Thousand Miles to Salamanca

The Beast Is Not Tamed

LOG ENTRY

Distance: 26.2 miles

I'll start by saying the obvious: the marathon is a difficult beast to tame. That being said, I'll share the results right away. I did not hit my goal (or even close) but I still had an approximate 11-minute PR.

Regarding this, I don't feel bad. Because I can say that I did everything I could to prepare. One could go on and on about conditions being bad (and it was cold, really cold) or any other theory but I think it boils down to the fact that the marathon is a difficult beast to tame. And one other lesson I'm learning after number 3 is that progress is based on small increments.

Here's the splits

1-7:32, 2-7:20, 3-7:01, 4-7:13, 5-7:10

I wasn't getting into this run. These miles felt a bit forced, but I knew they would be. And my coach said that the first 5 miles shouldn't feel great. So I was okay with my progress. I knew we were on track at this point.

6-7:11, 7-7:22, 8-7:16, 9-7:59**, 10-7:22

I had the slightest urge to go to the bathroom during mile 9. Rather than sit on it for a while, I thought I would solve the problem. So I stopped... and went. After, it was hard to get back into the run as the 3:15 group whizzed by (no pun intended).

11-7:29, 12-7:24, 13-7:39, 14-7:42, 15-7:29

What really threw me off were the 3:20 crowd whizzing by at mile 12.5 or so. I'd be lying if I said it didn't effect me.

Greg and I stayed with them for a little while, but at or near the 13-mile mark I had an uneasy feeling. I was struggling maintaining pace. And it was only at mile 13. I knew I was in for a long day and in my mind I went through all my options: including just quitting. I seriously thought about it.

16-7:39, 17-8:02, 18-8:33, 19-8:58, 20-9:05

The part I knew would be tough, was. But already I was in survival mode. In retrospect, our times weren't that bad but they felt much slower. At mile 20, I looked and felt awful. I couldn't take down any food. But we trucked along, slowly.

The good news was that the thoughts of quitting stopped. I knew I wasn't going to hit my goal and I figured I could survive. Then we just started to have fun. At around the State Capital Building I just started counting out loud: 4-8-12-16, 4-8-12-16, 4-8-12-16.

Greg looked at me funny, then he realized what I was doing. Then he started counting too. It was awesome. He was so supportive through these miles. It was quite obvious he had lots of energy left and could easily have had a strong run himself. But he was right there to help me through.

Once we hit Cesar Chavez, we were just acting silly. One step at a time, we went back and forth on the counting. Pace groups were whipping by. We didn't care. Then at the turn around (which was just awful, as I predicted) we saw a girl on a bike. And I was very tempted to ask her to borrow it. And if she offered, I probably would have ridden it to the bridge.

21-9:24, 22-10:27, 23-12:59, 24-11:24, 25-10:42

And to add to the comic relief, the crowds were awesome. The signs said it all. I liked one in particular: "It seemed like a good idea in September." That set the tone for the rest of the day. We smiled and laughed and seriously just tried to take in the absurdity of the event. It was just fun.

26-9:52, 26.2-1:10

And we even picked it up a notch at the end. In fact, as we jogged towards the stretch, I knew I had to pick it up. Because I was looking for a Boston Qualifying time. And I knew I *still* had a chance to get one. So we picked it up and crossed the finish line at 3:39:40. One small caveat: I'm male, not female. But I got a good chuckle at the thought.

The finish was surreal. And in many ways was emotional. Greg was awesome (thanks again). To Greg, you helped me in so many ways improve these last couple of months. I worked harder than I ever had in hopes I could keep up. And although this wasn't necessarily my best day, you pulled me through it when I didn't feel like finishing. So again, Greg, thanks for being there.

If I learned one particular lesson today, it was this. A true measure of a competitor is if they can perservere through less than ideal conditions. An even truer measure is that they can have fun and put it all in perspective. In the end, the numbers don't mean a lick. It's what you are in the process. That means it all.

Total: 3:39.40 (That's all she wrote for Freescale 2006)

posted by Gray @ 8:54 PM