CIM - my first marathon - sub-5 hours

I swear I could not have run this without Shavi pacing me. Shavi who was himself injured due to a severe bad spasm couple of weeks ago decided to still pace me with the injury. It was tough on him but with my bad IT band and shin injuries, he knew I might not be able to complete the marathon in my goal time of sub-5 hours. I cannot be thankful enough to him for making me achieve my goal. I completed the race in 4 hours 57 mins. I was hurting bad during the race but after finishing, I was fine. Shavi had a hard time after the race because of his injury. Took him a few days to recover.

California International Marathon - CIM (runcim.org) is one of the very famous races in the US with a great course. So many local people are out on the streets in that cold morning to cheer the runners. The weather was good this time. It was not chilling cold or even cold, I should say. Little bit of sun and some clouds made it great. A bit colder and more clouds would have made it perfect for me :) There are around 8000 + runners running this race every year in December. This includes the relay runners also. It is an epic race and a fun family event in Sacramento.

I had trained for this race with Fleet Feet Fair Oaks where Shavi was coaching. Training is the hard part. I did several boot camp classes to build my core, way too early in the morning before the baby would wake up. It sure was not easy with non-flexible working hours and a baby. During the running training, I did a 21-mile training run after which I got injured. I had an IT band injury which restricted my movement. I was already having right shin issues for which I had been wearing the shin cap and running. The IT band injury starts from the side hip and goes down to the knee. It feels like the knee is also hurting but it is the IT band. Running uphill seems easier than downhill with the pain. I did everything that coach Shavi recommended after I got injured to recover - lot of foam rolling and stretching, less running and slow running, raising the feet, having ibuprofen to reduce inflammation, standing in chilled water of the pool for 20 mins, painful sports massages. It would feel better at times and worse most of the times. I thought I would never be able to run the marathon. From one of the running coaches, came another advise which helped me. I tried this before hand to make sure it will work on race day - 1 Slow release Tylenol + 2 advil - helped with the pain. I could not do my 2 more long training runs with the Fleet Feet group, making me more skeptical of doing the marathon. But as Shavi said - it is all in the brain. If I have done one long training run, means I know what to expect and so I should be fine and I was :)

During the race, there was no question of backing out even when it was hurting bad - the only question was if I will do it sub-5 hours. I will repeat my words - I swear I could not have done the sub-5 finish without Shavi. Thanks Honey! Last but not the least - thanks to my parents and in-laws for watching the baby when both of us were doing our training runs and the race.