Huntsville Marathon

After I ran Boston in April, I was less than thrilled with my time for that race.  I decided that I would run maybe one more marathon and try to go faster.  I didn't want to be hobbling around for a week like I was after the Big Cottonwood Marathon and its huge downhill, so I decided on a race that had less downhill, but let's face it, I still like running down hills.  So, I chose the Huntsville Marathon.  Still downhill, but not as steep and not as much.  The race was in mid-September.

The weather was clear, but cold at the top.  It is a small race, and they had a heated tent at the start, which was AWESOME!  My training had gone well and I was ready to kick this thing's butt.

The race started out great!  I was cruising along feeling great!  I was keeping myself on a PR pace, and my splits were all pretty even.  I did the half right at 1:40, which was on pace to break my previous PR of 3:34.  I was feeling great!  One of my songs for this race was called "Invincible" from Skillet, and that is how I was feeling!

Right up until mile 19.  At mile 19 one of my knees started to hurt.  It wasn't too terrible, but just a twinge with every step.  I hadn't had any trouble with it on any of my training runs, so I just tried to push through it, but it threw me off a little and slowed me down.  The knee pain kind of came and went for the rest of the race.

Also right about the same time (mile 18 or 19) the course turns from mostly south direction (with not much noticeable wind) to a mostly westerly direction, with an EVIL horrible headwind.  My spirits were already dropping because of my knee, and this didn't help my situation.  I put my head down and kept going, but I was no longer having any kind of fun.  I felt very...vincible.  (Is that the opposite of In-vincible?).  Vinced, even.

The last 6 or 7 miles were a slow slog and seemed to last twice as long as the first 20.  The race organizers tried to keep it interesting for us, and even had musicians along the course those last few miles, including bagpipers, karaoke singers, trumpet players, etc., which was kind of fun.  But the wind was louder in my ears that most anything else, and the balloons someone had put along the course were flying practically horizontally and made me feel worse instead of better :).

FINALLY (finally finally) the finish line was in sight and I did my best to push hard to the finish, but I was disappointed in my time, which was 3:38 officially (I forgot to turn off my watch at the finish for a minute or so).  So happy to be done!  I didn't meet my goal of a PR, so that was a bummer, but oh well. 

I hobbled over and grabbed all the snacks I could carry and headed for a patch of grass to refuel myself.  After I ate and drank everything I could get my hands on and had been resting for a while, I started feeling better.  I headed over to my car, passing by the results tent.  I decided to get my printout, since my race was still a qualifying time for Boston (my BQ time was 3:45 instead of 3:40 now that I am 40 whole years old).  The lady who handed me my printout pointed out that I had placed third in my division so I should stick around for the awards ceremony.  

Wait, what?  This race was smaller than I thought!  Since the awards were only about 15 minutes away, I went and got more food and sat back down to wait.  Behold!  I get a medal and a little plastic thingie that I now have no idea what to do with!

This race was right during registration for Boston 2018, so I could have signed up for the upcoming Boston marathon.  However, we don't have the money to go to Boston every year, so I let it go by.  This race also qualifies for Boston 2019, so I have until this September to decide if I might want to do that one. 

Or maybe I'll never run a full marathon again. 

Still haven't decided :)