As promised, I’m back for a post-marathon write up. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Here goes!

The Big Day

I was concerned about being able to sleep the night before the race. But it wasn’t so bad. For the first 5 hours, I slept like a baby. Then, I just wasn’t tired anymore. So I laid there for a couple of hours until my alarm finally went off.

Breakfast consisted of a banana and some oatmeal. Something that shouldn’t come back to haunt me later. Around 5:15, we left my brother’s house. Lots of anticipation here. Not knowing what to expect.

We arrived at the race area close to 6. I spent about 25 minutes warming up before the race, then they started calling us to the starting line. This is one of the smaller local marathons, with probably 300 participants. The temperature was 52 degrees when we started. A little warmer than my last few workouts, but still nice.

Great Start

The race course was set up as a giant loop that we ran twice. The first loop was amazing. I was right on track for a 4 hour finish. Feeling great and not pushing too hard. Breathing was very much under control. At the halfway point, I was very confident in my ability to continue at the same pace for another 2 hours. This was what I had trained for!

But Then…

But then, it all started. Shortly into the second half, I began slowing down involuntarily. There was nothing I could do to stop it. My legs just wouldn’t move any faster. What was wrong? Then, the headwind picked up substantially. Suddenly, it wasn’t nearly as much fun. I had taken in plenty of carbohydrates, so there was no way I should have been hitting the wall at any point. Much less, this early in the race.

A little while later, everything started to cramp. My calves, hamstrings, quads, groin, and even my right forearm. Why was my right forearm cramping? It wasn’t from fatigue. I never had problems with cramping during training. Not even on my 29 mile run. This had to be from dehydration. Dang! Apparently, I had underestimated the need for pre-race hydration and now I was paying the price.

At this point, the temperature had increased quite a bit. By the time I was about halfway into the second loop, it just felt hot. The side of the trail around mile 18 looked like a war zone. There were a lot of people pulled over, stretching and trying to work out cramps. Some participants were in bad enough shape that they couldn’t even stand up.

I didn’t have it quite that bad. For the last few miles, I was able to keep moving forward by alternating walking and running. I would run until the cramps started, then walk. Once the cramping subsided, I would run again, though not very fast. The last 6 miles or so was miserable. It felt like I was never going to finish. More than anything, I just wanted to see my family. The temptation to quit was very strong. But I knew I had to press on.

With what little I had in me, I kept moving forward. One step at a time.

At Last…

At last, I could see the finish line. I could also hear the roar of the crowd. As I drew closer, I saw my family cheering me on. What a wonderful sight! Then, two of our kids came out and ran the last 100 yards or so with me. We crossed the finish line together with an average pace of 10:16/mile. I almost broke down and cried right there. With all of the struggles of the race, this absolutely made my day.

After finishing, I could hardly stand up without everything cramping. I felt like I was going to pass out. It was hard to put my sentences together. The heat and dehydration had taken a lot of out me.

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Truly Blessed

To try and cool down, I walked a mile. My legs were shot. The fastest mile I could manage was around 26 minutes. During the walk, I completely lost it. I couldn’t stop crying. Not because I was disappointed, but because I was so grateful. The race had really helped put things into perspective. Running is great. It’s something I truly enjoy and hope to continue with for as long as I am physically able. But the family and friends God has given me are worth far more than this. I wouldn’t trade them for a world record in the marathon. At that moment, I realized that I was truly blessed. So, in that regard, it was a wonderful day.

Recovering and Reflection

As I write this entry, I’m now 7 days into recovery. I’m past the point of everything hurting. My legs pretty much feel normal again. There’s a little residual fatigue, but it’s getting better by the day.

I had been contemplating the question of whether or not I would ever run another marathon. Had you asked me around mile 18 or later, I would have said “absolutely not”. But I should have known that my retirement from running marathons wouldn’t last long.

There’s part of me that really wants to make this right. I trained well. Aerobically, I was ready. But everything was derailed by a simple mistake. Now I know and I would like another chance. If I don’t, I think this will bother me for a long time. So I’m considering another marathon this spring. This one is more for redemption than anything. Then, I can revisit the issue of running future marathons.

For Now…

But for now, the biggest event on my plate is a local 5K that my daughter Gracie asked me to run with her on Thanksgiving. This one is just for fun. I’ll slow down a couple of minutes per mile so that we can stay together and make some good memories. Then, I get to enjoy the day with my family and give thanks to God for all He has done for us.

I’m not sure if I’ll write about my next marathon journey or if I’ll do this one more quietly. There still time to decide. But either way, if you stuck with me this far, thank you. It’s been a real joy for me. And I hope it’s been the same for you. God bless.

The taper starts, which means that this week’s entry might not be terribly exciting. But maybe I can throw in enough personal content to keep it somewhat interesting. I have to say that this is a welcome break. The last two longer runs were probably more mentally tough than anything. Physically, I could do them with no problem. But I found myself starting to think “dang…is this run EVER going to end.”

The question of whether I will consider doing this (running a marathon) again has been stirring in my mind. At this point, I really don’t know. The first part of training was relatively easy to fit into my schedule. For example, a 1-2 hour run isn’t very disruptive on a Saturday morning. If I start early enough, I can feasibly be done around the time my family is getting out of bed. But for someone with a job, family, and other responsibilities, fitting in a 4-5 hour workout is not so easy.

But this isn’t a decision I have to make right now. I’ll at least wait until I’ve finished the race and have been able to recover. Then, I think I can be more objective.

