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Sunday, October 11, 2009

Xterra Marathon - Colorado Springs

Me-Pink Shorts, Scheri-Aqua Shorts

Last weekend I ran the Xterra Marathon. Scheri and I decided to do this marathon as part of our training for San Fransisco. A little background: I have always wanted to do a marathon every year from the very first year. Since this was the first year of the Xterra, and it was local, I thought this would be a good one to do. Scheri agreed and so we signed up.



The race: We showed up and it was actually a little cool. We know from running in Cheyenne State Park that it can get very hot, so we did not complain. I brought hydration since I had been sick and feeling really dry when I ran lately. We began the race and "jogged" with the crowds. The marathon was ran simultaneous with the half marathon so there were quite a few people for the first few miles. The course consisted of two areas, looping around each area, and then we completed that two times. So in a way, 4 loops. We completed the first loop and headed over to the second one. Scheri and I were keeping fairly good pace, but still feeling relaxed. We were constantly telling each other to relax and take it easy. We had a few half marathoners with us, and so we did feel the need to push it a little. As we were climbing the second large hill, I tripped over a small root and fell, gracefully I must say. I scraped my leg a little, but avoided the knees completely. (My goal.) We rounded back and finished the first half of the race, dropping of EVERYONE that was around us...obviously more halvers than I thought. We gazed at our Garmins and realized the course was almost a mile long at the half point. Yikes. A little depression set in considering this is an already difficult course, and now it will be almost 2 miles long. We continued trudging away at the course, relaxing a lot more than the first lap. Walking many hills, taking bathroom breaks, and getting rocks out of our shoes, consumed much of our second time around. We passed through an aid station and they informed us that we were 21st and 22nd overall, and 6th and 7th girl. We really didn't want to know, so I told them not to tell us. They didn't our next time through. During this entire second time around, we passed a few men, and never saw any women. We went through our phases of being tired, but quickly snapped out of it. The hills in there can take quite a while. We felt really strong at the end and decided to take off for the last mile. It felt great. We finished the race hand in hand, stride for stride, and with a smile on both of our faces.

1 comment:

  1. We had fun, but then again, we always have fun together :-) So glad we have each other!

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