Race: Camp Pendleton Inaugural Hard Corps Marathon
Date: April 25th, 2009
Location: Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, Southern California
Notes:
First off, I PR’d! YESH!! Three years after my previous best time (San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon 2006, my 2nd marathon, then a personal record at 5:54:23) and two years since then of dismal running performances, I finally broke the record with a nice 11-minute buffer — this time at the Inaugural Hard Corps Marathon. Chip time recorded at 5 hours, 43 minutes and 38 seconds. Oh yeah! So what if I was 15th out of 17 in my age group! So what if I was 348th out of 371 overall! SO WHAT (to quote P!nk), I’m still a rockstar! 😉 Well, okie I’m just really excited that I PR’d my marathon (finally). I guess the training really did pay off. ^_^
I have to append this post as I remember some details from the run (it’s all a bit fuzzy still!) but here are the highlights and lowlights… Take a breather, this is going to be rather lengthy 😉
The Course
I really didn’t know what to expect on the course (since it was the inaugural run) and being silly and not really looking at the course map closely, particularly the elevation information, let’s just say that the course kept me on my toes:
As you can see, it’s NOT predominantly flat (as advertised on the race website); it’s more of, predominantly hilly! (Click on the elevation chart if you wish to see the full course map.) Ahhhhh! Being a flatlander and having little hill workouts in my training regimen, this was definitely a challenge that I’m still surprised I was able to accomplish. The elevation chart shows that the first six kilometres are supposedly downhill but boy did it NOT feel that way! The entire run going towards the Onofre Turn Around was a vicious up-and-down hill climb with nasty headwinds. Nasty.
The Weather
Like the marathons I’ve ran (this one’s the fifth), the weather starts out breezy and cool in the beginning and then the heat greets you later on during the run. For the first 12 miles, the weather was tolerable except for the undying headwind. After the turnaround, the heat began to set in — I wasn’t sweating as much anymore but it was just darn hot that I asked for an icepack around mile 16 — and in-between 16 and 17, I was tempted to just give up and ask for a ride back to the finish!
The Mind Games
I went through some tough debates: myself versus, er, me! lol. No, I haven’t gone mental (though it might seem that way) but as posted above, I very nearly gave up; a few miles after the turn around, I kept thinking to myself that “I could be the first person in our family to have a DNF (did not finish) in her record” then I’d try to psych myself out and say “No, you’ve gone too far to start thinking of quitting now!” but then a few paces later and I’d think, “Maybe this race isn’t for me!” and then another few metres I’d continue thinking “This is effing stupid; I can’t believe I have another marathon 4 weeks after this!” but then I’d remembered that people were praying for me to finish so I needed to keep on going! This went on whilst I held the icepack in my hand attempting to cool off my neck, head, face, etc. One of the “Race Support” Marines actually rolled past me in his pickup truck and slowed down to ask if I was ok; I said I was fine, but then he asked again if I was ok and enquired what the ice was for and when I responded once more, not only was it a welcome break from my inner debate, but the second time I answered that I was fine was the reassurance that I needed hear for myself that I was indeed fine and that I could go on.
After The Wall
I knew (from training) that when I hit the 17th mile was when I suddenly feel tired and done for — that’s when I hit my wall… Knowing about this didn’t stop me from having such a huge debate with myself about whether or not to I should continue (see above). I sort of went through a checklist — legs: check/fine; arms and shoulders: check/fine. Breathing: check/fine — and having gone through that, I frankly did NOT have any excuses on why I should stop other than my brain telling me that it’s impossible to finish (or worse: not even worth it to finish). Again, after getting past that, I felt good — in a sense that I can go on despite being fatigued. I also found the ice around mile 16 was loads of help, along with going to the Porta-Potty (BTW, it was unbelievably clean and odour free!) at around mile 18 made me feel better, and then having ice for my water bottle around mile 20 made a huge difference to my relatively strong finish. I was back at my scheduled run/walk interval, albeit at a slower pace.
A Random Friend
With about two miles to go, I ran next to a lady who was turning 50 [years old] in a month. She and I struck up a conversation and we ended up running the last couple of miles together. Looking back, I think that helped a LOT because we kept motivating each other — whenever she’d feel like she’s “done” and she’d rather walk, I would insist that she keep going for another 10 seconds and then we could take our walk break. I was surprised that she obliged (I’m sure she was cursing me under her breath! LOL) and that sort of interaction got me going. At the end of the course, when we finally returned to “civilisation,” having even more of the Marines there cheer you on was brilliant. Some were most likely giving their best impression of when they went to boot-camp (they were motivating us in that sort of yelling/Sargent-sort-of-way without being harsh or demeaning LOL) and it was that extra push that saw us through.
One More Round?!
The final lap around the finish line was amazingly long (and anticlimactic!) but the best part was when you turned the corner, you caught sight of how close you were to the end that you’d completely forgotten that you just ran a lap around the finish area. Crossing the finish line was the sweetest thing because this year, I saw a number that made me proud — the clock at the finish line showed 5:45:10. I knew that that was the gun time and not necessarily my chip time but even then, I finally finished under six hours. The announcer yelling “Celery!” (after reading the text on the back of my shirt) was pretty sweet, too.
Postlude
Stuff you probably won’t find at other marathon courses:
- – Bullet casings (I saw a one or two large- and small- calibre bullet shells littered at some point on the ground)
- – a couple of burnt small metal box thingys (I wasn’t sure if they were spent charges or summat! LOL!!!)
- – “Tank XING” signs
- – and finally, three Marines that ran 26.2 miles in boots and utilities; one ran whilst holding the American flag attached to a flagpole — now they were hard corps!
Stats! It’s actually funny how Nike+ reported a smaller distance than Garmin, when it’s Garmin that’s normally short! Hahaha. Either way, I’m guessing these pods have difficulty tracking movement up and down hills >_<
Garmin Connect. Nike+:
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