Memorial Weekend, Wedding Planning, and Marathons: Coeur d'Alene Marathon Race Recap

I know that I am a bit behind on this recap. It has been one of those weeks were wonder if the neurons in my brain are even firing as the words have not been flowing and simple tasks like remembering the password to my work computer has proven difficult.  So while I normally like to have race recaps out within a day or two from the actual race this time around I am a bit slow.

As per standard in the Lloyd/Bowker (soon to be just Bowker YAY!!) household our memorial weekend proved to be a busy one.  Now you may be thinking you had a marathon on Sunday you probably should have taken it easy and just been lazy the days leading up to it, and while that probably would have been the smart thing to do it never seems to work that way for us.  You could say we are neurotic, crazy, or a whole mess of other things but both Brandon and myself have a hard time just being nothing.

That being said it wasn't even normal week to begin with as I was in Spring Mills, PA for work the duration of the week and subject to all sorts of fun travel experiences; from hanging out in the Chicago Airport for five hours do a missed flight, to full on sprinting through the Minneapolis Airport at 10:00 pm to have arrived at the gate 2 minutes after they had shut the gates whereas I then spent the night and proceeded to arise very early the next day to arrive home 12 hours later than anticipated (thank god for overtime hours).

I got a little bit of running in while in Spring Mills, was only "allowed" to run three times no more than 6 miles due to my groin pain, and all I can say is holy humidity.  It had been a while since I had run in high humidity, in fact I can't really remember a time before that I have, and oh man does it make it difficult.

Friday

When I finally  made it home on Friday we proceeded to head to the gym for a quick workout, as I felt I needed to get the blood flowing back through my muscles after a long two days of travel.

My parents were coming up for the weekend so that Brandon and my dad could golf, they could watch me run, and my mom and I could get some wedding stuff figured out.  So upon their arrival we promptly headed out to catch nine holes of golf in before the sun went down.

Saturday

Saturday morning we headed up to the wedding venue so that my parents could see it and we could figure out where we wanted to put the tables, DJ, dance floor, etc.  Only 3 months to go!!!! Then mom and I headed out for an afternoon of packet pick up, wedding dress fittings, jewelry searching, and a little bit of shopping.  Dress fitting went perfect, I get so excited every time I put it on and I wish I could show you all but you will have to wait another three months, the shoes I bought made it so that I did not have to hem my dress which not only saved the lace on the dress but me a whole bunch of money!!!

While mom and I were having a girls day, something I don't do very often as shopping is not really my thing, Brandon and my dad were  off enjoying the sunshine while golfing.

Sunday - Race Day

With a 7 am start time it was an early  morning for me as I was up at 4 am to get some food in me.  I have one of those really touchy stomachs that spends most of its time hating me, especially when I am racing.  It results in me not really being able to ingest much besides water while I am running so to prevent myself from literally dying I have to get some food in me prior to start time; and since I have found that magic number is around 2.5-3 hours prior the alarm clock woke me up very early for a delicious choke down of protein pancakes.

At 7 am it was already fairly warm and you could tell it was going to be a warm one.  The Coeur d'Alene Marathon venue could not have been situated in a better spot, with the start and finish nestled in a park that butted up against Tubbs Hill and the Lake with the town right there which meant for super easy parking.

The course was spectacularly well-marked, fairly well shaded (which was good because it was warm out), and a good mix of flat and hills.

The race started out very well for me I was right on track pace wise and able to ignore the discomfort in my femur, hamstring insertion, and groin.  I came across the 13.1 marker at 1:32 which still put me right on track with an even split to run the time that I "wanted" to run.  Wanted is in quotations because yes that is time I was shooting for but realistically I knew it would be a stretch due to the injury I had been nursing, the physical therapist I had been seeing had warned me that I may not have the same amount of power output as I am used to and guess what? He was right.

Mile 18 hit and the discomfort went from minimal to a lot sharper and by the time Mile 20 hit I was cramping and in a lot of discomfort.  But as my dad always says if you aren't bleeding....

I knew going into the race that it was going to be mentally tough for me as I knew that the chance of discomfort was high.  But the thing is a marathon is tough, they are tough physically, mentally, and emotionally; it takes a lot of gumption to get yourself through one no matter what.  So yes I was uncomfortable, but truth be told I would have been uncomfortable no matter what so there was no point in not enjoying what I was doing.  There were some low points during the race where I all I wanted to do was stop and make the pain in my leg go away but there were also so many more good points that reminded me why I run.

Every time I ran by my parents with mom trying to take as many pictures as possible and my dad telling me to run faster giving me exact times of how far the girl in front of me was.  Or when I ran by Brandon and his constant belief in me was just so visible.  When I glanced over and saw our doodle puppy poking his head outside the 4Runner as if to say "Hey Mom I'm watching keep going!" That when I was nearing the finish line and my dad shows up a mile out to keep me moving forward, telling me he knows I can do it that I just have to push a little harder.  As I near the finish line and Brandon's family is on one side cheering me and two amazing friends from the gym had gotten up early to make to finish were there propelling me forward.  With my mom standing there right at the finish line to make sure she gets a picture of me crossing with the time in background because she knows I like them and there immediately after to hold me up.

So this marathon recap has been a little different; yes the course was beautiful, who doesn't love to run next to a lake, the water stations perfectly situated, weather warm, and atmosphere fantastic but this race was more about the people who showed up.  The second place overall female and the couple of second personal record, at a 3 hr 9 min finish time, did not mean as much this time as the people who came to support.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO CAME OUT TO SUPPORT; YOUR KINDNESS, LOVE, AND CHEER MADE EVERY MILE WORTH IT.