According to my mom, my horoscope for the day of the marathon read: …
“Aries: Your chances of achieving one of your ambitions before the month is over are quite good. Much depends on the work you do today and your ability to repeat this work.”
Things that went well:
I finished. I am extremely proud of the 26.2 decal on my car. (Yeah, I am THAT guy.) I felt great and completely enjoyed the first 20 miles. Absolutely no injuries. No IT band pain, no patellar tendonitis, no strained hip flexors…all issues I have previously experienced when pushing the distance. The Kinvara 2s rocked. I didn’t even have a blister! I was stiff the day after and only a little sore the next but I ran three miles after work – no problem. I’m ready to sign up for another marathon. Soon.
Things that didn’t go so well:
I’m happy that I finished but I’m kind of bummed about the 4:54:30 time. I was on track to break 4.5 hours at mile marker 22 but things really fell apart after that. It took over an hour to “run” the last four miles.
I severely underestimated the difficulty of the last 6 miles. Pretty much everything I had read about marathon training said “Don’t worry about the last 6 miles. The excitement of the race and the crowd of runners will encourage you.” Maybe so in Chicago or New York. There were 216 registered for this marathon and I finished behind 41 of them. Except for one water stop and a mobile medical crew, I saw two people the last 4 miles. There was NOBODY to rely on for motivation.
Looking back, I made some big but correctable mistakes. The biggest, I let myself get dehydrated. I’m very cautious of hyponatremia so I was taking endurolytes and drinking a little conservatively. Starting about mile 22, I had all the symptoms of dehydration…or hyponatremia…I wasn’t sure which so I erred on the side of not dying and tried to drink even less. I chose poorly. I weighed about 4 pounds less after the race and that was after rehydrating with 24 oz of water and even post-race pizza. That’s less than 2.5 percent of bodyweight. Not dangerously dehydrated, but enough to cause performance problems. It got up to the high 80s almost as soon as the sun came up but since it was so cool at the start, it didn’t really register with me that I should treat it as a summer run. I ditched my shirt at mile 13 but that was because I didn’t want pictures of bloody nips all over the Internet. Besides, I have abs like Jersey Shore’s “The Situation”.
Another mistake I won’t make again is using caffeinated gels. I know from past experience I can’t tolerate them on long runs but I was SURE I would need the boost so I brought three caffeinated and three regular. I finished the race badly needing carbs but I couldn’t stand the thought of taking the last caffeinated gel so it went unopened. As I think about it now, the severe nausea was probably from dehydration and not so much from caffeine but I know that at the time I could have taken a regular gel if I had one but wouldn’t touch the caffeinated one still in my belt.
No doubt about it, finishing a marathon is a major accomplishment. It is way tougher than I imagined. I can empathize with the people that give up with less than two miles to go…it crossed my mind. I have great respect for anyone that has gone the distance no matter how long it took.
Still, I can’t help thinking how much better I will do if I can figure out how to actually run the last six miles.
As I write this, it is about 15 days until the third annual Run For Life Marathon. I have been training for this race, my first marathon, for the past 6 months. I only have a few more good runs left in the next few days before tapering off and nervously resting my shin splints. This late in the game, there’s no point continuing to train hard since any performance gain wouldn’t be realized until after the race. So, now, it’s time to focus on nailing down a race strategy. Specifically, I want to set a few overall goals, finalize a fueling plan, and really think hard about pacing.
How can I set a realistic goal without prior marathon experience to base it off of? I know how long it takes me to casually run 16 – 20 miles in mid-summer Mississippi heat but does that translate to a marathon race in October? Luckily, people smarter than me have figured out how to predict marathon race time based on previous times from shorter races. A Google search for “running pace predictor” and a previous half marathon time (or two) are all that’s needed to get started.
For this experiment, I’ll use my most recent half marathon times. These races were run two weeks apart in April and in very different conditions. The Pensacola Beach Half Marathon was flat but hot and very humid… 2:06:16 9:33/mi. The Renaissance Half Marathon was hilly but the weather was great. I also had the benefit of running the last 7 miles with a faster friend pacing me… 1:54:33 8:45/mi.
Plugging in my times, I get: Continue reading
Underneath my keyboard at home, I keep two important things. A well-worn printout of Hal Higdon’s “Novice 2” 18 week marathon training schedule and an equally worn Runner’s World “SmartCoach” marathon training schedule. From these two sources, I have created my own customized marathon training program.“Hey, what are you training for?”
“Oh, I’m doing my first marathon next month.”
“You’ve been out here a long time. I saw you a few hours ago in Madison.”
“Yeah, its been about three hours now.”
“I thought you might be training for the Badwater Ultra-Marathon…”
Don’t worry, Robin. This doesn’t make me want to actually race 135 miles across Death Valley in mid-July. But I’m ok with getting mistaken for someone that hardcore. Truth is, I might as well have been in the middle of the world’s toughest footrace. I was about to push farther than I had ever gone before, and win.
Twenty miles is a long way to run. I haven’t even ridden my bike that far yet. (I know, I need to ride more.) Needless to say, I’m very proud of this accomplishment and I’m really looking forward to my chance to join the ranks of the marathoners in just a few weeks.
My first full marathon is now only seven weeks away. Training consistently has been difficult in this brutally hot summer. At this point, I know I’m half-marathon fit, but I’m worried that I’m not marathon fit. After today’s long run, I’m pretty sure a DNF is not in my future but the last ten miles are going to be an awful struggle.
Today, I hit mile 16 at the base of a long demoralizing hill. I had already taken my last gel one mile back and it was doing nothing for me. So I walked, and walked, and walked. I couldn’t even motivate myself to pick up the pace (and pretend like I’d been running all along) when I saw cyclists heading my way. I don’t know if I ever really “broke through” the wall. I was able to get myself running again but it seemed like the walls were lined up every quarter mile or so. I should add that the temperature was around 97 and shade was non-existent.
Salt crust was thick on my clothes and skin so there’s a good chance my electrolytes were low. I like my current fueling strategy of drinking only water and getting electrolytes and carbs from PowerGel but I may need more than just the gel – at least in the summer heat. I think I’ll check some ultra-running blogs for advice on getting additional electrolytes. Hopefully, that will be just what I need to get me through the wall. Suggestions, anyone?
I have read most of ultra-marathoner Dean Karnazes’ books over the summer. If you don’t know who he is, Google. He may be a shameless self-promoter, but I like his sense of adventure. One of the quirky things he does frequently is put the family to bed and then go out for a run…until sunrise. It just happens that, like Dean, the best time for me to go run is after everyone else has done their thing and gone to bed. I haven’t run all night (yet) but I have gotten in a few late night long runs.