Two days before the race, my husband, kids, brother and I drove down to San Antonio to stay with my mom and step dad for my race weekend. We got in late Friday night, got settled into our beds - or couch for me (seriously, I love sleeping on couches...and my mom has an amazing couch to sleep on - much better than sharing an air mattress with a 4.5 year old!) - and fell right to sleep. The next day, we hurriedly got up and got ready because my kiddos were getting Christmas pictures taken. Of course it was like 80* and humid and we had them in big sweaters, long sleeved dresses, etc, so they weren't exactly thrilled to be getting their pictures taken. Luckily, our photographer is amazing and managed to get a few great shots of our little ones. As they were taking pictures, I stumbled into a pile of ants. I realized it once they climbed into my shoes and started biting my heals and toes. Which, is of course *awesome* right before a 26.2 mile race! Luckily, they didn't swell up until after my race, but it really freaked me out and put me in a slightly pessimistic mood regarding my race.
After pictures, I had the biggest, craziest hamburger I had ever eaten. Seriously, it had refried beans, fritoes, a giant hamburger patty, pickles, tomato, and lettuce on it. It was pretty intense. And huge. And delicious! I'm super lucky that my stomach is able to handle a crazy burger like that right before a race. Nothing like lots of refried beans right before 26.2 miles! After plowing through that deliciousness, my mom took off with the kids for the toy store (they got a prize for smiling during pictures), and the rest of us headed to the RNR race expo for packet pickup. We managed to get my packet and checked out the expo and then headed back to my mom and step-dad's house to rest up.
My step-dad had a work function (he's a Chief in the USAF) that evening, so we all ended up going with him. It was a lot of fun for the kids since there was a big outdoor play area at the restaurant and the adults grubbed on some seriously good barbeque. mmmm....brisket! Again, thank you iron stomach for handling like a pound of meat right before 26.2 miles! We ate and then headed back home to get some rest.
I had a tough time getting rest that night. I tossed and turned quite a bit. My alarm went off at 4:30am and I had already been up for a little bit. I dressed quickly, woke up my step-dad to drive me to the race, and we headed out. As we were driving, I realized I left my pins for my bib at the house so I would need to get those before the race. My step-dad tried his hardest to get me as close as possible to the race start line, but so many streets were closed that it was nearly impossible. After about 10 minutes trying to inch closer to the start, I decided to just get out and walk to the start - about 1.2 miles. Ahhh! And, here is when I start to panic :)
There were SO many people. I guess that is to be expected when you have a marathon, a half marathon, relays, and a mini marathon (a 5k), but it was making me claustrophobic there were so many people. It was around 68* - 70* at this point too, and the combination of lots of people, the high temps, the panic over walking to the start, the start time creeping up on me, and the things I had to do still (bag-check, getting my pins, port o potty line, etc) were really getting to me. I was getting sweaty and a little queasy. I hurried through all of my pre-race activities and finally got to the port o potty line, which of course was long with so many people. I decided that I needed to just calm down, relax, and get in race mode because really, the race was chip timed and there about 32 corrals so I had plenty of time to do my thing and jump into a corral to start.
I finished up at the port o potty and jumped into a corral. As I looked around, I noticed that I had jumped right into my own corral without even trying! Awesome! I started chatting with some ladies around me and started feeling better. When my corral started, I was happy and ready to get my sweaty self over the marathon finish line. The first few miles were pretty good. The crowd support was tremendous for the first few miles, and there was always something to look at, laugh at, and there was just a generally happy feeling to the race. We ran by the San Antonio Zoo (which was really pretty looking - I need to visit there!) around mile 5, and then headed towards Trinity University. Oh my HILLS!! I had gone into this race knowing that it would be a warm, humid run so I had decided to just use this as a training run for my ultra in February. This logic was nice because I had decided to walk up the hills like I would at the ultra. I guess I just didn't realize that there were that many hills at the San Antonio Rock N Roll race, and that they were so close to the start! It may not have been as bad if I had been doing the half, but the full marathon still had 19 miles to go after all those hills! Fortunately, there was a tremendous level of crowd support in this area so there were people cheering you on as you killed the hill.
