My favorite #MEDALMONDAY 💙💛
Not only because it’s from the @Bostonmarathon, but because I earned every single mile of this sweet baby! 🦄
—
If you’re on your journey towards a BQ, remember:
“Good Things Take Time & Trust the Process!”
I told myself this, over and over for years.
When you’re ready, it WILL HAPPEN.
I am proof that you can make the impossible, possible!✨
👉🏾PROMISE I’M ALMOST DONE POSTING —
Noushy told me the hills were coming up and that there were three. We slowed our pace a bit, to conserve our energy for the upcoming climb. The first hill felt easier than I expected. The countdown began. “Just two more left.” After the first hill, we lost each other.
Now that I was on my own, I kept thinking, “okay, just two more hills.” I knew the Newton Hills were coming up, and I kept trying to focus on the positive and stay mentally strong. The weather was brutal at this point. Pouring down rain, and the larger groups of runners had dispersed so the wind gusts felt much stronger. My legs were starting to feel tired, but I kept the crowds energy as my source for strength. At every opportunity, I gave high fives, waived to the crowds, and tried to smile.
Sh*t got real, real fast. I felt like my legs were going as fast as possible, yet my pace had slowed by almost 30 seconds. What the F was happening?! For a second, I panicked, but calmed myself and focused on breathing and moving forward. “Don’t worry about pace, Tiff I kept telling myself, just run.” I had no idea at the time, I was climbing Heart Break Hill. It wasn’t until I saw the sign at the end that said something along the lines of, “Heart Break Hill is Over.” I was so relieved!!! That by far, was one of the toughest parts of the course for me.
I gained some momentum back from miles 22-23 and ran one of my fastest miles at 22. Not the smartest move, because I still had A LOT to run, but at this point I was in “finish it” mode. At 22 I realized I was only 4 miles away from finishing the race. It was crazy to think that it was almost over.
Miles 24-26 were the hardest miles of the entire race. My body was feeling very off, and something wasn’t right. I contemplated stopping and letting the police take me away in their cars. I wanted to stop so bad, but kept mentally telling myself I had to stay strong.
I learned a lot about myself on these two miles.
1. How to persevere
2. To NEVER give up.
These miles will live in my memory bank for years to come.
Now that I’ve decided I was just going to go for it, my plan was to try and take the first half more conservative because I knew the hills were coming, and it wasn’t going to be easy.
Conserving my energy was key. Making sure to not get “caught up” on the downhill was what I focused on. I remembered what Coach Chad told me, “I wasn’t going to run a perfectly paced race, and it was okay. Focus on staying in the range.” I had been running alone for awhile now, and noticed a girl ahead of me with the same @brooksrunning Launches and kept trying to catch up to her. The closer I got, I realized it was my friend @noushy14 . I was SO HAPPY to see her!
We started talking about the most random things, and found out we were planning to run similar paces. We both agreed, that if either of us felt good and wanted to pick it up, feel free to just go for it. We were working together to stay on pace, and it felt great being with someone who knew the course.
Naturally, I knew there was hills, but not a clue where and preferred having more of a “surprise.” Noushy, kept reminding me about the notifications our families would get as soon as we hit certain markers. It gave me hope. We checked in with each other often, and made sure we were taking in our gels every 5 miles, and stopping for water. We became a team, and together we kept picking up the pace. At one point, I said to Noushy, as the rain and wind had calmed for a second, “it’s not that bad.” OMG, could I eat my words. BAM! It started pouring down so hard! And then BOOM, the wind gusts started again. It felt like a crazy movie scene — unreal.
At the halfway point, I felt strong and was constantly checking in with myself. Making sure I had enough water, nutrition. Mentally, I kept telling myself, “This will be the hardest thing you ever do, YOU GOT THIS LIL MAMA!”
From afar, you could hear the sounds of Wesley College. It was getting louder and louder, and my excitement grew. Passing the Wesley girls school was so awesome! It’s felt like I took their energy and made it my own. I smiled, laughed and enjoyed every minute of it. It was a great distraction from running.
