I have a special place in my heart for the Santa Clarita
marathon. For starters, it is close to
my house, and anything that is geographically desirable in LA, meaning less than
a thirty minute drive, is worth its weight in gold. Most is my marathons require months of
planning, hotels, flights, car rentals, food choices, etc., but Santa Clarita is
essentially in my backyard, which gives it a Gold Star in my book. However, the first time I ran the Santa
Clarita marathon, my 9th marathon, I was on the brink of break with
marathons, it was ugly. Then the second
time I ran it, my 24th marathon, I was reborn as a fast runner, and
the third time I ran it, my 29th marathon, I started the race with
the best below the knee ensemble ever…. The common thread of all three races is
that I finished each one with the thrill of knowing I had a short drive homeJ
The first time I ran the race was
November 6th, 2005, a little over six months after Boston. I signed up for the race because of its
location, and it was far enough out of Boston for me to sort of forget my
abysmal race in Bean Town and hopefully regain my pre-pneumonia fitness. Unfortunately, I was still not ready to climb
out of my “Why am I such a #$*&&% runner?” state of mind quite yet, so
I trained enough to run it, but once again I was not in proper marathon shape
on the starting line.
I think psychologically there was a wall I put
up between my pre-Boston qualifying self, and post-Boston qualifying self, in
essence I was in a funk. On the life
front, Marion and I were engaged, living together, and in the early stages of
planning our wedding, which was exciting, kind of, but more nauseating and
stressful than I ever thought it would be.
Nevertheless, training for the marathon was my escape and lifeline like
usual, but it also felt like a distraction, and should be lower on my priority
list, so I let it slip. I showed up on
race day nervous for the pain that I would feel all day, and instead of
embracing the pain and pushing through it, I let it swallow me up, and when I crossed that finish line I knew that I would not see another
one for a very long time.
When I saw that my watch barely reading 3:00hrs. at the 23 mile marker, I laughed out loud, it was insane, I had never run that fast, I almost wanted to ask a volunteer if I was on the right part of the course, did I cut it somehow? No, I was just finally a fast runner. I finished the race in 3 hours, 28 minutes, nine minutes faster than my Boston Marathon qualifying time, 1st in my age group, and 4th overall female.. What? I know!! I was flying on air I could not believe it, and it was my wedding anniversary to boot!! Sadly, I celebrated with Marion on Skype because he was working on a movie set in Montreal, but it was still a very special day, and the turning point of me being the runner I always dreamed I would be, cheers to my mid-thirties!!
Okay, here we are just 10 days
after my 29th marathon, and the 3rd time I raced in Santa Clarita. It was a beautiful day, I gained an hour of sleep
because of the switch to “Regular Time”, which was helpful, but I honestly had
no idea how I would feel when I trotted down to the starting line in my blaring
neon compression socks and neon running shoes; I was excited to run fast, but
for how long? That would be the grand
mystery of the day.
The gun went off after a glorious
rendition of the national anthem sung by a 7th grader, amazing
talent indeed. I started off rather quickly; my goal was to maintain a 7:30min.
per mile avg. throughout the day, that would have me finishing at around 3:15
hours, a solid 6 min. personal best for me, and a big ask, but I figured why
not just run hard and see how long I could hang on? Well, I was cruising fairly comfortable at a 7:10ish
pace for the first 11 miles, then around mile 13 I unknowingly slowed my pace a
bit, “hmm, this feels different.” I was in 3rd place, but then a
quick young runner, I could tell because she was wearing a cotton t-shirt and her
calves were yet to be chiseled in the marvelous way long hours on the road tend
to do, but I was honestly impressed by her effort, and cheered her on as she
passed me by, knocking me off the podium.
I looked at my watch more than I
should have between miles 15 and 19, but I could not resist because I felt like
I was movin’ quickly, but my watch did not lie, I was not. I knew my chips were cashed in between mile
21 and 22 at a turn-around spot where I watched three girls thundering up
seconds behind me looking strong, one of
which is in FULL make up, no joke, but again I cheered them on as they passed
me one by one, they deserved it. At this
point in the race I was feeling the mental and physical fatigue of running six marathons
in one year, two of which were within ironmans, and knowing I had one more left
in just five weeks, a trail marathon no less, gulp, so I just gathered myself
and decided to finish feeling solid, and not torn apart.
Unfortunately, I came upon a
fretful sight just after the mile 24 marker, it was the cotton t-shirt girl,
“uh-oh, she should be way farther ahead than where she is right now”. When I came upon her she stopped running altogether
and had that creamy colored crust of dehydration slathered all over her face,
she was flanked by two friends on their bikes, but they only had water, and she
needed electrolytes stat! I stopped to
offer all the nutrition I had on me, but she said she said her stomach hurt,
and waved me on, so I ran off with a quickened pace praying that there would be
some medics at the mile 25 aid station, yep there they were, “Hey, there is a
girl about a half mile back who needs electrolytes!” I was a little fuzzy, but I think they heard me,
because I saw them pedal off in her direction, but I was still on the clock, so
I kept running toward the finish line. I
was less than a mile out, and started to feel good. I knew my PR wishes were blown, but I would
still finish with a decent time, especially considering the year I had put into
my legs, so I was just smiling, cheering fellow runners on, and enjoying myself
as I rounded the final few turns toward the finish line. I finished in 3 hours 30min, just two minutes
slower than my previous race there a year ago, my turning point marathon, so I was
pretty happy with #29, not my best day, but I pushed hard early, hung on to the
end, and moved one race closer to my goalJ
