10/6/12 Southern TN Plunge Marathon

i wasn't sure i was ready for this, i felt good but i also knew i hadn't got a lot of my shorter runs in lately. i got to the race much later than i wanted to. i knew i needed to use the porta potty for #2 before the race, but we got stopped by a train on the way there. it was also raining, windy and pretty cool. i had bought some wet wipes to use in the porta potty. since i did not get to use the porta potty before the race i stuffed my wet wipes between my fuel belt and shirt along with my trash bag poncho. i did not start out too fast to begin with because my fuel belt came undone about 50 feet into the race. i had to run back and get it in traffic, tighten it up while carrying my poncho and wet wipes and put it back on. once again i stuffed my poncho and wet wipes into it. about another 100 yards, my wet wipes fell out and i had to run back against traffic to get them. not starting off good. about mile 2.5 i felt for the wet wipes and they were gone, who knows where. that concerned me about the future pit stop i knew i was going to have to make. i was going to try and make it to mile 8. the marathon/ 1/2 marathon field split around mile 7.5 and there were only porta potties every 2 miles. when i got to mile 8 the porta potty was full, i think all the marathoners had been waiting for that one. i thought i could make it to mile 10. at mile 10 the porta potty was open and i sat my belt and poncho down on the ground and headed in. to save time i took my shot blocks in the porta potty. one note here. i had used shot blocks for my last 3 long runs (the ones with and without caffeine) and they had been pretty easy to get down. however, as i metioned today was cold and the cold had the same effect on these shot blocks as it does syrrup, they were much harder, so the extra time chewing while on the toilet did help a little. the toilet paper was horrible, oh i missed my wet wipes. i got everything taken care of and got some water to finish swallowing the blocks. it still kind of disturbs me that i was eating in a porta potty. anyway, i was back on my way. from miles 9 to 10 my pace went from 10:05 to 10:28 due to the potty break. i felt pretty good, and up until mile 19 i was still running a 10:24 pace. after that it really slowed, except for mile 23 that was a 10:14 mile, i felt good at that point and felt like i had broken through the wall. i was walking on air, i never thought i could feel so free-ee-e, flying away, into the next hill (sorry, i've been watching greatest american hero on the treadmill) where it all got back to feeling like i was actually running a marathon. the other oddity of this race was that my watch was showing i was actually running less mileage than the posted mile markers, by about .15 of a mile, at every mile. when i got to mile 25 i thought i had it whooped. then, my watched beeped for 26 miles and i still hadn't reached the 26 mile marker. then i got to it and it seemed like forever until i got to the end. but i did. in 4:40.28 officially, a pace of 10:42, a PR by 22 minutes. after the race i needed to sit down and found a seat and got some gatorade. then i got really cold and found a little cafe to get some hot chocolate. my legs and feet were sore sore and my achilles tendon was swollen, never had that happen before. oh, by the way, around 1/2 way through it started raining, the wind picked up and i got cold, so from that point on i wore the trash bag poncho, which covered my bib number, which means there are no photos of me officially for the 2nd half of the race. good thing, in the photos they did get, my form looks horrible, both feet on the ground plodding along. they actually sent me a picture of cousin todd because they thought it was me (the official race photographers). thats all i can think of right now.