Marathon!

I am running a marathon in Memphis four weeks. In lieu of this event, I started thinking about the last marathon I ran about 16 months ago. It is a pretty funny/interesting story that I thought I would share…

I qualified for the marathon at the NAIA National Track & Field competition in Fresno, CA during the last semester of my senior year of undergrad. There were six athletes from my team who qualified (in different events), and we arrived in Fresno, CA on a Tuesday evening and my race was at 6am on Saturday. It was nice getting there early, because I was able to spend a few days preparing for finals (which were the next week), adjusting to the heat, and getting used to waking up so early!

All week I had been hydrating really well. My coach was having us alternate watered-down Pedialyte, Gatorade, and lots of water. It was so incredibly hot in Fresno – averaging about 99 degrees each day.

On race day, I had to wake up at 4am in order to eat and get ready for the race. Finally, we got to the track and I had to go through some funny routines to prepare for the race. I had to make sure I had lots of Vaseline on my ankles, armpits, thighs, and chest so that nothing would chafe and hurt during the race. I also wore a visor so that during the race I could pore water on my head and not have it drip into my eyes.

My goal was to run 3 hours and 20 minutes, which I thought was a fairly realistic goal. However, I was a bit nervous, because the longest run I had done in my training was only 2 hours and 30 minutes. Up until about 3-4 weeks before the race, I was actually training more for 10k/half marathon distance, and was only going for 90-100 minute long runs each week. I had done three long runs over 2 hours, but that was it.

There were 39 girls and over 40 guys who had qualified, and we all started together on the track. The race began with 2 and 1/8 laps on the track, which was nice because we were able to pace ourselves with the 800m distance. The first 16 miles of the race felt great! I was running really consistent 7:20 miles (give or take a few seconds) and felt really strong all the way up to mile 18. Then, it got significantly harder. My body was getting depleted of its glycogen storage, and my legs were definitely feeling it. My coach was on the course, and every 40 minutes or so was giving me a PowerBar Gel packet, as well as Gatorade, and towards the end of the race, had me drink watered-down, flat Coke to increase my blood sugar levels. Miles 20-24 were significantly slower, and in hindsight, I probably should have gone out about 5-8 seconds slower per mile in the first half so I wouldn't have gone into oxygen debt so bad during these miles.

Nobody had warned me of this (and apparently it is quite common) but I started to go crazy during the race! I had to start talking to myself in order to stay sane. It makes sense, if you think about it, when your body gets depleted of glycogen, so does your brain, and it starts acting funny. I kept imagining and hearing people behind me, and then I would turn around and absolutely nobody would be there. Or, I would imagine that my feet were really swollen and I would look down and they would be completely normal. I had to keep talking to myself on the long stretches where I was completely by myself. I kept saying, "Come on Natalie, you can do this. Believe in yourself. You are Natalie Hatch. You are great…" etc etc. Remember, this was not a normal road race with lots of runners. Only those who qualified and were on a collegiate team could compete, so by the end the runners were really strung out from each other (and almost 20% of the girls dropped out at some point during the race). We also were not allowed to listen to any form of music during the race, so on those long stretches all by yourself, you could get pretty lonely out there.

Finally, in the last mile, I saw the girl ahead of me and she was walking! I couldn't believe it. It really motivated me to pick up my pace, because there was no way I was going to let somebody beat me who had walked. My last mile was a 7:40, and my last 400 meters on the track was at a 6:00 pace. When I was trying to pass that last girl, I remember thinking I had to do something to motivate myself, so (remember, I had been running fast for over 3 hours now and was going a little crazy) I started singing the “Chariots of Fire” theme song to myself in my head as I passed her. It worked! Although, in hindsight, realize I was probably going a little nuts at that point.

I crossed the finish line and burst into tears…only for a second though…because then I had to catch my breath. I had finished in 3 hours 24 minutes and 21 seconds…only 4 minutes slower than my goal. Physically, it was probably the hardest thing I had ever done. However, it's hard to explain the feeling of accomplishment that is felt afterwards. I looked over and saw my coach and teammates standing on the side of the track, and they were so proud. It was really an awesome experience. Immediately, my coach got me out of the sun and changed into some dry clothes. I could hardly move! He had to untie my shoes for me because I couldn't even reach over that far. Compared to most of the other runners, I was in pretty good shape (many had collapsed on the finish line), but I was soo sore. My hip flexors felt like they had been through a meat grinder, and were sore just to even touch. For the next 3-4 days, I looked like a 90-year old woman limping/walking around.

Although I could barely move for the next week (I had to actually physically lift my left legs up with my hands when I got up or got into a car), and from miles 20-24 I thought I was going crazy, I am so happy that I ran that marathon, and finished so strongly. I learned a LOT and am really excited to run my next one. I have been training with longer long runs and I think that with these extra miles added to my training it will really help with those hard miles at the end.

The next four weeks will be full of hard training and a lot of miles, but I can't wait for that sixty seconds immediately following the race when you are full of the greatest sense of pride knowing you just pushed your body to its absolute limit, completed something most people could not do, and achieved the goals you had set for yourself.