Rio Marathon Race Recap

Settle in, this is going to be a long one!

On our way to Rio!!!

 We left for Rio on Saturday morning and had an uneventful flight. Landing at the Santo Dumont airport has got to be one of the most dramatic landings in the world, you come in right over Rio de Janeiro, fly by the Christ the Redeemer statue and land practically in the ocean on the world's shortest landing strip. We decided to get lunch at the airport so that the kids would be in a better mood and then caught a taxi over to the kit pickup. Pulling into the entrance for the kit pickup was my first clue that this marathon was going to be a much bigger deal than I had realized. There were electronic signs on the road warning people that the roads would be closed on Sunday for the race and our taxi wasn't allowed to pull into the parking lot. So we grabbed our bags and walked over to the tent where the kit pickup was. 

This is just part of the line inside the tent. Look how sweaty even  the shirtless guy is!

As we came around the corner we spotted two huge lines with what looked like hundreds of people waiting in them in the blazing sun. So I got into one of them with the two bags and Matt took the kids over to a little playground. As I stood in the baking hot sun, I regretted wearing jeans and compression socks and I wished that we had gone to the hotel first to drop off our bags. We had no idea it would be so crowded! After I waited for about 10 minutes one of the race volunteers came over and asked me if I was a foreigner (how did he know? ) and said that I could get out of the baking hot sun line and go in the foreigner line! Yeah! Oh except I registered as a Brazilian because I thought they would charge foreigners more. The volunteer went and checked the list and confirmed that I was running as a Brazilian and so had to wait like everyone else. Bummer. So I waited and waited and finally made it into the tent which wasn't much cooler. Matt and the kids were with me in case I needed Portugese help and Gus eventually fell asleep in Matt's arms.

Too much kit pickup!

                             
Finally after about 2 hours of waiting I got up to the front and picked up my number! 1918! Hooray! And I found out that I had paid for the bus to the start! Hooray! It looked like there were going to be about 7,000 runners in the marathon which is a good size, not too big. Of course when we emerged, there was no line at all and we could have walked right in. We took some pictures in front of the giant course map and let Gus sleep a little longer.

My chip works! I'm the 4th name down.

Eleanor and I with the course map

More RIO pictures

Then we headed to our hotel, we were staying in Copacabana, and passed by the finish which was lined with tents from various clubs. We checked into our hotel and headed up to our room to change so we could go to the beach. When we opened the door we were surprised to find...one bed. That's right, all 4 of us in one king sized bed. Sigh. I was glad I had gotten a good night's sleep the night before because it was clear we weren't going to be doing a lot of restful sleeping.

We changed the kids into bathing suits and went down to play on the beach in the last minutes of daylight that were left. Unfortunately Gus got knocked over by a wave almost as soon as we got there so we had to head back to the room. We went to a mall for dinner and split a large pizza which was actually pretty tasty. I felt carbo loaded and ready to go!

The kids had some trouble settling down to sleep in the new bed so there was a lot of drinks of water and trips to the bathroom. Things improved when we finally figured out the air conditioning and got the room cooled down a bit. I was nervously getting out all of my stuff and trying to make sure I didn't forget anything.

None of us slept well and I woke up at about 3:30 from what Matt thought were gunshots and I thought was someone banging on our door. Then I couldn't fall back asleep so I just got up and started getting dressed, eating, and drinking some more. I slathered myself in Body Glide and sunscreen and packed my check bag that I was bringing to the start. Matt got up to wish me good luck and then Eleanor woke up as well so I got lots of hugs and kisses and then I was on my way.

I grabbed a taxi in front of the hotel and asked him to take me over to the place where the buses were leaving from, near the finish line. As we drove through the dark streets of Rio the only people out and about seemed to be club goers headed home and runners wearing marathon and half marathon gear. Luckly the taxi driver found the buses- it was a madhouse! Tons of buses, tons of runners and a general sense of panic. People were running around and yelling and I felt like telling them to chill out and stop wasting energy, we've got a long day ahead of us! I got in line for the marathon buses and was able to get on one of the first ones.

The bus ride was really long, almost an hour, which freaked me out that we would have to run back so far! We passed through parts of Rio that I had never seen so that made it more interesting. Finally we made it to what must have been the end of the road that was blocked off for the start and had to wait there for a few minutes until we were waved through.

