The 26.2 Mile Run
When I got to the “RUN OUT” chute I remembered the clever nickname I had come up with for that exit- The Gates of Hell. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel like I thought I’d be feeling after 7 hours of racing. I felt great! I ran out and made sure to smile to all of the people cheering for me and the other athletes. Not long after starting the run, I saw the Team Fraser tent with all of the green shirts. There was NOTHING more exciting during the run than the moments when I got to pass by this tent. It was awesome to see all of the familiar faces cheering for me. I slapped all of their hands as I passed by and continued my run. I looked down at my Garmin and realized I was running …TOO FAST. Whaaa…? Too Fast? I don’t think I’ve ever had this problem while running before. This was the make or break moment. Should I keep going at this pace because I feel awesome, or should I slow down? My heart rate wasn’t anywhere near the max I had set for myself, but I knew that in my run strategy I took into account the fact that if I stuck with the same pace for the entire race, I would be low for the first half and creep up as time went on. I thought about what people had told me, “It’s a 20 mile warm-up for a 6 mile race”. I was still under the impression that I was going to be climbing the “wall” everyone had warned me about at mile 20 so I decided that less was more and I should slow down. When I got to the first aid station, I realized that it was time to eat or drink or something? I had to take a moment to think about my run strategy but moments later realized it was written on my wrist in permanent marker. 204 calories an hour. I thought about this. I knew that I was supposed to run 9:00min/mile and walk at each mile but I told myself that it might be more realistic to expect a 10min/mile. This meant I needed 204 calories per 6 miles. I decided to take a gel at the beginning of every 6 miles then drink Ironman perform at every other aide station and water when I didn’t take the sports drink. As the marathon went on I felt, addressed, and handled any pains or issues that arose. At one point I felt a blister starting on my right pinky toe, so I focused on my toe, adjusted my stride and soon I didn’t feel the pain anymore. I felt the tongue of my left shoe falling to the side and decided to stop and fix it instead of continuing on in pain. During the second half of the run I started to get a tight pain in my back and decided to put an icy sponge in between my jersey and my back to numb the pain. It actually worked! At one point my knees started to hurt so I focused on driving my knees forward. At about mile 17 I felt my hip pain that I had expected to feel at mile one. I knew that the only way to fix this was to focus on NOT focusing on my form. My hip pain usually arises from running like I think I’m supposed to run instead of running the way running feels natural to me. A mile or two later, it was GONE! I seriously felt like I was working magic out there. I was healing myself ON THE SPOT. Every mile after 13 was a big deal for me because 13.1 miles was my longest run I had ever done prior to this race. Most people run more than 13 miles in training for a marathon, but every time I upped my running mileage, I got injured. So, mile 13…14…15..16…they were all new territory for me! Every time I saw a teammate on the course I made sure to yell and them and high five them! I stopped and hugged every teammate that I saw during my last half of the race because I realized that the time it took to hug them was canceled out by the boost of energy I got from sharing a moment with my some of my favorite people! I was literally feeding off of their energy. I was being fueled by warm fuzzy feelings! Corny, I know. When I got closer to mile 20, I kept in mind that I was about to get struck down and bonk. As crossed the last timing mat before the finish line, I almost cried because I was thinking about all of my family members at home that were tracking me. I replayed “go bam bam go!” over and over again in my head from the video Karyn, Mason and Maiya had sent me the night before the race. When I passed mile twenty I actually said OUTLOUD, “There’s no wall!” I was so excited that I was still racing at a solid pace (only slightly slower than I started). Every time I heard music, I thanked the fans for having their radios playing and whenever I saw someone that I had been running with start to get tired, I waved them on to join me. I was really looking forward to the last 3 miles. Andrea had said, “I can’t wait until the last 5k because at that point you’re just going to be running on pure adrenaline”. As I knocked off mile 20, 21, 22, and 23 I noticed that I was definitely nearing my end. I started rocking back and forth as I ran. The motion was soothing. I knew it was inefficient but for some reason, the extra PUSH with each stride helped me keep going. At one point, I realized that I had waved on enough people to join me that I had become the “pace booty” for several fellas during the last few miles. One of the guys in my group referred to me as the Pied Piper and told another runner “she won’t take no for an answer!”