Grand Rapids Marathon
Yesterday I ran the Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon. It was a really awesome experience and I highly recommend it! The weather was absolutely perfect, the course was beautiful, and the support was incredible. The volunteers and staff were absolutely fantastic! The course was mostly flat with just a few small hills here and there. Although I didn’t hit my ultimate goal, I did walk away with a personal record, and I’m seriously stoked about that. Here are a few things I would like to share about it:
I have been playing around with negative splits vs. even splits. For this marathon, I chose to go with even splits and see how that worked for me. It was nice to not have to worry about making up for time in the second half and made the mental math easier to just focus on hitting one pace every single mile. While it is almost impossible to do that perfectly, I was able to stay pretty close to goal pace until closer to the end. However, I did not start out too fast, which is challenging and takes self-control! That self-control is SO worth it!
Around mile 20-21, I lost my footing and fell. I don’t know exactly what happened to me, but I was down! Several runners came to my aid and helped me up. They made sure I was okay and then we went on our way. This act of kindness filled me with gratitude. Let’s face it, they were sacrificing their marathon time/pace to help someone out. They could have kept running because it wasn’t like I was severely injured, but they stopped! I’m not going to lie, it really messed with me mentally for a few minutes. It was hard to restart and my ankle was hurting. My mind went negative for those few minutes, but I was able to refocus and knock out those last few miles.
This marathon was my sixth and I took almost an hour off of my first marathon time! I still have a few more seconds to shave off in order to say, “I have taken an hour off of my first marathon time”, but I’m close! If I hadn’t fallen, I’m pretty sure I would have accomplished that. Regardless, I am pretty thankful that the fall wasn’t worse and that I still achieved a personal record. I share this to say that you are usually capable of SO MUCH MORE than you think! I never could have guessed that this would be possible for me when I ran my first marathon in 2008. Never give up on your goals and dreams! If you need help getting there, I would be happy to work with you on nutrition and training in order to achieve your goals!
I was really encouraged by so many inspirational stories from this particular marathon. I met one guy who was carrying an American flag and said that he was dedicating this marathon to his dad who passed away last year on the morning of the Grand Rapids Marathon.
If you have ever wanted to complete a marathon but don’t think you could do it in the usual time limits, this one is for you! They have a “velocity challenged” start time that begins one hour before the official start. There is also no time limit! There were people of all shapes, sizes, and athletic ability conquering their goals yesterday!
Now it is time for some rest!