My first marathon. I had been training with my USA Fit Charlotte group for the preceding six months, logging between 30-40 miles a week. It had been a long, grueling training process. Come race day, I felt like I was a ready as I was ever going to be.
I was up early the morning of to begin what has now become somewhat of a regular pre-race routine which involves a brisk walk of a mile or so, a little coffee and a banana. There is nothing magical about this combination other than it, well, helps get things moving (if you know what I mean.) Mission accomplished. Into the car and off to pick up Nick.
Everything was peachy on the ride down until we got to uptown Charlotte and hit some traffic. No big deal, until we found ourselves stuck on a one-way street, not moving at all and the clock rapidly counting down toward race time. Slight panic, but all was well. Things started moving, we found ourselves a parking spot and used the short time frame and far off parking spot as incentive to do a little warm-up run.
The race started right outside of the convention center, so the inside was buzzing to say the least. We met up with some of our training mates, chatted up a little, snapped a couple of photos and it was off to the starting line. There were many more people than I expected and the atmosphere was electric. Nick, Mike and I inched our way toward the starting line. There were no corrals, so the start was a bit of a free for all. After a few minutes of waiting, the anthem and a greeting from the race organizer, the gun and we were off.
The crowd support at the start was pretty good. It was a tad chilly, but nothing unmanageable. Long sleeves, running toboggan and gloves and I was good to go. Nick and I had decided to set out together and stick to an 8:30 pace. We had been training right around that, maybe a little slower.
The first couple of miles were busy and fast. There were a lot of halfers on course. Roughly 3,500 of the 5,000 runners were half marathoners vs. full marathoners. A lot of the halfers were out of the gate fast so traffic was heavy. By mile three, we had settled into our pace and heading up the long, steady hill on Providence Road.
The comforting thing about the climb was knowing what was at the top. Our good friends, the Dye’s, live on Providence Road, so that was fan central stop #1 for the course, around mile 3. We crested the hill and were greeted by our wives and daughters, my parents and the Dye’s waving signs and screaming loud as they could. It was truly outstanding. We slapped some fives as we went by, then wiped our tears of joy and pressed on. Funny note: about a half mile later, we passed a young woman standing on one of the street corners holding a bag of Krispy Kremes, a larger coffee and a cigarette yelling, “go runners.” The irony…
The next 8 miles (4 thru 11) were steady going and on a lot of familiar territory. Our USA Fit group had a mapped out course through the Dilworth/Myers Park area that we would run on a regular basis. A good chunk of the course was on or very close to the course. Around mile 7.5, we were greeted again by fan stop #2. The whole gang, add our friends the Conway’s, had walked several blocks from Providence Road down to Sharon Road. There was a DJ on the corner and lots of other fans. Again, a welcomed and warming site. Speaking of warm – I ditched the top layer and the toboggan. Kept the gloves (I hate running with cold hands.)
We proceeded back toward uptown and approaching the half marathon finish line. Around mile 12, Nick and I parted ways. He wanted to pull back the pace a tad, more along the lines of our training pace. I decided to press on. I passed the half finish, turned onto Morehead, passed the relay transition area, onto Tryon and all of a sudden found myself very alone and going much faster than I should have been. I had been running in a crowd for the past 13.5 miles and with Nick and pacing was pretty easy. I was now in the South End area with much less crowd support and the runners were sparse. I lost track of the clock and had picked up the pace from 8:30’s to just under 8’s. Stopped off just past the stadium for a quick potty break.
I was now in uptown having completed miles 14 thru 17 and had made the hard left turn into the NoDa district for the last ‘half’ of the run. Up until this point, I had felt pretty good all in all. As I crossed the bridge over I-277 into NoDa, I felt like I was entering this desolate, barren wasteland full of despair and pain. I was. My pace had gotten too fast and my legs were really starting to feel it. And for those unaware, NoDa ain’t exactly flat.
I had been on like one street in NoDa in the 4.5 years I had lived in Charlotte, so I had no clue whatsoever where I was. Just kept running forward. By mile 20, I had hit the wall. At the water stop just before the mile marker, I came to my first walk. I grabbed two cups of water and walked one minute before getting back into stride. Much to my chagrin and disappointment, I proceeded to do that for the next three water stops. Two cups, walk one minute, start running.
Between miles 20 and 21 was one of those memorable and humbling experiences. I thought the next time I would see the fan base was at the finished. I rounded a corner and up in the distance I hear screams a yells and there was the whole crew. I was mentally, emotionally and physically broken down at this point like I had never been before. I approached and best I could muster mumbled that I was hurting pretty bad. All of a sudden, I had my friends Paul and Bobby running along side of me encouraging me, praying for me, cheering for me. It was amazing. I did everything in my little power I had to not breakdown emotionally.
I pressed on in quite a bit of leg pain. Around mile 23, I came up on a guy that was - get this – running barefoot. That’s right. Barefoot. No shoes. No socks, no nothing. Completely barefoot. And yes, every step of the 26.2 miles was on pavement. I slowed up a bit to regroup and started talking to him. He was from Buffalo, NY. It was his tenth marathon and his third running barefoot. I never really got out of him why he was running barefoot, but I did get motivation from him. If this guy could run this far with no shoes, I can make it the last couple of miles.
Out of NoDa, back across 277 and heading toward the home stretch into uptown. I was making a lefty into town and there was a police officer with traffic stopped. As I approached, I hear a “Ryan, is that you?” I looked closer to recognize Gideon John, a guy I graduated high school with at South Point. We both smiled big, did the quick ‘wow great to see you’ and he sent me off with a ‘good luck finishing. You’re almost there.’ Which I was.
I had one more turn, a righty toward the finish line and one last hill to conquer. It seemed to be a bit of insult to injury having the marathoners climb yet another hill in the last quarter mile of the run. But the did. And we endured. I climbed slowly, looking for something left in the tank to get me to the line. As I crested, I got the lift. My friend Paul and my dad were to my right yelling for me, coaching me onto the line, which was a huge help. Then I looked ahead and saw the clock was rapidly approaching 3 hours and 50 minutes...
Initially my goal was to finish around 3:40, which was right around an 8:30 pace. When I saw the clock, I was bound and determined to finish in the 3:40’s, so a pseudo-sprint was on. Then add in the cheers from Allyson, the girls, my mom, the Conways. I crossed the line in 3:49:45. Big hug from Allyson and the girls, proceed to the water station, then to the Bud Light truck for a quick brew. I stayed in the finish chute to cheer in some of my buddies as they finished. Nick came charging over the last hill and in similar fashion, set into a sprint in order to finish sub-4:00. Shortly after, Nicole and Sarah, then Mike and Eddie who both had been pushing through some serious cramping.
Charlotte put together a good race. Of course, I had nothing to compare it to, but all in all, I’d say it exceeded expectations. The course was painfully hilly, or at least it seemed that way. Crowd support on the first half was good and a barren wasteland on the second half. Ironically it is called ‘Thunder Road’ because of the local connection to NASCAR and there was practically no NASCAR presence.
Overall, it was a good and memorable day for Team Yellow Group. We were all looking forward to our big post-race celebration at Nicole’s, fully furnished with beverages and a masseuse. I was happy with the first marathon effort. I could write a book on the lessons learned from that race. I’ll never forget it. As sore and miserable as I was afterwards, I couldn’t wait until the next one.
Official results 221st overall
Event photos
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