in AG, 167 out of 336 overall, 47 out of 137 females I had fun. I'm really glad I did it. I did better than I expected. I was hoping to finish between 4:20 and 4:30, but since it's a first, I really wasn't counting on it.

The long version: The nearest marathon for me is Gettysburg’s North South Marathon, which is just on the other side of the mountains, about 30 miles away. It’s a small race, but most of the comments I’ve seen on it are positive ones. I liked the idea of waking up in bed the morning of the race and not having to deal with either a long drive or a motel, so I decided to make Gettysburg my first marathon. What I didn't like about the race is that it is a very hilly race. Nothing major, but constant rolling hills, especially on the first half of the course. (My Garmin gave it 966', the RA mapper said 1400.) Since it was close, I was able to do two runs on the course, so I had a good idea of what to expect.

I've been training since January, following Higdon's Intermediate 2, and though I was able to follow the plan very consistently, I was a bit insecure because the long runs were always so very hard for me. I've also been dealing with hamstring issues that I was afraid might force a DNF. In fact, I waited to sign up for the race until I was sure I was going to finish training.

The morning started out with my usual race day insanity. Somehow I ended up confused about what time I should set the alarm and we ended up waking up an hour late after not going to sleep until about 3:00. We had 20 minutes to dress, eat, and feed the dog. Fortunately, there was no traffic on a Sunday morning and almost all the lights were green. DH and our dog came with me to provide support and make sure I got home safely. There was a gorgeous sunrise - pink and purple - which cheered me up in two ways: it was beautiful, but it also showed me that the rain that has been an off and on part of the forecast was gone. It turned out to be a really lovely spring day, with some scattered clouds, almost no wind, a start temperature of 45 and a finishing one of 60 or so.

Despite our late start, I had time to visit the POP and do a very short shake-down jog, but that was it. A Union soldier shot a rifle to start us off. It was really crowded for the first mile or so. I had planned to start the race with a pacer. I know how bad I am at pacing myself and I was really worried about starting out too fast. It turned out that the 4:25 pacer was new. He's paced friends before, but this was his first time with a group. He told us before we started that he wanted to bank some time because of the hills, which seemed like a red flag. It turned out that when he was talking, he completely lost the pace. We were running 10:30 at one point in the first mile (thanks in large part to the crowd) then he sped up to make up the time. In the second mile, I looked at my watch and we were going 9:20. I let him know and he slowed down, but at that point I just decided that if I was going to be running weird paces, I'd rather be doing it on my own without having to cope with running in a group.

Another woman and I drew slowly ahead and chatted for the next couple of miles. She split off to greet friends and drop off her jacket, so I continued alone. I was feeling relaxed and comfortable and was able to carry on a conversation with a couple of the other runners up until about mile 8 when I lost them at a hill. Race day excitement had me feeling very chatty. Most of the rest of the race I was around people, but not running with them. We did a lot of leap-frogging, especially at water stops and hills. In a way it was nice running alone, because I was able to enjoy view. Gettysburg is a rural course, past a lot of farms and orchards with a little time in the woods and only a short distance in town. You pass through a tiny corner of the battlefield, but on busy roads, so you don't really get much of a taste of the Park. There are beautiful views of the Appalachians a few miles away. The fruit trees were blooming, the maples starting to leaf out, and garden bulbs were abundant. The downside to a rural race is that there weren't a lot of cheering people. At a couple of locations supporters of runners were there to cheer (I passed the same family from Maine about 5 times) but mostly it was just a lone person sitting in the driveway or on the porch. The folks at the water stops did their best to make up for the lack of crowd support - they were very enthusiastic.

Mile 1 10:00 2 9:39 3 9:42 4 9:33 5 9:39 6 9:50 7 9:47 8 9:58

I looked down at my watch from time to time, but as long as it felt easy, I didn't worry about the pace too much. I had already decided to take the gamble of going out on my own instead of staying with the group; running by feel was just a continuation. Besides, it's the way I like to race even though I know it's not smart.

