under a rock
I did it! I finished my first marathon!
Quick report:
Had a great time. Great people all around. Lots of tough people that struggled but gutted it out any way, very impressive. The atmosphere of awesome volunteers, great organization, and an awesome RD made it impossible to DNF. One girl on the second lap told me she had a stress fracture in her foot, I thought surely she'd drop at the end of lap 2, but she didn't. Another guy I saw hobbling at the end of lap 2, again I though surely he'd drop, but nope he finished! One guy told me after the race that I inspired him to keep going because I looked so strong out there. Wow, that meant a lot to me and was the biggest compliment I had all day.
My IT band tightened up at the halfway point. I managed to tough it out and finish in a time of 4:51:40. There were lots of tears and lots of growling at myself out loud for self motivation. Glad to be done. Very proud of myself and disappointed with my body at the same time.
Blog Report
Best race ever! The RD was walking around taking photos and talking to everyone before the race. He was even out on the course motivating people. Seriously the nicest bunch of people, from the RD, volunteers, and racers. Always a kind word no matter what.
Congratulations, Ashley! Way to go! Take it easy on yourself over the next few days, and if you have a foam roller, roll that IT band. It'll hurt like an SOB, but it helps. (Don't have a foam roller? Use like a pastry/dough roller.)
Leslie Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain -------------
Trail Runner Nation
Sally McCrae-Choose Strong
Bare Performance
I have a foam roller and it feels awesome, used to hurt when I first started so maybe I should move on to my rolling pin. lol
rolling pin.
For the life of me, I could not think of the name! (also known as premenopausal brain fart.)
My IT band feels really good this morning. I've got high hopes that I can be back on the trails by the weekend. I'm hoping I can still run the 25k I signed up for on Nov 13. If it weren't for my IT band I feel like I could go run some decent miles today. That makes me happy knowing I did my training properly since I'm not completely wrecked.
A really nice 10-mile trail run this morning. I felt good the whole time, and was pleasantly surprised at how well my climbing went. I think the almost two-month "rest" and extra concentration on lower body strength training has helped.
Can you believe it's already the end of October?? Dang!
Chris - If you're reading this - The Hub was in CO all last week. Ended up Leadville. Said it was great . . . except it never got above 28 degrees and he couldn't breath.