The beginning of my big day started at 2:30 am. I think I got about 4.5 hours of sleep. I know that seems really early but I had to meet my running partner at 4 am and I had to allow enough time for my system to wake up. I actually needed every one of those minutes. I had to check the weather, Facebook to see what was going on with the running group and if there were any last minute changes amongst other things that needed to be done.
As usual I was out the door late but we got to downtown Sacramento in plenty of time. We had coffee, we ate our yummy breakfast...Honey Stinger Waffles and then we waited in line to get on the school buses that were waiting for us. We then drove to Folsom and the start line. It was in the mid 40's on Sunday morning.
I had on arm warmers, shorts, running shirt, sweatpants, sweatshirt, gloves, socks and compression calf sleeves. We waited on the bus until 15 minutes before the race started then hit the porta-potties. We found some of our friends and then waited for it all to begin.
We were told that there were 8000 running the marathon and 4000 participating in the relay which had four legs to it. The race started at 7 and we were off. Of course it took us about 5 minutes or so to cross the start line. Everywhere you looked there were clothes strewn on the ground...pants, sweatshirts, garbage bags, blankets. These were to be donated to the homeless later.
The course starts in Folsom and continues through Orangevale, Fair Oaks, Carmichael and then Sacramento. In the old town section of Fair Oaks there are hundreds of wild chickens and we saw a couple
as we ran by. We were so lucky to have such good weather for the race. Somewhere in the Fair Oaks area I shed my sweatshirt, sweatpants, and gloves as I got too warm.
Never having run in any other kind of big long race like this, I was surprised at the level of crowd support. There were people out on their front lawns drinking their coffee, waving and cheering us on as we ran by. We saw lots of spectators with dogs which was fun. We saw so many different breeds which broke up some of the monotony. Our running group was out in force on the course. We saw them early on and then at the half way point and then at around mile 26.1. They were all there with signs and cheers. I can't imagine doing this alone with no support. It is such a big undertaking. I ran over 700 miles so I could run 26.2 miles on a Sunday in December.
It was worth it though. You really find out what you are made of. It is as much a mental exercise as it is a physical one. I had a few tough runs prior to the CIM. When I cruised through mile 18 with no problems it was a great relief. At that point I felt confident that I could finish the race without having to walk any more than the 1 minute I walked after 3 minutes of running. In the end I ran most of the last 2 miles or so just because I was afraid if I stopped I wouldn't be able to run again. I finished the race in 5 hours 28 minutes and 54 seconds. I hope that someday I can try and run another marathon and run the entire thing. I have a lot of issues to work on before that happens.
In the end, I accomplished my goal of raising $1000 for The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. In fact I raised $1050. A big thanks to everyone that contributed. An even bigger thanks to my running friend Terry Tokutomi who ran with me the last 2 months of my training. She kept me positive and motivated when I was feeling very down. You have no idea what that means to me. My running a marathon journey is over, but what I do next is yet to be determined. I need to get my running form corrected so that I don't have these ITB problems. I am so tired of my knee hurting me. I hope that 2012 will be as great a year as 2011.
