I don’t always believe self-helpy things, but this weekend I found a new respect for Henry Ford’s idea that “whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” What am I talking about? The power of positive thinking. You need more to go on? OK, here goes.
I decided to run the Phoenix Marathon more or less on a whim. Well, I won a free entry from Carlee and you know that I love free things. I had a good, but not “A-game” run in NYC last year after a very strong training cycle. I was itching to run another marathon to redeem myself. I settled for two halves that went very well. Then, I learned that Carlee was doing the giveaway and a huge group of blogger friends including her and Smitha were going to Phoenix in February. Oh, and one other thing, the course has a lot of downhill. I LOVE to run downhill. Truly, I do. (I can see many people laughing right now for all of the times I have said this.)
My training was OK. It was nothing to write home about. I only did one 20 miler and I did 3 half marathons and several of my long runs happened on the treadmill. There were a few surprisingly nice Saturdays and the runs felt pretty good. I was not sure what running in warm temps would be like after the harsh winter training and worried about the sun, too.
I traveled to Phoenix via a work meeting in San Francisco. I tried to stay hydrated and focus on nutrition. It was not perfect. I picked up Susie at the airport and we did a quick shake out. We picked up Don (who came to run the half – sorry that the half course was not the prettiest part, Don!) We hit the expo and met a few blogger friends. I took no pictures. #BloggerFail. I drove Susie nuts with my “what to wear/what not to wear” monologue. We figured it out (and I decided to don by new Janji Ambassador top) and got ready for a 3:30 AM wake up. Yep, the race buses were 3:45 AM – 5:00 AM. for a 6:30 start.
The start area was chilly and had heaters – it sort of felt like Burning Man for runners. The porta potty lines were screwy. We met up with lots of bloggy friends and the time passed quickly. I broke my throw away top. Oops. They played the national anthem and had firecrackers – a nice touch! Before we knew it, we were headed to the start.
I spoke to a pacer on the bus who indicated that the pacers would run the first few downhill miles quickly to accommodate for the hills. That sounded good to me, so Susie and I were going to join 3:35. That pacer told me in no uncertain terms that he was not doing that so we decided to go ahead of him and wound up with 3:30. We saw Chicago transplant Julie J. at the start which was unexpected and awesome.
We went with the 3:30 group and they were pretty chill. Things were kind of quiet for my taste so I chatted people up. I can imagine Susie shaking her head reading this. The first 3 miles were just under the 3:30 pace and felt easy given the downhill. (I will say for the record this was not as steep as I expected per the chart.) Miles 4 and 5 were uphill and I cautioned Susie who was ahead of the 3:30 to be careful. (Had I known she was sandbagging, I would have let her go ;)) Miles 6 and 7 had a nice downhill so I picked up the pace and joined a few people and chatted some more.
This is where the title of this post comes comes in. I had great support from my friends and received many texts that said “this course is made for you” and “this is your race.” I used these as mantras and kept telling myself over and over that this was “my kind of course and my kind of day.” The weather was overcast and not too hot. I had picked up the pace slightly but I was controlled. The miles ticked by. I chatted with a few locals and a few first timers. I kept telling them how much I love running downhill. And I do.
I got to half way at 1:44 clock time which seemed perfect. The second half was deceptive. It was supposed to be net downhill but it seemed uphill to me. There was also a 10-15 mile headwind from mile 8 on. One of the women I ran with was from Houston. She went ahead and when we caught her, she lamented the wind. I am from Chicago, I train in wind. My kind of course… my kind of day. And the miles clicked on. I got to 20 running with the same crew. I was just over 8 minute miles at the 20 mile marker. I did some math. I was confident that I could do the last 10K in a good time.
There was one issue. From the start, I had to go to the bathroom. Just before mile 23, the 3:30 group caught me (they finished well under pace, but I did not know that at the time.) I tried to hang with them. At the next water stop, I hit the porta potty. I lost ~65 – 70 seconds, but I knew it was a must. Once I hit the road again, I gathered my energy and my positive thoughts and told myself that there was less than 30 minutes to go. My kind of course, my kind of day.
When I hit mile 24, I almost cried tears of joy – I thought I was at 23! I was definitely feeling the miles by then but I felt strong and positive and kept moving. At 25, I told myself less than 10 minutes to run. I did not dare to look at my watch.
As I turned the last corner, I saw that I was going to have my best time since 2006 and I was well under my 3:35 goal. I cheered for myself and waved my arms and reveled in it. And I smiled so wide. More than the time, I am proud to say that I ran smart and kept a positive attitude the entire time. I kept the mantras running through my head. I never got discouraged. I ran tall and proud and happy. This is the first marathon in years that I can remember where I was not kicking myself for mistakes I made or the “should have/could haves.” So from now on, I will remind myself of the wise words of Henry Ford (and Thomas the Tank Engine) and “think I can.”
The stats: Net time: 3:31.32 (8:05/mile pace). 66 female of 851. 11 of 150 in women 40-44. Overall 295 of 1991.
PS. Susie passed me during my potty stop and sprinted the last 5K crushing her PR and getting her first BQ with a 3:28 time. Smitha completed her first marathon – there is only one first marathon! Totally awesome!
Do you believe in the power of positive thinking? What is your mantra?