Clumsiness wins again

Well folks I have bad news. I didn't finish the marathon. Here is my race recap. 

I arrived in plenty of time for the race. My DH and father dropped me off. I realized I was dropped off at corral A and needed to be at Corral E. Here is me getting ready in the dark.

getting ready in the dark

 I made my way to corral E and got in the bathroom line. The line was long even with the large number of facilities that were available. I got finished just as the race was starting. I made my way into my corral with the crowd of people. Here is how it looked from where I was. The start line is about 5 blocks down that road.

start time

The gun went off and we slowly started walking toward the starting line. It took me 15 minutes to get to the starting line. There were 24,820 people registered for the race and I was in the last corral so very back of the pack. I was antsy to start running but assumed the pace would pick up soon. I crossed the start line and picked up the pace. At the same time I was dodging people. There were people everywhere and I was slightly claustrophobic. I continued on running as fast as I could to keep up with the 5:15 pace group. At about 0.5miles I saw a woman on crutches "running"  and was trying to avoid her when I tried over the back of a runner's shoe. My right ankle rolled and I went down on my left knee. The runner turned around and asked if I was ok. I didn't respond and turned around and faced the runners coming at me so I wouldn't get trampled. The other runners saw me and I was able to get up. I checked out my knee and it wasn't looking too bad. My ankle was sore but I thought I could keep going. Looking back now I should have just packed it in right there. So I got up and started running again without too much pain. I was able to catch back up to the 5:15 pace group but was not feeling great. I ran past them and kept going. I did stop for water and took a gu. Around mile 6 I saw the medical tent and stopped to get my ankle wrapped. The therapist did a good job wrapping my ankle but it was stiff. I had problems getting used to it being so stiff but could still run. I managed to make it to the turnoff to separate the marathoners from the half marathoners. I did start walking as I was pretty sure I was done. I managed to make it to the second medical tent and tell them I was done. The medic didn't really have any helpful advice. He was able to tell me about the shuttle pick up for the relay teams. The line was 100 people deep so I wasn't very interested in standing in it. I instead headed for the Wilshire Gun club which was near by. I figured it would be the easiest place for my family to pick me up. I would have been better walking west on Wilshire to the other side of the race course. In any event due to where we live and the course, it took them about an hour to reach me. I had plenty of time to consider going back out onto the course. I didn't though. I knew that I most likely couldn't finish under the time limit, and wouldn't be running. I decided I would just have to try again for my first marathon. 

sprained ankle waiting for a pick up

Here are the lessons I learned. First starting later would have been better. I would have been fine running the course relatively along than running with the huge crowd. I need to find smaller more well organized race. The corrals at the start were not organized very well. I think the organizers needed to separate the half and full marathoners or at least put them in appropriate corrals. I was in a huge corral with walkers and runners. The start should be staggered as well. One corral was not separated from another. Everyone was starting at the same time and when you have 25k people trying to move it doesn't go well. The 5k runners had to dodge us as they completed their race because they were faster than some of us marathon and half-marathoners. The organizers also need to make sure there is no one of the course who has crutches etc. I do know it is my fault for falling but these things may have helped me complete my race.

Feelings: Ugh so disappointed. I was really looking forward to finishing the marathon. I was so defeated after falling. I thought, ugh it happened again. I at least know I can run 20 miles. I wasn't actually fatigued just injured. That has to be the most frustrating part. I know I can run the race but now I have to heal. I am going to give my ankle a rest and do some cross training for a week or so. If it feels better I plan on running next week a few short runs and then might run a longer run on the weekend. After I get back from vacation and my parents head out I think I am going to run around the lake to complete my marathon run. 

I might train, for a race in the fall but would have to find the right race. I already looked at the Route 66 and it has a lot of runners as well. I am leery of running such a big race again unless I know it is well organized. I will keep you updated on my runs.