Sheridan & Natalie Hodson Family: Shamrock Marathon March 20, 2011

I have had a lot of people ask me about the race, and so instead of repeating myself a hundred times, I thought it would be best to write a little recap and email it/put it on our blog! I have a long recap of the race here, but if you don't feel like reading all of this you can just scroll down to the bottom and check out the pictures (but, come on, you KNOW you want to read it....) :)

Around Christmas time I was getting annoyed with myself because I wasn’t consistently training. I would work out for a week or two, then stop working out for a few days, then work out for a week or so. I realized that I would probably be more consistent with my training (and my weight loss goals) if I actually had something to train for. I have wanted to run another marathon for a while now, so I figured, “what the heck….why not train for another marathon?”. I decided to run the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach, VA on March 20^th. The reviews of the course were really good, and Virginia Beach is a place I had never been before and thought it would be a fun little mini-vacation for our little family to take.

I really hadn’t been doing a ton of running, so I decided to start working my way back slowly. After a few weeks of shorter runs, the first long run I did was a 90 minute long run. It was rough. I was only doing about 10 minute miles and came home afterwards and slept the rest of the day! I decided to add 10-minutes a week until I was right around 2 hours 40 minutes and then do a few 3-hour runs in there. Anyways…this isn’t going to be a long post about my training but the main point is that I was diligent and consistent with my training and was able to work my way back into shape (I have another post that you can read HERE about the half marathon I ran a few weeks ago). I ran a lot of treadmill miles while my 1-year old son was in the daycare at the gym I belong to in order to get my daily run in.

So, fast forward to race weekend. My brother Rich flew in to run the race with me. Sheridan and I drove down Saturday morning, picked Rich up from the airport, and headed to the race expo. This was an awesome expo! We picked up our race shirts and then walked around a bit. They had all kinds of booths with discounted running gear, other races looking for runners, free food samples, etc. I purchased a $120 pair of running shoes for $60! Rich and I also picked up some running sleeves for the race the following day. We were planning to meet this running group that I am going to start training with (Capital Area Runners) for dinner and still had some time to kill and so we drove the race course (most of it at least – part of the course went through a military base and they wouldn’t let us drive through). The course was super flat! We were starting to get excited.

We met with some of the Capital Area Runners for a nice Italian dinner. We had Lincoln with us, and I was a bit nervous because you never know how a one-year old will do in a restaurant. The restaurant was packed with other runners, and so it took over an hour for our food to come out, but Lincoln was actually really good! We brought some snack foods for him, and the restaurant gave him some crayons. It was really nice to talk with some of the other runners and get to know them better.

After dinner we checked into our hotel – the very classy Motel 6. We decided to rent two rooms so that way if Lincoln was up all night Rich and I could still get some good sleep. The hotel had recently been renovated and was actually really nice. Rich and I had been hydrating really well all day (well actually, we had been making an effort all week to make sure we were hydrating well) with pedialyte and water. We got our racing clothes ready for the next day, and after a little incident with Lincoln ripping off his bad diaper in the hotel room, we made it to bed.

The race started at 8am so Rich and I got up at 5am, did a quick 5 min “shake-out” run, and then headed next door to McDonalds. We each ordered three oatmeals and I had some coffee. Many of you are probably thinking, “three oatmeals!!! That is a lot! And, yes it is a lot, but I also knew I was going to burn 2,500+ calories in the race and I needed lots of fuel! At McDonald’s they had these awesome touch-screens where you could play games for free! Rich and I rocked the games and set a bunch of high scores J

After breakfast we headed back to the hotel, packed everything up, and headed to the race. The temperature wasn’t too bad (about 50’s) but it was windy!! Especially as we got closer to the start line and beach. Parking was tough so Sheridan dropped Rich and me off while he went and parked. Rich and I did about a five minute warmup and a few drills, then waited in the looooong and cold line for the port-a-johns. We started to head to the start of the race (8am) and as we got there they announced that the start had been pushed back to 8:30am. We snuck into a hotel lobby for the next twenty minutes to try to get some cover from the wind. Finally the race was about to start. We knew going into the race that we wanted to have a “slow start/fast finish” approach to the race. My new running coach, George Buckheit, gave some great insight to this method,

