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Kelly's First Marathon
2011 White Rock Marathon
By Kelly Trammell Rouse
Photo by Kelly Trammell Rouse
Published on Jan 1, 2012.
My running career started out in March of 2010. The goal was to lose weight I had put on during my pregnancy and kept for nearly 2 years afterwards. I didn't join the group right away. I was barely able to run a mile without having to stop and walk. So I worked my way up to a 5k and in May started running with The Arlington Striders. I really did not have a distance goal in mind. The one thing I did have in mind was finding other runners to motivate and keep me running on a regular basis.
After running with the group for a while I finally set a goal of running a half marathon in November of 2010. Since then, I have ran over 10 half marathons. Becoming bold I decided I might as well start training for a full marathon (needed to go ahead and cross off something on my non-existent bucket list). The marathon that I chose was The White Rock Marathon in December 2011. My training started a little early because I decided to do the El Scorcho Run in the middle of the summer. For those that don't know, this is a race which starts at midnight. You are given a choice of doing a 25k (15.5 miles) or a 50k (31 miles). I did the 25k. There were many more races that I did leading up to my first marathon. This includes The Honored Hero Run (20 miles) to The Fort Worth Marathon 20 Miler and the countless training runs during the week. Through all of this there was the awesome Texas heat to contend with. This summer was definitely a hot one, but I survived all of it and finally made it to that cold and rainy December day.
The White Rock Marathon started out much better than The White Rock Half Marathon I did the previous year. Being familiar with the beginning of the course definitely helped calm my nerves. It also kept me comfortable in my pace throughout the race. Despite the rain and the cold and the singing Rob Thomas through numerous SECOND WINDS I did complete my first ever marathon and was extremely happy with how I felt afterwards. One piece of advice that I have to offer is definitely run more than just one 20+ mile run prior to your marathon. I really think that helped me prepare for the amount of time you spend on your feet during the marathon. Also, the longer runs in training were beneficial to recover in the days after the race. I do plan to run another marathon... so many to choose from.