Country Music (Almost) Marathon

Travel
I got to LAX very early on Friday to catch a direct flight to Nashville on Southwest Airlines. As I boarded the plane, I bump into my friend Sam who is attempting to run 60 marathons this year for his charity, OperationJack. The Country Music Marathon was his 21st of the year. We're in April, you can do the math. CMM was supposed to be my 6th marathon this year and the 10th state. We arrived at Nashville on time and went our separate ways once we got to the car rental area. I drove to my hotel that was about 5 minutes away. I checked in and found it weird that they gave me a care package. It consisted a bottle water, peanut butter crackers, and Doritos chips. They probably knew most people were there for the marathon. I threw my bag in the room and headed back out to attend the race expo.

Expo Entrance

Expo/Pace Pickup
The expo was super crowded. While in line to pick up my race packet, I bumped into Sam again. We went over to the Clinic area to check out Tara Stiles, Ryan Hall, and Eddie George. I lost Sam after I went to get a better picture. I went through the expo with no intention of buying anything or signing up for any races. I did check out the iFitness belt, but decided to pass. I drove back to the hotel to take a short rest before dinner. I stopped by a local Walgreens to pickup some water and my usual race morning OJ. I was getting pretty famished, so I ended up eating the Doritos and crackers.

Tara Stiles (yoga instructor), Ryan Hall (elite marathon runner), and Eddie George (former Titan)

Pre-Race Stuff
For dinner I ate at the Stock-Yard Restaurant. Definitely not a place for penny pinchers, but a place that any steak lover needs to visit when in the area. I had the South Pacific Prime Ribeye Steak, baked potato, and cream of spinach. My waiter James introduced me to the grill master after I was done. The grill master showed me the charcoal that they use and the nice big grill.

The best advice they tell you when you run a marathon is: nothing new on race day. Since the weather report did not look one bit promising, I figure the race was going to be canceled or cut short. I packed my Camelbak dual bottle waist-pack to give it a try. Also I've changed to using Salt-stick caps instead of Shotbloks.

I had my orange juice in the morning, but realized that I had forgot to pack my Powerbar. I got to the LP field super early and tried to take a nap. But my GI system had other ideas. I had to make 2 portapotty visits before I even got to the bus for the starting line. It might have been a case of nerves. In the starting line village, I ate a banana and a bagel.

Almost a Marathon
Right from the very first mile I felt like I had ankle weights on. I did not like the waist-pack. It was very cumbersome with 2 bottles full of liquid. I took both bottles out and carried them as hand-helds. But my arms were getting tired after 2 miles since they were bigger bottles than my normal hand-held bottle. So back in the waist-pack they went. The course was very up and down. I felt extremely fatigued during a gentle climb around mile 3. I slowed way down. Never have I felt like I wanted to die so early in a marathon. The humidity was really getting to me. My head was starting to hurt. Once I took in my first GU and salt cap, I started to feel better. But could not run comfortably except at around a 10 min pace. I kept pouring water on my arm sleeves and on my head. It was a very enjoyable course, lots of trees and definitely a lot of rollers. It reminded me of the Cowtown Marathon in Sacramento. The race was storm-free for about 3 hours. But shortly after crossing the mile 20 mat, I was diverted to the half marathon finish since the storm was upon us. The rain was starting to come down and there was a good possibility of tornadoes. Their original contingency plan was to allow runners running 4:30 or better to finish. At mile 20 I was still on that pace, but it was more than likely that it was going to take me about 4:45 to finish. But at the end of the day, it was a 3:37 long run.
1: 8:18
2: 8:16
3: 9:47
4: 10:03
5: 10:04
6: 9:37
7: 10:22
8: 10:08
9-10: 19:36
11: 10:10
12: 10:13
13: 11:14
14: 9:55
15: 11:24
16: 11:52
17: 12:21
18: 13:12
19: 12:31
20: 13:08
20.x: 4:38

After the Race
After crossing the "finish line" they gave me a marathon finisher's medal, but I'm not too sure what to do with it. I guess I'll keep it with my Pasadena Inaugural Marathon medal. It just counts as a DNF or a training run in my books. I picked up my gear bag and headed back to my car. It took a really long time getting out of the parking lot. I filled up the gas tank and headed to the airport. I hung out there reading my book until it was time for my flight.

Sure I was disappointed that I didn't complete a marathon, but the race director made the right call. With possible tornadoes headed our way, there was no sense in risking the lives of runners, public servants, and volunteers. It was not an easy marathon, but I guess I will be back to try again. Hopefully next time, I'll be able to see the last 10k of the race. In a way I was glad that I ran about 20.5 miles instead of 26.2 miles since I was running the challenging La Jolla Half Marathon the next day.

I won't use the waist-pack again in a marathon. Salt-stick caps worked great, but I need to take more than 1 per hour especially if it is very humid. My right ankle is still no good. A little bit of anterior tibial tendonitis.