My First Marathon Support Gig

George and Me Before the 2011 City of Oaks

While I've volunteered at a marathon before, yesterday was my first experience of supporting a runner during a marathon. George was shooting to complete his first marathon, the City of Oaks Marathon in Raleigh, NC. To help me help him, he developed maps with mile markers and ETAs, and packed a bag of possible supplies for me to have at each stop. It was fun to see him at each stop, though I discovered how tiring it can be! My advice: people doing support need to get rest before the race too! I stopped in at the Cafe Carolina at Cameron Village in between support points, and I actually fell asleep in the restaurant! (Glad I woke up in time to get to the next location!)

I'm sad (for George) to say that he didn't quite make it to the end. He suffered calf cramps for about 10 miles (Holy Cow! TEN?!) before finally deciding to call it quits after 21 miles. He's bummed, of course, but otherwise doing okay. He plans to get lots of R&R today.

I continue to be very proud of George and his running, and hope he recovers quickly. He does plan to try another marathon sometime in the future.

Thanks to Ashby for taking the picture above of George and me before the race started!

Outer Banks Marathon DNF

Well, the big news isn't what I hoped for. I was hoping to report a big fat PR, but instead, I had my first DNF, or Did Not Finish. I have mixed feelings about it, but am glad I went. George and I did this race together, and we both learned a lot from it.

We did run, by several accounts, the prettiest half of the course, and decided to stop there, as my IT Band continued to hurt, and George ended up with an unexpected knee injury, which he got diagnosed at the medical tent later. He has decided since then that it was probably caused by the new pair of shoes he had to by in Kill Devil Hills Saturday afternoon because he'd left his shoes at home! The pair he was sold was a size narrower than he's used to wearing, a recipe for injury, it turns out!

We were glad to get a half marathon in, but it's too bad we didn't get a finisher's medal for it. Sunday's race course took us through pretty neighborhoods and past the Wright Brothers Memorial, which was awesome! I took pictures, which I'll post later. We were impressed by the volunteers at the water stops and aid stations, as well as the crowd support along the way.

I'm still processing the experience, but here are some things I've learned:
1) I need to continue to work on speed, endurance, and weighht loss to improve my running.
2) Make a checklist of things to pack for a marathon out of town, and start packing earlier.
3) If George and I run another long distance race together, we need to get on the same page in terms of packing, shopping, and sleep, about a week in advance.
4) I need to work on stretching my IT bands more frequently, perhaps returning to yoga class.
5) I enjoyed running with George, and I'm glad we talked a bit beforehand about a game plan.
6) It might help to think about things to talk about ahead of time, when I'm planning to run a long distance with someone. Actually, it helped me to have George talk and be able to listen to him as I ran through some tough sections!


I've already signed up for my next race, a 5K in a couple of weeks. I need it to help me pick my chin up and keep going. I must remember to allow myself to rest and recover this week too, though.

UPDATE: George's and my split times didn't show up on the official race results! Arrrgh! It was one of those little strips that you pull off the back of the bib and loop on your shoe laces. George already emailed the company, and I will as well, after I get home and look at my bib number again (I don't remember it.)