THE START OF THE RACE 🏃🏾♀️💙💛
The morning of the race, I woke up much earlier than I anticipated. I could hear how loud the wind was, and all I could think was, “Hope I don’t get blown away!” Being on the bus with friends helped keep my nerves calm, and made me appreciative that we were all in this together. I couldn’t help but joke, and try and lighten up the situation by saying, “it’s not that bad.” When in reality, it was the worst weather us Sacramento girls had ever run in.
Getting off the bus and making the mile long venture to the start line was where the reality of the weather really set in for me.
Naturally, I told my mom I didn’t need her fancy poncho, (yes, I did!) and I didn’t need a rain jacket, which she nearly begged me to buy the day before (yes, I did!). She was right — moms are always right! Instead, I had this boo boo poncho I bought for $1 at the Fenway game the day before, and underneath that, a scented garbage bag. I smelt great, but I was soaked.
Once we made it to the athletes village we were packed into a long line where I felt like a group of penguins. We were barely moving. We were surrounded by so much mud, puddles, and plastic it was surreal. The closer we got to our wave/corral start the stronger the wind got. Being with Anne and Jenn gave me the comfort I needed. I was laughing and screaming every time we’d get hit with another wind gust. Finally, we were rushed into our corrals and there was zero time to prepare. You literally had to go into your corral and never look back.
The first couple miles were so crowded. I knew they would be. I trained for this. I knew my miles would be much slower and I was totally okay with it. I was smiling so big, and was just in awe. I had just started to run THE BOSTON MARATHON! Me! I was SO excited!
I soaked in every minute of this — Literally! I didn’t try and weave around people. I didn’t want to waste my energy. At this point I still wasn’t sure if I should race it, or “just have fun.” I decided at about mile four, that I might as well race it, since I had nothing to lose and if I ran faster maybe the harsh conditions wouldn’t seem so bad.
I plan to share my Boston Marathon race recap through several posts the next few days.
But first, let’s talk about miles 24-26, the finish, and my post-race experience.
Heading into mile 24 I could tell my body was starting to give up on me. I couldn’t feel my feet. Like, I knew they were connected to me because they somehow kept hitting the ground, but I was literally moving as fast as humanly possible at the time. My mental game was so strong though. I kept saying to myself, while crying:
“Lord Jesus please help me!
This is freakin’ Boston, we don’t give up at Boston!
The Citgo sign is coming up soon, one mile at a time.
Go Nina, go Nina go!
My mom would be so pissed if I didn’t finish this race.”
I remembered @des_linden telling me to “enjoy every moment of going down Boylston, because you never get it back your first time.” So on I went! Not giving up! Preserving until I crossed that finish line. My pace had dropped significantly, but I gave it everything I had left in me to keep moving.
Physically, I was falling apart. Making that turn onto Boylston, I could hear the crowds. I was crying, I was smiling. I moved my arms as fast as I could because my legs were no longer keeping it together. Heading towards the finish was the sweetest victory I could have ever imagined. After crossing the finish line, I sobbed. I couldn’t stop crying. Like uncontrollably crying. It was the most rewarding feeling! I just finished the Boston Marathon in the worst conditions, and it was finally over.
As I headed towards the medals and water, I started to feel really bad. Something wasn’t right. I somehow managed to make my way into a random building where I collapsed on the ground. I was delirious. I couldn’t speak properly, and didn’t even know what I was saying. A kind group of people (THANK YOU SO MUCH!) saw that I was struggling and helped me. They were wrapping me in sweaters, blankets, and telling me to breathe in and out. It was so crowded in there, and I’ll I can recall saying was, “where is my husband?” Or at least I think I was. They finally picked me off the ground and onto a wheelchair, where I was wheeled into a medical tent. I was in really bad shape. ⬇️MORE⬇️