. I was happy to be motivating the people around me, but I was unable to respond because I need to concentrate on using every bit of energy towards making it to the finish line. During the last few miles I noticed they had started handing out glow sticks to the people who were heading out for their 2nd lap. Last year I had announced that my goal was to finish in daylight. I knew now that this wasn’t going to be an option because the sun was setting but I made a new goal, on the spot- if someone tries to hand me a glow stick, RUN AWAY from them AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. I figured that fighting the glow stick was as close to finishing in daylight as I was going to get. Luckily, they didn’t get me. During my last mile I picked up my pace. I caught up to my teammate Dave Kutcher and told him to finish with me. He let me pass him but picked up his pack soon after I passed. I ran as hard as my body would allow and smiled as big as I could. Dave Zaran, or Captain Dave, told me to “never let the fans see you hurt” and I made that my Ironman Rule. Fans yelled, “Look at that smile, keep it up, you’re almost there!” and it just drove me to run faster. When I saw the Team Fraser fans for the last time I started to get emotional. I couldn’t feel pain, instead I had an overwhelming rush of excitement and pride. I couldn’t believe that I was about to FINISH my Ironman! I smacked the hands of the people along the finish line chute and one guy yelled, “Under 11:30! THAT’S GREAT!”. Just as I was thinking, Holy CRAP, I had NOOOO idea what time it was, but I’m HAPPY!, I crossed the finish line.
When I got to the “RUN OUT” chute I remembered the clever nickname I had come up with for that exit- The Gates of Hell. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel like I thought I’d be feeling after 7 hours of racing. I felt great! I ran out and made sure to smile to all of the people cheering for me and the other athletes. Not long after starting the run, I saw the Team Fraser tent with all of the green shirts. There was NOTHING more exciting during the run than the moments when I got to pass by this tent. It was awesome to see all of the familiar faces cheering for me. I slapped all of their hands as I passed by and continued my run. I looked down at my Garmin and realized I was running …TOO FAST. Whaaa…? Too Fast? I don’t think I’ve ever had this problem while running before. This was the make or break moment. Should I keep going at this pace because I feel awesome, or should I slow down? My heart rate wasn’t anywhere near the max I had set for myself, but I knew that in my run strategy I took into account the fact that if I stuck with the same pace for the entire race, I would be low for the first half and creep up as time went on. I thought about what people had told me, “It’s a 20 mile warm-up for a 6 mile race”. I was still under the impression that I was going to be climbing the “wall” everyone had warned me about at mile 20 so I decided that less was more and I should slow down. When I got to the first aid station, I realized that it was time to eat or drink or something? I had to take a moment to think about my run strategy but moments later realized it was written on my wrist in permanent marker. 204 calories an hour. I thought about this. I knew that I was supposed to run 9:00min/mile and walk at each mile but I told myself that it might be more realistic to expect a 10min/mile. This meant I needed 204 calories per 6 miles. I decided to take a gel at the beginning of every 6 miles then drink Ironman perform at every other aide station and water when I didn’t take the sports drink. As the marathon went on I felt, addressed, and handled any pains or issues that arose. At one point I felt a blister starting on my right pinky toe, so I focused on my toe, adjusted my stride and soon I didn’t feel the pain anymore. I felt the tongue of my left shoe falling to the side and decided to stop and fix it instead of continuing on in pain. During the second half of the run I started to get a tight pain in my back and decided to put an icy sponge in between my jersey and my back to numb the pain. It actually worked! At one point my knees started to hurt so I focused on driving my knees forward. At about mile 17 I felt my hip pain that I had expected to feel at mile one. I knew that the only way to fix this was to focus on NOT focusing on my form. My hip pain usually arises from running like I think I’m supposed to run instead of running the way running feels natural to me. A mile or two later, it was GONE! I seriously felt like I was working magic out there. I was healing myself ON THE SPOT. Every mile after 13 was a big deal for me because 13.1 miles was my longest run I had ever done prior to this race. Most people run more than 13 miles in training for a marathon, but every time I upped my running mileage, I got injured. So, mile 13…14…15..16…they were all new territory for me! Every time I saw a teammate on the course I made sure to yell and them and high five them! I