So Yeah, I’m a Marathoner Now

“Disclaimer: I received entry to the Tobacco Road Marathon to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!”

HOLY BUTTS! I RAN A MARATHON!!!

It wasn’t pretty. I had a pretty rough last few miles, but I did it. Here’s the breakdown –

This was my 2nd time running Tobacco Road, but my first time on the Marathon Course (I ran the Half last year). Man, what a great race. It is small enough to make you feel like you are getting individual attention with small touches like the RD shaking everyone’s hand at the finish line, but large enough to be exciting.

On the Road to Tobacco Road

I drove in about 2.5 hours to Cary with the family and stayed at the host hotel for the Expo, which was super nice and had a few perks for runners like free reception the night before and free late check out for runners. The Expo was small, but well organized and a few cool things this year like a visit from Jeff Galloway who gave a talk and was gracious enough to chat with and take photos with anyone who wanted to. I’m always too self conscience for that, but two of my friends got their bibs signed and he greeted them like old friends. We got race specific tech shirts, which were an upgrade from the previous year. The Half shirts were lime green and the Marathon were a pretty teal. 

Perhaps my least favorite, and only real issue with Tobacco Road is the parking situation. There are really 2 parking options (3 if you count getting dropped off) 1 – purchase 1 of a limited number of parking passes and 2 – parking at a remote lot and taking the shuttle in. Pretty straight forward, but both require you to arrive by 5:30 am for a 7:00 am start, which I feel is a bit too early. I rode with a friend with a parking pass and arrived right at 5:30 where we sat in the warm car for 45 min before getting out to use the ample port-a-potties and looking for other friends. The BibRave team met up and took a quick picture. 3 of us were doing the Marathon (2 of us our first) and 3 the Half. We wished each other good luck and then split off. I lined up at the start about 15 min before the race and pacers were well positioned for both the Half and the Full distances. I found the 4:35 pacer and positioned myself well back, but ahead of the 4:50 pacer. Was hoping for an under 5 hour finish. 

Team BibRave  in the HOUSE (err… ROAD)

The first 2.5 miles of the course was on road and had a few hills. Nothing I hadn’t trained for, but a bit hilly nonetheless. Both the Half and Full start at the same time and cover this distance together. I ended up catching up with a friend who was running the Half and ran with her until the split. When you arrived the trail, the Marathoners turned right, while the Halfers tuned left. The right trail was hard packed dirt for the first few miles, then half hard packed/half asphalt so you could choose which surface to run on. There were a few road crossings that we well managed by police and support stations heavily manned with cheering people and water, Gatorade, gels, and Stroop waffles. At mile 7 (and 11) there was a Mimosa station that had bacon too. You ran to about mile 9, then turned back to where you started, where you were at just around mile 14. Then you crossed the main road (well manned with police) and started on the Half course. This side was all hard packed. You ran to about mile 19, then turned back to where you came onto the trail. Just past the turn around point, there was a huge spread of all kinds of goodies – cookies, snacks a ton of stuff that I didn’t stop to check out, but was super nice. There were several port-a-potty stations also along the course. Once you came off the trail, you made you way back to Thomas Brooks Park down the same 2.5 miles you came in on. I felt the hills a bit more the way back, but nothing terrible, just gently rolling.

Not my picture, nor the time of year of the race – photo credit: TrailLink. But wanted to show the Marathon Course trail.

Not gonna lie, I am STRUGGLING here!

I am not going to lie, the course is a bit on the boring side. It is pretty much the same exact view for 22 of the 26 miles – bare trees on a straight path. I don’t mind out and back courses with limited crowd support much, but if you do, this is not the race for you. The crowds that were there we at road crossings and were very friendly and super supportive. In fact, around mile 21.5, I was feeling rough. That wall is real people, and this really nice lady came over to me and gave me a hug and some encouraging words. It was super kind. By then I was had switched to intervals and was pretty sure that my goal of under 5 hours was not going to happen. I ran to the mile marker, walked a tenth, then started up running again. Those last few miles all I could think was get to the next mile marker. 

Lots of excitement at the finish that was a bit of a blur to me to be honest, but there was a beer garden, free pizza, water stations, chocolate milk and I’m sure lots of other things I missed. Tons of volunteers were on hand for anything you needed. And the huge medal was gorgeous! I plan on wearing it for quite awhile! At a very minimum, I am carrying it around in my purse and showing it to anyone who will stand still long enough. Seriously, look at this beauty! 

My husband and daughter were waiting for me at the finish (as was my run bestie – BarkingMadRun) all of who took pictures and video of me finishing. (Speaking of photos, I did remember seeing a photographer at least 3 times on course- once on the Marathon course, once on the Half course and at the finish). I tried to cross the finish line was as much cheer as I could, glad to be done, but still knowing I missed my goal by a few minutes. It was nice to get that shot of love at the finish and cannot say how happy I was to have them all there. I didn’t really stick around to partake in all that the finisher party had to offer because I really really wanted to get in a shower back at the hotel before the drive home, and that meant leaving pretty much right away.

Overall, it was an amazing race for my first Marathon. Will I run another? … NO. Not ever. People say never say never, but I am saying NEVER. Nothing to do with the race, Tobacco Road was amazing – I’d run the Half again and again – but I HATED training and running a marathon. It took up so much of my time, it felt like I was working a second, exhausting full time job in addition to all of my other commitments. It made running a horrible chore, and it probably didn’t help that this was one of the wettest Winters on record. I spent so many hours cold, wet and miserable, that even though race day was perfect weather (thank goodness), I was just so over the whole process. 

One of the reasons that we challenge ourselves with great tasks is to learn about ourselves and I learned that I really do not enjoy running these longer distances. And you know what, that’s okay. Different strokes for different folks, right? When my daughter was little, we used to tell her that if everyone liked the same thing, the world would be very boring. I’m glad I did it. I’m glad I set the goal, put in the work and proved that I could. Even though I missed my timing goal, (let’s be honest, the REAL goal was to just finish, which I did) even though the last 4 miles were a DISASTER, I’m proud. 

I’m a Marathoner. I am one of the 1%. I am MIGHTY!

And here’s another look at that beautiful medal!