#20! Sevilla Maratón Recap!

I will never be able to top this birthday week and marathon #20 was officially my favorite.

After I finished I kept thinking about how 25 year old me would be dying over yesterday’s result! I wanted a sub 3 so so badly in my 20s and I was able to do it at 38, on a warm day, with my husband and four kids there cheering, and in a different country.

I woke up before my alarm at 5:45 and started eating cinnamon almond bars by Nature Valley from Costco. I had 1.5 bars, a banana and about a liter of water before getting up and ready for the morning. I scrolled through my strava to remind myself of all of the miles and workouts I did to prepare for this to give me the confidence I needed and listened to Deena Kastor podcasts to get excited!

We met with the group at 7 and were driven over to the starting line. We had about an hour to use the restrooms and drop off our bags but somehow it went by so quickly and a few of us ended up having to jog to the starting line to make it to the corrals in time.

I was in the 2:45-3:00 corral and stood over by the 3:00 pacers in the beginning.

The energy was unreal in the corrals. I couldn’t believe I was finally there and ready to start!

The first few miles were very congested and we were clipping each others shoes often. I couldn’t believe how many people were running under 3 hours in this marathon, it is incredible.

I had my phone with me because I wanted to make it easy for Andrew to track me so I did take two pictures while running.

I started the race and knew it was going to be a good day, I felt better than ever. I had to hold myself back. I wanted to run faster because I felt so good!

The course was incredible. I saw so many sights, people, and architectural designs that were breathtaking. The blogger in me wanted to take a picture every minute.

Somehow, I was able to see Andrew and the kids 5 times. Five. I also saw the City Sightseeing group many times and there is quite the adrenaline boost that comes from seeing people you know and love.

I took my gels every four miles and I also took 5 salt tablets throughout the marathon. Maurtens do not have enough electrolytes and I usually think that I can get enough from Gatorade but now that I know how amazing salt tablets make me feel, I’ll use them for every race.

I’ve had so many marathons where I started really hurting at mile 16 or so and I really didn’t want that to happen again. I wanted to enjoy this one more than I usually do racing a marathon. I tried to be so smart with my pacing and the beauty of flat races where you just set it and forget it with your pace.

At about mile 18 I started feeling pretty warm. My friend that lives here said it was a warm day for February but I did my best to stop thinking about how I felt.

I poured probably 20 cups of water over my head throughout the race which helped so much with the heat for me.

Here are the splits:

Just feeling like Makenna Myler for the first 22 miles and thinking about how we can ‘have kids and dreams.’

At about mile 21 I grabbed what I thought was water but it was some new sports drink and I started cramping up a bit after that. It was so strange but my legs felt like they were seizing up those final miles. I told myself that I wasn’t actually going to die and to think about ANYTHING else than how I was feeling and to just survive.

The final 10k you are running through the heart of the city. It is stunning. It is tricky though because we went from bricks, to cobblestone to tile. There were so many cracks and train tracks that I really had to focus on not falling on my face! Isn’t it funny how dramatic our brains become in the final 10k of a marathon?

We came around a corner and I could see Andrew and the kids and then the finish line. I knew I was going to get that sub 3 and wanted to cry (and lay down) I was so happy.
I crossed, saw my friends and sat down on the ground. Mitch ran a 2:22! He is the won that won the Budapest marathon when we went! What international marathon should we do next?

And now for some tangents:

*Whenever I could feel myself slowing down a bit, I really tried to push my chest forward. It helps me to fix my form up and force my legs to keep up with the rest of my body.

*I feel really proud about this race. I have never run a flat marathon which was very out of my comfort zone. I knew it was going to be warm and with traveling and walking 10 miles each day leading up to the race, I’m beyond happy with how it went.

*Brooke, Knox, and Skye all said they want to do a marathon after watching this one!

*I put my music in at exactly 13.1 miles and I love doing that. It is the best pep!

*I love looking at everyone’s shoes during the marathon and I was suprised to see even more adidas adiizero adios 3s than Nikes! I also saw a ton of Pumas!

*Fun fact with flat marathons, your body feels every incline or decline. I’m so used to downhill or rolling courses that I was laughing to myself at mile 18 that the smallest incline felt like I was climbing a mountain ha.

*Having the Olympic trials to watch just before this race was the best. Those athletes inspired me so much and I kept thinking about them all during the race.

*I passed a guy at around mile 18 and he said, “Muy Bueno.” Ummm international races are my absolute favorite now.

*You could tell who was American during the race very easily. Everyone’s watches were beeping around the kilometer marks but a few of us had them beeping at the mile marks ha.

*I listened to Deena Kastor on a podcast while I was getting ready. She is so good at teaching people to find joy in every circumstance no matter how you are feeling and she is the ultimate pre-race motivator.

*There were so many DJs along the way in the final 10k which I thought was so fun.

*I reminded myself to relax about 300 times. It’s so easy in the marathon (especially after doing so many) to worry about what is up ahead. I told myself to calm down, worrying about what is up ahead does nothing for us but hold us back from our dreams. It felt so good to tell myself to relax and just run the moment I was in!

*They passed out cups of water at most of the aid stations but at a few they gave a full waterbottle out. This was VERY new for me but I loved it, I took a shower with the waterbottle after I took a few sips.

*Nothing like pouring sports drink over your head ha… anyone else ever do that? Theirs looked just like water!

*This tasted so good afterwards. So good.

*I’m getting really good at kilometer math. I also tried to learn Spanish as I was running and understand all of signs around me.

*The sea level part made me feel like I wasn’t even breathing the whole time. It was definitely my legs/cramps that died, not my breathing.

*There was a lot of bar type things on the sides of the roads but all of the runners in front of me were always pointing at any hazards along the way to make sure nobody tripped over them. I found it so polite and considerate.

*We will be back. Between how much we love our City Sightseeing friends (they live here) and this amazing course, we will be back!

Please don’t mind all of the grammatical errors, I wrote this post in about 30 minutes flat ha!

How was your weekend???

Favorite race that you have ever done?

Ever had leg cramps? What did you do to help them?

Flat races or rolling races… what do you prefer?