my sister had never before run a marathon. and, we live a thousand miles a part. so, we thought it would be great fun to meet up and run a marathon together. our choice: the new las vegas marathon. i helped her with her ‘training’ (more on that later) and told her we would run at her pace with a goal of finishing.
i helped her to devise a four month training program, with progressively longer runs culminating with a 20 miler about a month out. Well, ‘life intervened’ for her and her longest run prior to race day was about 10 miles, a month before. so: she’s never before run a marathon; never before run a half marathon; longest run in training was 10 miles. I told her that the marathon would be extremely tough given her level of training and that the half option might be wise.
but, being stubborn, she says hell no i’m running the marathon. ok, i say, good on you.
race day, we line up at the back of the 16,000 runner pack. it’s cold and windy at 530 am. blue man group is doing their thing on a stage at the start line. after a fireworks show, the cannon sounds and we are off. it takes us 20 minutes to hit the start. but we’re off.
not even a mile in, little sis leans over, “i gotta pee … i think i overhydrated.” so we search out the first porta-potties, at about mile 1. apparrently, others have the same urge. we wait about 10 minutes in line; i figure since i’m here anyway i might as well go, even though i dont have to.
we’re off again … we run comfortably down the strip at about an 11 minute pace. im calculating in my head how long this is going to take … i conclude a very long time. we are back with the walkers … those marathoner who line up at the very back and basically walk the 26.2 miles. since we are runing a blistering 11 minute pace we are blowing by the walkers like they are … well … walking.
little sis is doing pretty well. she’s running steady, albeit slow. and doesn’t appear to be struggling at all. good. the struggling will come later. we truck down fremont street and approach the half marathon cut off. here it is, i say, decision time. we can turn off here and run the half, no shame in that, i say. but you gotta make a choice right now. i’m running the damn marathon, she says. and we run right by the turn off. ok, now we are committed.
she runs strong through about mile 14, when she says her hips and knees are beginning to hurt. so, we slow to a walk for a bit. she says the walking is better for her joints. we keep this run-walk thing up for about another 4-5 miles. we run for a mile or so, then walk for 5 minutes. i told her during training that a marathon feels ‘easy’ through about mile 20, and then it gets hard. as we approach mile 20, she says to me, you were right i felt fine until now, and now i feel horrible. running is painful for her now. she slows to a shuffling jog.
the runners surrounding us, of which there are hundreds, are in as bad a shape as my sister. i feel fine, great even, but for a little guilt. the runners around me are suffering, suffering badly, including my sister. im chatting with her, trying to encourage and motivate her. i get nasty looks from those around us … i surmise that since im obviously not suffering, they want me to shut the f$*k up.
At mile 19, i need to stop to tinkle. my sister asks if she should wait. i tell her no, i’ll catch you when im done. so i wait in line to pee, get the job done and then drop about a 7 minute mile to catch little sis … im moving by runners like they are going backwards. i catch my sister, who’s still doing the shuffle jog. she tells me to run ahead, that she can see it’s hard on me to run at her pace; we argue a bit (good naturedly) and agree to meet at the end. she was right, i was having a hard time running at her pace … i couldnt get into a rhythm. and by this time, we’d been out there about 5 hours, and i was tired. i’d never before ran for 5 hours straight.
so, we part ways and i run to the finish. i run the final 10k in about 43-45 minutes. it actually kind of sucked running that pace at the very back of the race … i probably passed a thousand people in the final 10k.
anyway, little sis and i meet back up at the end. she finished, and dug deep to run strong across the line. i was very proud, she willed herself to the end and achieved her goal despite not being adequately prepared. and, i have mucho respect for those who toil at the very back of a marathon. it’s tough being out there 5-6-7 hours. i’ve run several marathons before this, usually running in the 3:30-3:45 time frame. so, not fast, but respectable. i think this marathon, at about 5:40, was harder than the others i ran 2 hours faster for the simple fact i was out there a long long time.
also, props to devine, who organized the race. they did a great job.
little sis has already sent me an email asking where we are running next year. shes already committed to doing it again. and, she said shes actually going to train this time!
thanks for reading.
