San Antonio: Rock & Roll Marathon

Sunday, November 16, 2008
7:30 AM, San Antonio, Texas
http://results.active.com/pages/oneResult.jsp?pID=48026560&rsID=72893

My Goal:

• Wanted: between 3:15 - 3:30
• Did: 3:54:29
  

My Rankings:

• Overall: 1452 / 7618
• Gender: 1084 / 4070
  
• Division: 103 / 405
  

It's been two days now since my first marathon run and I'm still barely able to walk. My left calf is swollen, to the size of my thigh, and terrible, shooting, pains coarse up and down it whenever I try to put any weight on it. Supplies are running low; the only edible items left in my cupboard are beans and a can of seasoned cabbage I never had any intention of ever eating... and still don't. I must find a way to get food soon or my only option will be to amputate! I could call a friend or call for carry-out but that involves walking to a door which now seems further than the 26.2 miles I had already ran. The situation seems hopeless. "How did it come to this?", I ask myself as a hollow echo rumbles through my belly and I eye my lame leg in anguish.

It all started the Wednesday after the Iron Star Half Ironman. I was resting to give myself some time to recover and by Wednesday my legs were feeling almost back to 90%. It felt like a slow run would do my legs good so I decided to go out for a slow five mile run that afternoon. Halfway through the run, my thirst for speed took hold of my better judgment and I decided to throw some fartleks into my workout. Seemingly, everything went well with the run and I quit that night happy with the time I had finished in.

An hour after the run I could tell something was wrong because my left calf muscle was cramped up into a perpetual knot. Over the next few days leading up to the marathon I tried massage, ice and heat packs, herbal remedies and anything else I thought might help. By race day the knotted muscle had loosened up and, though I could still feel it was there, I decided to go through with the race.

That morning, I arrived at the race early and my brother, Ty, came along to bandit run part of it with me. Special note to all future marathoners: bring a roll of TP with you! With 20,000+ people waiting to get that last stop in before the race, your chance of finding a stall with TP are slim to none. I had to use my gloves...

Corral #1 was were I was to start from (right behind the elite runners) which seemed like a good idea when I was registering but today I felt out of place. There was no way I was going to keep up with the other runners in corral #1 after heavily lacking in training, due to a hip problem which sidelined me for over a month, and a knotted calf muscle. A blast from the starting gun rang out and my first marathon had begun! As expected everyone in corral #1 passed me up (even some dude who was speed walking)!

For the first five miles I felt great and was keeping up with the 3:15 pacer. Soon after the five mile mark, my knotted calf muscle woke up and began making sure I knew it was there. By mile ten, the pain was bad... to the point where I could not maintain my normal running form and the pacers began to pass me up. At the expo the day before, I had stopped and listened to the Rock Doc who was giving tips to all the runners about how to take care of themselves before, during and after the race. One thing he had said was now playing over and over in my head as I continued to run; he said "you should continue running only as long as you can maintain your run form". Well I could no longer maintain my running form and I was honestly thinking about dropping out of the race at this point because the pain was so bad.

The thought of dropping out lasted for maybe a quarter mile and then, being the stubborn person I am, I decided that if I could not maintain my normal running form then I would adopt a new running form. There was no way I wasn't going to finish today, I had been looking forward to this race for far too long to quit now! If I reduced my speed, pronated my left foot, landed slightly more on the heel and put less weight on my left leg, the calf pain was severely reduced and bearable. My new running form seemed to be working well until another three miles had passed at which point I noticed I was developing a large blister on my left foot. I tried making some further adjustments to my running form and though I found some relief there was no way around it... I was going to have a huge blister when I was finished!

At mile 17 I had a major crap attack and needed to stop and use the restroom; perhaps eating an entire large pizza, the night before the race, wasn't as good an idea as I thought it was! At mile 20 I noticed a very sharp, biting pain at the top of my left hip but compared to the other pains I was feeling, it was mild and I didn't pay much attention to it. At mile 23 I had to use the restroom again; definitely want to stay away from that pizza the night before a marathon! Around mile 25 I saw Ty again and he ran with me for the last mile and then ducked off the course for the final .2 miles. My legs may have been hurting but my upper body felt incredible and I felt as though I had barely pushed my cardio fitness level so I sprinted the final .15 miles. I crossed the finish line at 3:54:29... much slower than I had wanted but what an incredible rush and a relief to be finished. I'll be damned if my time was going to bring down my spirits at this point! It took a whole 20-30 minutes before my elated mood and the endorphins began to subside and I began to notice the pain in my leg again.

Damage Report: Three hours after the race, there was a knot on my calf about the size of a ping-pong ball and I had a blood-blister on my left foot the size of a quarter! That biting pain on my hip, I noticed at mile 20, was from the gel packs I was carrying on the inside of my shorts. The tops of the gel packs were sticking out the top of my inner pocket and rubbing against my hip. They had rubbed off all the skin on my hip in an area the size of a quarter and I had blood all on the inside of my shorts from it!

Despite all the pains I went through during this race, words cannot describe how happy I am to have finished in spite of these obstacles! In retrospect, the physical pain I was now enduring was nothing to the emotional pain I could imagine if I would have quit at mile 10 or anywhere afterwards. This race has taught me that if I want something, I'm going to make it happen and I'm going to get it. That is part of my stubborn nature and so far it is a character trait that I'm glad to possess.

I can't wait till February when I get to run the Austin marathon! That is, if I manage not to starve to death before then! I may have to eat that seasoned cabbage...