It was mile 15 I actually started to believe I may have a shot at this thing. At mile 12, 18 and 23 I again got emotional thinking about it. I watched them, and could only pray I’d be able to get there hours later.
After all, this is one of the most storied track and field stadiums in the world, and the birthplace of Nike.Īt mile 9 we passed Hayward and I couldn’t figure out how there was a huge stream of people running in there already. Throughout the whole I race I imagined what it would be like to actually get there. I think it was because I was on the verge of tears, and still running. I was short of breath for the first time in the whole race. I can’t put into words the emotions that were going through my head upon entering Hayward Field for the final 200 meters. Official time: 5:29.05Īs I mentioned, In January I’d set a goal of running under 5:30, after training.Įven with the lack of preparation, I still beat my initial goal. What I forgot to take into account is that I didn’t cross the starting line until a few minutes after the clock started. SO close, but at this point my goal was just to finish in the 7 hour time allotted, and I killed that. When I crossed the finish line the clock read 5:34.10. It had to happen right? After all I didn’t do any training for this. I kept waiting for the cramps, for the point where reality would set in and I physically wouldn’t be able to go anymore. Hopefully I’d at least be able to finish in 7 hours.Īt the 20 mile mark, I’d actually gotten faster.Īnd for the last 6 miles, I ran hard for the entire thing, save for a couple stretch breaks. It didn’t matter, I knew the second half was certainly going to take me at least an hour longer than the first 13.1 miles. Not a fast time by any means, but one I would be extremely happy with if I could accomplish it.Īt the halfway point I figured out that I was almost on pace to run 5:45. When I first started training my goal was to run it in under 5 and a half hours. Here’s the coolest part about the whole thing though. That said, this is easily one of the 5 biggest personal accomplishments of my life, and one thing that while I always wanted to be able to do, I truly never thought would happen. People run marathons all the time, and most do it much faster than I did (I was second to last in my division haha). I’m going to make a note right now that to many of you this post may sound really overly dramatic. Save for a period of 6 or 7 miles, I ran the entire freaking thing. My legs would get too sore, my shin splints would come back, blah blah blah – excuses. I finally convinced myself to stop and walk for a bit, because I knew I’d never finish if I ran for more than 5 miles or so. I’ll back it off from there.”Ĥ Miles in I was still jogging. I’d never walked that far before.Īt 7am as I was preparing to cross the starting line, something odd happened: my ego kicked in.įor some reason I couldn’t allow myself to start walking when thousands of people around me were running. I figured I’d get to around the 15 mile mark and my legs would totally give out. So this past Sunday I woke up at 5am to head over to Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon and prepared for what was surely going to be the most spectacular failure of my life. I even changed my bucket list last week from “Run a Marathon” to “Finish a Marathon” – finishing was good enough for me, and was still something I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do.įinishing the last 200m of my one and only marathon in 2011. I finally decided a few weeks before that I’d give it a shot (after all, I’d already paid for it), except I was just going to walk it. Every once in awhile I’d go for a 3 mile run, but certainly wasn’t doing any kind of training. The date of May 1st (marathon day) was always looming out there, but I didn’t think much about it. I think I did one 8 mile run (the longest of my life) before bailing. Training lasted for about 2 weeks before minor injuries and travel got in the way and I just never got back into it. This was going to be my chance to change all of that. I’ve written in the past about how I’m great at starting things, but awful at finishing them. On New Years Day this year, I foolishly signed up for the Eugene Marathon, thinking I’d be able to stick to a rigorous training schedule and actually finish a marathon. Run a Marathon (apparently not impossible).Fly in a Virgin Galactic Space Flight (most likely actually impossible).
Of all the things on my bucket list, there were two that I felt were going to be close to impossible: It also was great know I wasn’t the only one going through hell!
I’ve also gotta give a BIG thank you to Poul Stefansen, because without him initially signing up I never would have done it. See the end of the post for the video of my marathon experience.
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