9 9:40 10 9:49 11 9:50 12 9:41 13 9:37 14 9:26, 15 9:56 16 9:47 17 9:52

By mile 15, people were starting to walk more and more. They had been walking many of the hills, but now I started passing people walking on the flats as well. I was happy with my pace on the hills. Some of the hills that had seemed huge when I ran the course in training, hardly registered.. I didn't have to walk any of them until mile 17.5, when I just ran out of steam on a little one. I also started to slow down and started walking a bit at every mile marker and not just the water stops. The latter part of the course doesn't have as many hills, but I was getting tired. I still passed more people than passed me. . What surprised me was how quickly the miles went by.

18 10:08 19 10:04 20 10:04 21 9:59

Miles 22-25 were really hard. I expected my hamstrings to hurt, with the pace and all the hills, what I wasn't expecting was for the quads to start screaming. They were much worse than the hamstrings. I never had that problem in training, but I also don't usually run fast down the hills. Every time I tried to run again after walking for a bit, my legs really didn't want to move.

22 10:30 - 23 10:05 - 24 10:48 - 25 11:10

The last mile was through a residential area then back out to busy Route 15. I picked up the pace as much as I could. I didn't have any kick left, but the cheering people were back, so I did my best to at least look like a runner.

26 10:03 .27 9:50

Final time 4:21:14 (chip) 4:21:40 (gun)

After I crossed the mat and was given my medal, I picked up water, a banana and some pretzels. There was more - sandwiches, bagels and muffins - but I really wasn't hungry.  I know I was supposed to keep moving, but when I stopped moving, I got dizzy, so I just collapsed on the grass. Someone came over to see if I was okay and I waved him off. A few minutes later, I was fine. That has happened in training a couple of times too.

Of course, my legs immediately turned to concrete. The awards ceremony started and I got 2nd in the 50-59 AG but I couldn't stand up, my legs cramped every time I tried. I finally got upright and picked up the award (a small cannon), as well as the commemorative glass given to those who choose the winning side. There is a competition between the north and the south, since it is Gettysburg, with the top racers determining which side wins. You get to pick your side, and since one of my ancestors fought at Gettysburg, I chose the north. We won, again.

When we got home, rather than climb the steps into the house, I had to make my way around to the back so I only had two steps instead of a full flight. We had planned to stop for a good meal out, but I still wasn't hungry, so a hot Epsom salt bath seemed a lot more important. It helped, but I think it's going to be a while before I'm ready to run again.

I really enjoyed the race.  It was a nice challenging course, beautiful on such a lovely spring day.  Except for the last few miles, it didn't even feel that hard.  Even though I did it all wrong, starting out too fast, I didn't blow up completely.

Awesome! And just like that your first is in your rear view mirror.

You did great, congratulations on such a strong marathon!!  You clearly trained well!  I did the Blue-Gray half a few years ago as my first HM and I loved it.  Not sure how much of the course is the same.

Oh, Ginny... you did that like a pro! I'm so proud of you! I greatly enjoyed your RR, what a wonderful course and day for a marathon... I have a fondness for the smaller races, even though they lack in the cheering department. They are more intimate and are perfect to help us focus on our goal pace, rather than be tempted to stick with the faster runners, which as we know, is dangerous in the marathon. You ran smartly, most excellent! I can't wait to see what you will do in the future. Like I said, I'm very proud of you, especially since we are (almost) in the same age bracket. Tough old broads unite!

Awesome job Ginny!!! Great finish time and an AG 

Congrats!  That is a great time!  I was wondering how your hamstring would do during the race and I am glad to see that all the recovery you did for it worked.  Great job!

Fantastic race! And my legs hurt just reading that.

workinprogress - yep, that's me.  I developed a pelvic sfx in March of 2012, 5 days before what was supposed to be my first HM. then I got what I think was osteitis pubis.  I still feel twinges, occasionally, but it did heal.