26.2 miles of mixed emotions

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Evelyn Chavez
  • 31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy --  A combination of feelings churned in my stomach. All at once the nervousness, tiredness and excitement rushed through my body before the loud discharging sound released me and about 15,000 others from the start line. 
   
I had 26.2 miles left to gather my composure and push through any invading doubts. After all, I wasn't only running for myself but for my team which was representing U.S. Air Forces Europe in the Major Command Challenge at the Air Force Marathon in Dayton, Ohio. Our friendly competitors were 10 other teams representing their command.

My training started even before the team selection for the Air Force marathon, as I have plans to run the Rock and Roll Marathon in Lisbon, Portugal. After many early mornings and long weekend runs, race day finally arrived. I was sure my efforts and hard work would show when I crossed the finish line and received the coveted 26.2 finisher's medal.

Hoping to break my personal best of four hours and thirty minutes, I set to finish in four hours flat. "Four hours of continuous running is a reasonable and achievable goal," I would say to myself every day during training.

With the same mantra in my head I started the race, with a 9:30 pace per mile.  However, my body was feeling heavier than normal and started saying "Hey you might be going slightly faster than 9:30." 

Slowing down a bit to wake my body up from the lethargy, I soon started to feel the comfort and ease of my long distance familiar pace. Running past friendly high fives, people in costumes and cheering spectators, my focus was finishing one mile at time.

As I ran mile to mile, water station volunteers greeted us with thirst-quenching drinks and motivating words. While I kept my set pace, I spotted a few of my friends taking photos at the event. I was feeling great and after my watch went off at the hour mark, I knew I only had three more hours to go. 

At the halfway marker, a red flag marked with the number 13, was only inches away from me when I suddenly felt a sharp pain in both of my calves. I was performing exactly like I'd trained, so why were my calves on fire?

I quickly stretched after grabbing a cup of Gatorade at a water station, "Let's keep going legs, let's keep going," I said quietly to myself. Pushing through, I ran three more miles before the pain returned with an accompanying stomach ache. At this point my pace continued slowing down but I wouldn't give up, my team needed me to finish what I started. 

With lingering pain my state of mind was being challenged. "You can quit, it's just a race, you can just stop," my inner voice advised. The truth was I wasn't going to stop; I had come too far to quit.

Continuing my slow jog I finally make it past mile marker 23, as I ran past a man who drops his sole source of motivation - an iPod. He groans and moans with pain as he picks it up and I think to myself, I am right there with you buddy but we have to keep going. At this point we can all hear the music and cheers from the finish line. Eager to make it there, I blocked out the annoyance of the pain, sweat and rain. "I need to pick it up!," I tell myself.

With about 200 meters left in the course, I look at my watch which read 4:53. Yes, that was almost an entire hour pass my goal. With disappointment and relief, to finally finish, I picked up my pace to make it across the finish line just before the five-hour mark, 4:59.

I was done! I had completed my third marathon. I smiled, embraced the accomplishment and wore my medal with pride. Although it wasn't what I had set to achieve, I completed something many would never consider. Sometimes in life we win and sometimes we lose, regardless of how prepared we might be, what matters are the lessons we learn and how to pick ourselves up.

Rather than dwell on my shortcomings, I started training for my next race. I will return to the Air Force marathon to not only complete it but to crush my time. For the time being, another full marathon waits to test my physical and mental ability, but I am better prepared and I will not quit.