“A lot of runners use the tactic of trying to "put time in the bank" by going out at faster than their target pace so that they will have some cushion when they inevitably slow down later in the race. The only thing that is correct about such an approach is that if you go out faster than your target pace, you WILL definitely slow down later in the race. Going out too fast, especially in a marathon, is a mistake from which you cannot possibly recover. Starting out too fast will leave you drowning in lactic acid and your rate of deceleration will be constant and dramatic in the latter stages of the race. On the flip side of the coin, there is no such thing as going out too slow in a long race like a half marathon or marathon. If you start out slower than your target pace, so what? You've got a long race ahead of you and you'll have plenty of time (and energy) to make up any lost time as the race progresses. It's far better to give away 10-20 seconds per mile in the first few miles of a long race in exchange for the extra energy you'll have later in the race (as well as the psychological advantage of blowing past all of the runners who made the mistake of starting too quickly), than it is to be 10-20 seconds per mile ahead of your target pace early in the race, only to be forced to give back multiple minutes per mile when you blow up later in the race.”

Very valuable advice that I did not follow very well in my race! My mile splits were all over the place! I think this did have something to do with the wind. At the beginning Rich and I were running together and we would switch every mile so that one of us was drafting off the other. After about mile 8 though we decided to just draft off of other people who were running. Here were my splits:
1. 8:52
2. 8:28
3. 8:29
4. 7:54
5. 8:14
6. 8:30
7. 7:47
8. 8:00
9. 7:27
10. 7:56
11. 8:01
12. 7:59
13. 8:06
14. 7:59
15. 8:12
16. 8:13
17. 8:19
18. 8:34
19. 8:39
20. 8:37
21. 8:37
22. 8:44
23. 8:54
24. 8:54
25. 8:35
26. 8:27
27. 2:05

We started off with the 3:50 pace group and it felt so slow! I was so glad I was running with Rich because he kept reminding me to slow down and pace myself. It is so hard (but so important) to start off slow in these long races because you have so much adrenaline going! During Mile 9 we ran through the navy base Camp Pendleton. This was probably the single greatest experience I have EVER had during a race. Every serviceman came out dressed in uniform and lined the streets throughout the navy base. Because we had our names on our bib numbers they were cheering for us, congratulating us, and using our names to tell us what a great job we were doing. Seriously I felt like I was winning the New York City Marathon or something!! I accidentally ran that mile wayyy too fast because I had so much adrenaline pumping from the support of the troops.

I felt really good until I got to about Mile 14, and that is when the race started to feel "taxing". I kept repeating to myself, "your body can do anything your mind believes is possible" over and over and over. It was really helpful that they had water stations so often throughout the course. I was taking Blok Shots continually throughout the race which also really helped (I recently discovered that "Gu Packets" tend to upset my stomach and am really happy that I switched to the Blok Shots). Around mile 18 Rich and I split up and that is when the race really got hard. We were running a stretch of the course that had very few spectators, and we were also running straight into the wind. I kept trying to find big, tall guys to draft behind because the wind was really strong. I remember at one point thinking to myself that I wanted to slow down, but then telling myself, "Well, even if you slow down you probably are going to exert just as much energy by breaking the wind yourself than if you keep this faster pace and draft off this big guy in front of you". Mentally, miles 18, 19 and 20 were the hardest.

