Race Day!

Jan. 16, 2022

We did it!! First marathon ever, and I’d do it again (may need a few weeks off though first haha!) My old teammate, Caitlin ran the half marathon and we were so excited high five when our routes crisscrossed. I was suprised to find out that I’d gotten 12th in my age group (19-25) for both men and women, which I was pretty impressed with myself about. I’d planned to run it at a 11 minute mile pace but I was able to average around 10:10, and finish just shy of 4.5 hours. I ran the marathon not trying to get a certain time, but my goal was to make sure I was pacing myself sustainably, which I did. I’ve gotten stress fractures and shin splints and I definitely know the repercussions of accidentally going too hard for too long!

If you’re curious to know how I fueled during the race, I brought my own GU packets because the event didn’t receive the shipment of gels that they had planned to hand out at the fuels stations. There was water at every mile and electrolyte drinks every two miles. A few of my friends were gracious enough to hand me extra GU packets so I didn’t have to carry 10 at the start of the race, and another friend of mine brought me some gummies, which were an amazing 15 mile pick me up to get the gel taste out of my mouth also. By mile 19, my airpods ran out of battery, and I’m suprised they lasted that long as a whole, so luckily I planned ahead and brought wire headphones stashed in my running belt. Definitely saved me at the last portion of the race. I felt pretty good throughout it all, and was having fun getting to just run and be free without having to anything to end my run. This was up until mile 22 where the muscle fatigue hit me HARD. At mile 24 I was basically shuffling but somehow At mile 25 I felt this mental boost of energy that carried me to the finish line. It was a combination of the heat and the groups of people in front of me that made me want to get it over with lol. I thought I was going to throw up at the finish line, but turns out I just needed water!

One thing I’d do different next time is to keep moving dynamically after the race, which probably would have helped my recovery process the next day. Hopefully I can stay in San Diego and run this course again, it was probably the best locations I’ve ever ran at, let alone enter a race for the first time. If you’ve never been to Carlsbad, I would definitely recommend checking it out and signing up for the marathon! All in all, the commitment to practicing and training with long runs really boosted my confidence and made me feel at ease going into the race (knowing I’d successfully paced a 20 mile run the month prior was a huge reassurance). And now that I know I did the entire 26.2 miles, I can definitely do it again! Never doubt your capabilities.

This is a very accurate depiction of what my legs felt like the day after… so painful!! Hahaha