Ella's First Marathon

Sunday morning I woke up at 5 am, fully intending to get to the start line at 6 am, like I had told my friends Amber and Becky. But not only was this my first marathon, but it was the first time my brave boyfriend was on race support duty. We didn't get on the road with all our stuff until after 6 am.

The weather report I watched said that it would warm up to the upper 40s in the morning. So I left the house wearing my favorite long sleeve tech shirt over another tech short sleeve shirt, but shorts instead of tights. I brought gloves, but took sunglasses, because Amber said she wished she had them last year. My boyfriend kept asking me, "Are you sure you don't want to wear pants?"

At 6:45 am, sitting in traffic, I decided to jog to the start line to warm up. The wind made me regret not wearing pants, but I kept telling myself it was going to warm up. I fought my way to the chute, wished Amber good luck, and then found the 4:30 pace group. There I finally saw Becky in her very white tae kwon do uniform, and in my relief, couldn't help but laugh and ask, "What are you wearing?!"

I didn't have time to go to the bathroom before the race, and when the gun went off, I knew I'd have to stop early on. But it didn't take away from my excitement as Becky and I crossed the start line. We had started our first marathon ... and promptly watched as the 4:30 pace group ran away from us. Whoops. Guess they weren't starting slow for the first mile. At least I still wore the pace band they gave me when I signed up to run with that group.

Becky stopped on Braker to take off her ankle brace. I told her I'd meet her at the port-a-potties. Then I ran alongside one of the guys from my 9:55 training group who I had actually first met playing ultimate frisbee. At the water stop, he ran on and I stopped to get into the bathroom line.

With the line, the bathroom took 7 minutes. I didn't want to use someone's business property as my own personal toilet. I waved Becky on when she arrived. And then I took off after everyone.

I started passing people but kept telling myself that was ok because they were people who normally ran slower than me, if they didn't walk. At mile 5, I saw my boyfriend Francisco on the sidewalk and waved. A couple miles later, I passed Pat, who ran to catch up with me, told me to take it slow, and then fell back to catch up with his friend.

When we turned east on 45th, I waved for the camera and tried to smile. I was feeling pretty good and started looking for my friends. It was so nice to see them on this stretch, screaming and clapping. I felt bad for being late. I was 10 minutes behind my goal time. I took a bottle of Powerade and poured it into my own water bottle. I'd do this two more times during the race.

At mile 12, I stopped to stretch on the sidewalk. That's when Becky passed me again. She had shed her tae kwon do uniform and her long sleeve shirt was now around her waist. The sun had come out, and we were heading to the halfway point. I felt strong.

When I turned the corner near the Capitol, the sun suddenly disappeared and the wind started up again. But I smiled as I crossed the halfway point, at 2:30:something, and then headed down Congress. The orange slice I took from a volunteer tasted great. Then I turned west on 6th St.

The wind hit me immediately with all its force. I let out a little scream to myself as I ran against it, and up the hill towards my friends waiting for me past Lamar. My friends stood up and starting cheering as I ran by. Maureen ran up to me with a hug, and I told her to get ready for a jog at mile 19. Andre ran next to me with a Ziplock bag of supplies. When I turned them down, he slowed, and headed in the other direction to meet Becky and I at mile 19.

At mile 15, I saw Francisco again, with another of our friends. I gasped out, "Banana!", and Francisco handed it off to Cheng, who biked it up to me. I ate it, handed back the peel, assured him that I was fine, and continued on.

The stretch to Lake Austin was hard on me. My feet had started to hurt, and I had to stop a couple times to adjust my laces, stretch out. I saw the 4:30 and 4:45 pace group pass me going in the other direction. I saw people I passed before mile 11 pass me, too. The constant wind gusts started to dry out my contacts so I put on my sunglasses, even though there was no sun.

At the turnaround, I took off my sunglasses and headed for mile 18. Again, Francisco and Cheng asked, "Do you need anything?" and I could only reply, "Advil! I-bees, please?" Francisco chased me down the hill to give me one Advil.

Now I was really tired. I stopped for more Powerade and stretching. I knew my time goal was unattainable at that point. The boys passed me on their bikes, shouting encouragement. Becky came up to me while I was stretching. I said, "We've only got another hour and a half to go!" Later, she told me that made her feel worse (sorry, B).

At mile 18, Andre, Francisco, and Cheng were waiting for us. I stopped to stretch as Andre and Becky ran on. At mile 19, I asked Maureen, "wanna go for a run?". She handed her fleece to her boyfriend, and took off with me.

Maureen talked non-stop for the first couple miles, trying to distract me from any pain I felt. Having run her first marathon last year at the inaugural DC marathon, she knew what to do to keep me going. We stopped for water at every stop and every so often to stretch. The boys were now hitting every other mile marker for support. At mile 21, Maureen said to me, "You're doing great, Ella! You're running a good pace, and you haven't even cried yet! I was totally crying by mile 19 last year!" Of course, I almost burst into tears right then and there, but I told myself to hold off until I finished.

At mile 25, I recognized Riverside and I-35, as it was not only close to the end of the race but it usually was almost the end of our long training runs. Francisco and Cheng did the wave on the corner, and then biked to the finish line. Maureen kept running backwards to look at me, saying, "Come on, let's go. A little faster." I refused, even as we passed mile 26 water stop with another friend screaming encouragement to me. But I was catching up to Maureen. As I got closer to the finish line, I could hear everyone I knew who waited for me at the finish cheering at the top of their lungs: Francisco, Cheng, Imants, Amber, Michael. I don't remember if Maureen or I started sprinting first, but we were going full speed as we passed the bleachers and headed up the driveway to the finish line. I threw my hands up and raced across the carpets. 5:08:50, my watch said.

It wasn't until I had received my finisher's medal and congratulations from Francisco and Maureen that the tears came. And they fell when I greeted everyone who waited for me at the finish, including my fellow marathoners. I think all the excitement, fatigue, and pain of the day, maybe even the training season, caught up with me. But I've been smiling ever since. :-)

Later on Sunday night, I did feel disappointed that I missed my time goal by a lot. But I know that so many of the seasoned and even competitive runners didn't even finish due to the weather. So overall, I don't feel too bad. Besides, it gives me a goal for next year. =)

So the best parts of the race were definitely, in order:

1. finishing
2. seeing so many of my friends out there cheering
3. hitting the halfway point feeling like a million bucks
4. starting

Things I would do differently:

1. get to the start line earlier
2. in that weather, wear more clothes
3. make a bigger effort to stay with a pace group during the race
4. cross-train more (I need to build up my back muscles, they're still sore!)

Ella de Leon
A/F Class 2003