CIM Recap 12/7/08

I actually ran my smartest and gutsiest marathon while having an extremely BAD day. It started when my glands felt swollen on Friday after the drive up to Sacramento. I took some Vitamin C Friday night and woke up feeling ok on Saturday morning thinking that I had averted the disaster of being sick on race day after 7 months of training. I drank more OJ and relaxed on Saturday keeping off my feet and watching football games all afternoon.

Sunday on the bus ride to the start I was relaxed and my resting pulse was in the mid 60's, when my normal resting pulse is 45-48. With the excitement of the race I normally might see my pulse in the mid 50's but readings of mid 60's while sitting down was a bad omen. Being an accountant with a love of tracking numbers, I take my resting HR every morning and I know it goes up when I'm either on the cusp of getting sick or recovering from a tough workout. Being an optimist I decided to stick my plan of going for a 1:44 split in search of a negative split 3:23-3:25 or at worst a 3:30 BQ.

With perfect mid 40's temps and cloudy weather, I started off with a couple of 8 plus minute miles and my HR was already up near 160, another bad omen of things to come. My plan was to keep my HR around 150-155 until the half way mark but I was at a consistent 160 by mile 5 running at just under 8 minute miles. Through miles 9-13, I continued to run at slightly sub 8 pace on the mostly downhill sections and my HR hovered at 160 even on the down hills. I hit the half on target at 1:44 but my right hamstring (an old injury) had started to bother me at mile 3 and my calves were screaming from mile 8. To even things out, my quads were toast by mile 15 and I developed what turned out to be a half dollar size blister on my right foot all with 11 more miles.

By the half I had changed my objective from a 3:23 to a 3:30:59. By mile 18 I was just trying to get to mile 20 and at mile 20 I promised myself I’d take a short walk break at mile 21 and calculate the time I needed to run 3:30:59 with 5 miles to go. At that point I pulled off the pace group. The short walk break made me feel better but it did not lower my HR as I’d hoped and I ran miles 22 and 23 at 8:25 pace as my HR stayed at 172. My heart rate had been above my threshold of approx. 168 since mile 15 so I knew I was running on empty. I walked some more at the start of mile 24 and that resulted in a mile 24 split of 8:53. Not good. My Garmin showed an average pace that had slipped from 7:55 to 8:01 and at the mile 24 mark I calculated that I'd need to run 17 minutes over the last 2.2 (7:45 pace) and I was completely out of gas. I’d run at an average of 94% of max HR for the past 10 miles so I conceded my goal and I walked the 2 miles up to the 26 mile mark before shuffling to the finish line. I know if I finished in 3:32, it would eat me up for the next six months so I opted to call it a day. I finished in 3:46.

Today, I’m back at work feeling sore as can be having to once again retrieve my marathon cane from the back of my closet. My glands are swollen and my throat is sore but I know that I left if all out on the course, every last bit of what I had yesterday, even a few tears at mile 24. I’d be lying to say I’m not disappointed as I’m finishing up this report today but that’s the deal you agree to when you take on a challenge like the marathon. There are going to be tough days and some may call them forgettable days and we all have them. For me, yesterday wasn’t forgettable, it was truly memorable. I’ll remember it as my best marathon, the day I ran my heart out and truly tested myself when the odds were stacked up against me and I almost reached my goal. There's always another race and I’ll give it another shot next fall.