When we finally got to the starting area, I was really glad to get off the bus and stretch my legs. I walked over towards the beach and found the end of a bench to sit on. The sun was coming up over the water and it was gorgeous. I found myself getting a little teary eyed, just from the emotion of being there and getting to have this unique experience, but I controlled myself and reminded myself to be happy in this moment too!

I spent my time before the start reading through my affirmation cards and reviewing Running Within, my book about the mental aspects of running. I made a couple porta potty visits and just tried to stay calm and follow Matt's advice not to freak out. I overheard a couple of people speaking English, including one guy who said that he was running marathons related to Bing Crosby songs. Strange. I spotted the Indian and the Christmas Tree from the Australian guy's video from last year, they must be perennial runners.  I had thought the women were starting at 7 am but it turned out that was just the elite women. I watched them go off and then walked over to get into the chute so I could get a good place.

The start! I'm somewhere in there in the middle of the pack...

As I stood in the chute waiting for the start I honestly felt calm and ready. I kept thinking, I'm going to run this race like a Boston qualifier. I'm going to have a great race. The people around me were mostly from Argentina and they kept hugging each other and wishing each other luck. Then the announcer started saying things about hydration and positive energy and I knew we were getting close. I decided then to turn on my Garmin GPS watch so I could get a signal in time for the start. And all I saw was this:
                                 

And then the countdown to the start began and my stupid watch was still locating satellites. I tried not to panic but my whole racing plan was contingent on this dumb watch working because I needed to be able to constantly check my pace. I took a deep breath, walked up to the starting line and pushed start and started running. Nothing happened until about a half mile in when I heard it beep and saw that it had gotten a signal but it hadn't started. Urgh. So I pushed start. Then a few minutes later it beeped again and I saw a Signal Lost message. This was not good, it was messing with my mojo! Finally I got the signal back again but the watch said I was running 11:00 minute miles. WHAT?? I was trying to go slow but I know I wasn't going that slow. Good lord! And during this whole time we were running this weird tacked on loop that had us start at the starting line, run out and around by a beach, then come back and run through the starting line the other way.

Once I passed the starting line the second time my watch problems seemed to have sorted themselves out and I was running just under 8:30 which was right where I needed to be for the first 5 miles. The one problem that I noticed is that it didn't feel easy like Christine said it would. It wasn't hard but I didn't feel like I had the brakes on and I couldn't wait to rip them off and go faster. The sun was beating down on us from the start and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

The kids waiting for me to come

This was right before they decided to sit down in the water. Matt was not pleased.

Getting the sign ready

I kept on pace for the first 5 miles and then at the 9K mark I ate a GU energy gel and told myself it was time to kick it up a little bit and get down to 8:20/mile. Christine had said that it wouldn't feel like a huge difference, just a little bit faster. Well I kept looking at my watch and it would say 8: 26 or 8:34, I couldn't get it close to 8:20. I tried looking at the feet of the people in front of me and trying to match their strides or staying with people as they passed me but none of it worked. There was a woman in a neon yellow tank top who was running right around me this whole time and at about the 12K mark, she just took off.

It was around this time that I started to get the feeling that it wasn't going to be my BQ day. I was worried about the sun and the heat and I felt like I was just stuck in 8:26 gear and couldn't drop the hammer and shift into 8:20 or 8:15. So I made the decision that my goals were to finish and to enjoy the run and appreciate the gorgeous scenery. I let the BQ goal go and I was ok with it. From that point on, I didn't look at my watch at all and I just ran.

Gus is rocking the official marathon hat.

I love the guy smiling in this picture. Eleanor reported that they made a lot of people smile with their sign.

The course was on a road that went right along the ocean so we had gorgeous views of waves and surfers and beach goers. There were some random spectators, mostly people out for a walk or going to the beach who stopped to cheer. Matt had told me that he was going to try to go to the halfway point to cheer so I started looking for him and the kids and finally spotted them at about the 19K mark, right before the half. I gave high fives and smiles and told him that I was off pace so he would know. Right after I passed him we ran by the start for the Half Marathon race that had gone off before ours.