Day 1

This is strange. Something on the side of my left leg doesn’t feel great. I didn’t notice this yesterday, but started feeling it when I was doing some side steps using a resistance band. Stepping to the right didn’t bother me, but stepping to the left did. When I tried placing the band around my knees rather than ankles, the pain wasn’t there. Not sure what to make of this. We’ll see how it goes this morning.

Easier workout than usual. 45 minutes of easy running.

All done. Average pace of 10:15/mile and average heart rate of 134. The left leg didn’t bother me during the run, but still felt a little achy afterward. It feels like I jammed it or stepped wrong, which I’ve done before. I’m icing and resting it today. I’ll gauge how it’s feeling and then decide what to do about tomorrow’s workout.

Monday afternoon and it’s feeling better. Legs feel like they’re recovering.

Day 2

Today’s run is only 25 minutes. It’s hard to even remember the last time I ran for this short of time. How much can you write about a workout this short? Unless something really eventful happens, not much. The left leg feels a lot better today, by the way.

Alright, I’m all done. I almost feel guilty even saying this after such a short workout. It started raining midway through the run, but otherwise nothing eventful. After the first easier mile, I ran the rest of the time close to goal marathon pace.

Looking ahead, there’s a 40 percent chance of rain on race day. It’s obviously not a guarantee, but there is a possibility.

Day 3

Not much going on today. I did a core workout for runners, which may have taken 15 minutes. Something occurred to me. While you’re in the peak phase of training, there’s a certain amount of feeling beat up that you just get used to. Almost to the point that you forget about it. Halfway into the first week of the taper, my legs are feeling better than they’ve felt in a while.

Day 4

Marathon taper observation number 2. I’ve been feeling more tired than usual. Legs still feel good and the workouts are no problem. I’ll wake up feeling great. But then it starts to hit sometime mid-morning. By the time I reach my lunch break, I’m ready for a big fat nap!

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Today’s workout is a warmup plus 45 minutes, on a hilly neighborhood route. For fall in Texas, it’s quite cold this morning. Around 32F. It’s cold enough that I’m having to wear a face mask, which I almost never wear.

All done. Average pace of 9:47/mile and average heart rate of 147. Even with the cold weather, I still managed to break a good sweat. Good workout.

Day 5

My brother, Mark, is considerably more of a planner than I am. He sent me a “marathon game plan” email with a pretty extensive list of things, some of which I hadn’t even considered. For example, sunglasses. I do most of my running while it’s still dark, so I hadn’t though about this. But I decided to go ahead and order a pair.

Tonight is an away game for the varsity football team. Last time we played this team away, the parking situation wasn’t good. There were very few spaces and we ended up parking at a church that was about a mile away. This time, we got there at least an hour before the game started and ate dinner in the car. Much better!

This game made me nervous from the beginning. We knew this team would be a challenge. Two years ago, they beat us badly. Last year, their team wasn’t as good and we dominated. This year, the teams are very evenly matched. On their first drive, they covered about 80 yards in 3 plays to score a touchdown. Not a good start!

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They outplayed our guys in the first half and were ahead 22-13. One of our coaches was even ejected following a controversial call just before halftime. But the second half was much better. Our offense and defense both played stronger and ended up winning a close game at 32-31.

It’s interesting how much moving around warms up the body. It was around 48F the whole game. Running at this temperature, I’m OK with a short sleeve shirt and shorts, at least once I get moving. But it felt really cold last night. By the end of the game, my toes were numb! Enough for one day…time for bed.

Day 6

I almost felt lazy sleeping until 6 and not starting my “long” run until 7. But it’s only 7 miles and the weather is cold. So I don’t see any sense in waking up as early. Since I don’t have anywhere to be for a little while and this is a shorter workout than usual, I’ll be running on Bear Creek Trail in Keller. This is just a few miles from home. As far as I can remember, I’ve only run here once during my marathon training.

All done! Great workout. The only downer was that I didn’t plan the route very well. So I spent the first 6 miles gradually accelerating, but then spend a good part of mile 7 running uphill. Because I’m trying to keep the effort consistent, it slowed me down by about 20 seconds per mile. Oh well. Still a great workout. I had planned to take a couple of pictures, but my camera died before I had the chance.

Today, I also had chance to play and sing a few songs for a cancer benefit. It’s for the daughter of some of our church friends. I really enjoyed being part of this and was grateful that they were able to raise money to help with her treatment. There was a special guest artist who drew pictures of all of the performers. He’s only 19, but he’s been drawing since he was 2. I thought the picture he drew of me was quite impressive.

Day 7

Now I need to add one day into the marathon training schedule. It was written with the long run being on Sunday, which is the same day the marathon will be. However, with church on Sunday morning, I’ve been doing the long runs on Saturday. This leaves a one day gap that I need to fill in, one way or another.

I decided to do a workout, but to keep it easy. Just a 30 minute walk with periodic easy running intervals thrown in. It’s a 45/15 ratio, meaning that I’m walking for 45 seconds, running for 15 seconds, and repeating.

All done. Average pace of 12:22/mile and average heart rate of 108. Aerobically, it was easy and didn’t feel like I did much.

Our daughter’s band had a performance prior to them leaving for a short trip to San Antonio. They made state and will be performing at the Alamo Dome, along with a number of other bands. That’s where we’ll be early next week.

Final Thoughts

Another great week. I told a friend that I feel like a million bucks and a sloth, all at the same time. Physically, I feel great. But with the workouts being shorter, it’s still hard not to feel guilty. A week from now, the race will all be done. It’s kind of bittersweet to think about this. I’m really excited and looking forward to the big day. At the same time, it’s been a great journey and one that I’ll miss. Hopefully, this will be the first of many to come.

Anyway, that’s it for now. 25 weeks down and only 1 to go!