The Marathon

This Saturday I ran my first ever marathon!  It was the Whistlestop in Northern Wisconsin, right on Lake Superior.  We ran from Iron River to Ashland.  Doug was the absolute best sag wagoner, cheerleader, sports announcer ever.  Thank you for the support!

I took Friday off work, rested up, did loaundry & packed, drove the pug down to Grandma & Grandpa T's house where he would stay the weekend, and met up w/ Doug after his classes.  Then Friday afternoon we drove 6 hours up north to where the four wheelers outnumber cars 10:1 at any given gas station.  Picked up the registration packet at the Bay Area Civic Center in Ashland, and decided not to wait in the mile long line for the pasta feed.  We dined instead at Ethel's in Bayfield, which is the little town where our condo was that we were renting for the weekend.  I may have carbo-loaded a bit much :) but it was oh so wonderful.  BTW- it was freakin' COLD outside. 

Saturday morning when we woke up, it was 27 degrees with a light dusting of snow.  Doug dropped me off at the shuttle buses at the finish line and I rode an extremely long bus ride to the starting line, gulping along w/ the people I was sitting next to -who were also first time marathoners- at "Oh my gosh, we have to run this whooooole distance back."  The starting line was at Tri-Timbers Resort.  I had a half hour to shuffle around and not cramp.  Did I mention it was COLD?  At one point, a big wind came and swooshed a roof-full of snow off a cabin in one big sheet on some huddled racers.  It was kind of funny, but it took too much body heat to laugh. I was so nervous.  There were 1,000 people in the marathon category, and another 2,000+ spread among the half-marathon, 10k, 5k, and Toddler 1k categories that had started an hour earlier.  I had a big old yellow house-arrest looking timer velcro'd on my ankle.  Announcers were counting down, runners were stripping off their outer layers and tossing them into the bag truck, and we shivered over to the starting area.  I was about halfway back in the pack.  We started a little late b/c one of the buses was delayed due to a car having gone off the road on the ice and blocking its way.  The wind blew and snow fell from the tree branches over our heads onto us in a big crowd and we collectively shivered and gasped. 

Then we were off!  The first mile or so was on a hilly blacktop road w/ black ice on it.  There was a lot of shuffling of feet and arms outstretched going on.  I loved my Garmin and forced myself to stay back slow in between a 10 and 11 minute mile pace.  We turned left onto the Tri-Cty Corridor and that's what we were on for all but the last block of the race.  The trail was a mixture of sand, dirt, and crushed limestone.

I began to feel my feet again at mile 3.  Doug met me at the aid station around mile 8.  I felt fantastic.  The race support was great- they had water/powerade every 2 miles the whole route so I didn't have to wear my water belt.  Doug met me at all the aid stations toting a little soft cooler we had packed w/ whole dill pickles, quartered PB&J sandwiches, gum, water, etc.  The route was flat, the wind was nasty, and the cold just plain smarted.  I lost 20 lbs in an unlucky portapotty around mile 16 and then started running again a new woman {sorry, you didn't expect a marathon story to be glamorous, did you?}. 

I began hurting at mile 20.  I passed a family reunion's corridor of encouraging signs, jokes, balloons, and streamers around mile 21 and cried.  An 80-year-old man shuffled past me around mile 22, turned and looked at me, huge long drool stream hanging off his mouth, and gave me a thumbs up, "we can make it."  I cried again- both b/c an elderly man passed me and b/c he was sweetly encouraging me.  I was running on numb stumps.  I fought myself at mile 23, "Sarah, you are really going to regret this after the fact if you didn't give it your 100% while you were running this race."  I carried on strong.  The last couple blocks or so wound around a park in downtown Ashland, a huge stereo system blared Black Betty, I put on the steam and kicked it up, wound around the caution cone path, and into the finishing station.  Jo from Platteville Branch was there cheering at the final gauntlet.  I pumped my arms in the air, saw Doug w/ the camera, pushed it to pass an old guy so Doug could get a clear pic (:)) and finished!  "Sarah Weight from Madison, Wisconsin"  Tunnelled into the chute where someone took off my ankle timer, got my finishing medal put on my neck, looked around for Doug, gave him a HUGE hug, cried a bit, told him that was the hardest thing I'd ever done in my life and how happy and proud I was, which he of course agreed to, and then I chugged two cups of powerade.  The end :)

Well, we walked around, soaked up the experience, got some gear, I sat on some ice packs on the way back to the condo, grabbed some grub, hobbled through a shower, and plopped down, clean and spent. What a wonderful feeling.  I was still icing the backs of my hamstrings and hips for quite a while.  Got a good foot massage from Doug. We grabbed some dinner at Hugo's Pizzeria in Washburn, got some marshmallows from the IGA, and when we got back to the condo, Doug built a fire in our fireplace and Doug made us s'mores. 

The next day we went hiking at the Apostle Islands State Park & came home {Next Post}

I RAN A FREAKIN' MARATHON!  SO PROUD!!!!  :)