Here I come, I've spotted my fans and am taking my sunglasses off!

Ready for my high fives!

Going in for it!

Then we turned away from the beach and went around a corner and on to a big road and the first major hill. It wasn't too steep but it was long and it climbed up into the first tunnel. I had been worried about the tunnels but I actually loved running through it because it was shady and cool and we were out of the sun. After we got through the tunnel, we ran for a while on an elevated road and it was nice because we were on the bottom part so it was shady. I really really appreciated that!

So I was really happy that there were water stations every 3 kilometers and that they give out water in covered cups so I would take 3 or 4, dump one over my head, drink one and then carry the others to drink later. We also got Gatorade every 8 kilometers but that was in these weird bags that you had to bite and then drink out of. They usually only give Gatorade in cups so it was better than that and a couple of times I took the bag and then stuck it in my bra to try and cool my body down. I felt like I did a pretty good job of getting enough to drink and trying to cool myself down as much as possible. They also had misting stations that we ran through at a couple of points but those didn't do much, a dip in the ocean would have been better!

After we came off the elevated road, we went through another tunnel where one of the sponsors had set up a light show. There was loud music playing and giant lightbulbs everywhere. It was a cool distraction! Then we climbed up another hill on the side of a cliff which was also long but not horribly steep. We could see the Christ the Redeemer statue on this hill so I knew we were getting close.  At that point in the race, we were at about 27 kilometers, people were starting to feel the effects of the miles and the heat. I started seeing people walking and pulling off to stretch their legs. Then we came back down the hill (ow!) and headed into Ipanema Beach.

I couldn't believe the timing but just as we turned onto Ipanema Beach, the song Party in the Ipanema baby came on my iPod. I planned that well! At this point I was feeling ok, I wasn't going fast but I was confident that I would be able to finish. This part of the race was fun because there were so many people! The road we were running on is closed to traffic on Sundays and it becomes a big party! People are rolling blading, biking, skate boarding, running, walking, and everything else. So there were a lot of people cheering and encouraging us which was nice at this point. I wasn't sure when I would see Matt and the kids again so I was mostly scanning the crowds looking for them. They gave out oranges at one point which were so refreshing and I just kept plugging along. As we were running along this part, I saw the temperature on a time/temperature clock and it said it was 30 degrees Celsius which is 86 degrees Farenheit so it was hot! And straight on sun, no clouds!

When I hit 32 kilometers, I knew I had 10K to go and that I was really going to finish. But those 10K were really really long. It seemed like Ipanema would never end and then we got to Copacabana and that went on forever too and I couldn't find Matt and the kids so that part was just long. Then when we got off the beach road and turned into the city, I had a huge grin on my face and was so excited! I was high fiving race volunteers, I was encouraging Americans I recognized, I was chatting with people who commented on my Boston shirt, I was loving life.

As we came through the last tunnel, I spotted a woman up ahead who had passed me right at the beginning and had said in English, "C'mon! Let's go get em!" To which I replied,"You go ahead, it's a long race!" I could see her slumped over and shuffling along so I came up behind her and told her she was doing great and we were almost done. She was so out of it, she had no idea where we were in the race and kept asking me if I had water. I was really glad that I hadn't gone so fast with her back at the beginning, it looked like it came back to haunt her.

After the tunnel we ran along Flamengo Beach and the beautiful Sugar Loaf mountain/rock was off to our right. I kept looking up at it and thinking, WOW! This is so beautiful and amazing and I'm so lucky! The last 2K seemed to go on forever but that view made it worth it.

People were passing me left and right but I just toodled along, headed for the finish. The crowds were really big at the very end and people were yelling and cheering and I just smiled and smiled all the way to the end! It was really an awesome race! I finished feeling happy and proud and not at all upset that I didn't make my time goal. Just as I crossed the line, a guy in a USA t-shirt said Good job, under 4 hours! And I was really happy about that because of the weather conditions!

Me with the kids right after I finished (Gus had just woken up)

Doing my Christ the Redeemer imitation in front of the finish line

Here is a link to a video of me finishing (I come in after about 5 seconds) and some pictures from the race:
Finish Line!