Once I got to mile 21, however, I had a newfound hope. I looked at my watch and realized that I was at 2:55. This meant that I had 5 miles left, and 45 minutes left to qualify for Boston. I quickly did the math and realized that even if I only ran 9 minute miles (which I knew I wouldn't go that slow) for the remaining 5 miles I would still qualify! This was a wonderful revelation to me! Instead of dreading how far I had left, I knew that I had an attainable goal. It wasn't until mile 23 that I realized when I was doing my calculations I forgot about the .2 miles at the end of the race! I tried to pick up the pace to compensate for that because my mind was so loopy at this point there was no way I could do the calculations to figure out exactly how fast I needed to pick it up.

The last few miles were hard and my body was really tired, but this is the first marathon where I never really went "crazy" during the race or "hit the wall". My times did slow down at the end, and I think with better training and better race plan execution that could be fixed. But, mentally I was really tough and I am really proud of myself for that. The last .2 miles were on a Boardwalk completely lined with people cheering my name. It was awesome and, like the first marathon I ran, I crossed the finish line and burst into tears. I had finished in 3:38:28 and qualified for the Boston Marathon!! Just a month before my goal was only to run a 4 hour marathon and I was so proud of myself for achieving the goal of qualifying for Boston!

Afterwards my body went into shock a little bit (it was really, really cold) and I ended up in the medical tent briefly to get warmed up. But, after I walked a little and got some warm clothes on I was much better. Sheridan was so sweet. I was sooo cold, but could also barely move after the race, so he literally took off my wet shirt and put on about 4 dry shirts/sweathshirts on top, and he sat my down and helped me put on 3 pairs of pants to warm up.

I am really proud of how I did in this race! I am now training with an awesome running group called the Capital Area Runners and am excited to run a few shorter distance races this summer and then another marathon in the fall (either Marine Corps Marathon or the Richmond Marathon) where I can hopefully break my marathon PR of 3:24:41. I told Sheridan that we are going to have to plan our next baby around my marathon schedule! lol. Boston is next April (2012) so I am incredibly excited to run that race.

I hope you have enjoyed this recap and these pictures!

Running the boardwalk at the end of the race (last .2 miles)

Tearing up as I crossed the finish line

During the race

During the race...

Rich crossing the finish line - love the stance!!

Rich during the race...

Rich during the race....

Rich getting ready to cross the finish line

Sheridan and Rich at the Expo

Lincoln really wanted one of the free McDonald's smoothie samples....but....he ended up just spilling it all over himself

Sheridan and Lincoln outside the Expo

Rich randomly snapped this picture of me after the expo with my new shoes

Lincoln loved the beach!!

Lincoln's first time at the beach!!

This awesome sand sculpture!

McDonald's....breakfast of champions...

We set a bunch of high scores for these games! What a great idea! This would bring me to McDonald's more often if we had them here :)

In the morning headed to the race....

Headed to the race...

Some of the boats that were docked near the course....Sheridan was bored while he was waiting for us during the race and snapped a few pictures

We didn't pack enough warm clothes for Lincoln and so Sheridan bundled him up with things he found in the back of the car. He kept trying to grab these fruit snacks but was having a hard time! :)

I think this was at about mile 3 or 4....you can see my hand in the corner :)

Mile 3 or 4

Pretty course but because we were on the water it was SO windy!

Mile 11 I think

Around Mile 11

Lincoln and dad hanging out for a while until they had a chance to see us again

Sheridan thought these girls were funny. They were handing out candy to the runners!

Mile 23ish

You can see me in the left hand side of this pic....judging by everyone's faces no one is feeling very good right now!

People were ditching their clothes left and right

Mile 23ish

Rich at about mile 23ish

After the race...

After the race with 4 layers of pants and 5 layers of shirts on - I was cold!!

Shamrock Marathon finishers! Funny story about Rich's blue gloves. He had given Sheridan his gloves around mile 11 because his hands were getting sweaty. Somewhere in the mile 20's he was getting cold again. He saw these gloves on the side of the course that someone else had ditched and put them on! They were blue with sparkly snowflakes on them and had holes in the fingers.