u/michellecamino

I finished my first marathon yesterday and it went pretty much as badly as it could have. I stuck to the Hal Higdon Novice 2 plan, the whole 18 weeks, carb loaded appropriately, slept, hydrated, fueled, sports massage, the best prep I could manage, and the weather was perfect, but around 17k I felt my right leg start to get janky, and by 28 it was in full blown rebellion. My hip, glute, and IT band felt like they were being wound up like a jack in the box and they would not release no matter how much I walked, stretched, or punched them. By 30k I was walking alone in the woods crying with pain and disappointment. I kept trying to even do a super light grocery store type of jog and but my leg was completely seized up.

I limped my way to kilometre 34 where my incredible partner, son, dad, and two sisters were still faithfully waiting with cheering and electrolytes, and my sister chucked her jacket off to keep me company for the final 8k. I could hardly speak for the pain sometimes while we were walking, so she offered to try to massage my glute. I will never forget leaning on a garbage can in the forest while my sister grinded her elbow into my butt. 😂

We went on and on, and every time my leg relaxed a bit I tried jogging. At the final km I decided to just get through the pain until the bottom of the final hill. Then my son was there (age 11) and he jogged up next to me, and there was my dad, still cheering after nearly 6 hours. Then we were at the top of the hill and I was still moving, still breathing, so we started down. Then there were my mom, partner and three sisters, with a makeshift finish line ribbon made out of toilet paper, dancing and screaming like maniacs. And then I was done.

I had to walk away and cry, I was so crushed by how my leg had failed me. I felt like I had wasted everybody’s day, and all of my training hadn’t helped at all. I was absolutely beating myself up when my son walked over, hugged me, and said, “But you’re not disappointed in yourself, right mom?”

And that distinction turned everything around. I’m disappointed in the run, but not myself. I persevered in a really hard experience. And my family is extraordinary. And I can try again.

Looking back, there are lots of things in the week prior that I can see contributed to how this run went. So. Now I know.

Thanks for reading. I’m so proud of all of you and the work you’re putting into yourselves. I hope you are too.

I’ll get this out of the way and say yes, I’m an idiot, I started playing slo-pitch for the first time in my life, 2 weeks before my 1st ever marathon. It’s been harder on my legs and knees than expected and had I known I would have told them to count me out for the first few games. Too late for that. So! My right glute / ham is Very Tight and my race (run — I’m only racing myself) is on Sunday. Today is Wednesday. I will not be not going to this, I ran in snowdrifts all winter and will not be felled by my own butt. BUTT!! I need to get this massaged out. I have roller, Epsom salts, pigeon pose, roller ball… any super tips / tricks for getting this out by Sunday morning??

Oh, I’m 49F, been back to running for a few years. Did a half marathon last year. Aiming to run the marathon at between 6:00 and 6:30/km. I will walk-run if I have to but have been training not to. Just my preference.