I found Matt and the kids right after I finished and Eleanor's first words to me were: "You didn't get a BQ." And I said, "That's ok. I had a great race." And it was true! I couldn't wipe the grin off my face if I tried. We took some pictures and Eleanor came with me to get my medal and some food and Gatorade. Then the fun really began as we tried to find a taxi to take us back to our hotel. After a couple different tries,we decided to walk further away from  the finish and that's when I remembered that I had forgotten to pick up my checked bag. So we all headed back to the finish (my legs were screaming at this point!) and got my stuff. It turned out to be better because we were far enough away from the finish line crowds that we grabbed a taxi pretty quickly. The traffic was all snarled up from the marathon and it took us longer to get home than it did for me to run the same distance.

Me with my favorite fans

After lunch and a shower we went up to check out the hotel pool which was on the roof! Very swanky! It turned out the water was freezing cold and no amount of Matt's convincing could get me in it as an ice bath substitute. Eleanor is impervious to cold water so she spent a while in there. Then we headed out to the beach for a caipirinia for me and a beer for Matt as the kids played in the sand. It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon. And we ended the night back at the finish line area for dinner at a Brazilian BBQ restaurant called Porcau. They had a kids playroom so the kids were happy and Matt and I ate lots of sushi and grilled meat and talked like normal people. We were all in bed by 8 and slept much better the second night.

Recovering b y the rooftop pool

We spent Monday morning at the beach and then headed back to Brasilia. I could barely walk for the first couple of days but that's getting better. I talked to Coach Christine yesterday and she said she was happy with my attitude and where I was mentally during the race. She also said that in the end, running is about having fun and that's what I did so that's the most important thing! And I agree!

                                     

My final time was 3:57:32 and I finished 97th out of the women. It's not the Boston Qualifier I was hoping for but I'm happy with it. I finished the race, I had fun, and I got to see unbelievable sights along the way. There will be other races and other chances for me to qualify for Boston, especially when I turn 40 and move up to the next slower category. Matt has made me promise though that the next marathon will be somewhere where we can sleep in our own beds the night before. I'm thinking Marine Corps Marathon in the fall of 2014...

Thanks for coming along on the journey and for all your support! It helped me more than you know!

I Finished!!!

A smile on Copacabana beach the morning after

So there's good news and not so good news. 

The good news is that I finished the Rio Marathon!!! Woohoo! 

The not so good news is that I didn't even come remotely close to qualifying for Boston. 

But I'm ok with it. It was hot right from the start of the marathon and I couldn't get it into gear. So I decided I was just going to relax and enjoy the run. And I did. The scenery was amazing and I had a smile on my face at the finish. I saw Matt and the kids at the halfway point and then at the finish so that was a good boost. I didn't walk, I didn't cramp up and I didn't pass out-all major accomplishments!

My final time was 3:57 and I came in 97th for women. 

I'll write a longer race recap soon but I just wanted to share the results. Thanks again for all the support and love, I really appreciated it!

Last Post Before the Marathon!

My favorite cheerleaders

I've been trying to limit my checking of the weather to twice a day and so far it looks good:

Sunny. Highs in the low 80s and lows in the low 60s.

I'd obviously prefer cloudy with highs in the mid 70s but I'll take this, it's still better than rain. The one piece of bad news is that it looks like humidity will be about 70% which is not ideal but at least I know in advance so I can prepare myself for it. When I had that kind of humidity at my last marathon in VT in May, I was completely unprepared and didn't hydrate or control my run properly.

A couple of people have expressed concern for me running in Rio because of the protests that are happening there. I honestly don't think it will be an issue. All of the protests so far have been at night and have been announced in advance, not spontaneous. Brazilians are not really morning people so I can't see them getting up early to protest at the marathon. Also, the marathon is pretty small potatoes and I don't think anyone really knows about it except the people running it. That said, we will be careful and aware of what's going on and if there's any danger, I won't run. I promise. Or I'll run faster to avoid any trouble.

This is what it's all about

I had my talk with Coach Christine on Tuesday and she laid out the plan for me:

First 5 miles at 8:30/mile
Second 5 miles at 8:20/mile which puts me at 1:24 for 10 miles
Next 10 miles at 8:15/mile (the race pace I've been aiming for) which puts me at 1:48 for the half  and 2:45 for 20 miles
Then the last 10K she would really like me to get down to 8:00/mile but she said that even if I can only hang on at 8:30-I'll still finish in 3:39:00.

