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Thanks to all the coaches and trail leaders
for making marathon dreams come true! A special thanks to
my 10:40 red group coaches, Mia Ford and Liz Moore and our
trail leader, Susan Pressler! Their commitment and encouragement
to learning the secrets of marathoning is amazing. A heartfelt
thanks is extended! I truly could not have done it without
them.
A year ago, I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day and weighed
35 pounds more than I do today. I started a weight loss program
in January 2000 by walking. By the summer, I was back to running,
but still smoking. On August 29, 2000, I quit smoking. On
Labor Day weekend, 2000 I saw an ad in the Austin Chronicle
about Austin Fit. I decided that night I was going to the
Motorola Marathon. I was so excited I couldn't sleep that
night. The next week I joined Austin Fit. Unfortunately, during
much of the training I was plagued with a foot problem, but
it kept recovering. Three weeks before the marathon (right
after the 21 miler), I was told by my Doctor that I couldn't
run for three weeks, but if I really wanted, it would be o.k.
to try the marathon and to stop if I had pain. He said that
I had the beginning of a stress fracture or what he called
a bruised metatarsal.
The three weeks prior to the marathon, I continued to stay
fit by swimming and cycling which I had been doing all along
to help with the foot problem. I was hoping for the best.
This is what marathon day looked like for me....
I did it, I made it, I finished! What a feeling! Words can't
express the joy and the amazing feeling of accomplishment
upon crossing the finish line. It was the most challenging
thing I have ever done. The foot was fine...but there were
many other areas that weren't so great. It didn't go at all
like any of the long training runs I had done. My Mom and
her friend Kathryn had planned to meet me at mile 8 and the
finish line. I told my Mom, I would do the "Hook 'em"
sign with my hand as a signal that I was gonna make it. At
mile 8, my Mom and her friend Kathryn were cheering Angie
and me on. They were so excited; they were screaming their
heads off! No problem, "Hook 'em"! I didn't go out
too fast or do anything different than I had done on all my
training runs, but at about mile 10 I got so sick to my stomach,
I didn't really know what to do. Nothing like stomach cramps
and running. Angie, my running partner asked if I was gonna
get better, because I had slowed our pace down quite a bit.
I Angie to run ahead, because I didn't know why I was feeling
sick, and if it was going to get any better. 16 miles to go
and I felt really, really bad, but I kept going. Made it to
the halfway point and I thought, why am I doing this? At the
halfway point, once again, my Mom and Kathryn were screaming,
"You can do it, You're Gonna Make It!
I guess I believed them, I kept running. Around mile 14 or
15, I stopped at Pizza Hut on Sixth Street, they let me use
their bathroom. Back to the run.... uphill portion I might
add. At this point, I was walking/running and talking myself
into completing the race. Around mile 16 I was running and
I passed someone, turned around and it was someone I knew,
it was Steve, a guy I know through work. He gave me a great
big hug. He wasn't running the whole thing, but he told me
he would stay with me to mile 18, so I knew I was gonna make
another two miles. Right before mile 18, there was my Mom
and Kathryn again, they were still screaming you can do it,
you're gonna make it! I couldn't form a "Hook 'em"
sign, so I gave a peace sign instead, they knew what I meant!
Thank God for their encouragement.
The next three miles felt like a lifetime. I was walking
more than I was running and my right leg was cramping. I walked
for a while with some guy who had cramped up so bad he couldn't
run anymore. We talked for a while, my stomach hurt, and I
told him all about it. It was so hard to talk. I wanted to
stop and cry, but I stopped at a port-a-potty instead. The
stop helped, I started to run/walk and was running more than
walking, but it was so painful. I was trying to do math, the
math to calculate how long it would take if I walked the rest
of the way. I was so worn out, I could barely figure it out.
By the time I figured it out, I was running and I ran into
Susan, the trail leader from my training group, Austin Fit,
her marathon buddy, and a police officer who started the run
with them at mile 15. She looked great, and was running pretty
smoothly. She asked me how I felt, and I muttered "not
good". I decided to run the final five miles with them,
they were so awesome. They encouraged me the whole final five
miles! They even slowed their pace a little to help me make
it in. True Beauty of running a marathon! Al, the police officer
kept telling us how great and awesome we were! I kept thinking,
really? It was the longest five miles I have ever run. As
we were running down Riverside, I saw Richard (Angie's boyfriend),
he was on his bike, he took a picture, he told me that I was
awesome, and that I was so great and that I was gonna make
it! I told him that I felt like crap! And I thought I was
gonna puke on the guy at mile 22 or 24 (I can't remember if
it was on Riverside or Barton Springs Road), but he was passing
out beer, and it smelled absolutely disgusting. I pushed his
hand away and kept running.
Mile 25 came, I saw Angie, she was going nuts, she was yelling
and swinging her shirt like crazy! I gave a baby wave, because
I could barely lift my hand, and then we were at the soccer
fields. I had run the loop at the end of a long training run,
and I knew how long that last mile really was!!!! But I made
it, and the next thing I knew I was running down the chute,
people were going nuts, nothing can describe the amazing feeling
to be actually running down that chute and knowing that I
am going to make it! I looked up to the left, my Mom and Kathryn
were screaming with excitement, I flashed them a "Hook
'em", lifted both my hands over my head and went through
the finish line! There were a ton of volunteers there, one
gave me a medal for finishing, another gave me a finishers
t-shirt, and another escorted me, because I was kind of wobbly,
and then I saw Angie, told her how bad it hurt, she gave me
a huge hug, and I was crying hysterically, I was so happy
and proud at what I had just accomplished! Then my Mom and
Kathryn gave me big hugs! And then I had to go to the medical
tent to lie down and get hydrated.
That was it! It was so great to have accomplished the marathon,
particularly under the unexpected circumstances! It took 30
minutes more than my goal, but I am just as proud at the accomplishment
as I would be if I had made my goal, but I am still glad it's
over!
Katy Dooley-Hamad
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