Pre-race

I was excited just being in Maine.  There’s always been an enchantment/mystique about Maine for me.  My friends and I arrived Friday afternoon, and my husband joined us late Friday night.  The marathon would be on Sunday.  I trained to qualify for Boston, and was also feeling the pressure to qualify.

The leaves 🍁 were only starting to turn.  It smelled like the ocean 🦪 as my friends and I crossed the bay into the quaint town of Kennenbunkport.  The houses had an old charm to them.  We sat outside for dinner.  The weather was perfect.  It didn’t feel too cold or too warm with a jacket on, and there wasn’t a breeze.  I had my first lobster 🦞 roll.  Our waitress said it was 50/50 on brown butter vs mayo.  I went with the more popular (at that restaurant) brown butter.  The lobster is definitely softer and not briny at all.  It’s texture was that of crab meat.  The bun was well-toasted, and it was topped with Rice Krispie-like things to give it texture.  Very nice introduction to an authentic, Maine lobster roll 😋

To top things off… They ❤️ blueberries 🫐 here!!!  I love blueberries, partly because my Chinese doctor told me they would put a sparkle in my eye.  My eyes are going to be sparkling 🤩 for the marathon.

After dinner, we walked back to our B&B, which took us across water.  It was really cool seeing the stark difference between low and high tide.  Areas that seemed walkable in low tide were now filled with water… enough you would think you could swim in it.

We came back to the house and watched a couple Netflix documentaries, drinking wine and eating our leftover chips & dip.  One of the documentaries we watched was The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker 😳  That was one of the strangest tales I have heard recently… I really have trouble understanding some people’s thought processes.  Well… we watched that riveting story with the apple pie 🥧 our B&B hosts left us and ice cream 🥰 

Very nice start to the weekend…

The next morning, we sat on the porch enjoying coffee and breakfast pastries in the crisp, autumn air.  It was a welcome change from Texas.  We then went to the Portland Head Light.  It’s easy to see how it is the most photographed lighthouse in America.  After walking around Fort Williams Park, we headed to downtown Portland.  I had planned to eat at the famed DiMillo’s after the marathon.  Luckily, my husband noticed that it was closed on Sunday’s when we walked past the iconic floating boat restaurant.  Well… I hope seafood won’t upset my stomach the day before the race 🤞🏼  It was well worth the gamble.  We walked around a little bit after lunch, and then headed back to our B&B to watch college football 🏈  It was a relaxing afternoon, and we had dinner on the dock.  As much as I wanted to eat more seafood, I stuck with chicken and pasta.

Honestly… I’m not sure how I’m going to do tomorrow.  I’m certainly carb loaded… wine, seafood and ice cream are probably not the best options, but I didn’t want to miss out on anything during my short time in Maine 🤭  It is what it is… here goes nothing tomorrow.

Post-race

Boston 👟 here I come!!!!  I can’t believe I did it!!!  

I was nervous leading up to the race.  I hadn’t hit any of my goal pace times for my long runs, and I struggled through most of them.  I had eaten pretty poorly the last couple days… much more than I typically do before a race.  Right before, I thought I had to pee but the lines were long.  I passed on the bathroom and told myself I would stop for a bathroom break if I had to.  My stomach actually felt fine the whole race.  I coughed a little around ¾ mile and peed a little 😅…  I didn’t feel like I needed to pee the rest of the way. 

I decided to start middle of the pack, and didn’t look for the pacing group.  My first mile was the slowest weaving through the crowd to find a good rhythm.  It was a good warm-up, but my time was 8.44 or so.  I pushed hopes of qualifying to the back of my mind.  I picked up the pace the next couple miles and tried to find my pacing group, but never did.  I saw my husband and friends for the first time 🤗 around mile 10 as I flew down a hill.  I kept thinking… shoot, I’m going to have to climb back up that on the way back 😩  It was not as bad as I thought.

My music 🎶 stopped around mile 7 or 8.  I panicked a little, but decided to take the 30 seconds to get it going again.  Mentally, it took the pressure off of me to qualify.  This is the second time during a race that Rock My Run has stopped working 😤 (I still love the app though)

I was feeling a little tired and had a cramp in my calf and pain in my heel around mile 18, but I pushed myself onward.  I knew I was hurting, but certainly had not tapped out physically.  I looked back on my Denver race, and knew I felt 10x better than I did then.  I had it in me… around mile 21/22 I realized I was on pace to qualify.  That was a great motivational booster.  I oscillated between counting down the last miles, and calculating how much time I had left.  If I kept pace… I would complete 5 miles in about 40 minutes…  I got this!!  I passed the 3.40 pacer around mile 24… pacers suck.  I would have missed the qualifying time if I had run with him.  My arms were tingling with about 1-2 miles left and the anticipation of finishing made me anxious… there was no way I was going to quit at this point.  I told myself I certainly would not walk, and would only slow down if my legs gave out.  I channelled some inspiration from the 4th quarter comeback, football win we watched yesterday.  The last mile seemed like it would never end… Finally, I saw the finish line with the clock at the early 3.39 mark.  I booked it to keep it under 3.40 and did!!!  I cried after I crossed the finish line 🏁  

I looked everywhere for my husband and friends, but couldn’t find them for a few minutes.  I cried again 🤗 when I saw them.  It was wonderful to have them cheering me on, and being able to share my achievement with them.  It would have felt so different if I had accomplished such a feat alone.  Seeing them a couple times mid race… even though it was seconds… gave me a boost of energy.  I’m so happy they were able to make it. 

My official time was 3:37:58* – “* denotes Boston quallyfing time”… it was misspelled on the printout 😂  Surely it still counts 🤞🏼 

After the marathon, we ate at a place called Highrollers.  It was awesome.  It looked like a diner.  I got a trio of Lobster 🦞 rolls.  I prefer mayo over brown butter.  My favorites were the garlic mayo and lime mayo.  

We walked a little bit around Portland, and then returned to Kennenbunkport.  We walked around the shops there, and I ended up getting a small decorative to commemorate Maine since I qualified here 🫶🏼  I’m still exhilarated and on cloud 9 🤗