So this is completely different from my usual marathon plan which involved going out fast and "banking" time to spend later. It's going to be hard work for me to believe in the new plan and stay slow at the beginning. I think with the drop in altitude (I'm going from 3000 feet to sea level) and all the adrenaline, I'm really going to have to remind myself to go slower at the start. I like having the times all mapped out so that I don't have to be frantically calculating them as I go along, it puts my mind at rest that I just need to hit these mile times and I'll be fine. I think I need to make a bracelet to wear with the times on it or Coach suggested writing it on my arm in Sharpie. We also talked about what to do if I slow down or get off the pace and her main advice was not to panic (which is exactly what I did in my last marathon) and to slowly pick up the pace. It was a good reminder for me that the marathon is long and I'll have time to make adjustments.

The best part of the conversation for me was when Coach Christine kept repeating, "I have a good feeling about this. I think you're really going to turn it on in the last 10K and have an awesome finish." That was good for me to hear, since she knows what she's talking about, she's seen the numbers of how I've performed in training. I have to trust that I put in the work, the money's in the bank, and this is just my chance to show it off. So I got off the phone with her feeling good that I had a plan of action and a coach who believes that I can achieve my goal.

I'm going to be glad to see this face on Sunday!

This taper week has just been long and boring, not much running, me trying not to freak out 100 times a day, and just killing time waiting for Sunday. I've eaten a lot of rice and potatoes and pasta, I'm hoping to bank some carbs for Sunday. 

                                         

We leave for Rio on Saturday morning and will go to pick up the kit and figure out what is going with the bus to the start. I have received exactly zero communication from the marathon, the only way to find anything out is by checking their website or their facebook page. It doesn't inspire a lot of confidence but honestly it's not that unusual for Brazilian races.

I'll try and update the blog with my results on Sunday but it might not be until we get back to Brasilia on Monday. Here is the website of the marathon if you want to try and check on-line. They unfortunately don't have runner tracking so you can't follow along as I run but they'll put the results up when it's all over.
http://www.maratonadorio.com.br/en/

Thanks for all your love and support and for encouraging me along the way. Keep your fingers and toes crossed on Sunday morning and send positive vibes out into the universe for me.

I got this! BQ here I come!

This Week's Long Run

Coach Christine Wanted: 6-8 miles with 10 minute strong finish
I Delivered: 7 miles with the last mile at 8:00

If it's on my t-shirt, it  must be true

This was my last long run before the marathon! And it wasn't long at all, only 7 miles so I just relaxed and tried to enjoy it. I was rocking my new USA red white and blue compression socks and I got lots of comments from bikers going by. Of course I have no idea what they were saying but usually they just ignore me so I figured it was my cool socks. I was trying out the socks for the marathon and I decided they were too loose, not enough compression to go 26.2. I'm going to stick with my hot pink or my white heart ones.

I ran out over the JK Bridge, just to enjoy the view and then turned around and came back. I started my fast finish with 1.25 miles to go but that was on a hill so I didn't really get the fast going until about a mile to go. I turned up the gas, tried to relax and enjoy and finished strong! 8:00 for the last mile! I'll take it! If I can crank one of those out at the end of the marathon, I'll be beyond thrilled!

I have my pep talk/strategy session with Coach Christine tomorrow so she can lay out the plan for me for the marathon. I'm glad that she's going to figure all of that and then tell me what times I need to hitting at what points. I think her plan is going to be something like start out 30 seconds slower than race pace and then slowly increase so that the second half of the race will be faster than the first half. I just have to take deep breaths and trust that she knows what she is doing. There's a part of me that is scared that if I start out slow, I'll never be able to pick it up and run the negative splits. Then I think back to the training runs where I did the last half at race pace. I can do this! Trust your training! I will not let my mind prevent me from doing my best! 

I'm working hard to not freak out but it's a struggle. There are lots of cards posted around our house with positive reminders and every time a negative thought comes into my head, I try to push it away and say out loud YES I CAN! To which Gus replies, NO YOU CAN'T! 

Sigh. 

6 more days.