Monday, October 01, 2007
Lake Tahoe Marathon
Can you imagine my surprise when walked out my cabin early Saturday morning to see a blanket of snow covering everything? The weather forecast called for temps in the 60's not SNOW! I am frantically working a snow tool trying to chip away the sheets of frozen ice and snow on my windshield as the bus is leaving the Horizon at 6:40 am! After about ten minutes, I cleared enough area so I could see out the window and made off down the highway. The car trip to the hotel was another fun experience. Did you know you vehicle will actually slide if you don't have any chains on? What was I thinking? I knew I forgot to pack my chains.
Yes it was cold, extremely cold, a record setting 24 degree's. The coldest ever for Lake Tahoe on Sept 29th. And guess who gets to run a marathon in this weather? Needless to say, I was not prepared for the snow - no one was. I didn't bring any tights with me nor gloves, but I wasn't about to repeat my fiasco at Boston, so I tried to dress with the clothes I brought up. I found this silly looking hat in the cabin that had built in ear muffs - I felt I belonged on the set of Fargo - but you know what they say, 90% of your heat escapes from you head. I always pack a long sleeve throw away teeshirt so I had that and luckily, I also packed some cotton sweats. The picture you see is a photo I took with my slick new HTC Elf Touch-Flo phone - right by the start line. I wish I took one of the crowd everyone couldn't believe the weather conditions. During the pre race announcements, the guy talking directed all of us to look at the lake as steam was rising up from the lake. The announcer said, this is one of those rare times when the lake is actually warmer than the air. Nice eh?
My plan was to run the marathon very conservative prior to the snowy conditions, now I had to change my outlook to "let's survive the course and live to tell about it." 8:30 rolls along and a shotgun blast sounds the start of the race. No one goes out fast, in fact, everyone is warning everyone else about being careful and watch out for all of the ice. I trudge along very carefully, picking my surface area carefully, but no matter where I place my feet, I am constantly sliding. I shortened up my stride and went really really slow as I didn't want to fall and break my butt.
The first 10 miles of the course was under snow. I've never run that far in snow before and it takes a mental toll on you as you spend a great deal of energy just trying to stay upright! I wish I packed my racing spikes! I could have been a contender. Remember all that cotton I was wearing? Well, it started to weigh me down and actually make me colder. Plus, I was beginning to feel some chaffing on my chest area even though I used Body Glide. I made a judgment call and took off my long sleeve shirt. At first I tied it around my waist, but that turned to be more trouble than it was worth, so I tossed it. Picture this, here I am running in a singlet, my Fargo Hat and Black Cotton sweats. The saving graze was the lack of wind - that's what I kept telling myself. There's no wind so don't worry about it.
Along the course I met this couple who were out supporting one of their friends, and I asked them if they would take my sweat pants to the finish line. The said sure thing. I was finally free of the cotton- albeit, cold, but free. At the half way mark I heard the lady call out 2:15. Holy smokes, that was slow, I mean really slow! Even on a super bad day I can break 4 hours no problem. I did some math in my head and figured I had to run a 1:44 second half to break 4 hours, which on any normal day isn't a big deal, but today it's a big deal.
The second half of the course was beautiful, the sun was out, the air heated up enough to melt the remaining snow on the ground and it felt like a crisp fall morning. My pace did pick up a bit, but I backed off after awhile and just enjoyed myself. I made a point to stop and talk to all of the volunteers working the water stops, I high fived a bunch of little kids, spoke to spectators along the course (they were few and far between).
This was going to be my final marathon for a couple of years, I've been running these things for quite awhile now I felt now was a good time to take a break. I want to get into the pool and work on my swim stroke and also get back into my speed training for the track. Funny thing though is once I finished the marathon, I didn't want to on marathon sabbatical just quite yet. So here I am thinking, maybe I'll just do one more marathon before I take a break. Whatcha think?
