Rewarding experience

The Quad Cities marathon last weekend was absolutely a rewarding experience for me as I helped my friend Judie PR and break 4 hours. It was also a blast going with 7 others from my Hard Core running group. The 5 guys ran the relay and ended up winning the open division with a time of 2:43. They thought they were in 2nd place, but the first place finishing team was in the masters division. Judie and I finished in 3:59:32 as the entire group met us at mile 20 and ran in with us.

We kept an 8:45 pace for the first half the marathon. I thought this might be too fast, but she told me she felt fine and wanted time in the bank. We dropped to a 9 pace after the half way point, and around mile 16 she developed side stitches. She’s such a trooper…she ran with stitches until mile 24. The course runs by the finish area around mile 20, then we go out 3 miles and back to the finish. Those 6 miles are the worst…hot sun and no scenery. It’s a good thing the rest of the gang met us because Judie was starting to fade, and she needed all the support from everyone. It was really hot so everyone began to pour water over her head. She finally had enough and said ‘no more water please!’ because she looked like she had been caught in a rain storm and her shoes were drenched.

The night before the marathon, all the guys went out drinking and stayed out until 1:30 in the morning. Since they were doing the relay, they didn’t care. They made bets to predict their finish time. The anchor was Matt who began throwing up just a few hundred feet from the finish line. He must have been on the side lines sick for about 30 seconds. A couple of the others took him by the arm and made him finish. Well Matt delayed enough to win the bet…their finish time was exactly what he predicted! I missed all this! He recovered and still ran the last 6 miles with us.

When Judie and I crossed the finish line, Dave uncorked some champagne that had been shaken up and just poured it over Judie, spraying over everyone else that was near.

Now it’s my turn to PR at Chicago next weekend! I PR’d at the Walter Payton 14K yard dash two weeks ago, so that was very promising. I’m ready for Chicago, but nervous at the same time. It’s taper time now and give my legs a rest.