About a half mile after the hills, I decided I wanted to eat something more than a gel. I had packed up a half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and tucked it into my SPIbelt, so I took that out and tried to take a bite. Immediately, I regretted that decision. I started dry heaving and ended up spitting out the bite of sandwich I had taken. It wasn't pleasant. I normally eat a pbj during my runs so I didn't think it would affect me in that way; I'm guessing the heat had something to do with it. By that point, it was creeping into the mid-70's and was SO humid. At around mile 10, the marathon course split off from the half marathon course. After that, the running field got really, really thinned out. I could only see a few people in front of me and behind me. I caught up to a small group of three runners and ran/walked with them for a few minutes. We chatted about the weather and the races we had done in the past. It was a great way to pass the time and forget about what we were doing a little. By about mile 13, we passed the Concepcion Mission, one of many missions found in San Antonio (of which the Alamo is the most famous). It was really cool to run past and check it out.
By that point, I had taken in a TON of water and gatorade, and was still having trouble choking anything other than a gel down. I started pouring salt packets into my gatorade to help with dehydration. I was soaked I was sweating so much. I had the foresight to bring my handheld water bottle with me. This helped tremendously as I tackled the miserable next section of the course. The course followed the Mission Trail, which would have been really awesome had it been an overcast or even slightly cooler day. However, it was hot. Not just hot, it was miserable, soul-sucking hot. And I was running a marathon so I was even hotter. This portion of the course was also not shaded so we were all running in the miserable heat with direct sun beating down on us. Who knew you could get a sunburn in November?!?
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| Should have put on sunblock! |
The course kept going down Mission Trail and followed the river. It seemed never ending. You would think that, surely, you had to be turning back onto streets soon, and then you would see another stretch of the river and just silently cry. There were people dropping out of the race left and right. People were getting dehydrated and overheated. I was so very lucky to have my handheld water bottle with me; others were not as lucky and were standing in line at park water fountains to get more to drink. Others had gone off course and were trying to cool down in the shade found at picnic canopies. As one lady that I ran with for a few minutes said, "This is just stupid hot." There really wasn't any other way to describe it. I ran with the 5:30 pace group for about 5 miles. I was pleased with the progress I was making and thought I might even PR (my PR was 5:45); then the 5:30 pace leader told someone else that they were not going to make it in the 5 hours, 30 minutes. At that point I decided that I would just try to finish the race. I had told my family to meet me at mile 22, and when I didn't see them there I was pretty darn thankful - I am not sure if I would have finished had I seen them there. It would have been very tempting to just leave. I struggled through, though, and just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I walked a lot.
At mile 26, I saw my family. My husband, kids, brother, mom, and step-dad were there cheering me on. I loved it! It made me so, so incredibly happy to see them (and to know I was .2 miles from the finish line!!). I "sprinted" in the last little bit and excitedly grabbed my medal. The medal is pretty cool - it's the Alamo. My kids were excited to see mommy and gave me big sweaty hugs. They were dripping with sweat themselves. My husband later told me that they had tried to get to the race course at mile 22, but couldn't find a good place to park that didn't mean dragging the kids on a 1 mile hike in the blistering sun. Again, I was happy that I hadn't seen them there - so tempted to give up!
The food afterwards was decent. They had jamba juice there giving out nice, cold smoothies and they had beer for finishers (which I passed up in favor of getting to an air conditioned bathroom faster haha). Overall, I don't think I would do this course again, unless they changed the portion that was in direct sun. For next year, they did move the course to December in the hopes of having a little cooler race weather. I'm not sure if that will make a huge difference though; San Antonio "winter" weather isn't exactly chilly. I've done two Rock N Roll races now (Dallas half, San Antonio full). I think they are fun because of the bands, and the crowd support (at least for the first half; the second half of the full was kind of lacking in crowd support), but for the price I am not sure if it is really worth it. I'm sure I'll do another one in the course of my running career, but not sure if it will take priority over a more locally organized race.
