Twice in two years, who knew that marathons could be habit forming?
I was training for the HNL marathon and then suffered an injury (sciatica)
in early November which put an end to that idea. So on Saturday afternoon
when I went down to the packet pickup with Alan to get my fair share of
abuse it was strictly for the fun of it Alan is a good friend and training
partner up until the injury...not to say that he wasn't my friend after the
injury just..ah..nevermind. There is a runners expo with stuff for sale,
other marathons send reps to try and get you to come to their city to do
their marathon etc etc. So anyway Alan and I are wandering around and maybe
it was the excitement of the moment but on a whim I said "Screw it, I'm
doing it." I mean why not? Nobody is expecting me to do it so if I don't
finish no one knows. My back finally was feeling better. I hadn't walked
or run farther than the car to the door in 5 weeks. Why not indeed. Public
Service Announcement: Never do a marathon on a whim.
After we get enough abuse (seriously the expo up was a cluster) Alan and I
head over to an Italian restaurant nearby to fill up on spaghetti and map
out the plans for tomorrow. At one point I said something along the lines
of "This could end up being the dumbest thing I've ever done it my life."
<--- That's called 'foreshadowing' folks. To which Alan replied "I'm sure
at your age you've done plenty of things dumber." Tough to argue with that
logic.
The ONLY good things about doing a marathon on a whim is you don't spend the
previous 4 weeks paranoid of the cold/flu every time somebody sneezes within
10 feet of you and you don't have a lot of restless night thinking about how
it's going to go. Only one very restless night. I watched "Lord of the
Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" that evening. Hey, if a Hobbit can make
it to Mordor I can do 26.2 miles right?
Race day:
I met up with Alan at about 4:35am and we walked down to the starting area.
We timed it quite well as very soon after we arrive the fireworks go off and
we're under way. Soon after we cross the starting line Alan begins to get
out ahead of me a little bit. He glances over his shoulder and I yelled "Go
at your own pace" and that was the last I saw of him. I could pick out his
hat in the crowd upfront for the next mile or two but after that he was
gone. It was his 5th marathon and he ended up finishing in good shape with
a 6:22. My plan was to force myself to walk for the first several miles.
There were times when I really felt the urge to run and had to resist.
Theoretically the second half of the marathon should be faster than the
first half if you've paced yourself correctly.
Everything was going along fine, so far. I wore my "DEAN FOR AMERICA"
T-shirt. As I was going through Waikiki a spectator yelled out "Go DEAN!"
It caught me off guard and I wasn't ready with a response so I just gave
them a smile and a shaka. The next time it happened I was ready. "Liberals
Rule!" I shouted back. The t-shirt would get me lots of positive comments
along the way.
Things were going along according to plan up until about mile 15 or so.
When, it started in low, then it started to grow...Pain. My times reflect
the effect it had on me too.
10K (6.21 miles) time of 1:36:41 = a 15.45 minutes per mile pace which is
right where I figured I wanted to be
13.1 miles (1/2 way) time of 3:22:32 = a 15.41 minutes per mile pace again
right on pace
30K (18.64 miles) time of 4:59:54 = 16.07 minutes per mile
Then came the serious pain (the first pain was just the warm up band)
Finish time of 8:01:18 = 18.36 minutes per mile, which doesn't sound too bad
except if you take and figure out my pace between the 30K and the finish
it's over 23 minutes per mile.
Between miles 18 and 19 I was really really REALLY tempted to quit. At
eighteen miles you're still have 8 long painful miles ahead. So you ask
yourself a couple of questions: 1) Can I go the 8 miles? After all why try
to force another 4 miles out of yourself just to end up having to drop out
on mile 22. If the answer to question number 1 is yes, I can finish, then
2) Do I really WANT to stagger, stumble or crawl for another 2+ hours? Or
to put it another way; how much pain is a !!#^& t-shirt worth anyway? The
irony of dropping out of a race while wearing a Dean t-shirt was not lost on
me either.
I did a full body pain inventory. Everything except my right arm, my chest
and my abs were complaining to some degree or another..oh..and my teeth. I
didn't have a toothache. But no "Danger Will Robinson Danger" type pain so
ok then, all systems are go. Since misery loves company almost as much as
it loves ibuprofen I struck up conversations with the people around me. It
really helps take your mind off the next step. One Japanese lady I talked
to is getting married on Tuesday. If she feels half as bad as I do she'll
be limping down the aisle instead. Good luck consumating that marriage HA
We walked together from about mile 20 until 23. I guess the second time I
had to stop and rest/stretch she correctly figured I wasn't going to get any
better, wished me luck and continued on without waiting for me.
I must have looked as bad as I felt because a few people asked if I was ok.
I even tried the Zen route of "There is no pain..it's all in my mind"
Um..yeah..right. I can now officially call BS on every martial arts movie
I've ever seen.
I'd plod along until I couldn't stand it, stop, rest until the pain subsided
and plod some more. Broken up by occasional bouts of Tourettes Syndrome.
But in the end brute force and ignorance carried the day as I slugged out an
8 hour marathon.. There are many more stories but I think if I try to tell
them all here and now this letter will never get this sent.
My legs are still quite stiff but not the "danger" kind of pain and oddly
enough my back feels the best it's felt in a month. A case of the cure
being worse than the problem if there ever was one.
Doing the marathon on a whim might not be the dumbest thing I've ever done
but it definitely makes it into the top 5 🙂
Aloha and Merry Christmas