stopped and hugged every teammate that I saw during my last half of the race because I realized that the time it took to hug them was canceled out by the boost of energy I got from sharing a moment with my some of my favorite people! I was literally feeding off of their energy. I was being fueled by warm fuzzy feelings! Corny, I know. When I got closer to mile 20, I kept in mind that I was about to get struck down and bonk. As crossed the last timing mat before the finish line, I almost cried because I was thinking about all of my family members at home that were tracking me. I replayed “go bam bam go!” over and over again in my head from the video Karyn, Mason and Maiya had sent me the night before the race. When I passed mile twenty I actually said OUTLOUD, “There’s no wall!” I was so excited that I was still racing at a solid pace (only slightly slower than I started). Every time I heard music, I thanked the fans for having their radios playing and whenever I saw someone that I had been running with start to get tired, I waved them on to join me. I was really looking forward to the last 3 miles. Andrea had said, “I can’t wait until the last 5k because at that point you’re just going to be running on pure adrenaline”. As I knocked off mile 20, 21, 22, and 23 I noticed that I was definitely nearing my end. I started rocking back and forth as I ran. The motion was soothing. I knew it was inefficient but for some reason, the extra PUSH with each stride helped me keep going. At one point, I realized that I had waved on enough people to join me that I had become the “pace booty” for several fellas during the last few miles. One of the guys in my group referred to me as the Pied Piper and told another runner “she won’t take no for an answer!”. I was happy to be motivating the people around me, but I was unable to respond because I need to concentrate on using every bit of energy towards making it to the finish line. During the last few miles I noticed they had started handing out glow sticks to the people who were heading out for their 2nd lap. Last year I had announced that my goal was to finish in daylight. I knew now that this wasn’t going to be an option because the sun was setting but I made a new goal, on the spot- if someone tries to hand me a glow stick, RUN AWAY from them AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. I figured that fighting the glow stick was as close to finishing in daylight as I was going to get. Luckily, they didn’t get me. During my last mile I picked up my pace. I caught up to my teammate Dave Kutcher and told him to finish with me. He let me pass him but picked up his pack soon after I passed. I ran as hard as my body would allow and smiled as big as I could. Dave Zaran, or Captain Dave, told me to “never let the fans see you hurt” and I made that my Ironman Rule. Fans yelled, “Look at that smile, keep it up, you’re almost there!” and it just drove me to run faster. When I saw the Team Fraser fans for the last time I started to get emotional. I couldn’t feel pain, instead I had an overwhelming rush of excitement and pride. I couldn’t believe that I was about to FINISH my Ironman! I smacked the hands of the people along the finish line chute and one guy yelled, “Under 11:30! THAT’S GREAT!”. Just as I was thinking, Holy CRAP, I had NOOOO idea what time it was, but I’m HAPPY!, I crossed the finish line.
Pamela Gudenau, You ARE AN IRONMAN.
11:27:44
I was FOURTH in my age group!
&
I was the YOUNGEST Female Finisher!
Nice work Pam! When I saw your age group results, I noticed you were 22 and the rest of the group was older but I didn't put 2 and 2 together and notice that you were the YOUNGEST out of the whole race! Sweeet!
ReplyDeleteThat was a great read, thanks for sharing! I felt like I had to pee the whole time reading it. I'm glad you had a great time. Congrats.
ReplyDeleteI love you! Thank you for sharing your story and for being even more detailed than I thought even you might be. Almost makes me want to be an Ironman. :) I owe you my 2 natural childbirth stories full detail pre-and post labor. Its only fair. Seriously, your story is amazing and could beat out most of the stories they put on that Ironman tv special that totally freaked me out when you told me-I'm going to do that! I wish I could have been there for you. Oh, and I LOVE the way you write. This brought back memories of many a shared email... Now I need to know: Does finishing so well and not having felt like you were dying make you wonder if you could do it again even better? Or do you really feel like you stuck to the plan and kept yourself right at the edge of your breaking point? How are you feeling now? What did that do to your body?!
ReplyDeletePam what a great read,I enjoyed it immensely; you made it very real and visual for your readers. I am now even more motivated to compete next year. I love and envy what Team Fraser has given you. I am leaving the country on Dec. 20 indefinitely and I hope to do the online training. If you want to read about my painful IM go to http://ascarr.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html.
ReplyDelete