When training for a marathon you have to not only physically prepare yourself but mentally as well. Running is such a mental game. Your body can be physically able but if your brain convinces you this is the worst thing ever; it’s hard to get your legs and feet to cooperate. I think I prepared myself quite well mentally. I have a slightly evil side to my personality and I managed to keep it so it didn’t come out until later in the race. Luckily, my body was physically too tired to act out the evil thoughts and deeds that popped up into my brain.
Over half way into our training, our weekend runs fell into the double digits. On the weekend we were supposed to run 16 miles I freaked out that I could only do 11 miles. I didn’t reward myself for the fact that I did 11 but beat myself up because I couldn’t do the other 5 miles. After an evening of crying, whining, and moaning and some sage advice from my mom and her running partner, I stopped focusing on the time it might take me to run a marathon. I decided my goal would be to finish. This really helped me out. I was able to conquer the mental voices that degraded me for being not fast enough. One lady running the marathon had the perfect shirt “I’m not built for speed. I’m built to finish.” That had been my mantra all along. Admittedly there were times when I was doing the race that I started to question this mantra and my lack of speed. You know when the old people passed me or when there was no more water at the water stops because all the fast people had drank it all. Sections of the race were being packed up while us slow people ambled by and parts of the finish line was broken down in front of me only 10 minutes after I crossed it. It doesn’t make a girl feel good. However, the truth is I was aiming for a 5-6 hour time and in reality only finished 28 minutes past my goal (6:28).
While running the marathon, the mental game was wearing me out and there came a point when I hated life, running, everyone, and vowed never to do this again. A week after the marathon, I ran again for the first time and am actually considering another marathon. It’s like all of the pain during the 7 months and the race, the lost toenails, the weekends planned around a run, and the sticky Glide in strategic places didn’t cause me heartbreak and anguish. The truth is I actually enjoyed the first part of the marathon. You can’t help smiling and feeling good when hundreds of people line the streets and cheer you on. The fast people got this the entire race but we slow people had less crowds to urge us on, especially when the rain came. However, whenever I felt like giving up or laying down in the middle of the road a random person in the street in the rain would smile and clap for me. There is a reason the Dublin Marathon is called the Happy Marathon. People were so proud of us and made it fun (admittedly I appreciated this more so in the beginning of the race when my evil was suppressed). One mother and her daughter made signs for us that made me laugh- “worse parade ever!” Gearoid saw a sign that said “You’re all Kenyans to me.” Yes, I was slow but I did it and I finished it and I have the medal to prove it.
Part of my mental game strategy was to laugh and think about all the things I did during the marathon that I would never do in real life:
· Take candy from strangers- The friendly people of Dublin passed out candy, fruit, and drinks to us while we ran. I was hungry and took both wrapped and unwrapped candy. In fact the Cadbury chocolates I had at mile 24 helped me the last 2.2 miles.
· Sit on a porta-potty seat- I hover above the most suspicious public toilet seats and never sit on a porta-potty seat. However, I had to go at mile 17 and my legs didn’t even give me a chance to think before I sank down and enjoyed the best sit down of my life.
· Run through a major city wearing a garbage bag (and smile at cute Irish boys while wearing one)- It was raining pretty hard and that garbage bag saved me from the cold and some serious chaffing. I also forgot I was wearing it after the rain had stopped so had no embarrassment as I smiled gratefully at the thinning crowds or individuals cheering me on.
· Drink from a stranger’s bottle- There was a water shortage during one part of the race. There were 140,000 bottles of water along the course for approximately 14,000 runners. The faster runners depleted the sources and there were no new unused bottles for the slower runners. I was thirsty so I drank from someone else’s bottle….
· Drink from trash- the bottle I drank from was casually tossed to the ground by the faster runner. Some sweet little girls were collecting the half-filled bottles and offering them to us slower less discriminate runners. I wiped off the dirt and never let my lips touch the bottle by squirting the water in my mouth.
· Pose provocatively in public- Ok, I don’t even know how to do this privately but during the race I had to stretch out certain body parts which quite frankly ended up looking like me bending over and shaking by butt at people.
· Adjust myself in public- Body parts itch and clothes ride up during the course of 26.2 miles in constant motion. I did what I had to do and luckily the garbage bag hid a portion of it from miles 15-23. At one point, a man in front of me gave me a glimpse of his entire rear end while he did some adjustments. Luckily, he was running the marathon tooJ
· Cry in public- just kidding, I do this all of the time. However, my usually subdued-trying-not-to-cry-in-public-crying was replaced by all out choked sobbing. Especially at the finish line when I questioned my sanity instead of reveling in my accomplishment.
Speaking of my sanity, am I truly considering another marathon? I think I am.
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