My First Marathon (Part 2)

Miles 6-10

We saw a line of them on Glenwood. It wasn’t one of the blue ones the race organizers had put up. These were on a construction site, but several runners were doing the same thing. We went up a little alley, through some construction materials (iron rebars, etc.) and made a quick trip. Right after this was a water station, so I guess we filled right back up. By this point, Gil was ahead, and our groups was Jeff, Eddie, and me, with Walter not far behind. The trio of Tony, Efren, and Mike were somewhere in the back. We knew Tony and Efren were there to keep time and pace, so we didn’t worry about them.

On Mile 7, we saw our first GK volunteers. Robin and Sonny were taking pictures and shouting. It was good to see familiar faces cheering you on. I gave my long-sleeved shirt to Robin- I was now all set to run the rest of the race. Shortly after that, we saw the Penillas and some other Filipinos- they had the Phil. Flag and were a noisy bunch. I’m sure Walter got a big boost from them.

We ate some gu around Mile 8. There were none at the water stop- I guess they ran out. Good thing we brought our own… I didn’t realize there were a few hills on this leg. We passed through some nice neighborhoods with quaint houses- lots of character. There was a group of young men banging on drums and bongos on one side street. One woman runner ran up to them and gave one guy a big hug. It was quite a party! The only thing was I couldn’t get a stable heart rate because of the uphill-downhill thing. I still felt good though, no major problems- I was conserving my energy for the later miles.

Mile 10-14

As we came back out on Hillsborough, the State Fairgrounds came up on the horizon- ok so we’re getting close to the halfway point! The runners started to thin out a little bit. People were starting to talk- “ok, it’s just another 5K, we can do it”. At this point, we have been running for around 2 hours. I thought about the race leaders finishing in another 30 min…I started talking to a few runners. Like the lady who was doing the half, and the old funny guy in yellow, who kept egging the crowd to keep going. He asked me what we were running for, as we had the red GK shirts on, and I explained in a few sentences what GK was about. I guess you have to be always ready, even while running! We also saw a big GK/Filipino contingent with flags and signs around Mile 10. Wency ran a little bit with us, and we asked about Anthony and Gil, who passed earlier.

A little later, on the stretch in front of the State Fairgrounds, I felt my right calf tightening. Uh-oh. Stopped a little bit, stretched it out, and caught up with Eddie and Jeff. As a precaution, I took out my right knee band, thinking it was pinching a little. The tightness didn’t go away, but I was still running. No problem. Turning the bend on Youth Center Drive, the half-marathon finish was only 2 more miles. Lots of cheerers on Trinity. I saw some runners with medals around their necks- these must be the half-marathoners, no way anyone finished the full in 2:15! Then, the half-marathoners had to take a turn, while the full folks kept going straight up on Trinity. Only a few people were continuing on the marathon (officially, around 1000 out of the 3800 runners). It dawned on me that now the true test begins…

Well the test got harder. Mile 12 was a long hill. It was the fact that it was straight, and you can see the entire hill, that made it harder. Sometimes, a curving road is better, since you can’t see how far you have to go. This is when I started to feel the marathon. So far, it had been smooth sailing, but now, I felt I was exerting effort. This was also the part of the course I didn’t know much about. I hadn’t driven through this stretch and didn’t know how long it was (at least visually). It was also a lonely stretch, with very few cheerers- few houses here, and most people were probably at the half-marathon finish. There were fewer runners, so it was quiet. It was just the sound of shoes hitting the road. When I saw three cheerers at Mile 13, I thanked them for being there, saying it was getting lonely (and quiet). I was so glad I was with Jeff and Eddie. It was too early to face the road alone. I also didn’t know how long we would stay together. Jeff could run much faster if he wanted to, and I fully expected that at some point, we all had to run our won race. Still, we all crossed the halfway mark at 2:28. I was really surprised. If we kept going like this, we will finish under 5 hours! But I didn’t really think too much about it- I just wanted to finish. But I was glad the first half was over, and we had made good time.

Around this time, I noticed some rubbing pain in my feet. I knew I would end up with big blisters. I felt it under my right foot, and my little toes in both feet. This was the price to pay for going back to my old (and tighter) shoes…We caught up with a guy who looked nothing like your typical runner. He was big, muscular, and top-heavy, and he ran with big heavy steps- not very efficient. But he was friendly, and tried to warn us about Umstead’s hills, how this was nothing compared to the hills coming up. We just sort of nodded. We had trained at Umstead, and I felt I knew its every rock. Umstead was my friend. I was almost thinking we can make time at Umstead. I couldn’t wait to get there, but it seemed like Mile 13-14 were long miles…