My First Marathon

I was feeling anxious, tense even. It was Jan 23rd, the day before the 2010 Carlsbad Marathon and I had a sense of foreboding - surely something was going to go wrong and interfere with my run the next day. Would it be my gimpy IT-band? Would it be my increasingly queasy stomach? Or maybe I'd just sleep through the alarm on race morning? (I set two of them, just in case.) I spent the day taking note of every twinge and stiffness in every muscle and joint. Many folks asked me if I was "all set" and I really didn't know how to respond. Sure, I had done my preparation, but was I really "all set?"

The preparation had begun almost 5 months earlier, actually almost without realizing it. I had been running Miramar Lake (~5 miles) for almost an year, but didn't seriously believe that I could go much longer. Then I had a minor epiphany that the way to approach longer distances was to plan to take walking breaks in between. In a burst of determination, I put this theory to test that very weekend and ended up going 6 mi without stopping. Without really thinking much about it, I did 8, 10, and 11 in the succeeding weekends. Now there was no looking back - I had to give the marathon a shot. My friend Greg was partly responsible for my return to running in late 2008 and after starting from near-zero running till then, he was already doing 2 laps of Miramar Lake. He proposed the Silver Strand Half Marathon that was scheduled for Nov 15th and I quickly countered that we could use that as the half-way point for the Carlsbad Marathon, a suggestion that was not received seriously.

My guide was Hal Higdon's novice training schedule, which is an 18 week training schedule for first time marathoners. Since I had already worked up to 11 miles, I jumped in at week 6. The training was going mostly according to plan with only a few hiccups - the first time I did 13, 15, and 16 miles were rather difficult, for reasons mostly relating to heat, lack of sleep, etc. As Nov 15th approached, I eased off on the runs in anticipation of the Silver Strand - my maiden half marathon. The run started well, but, around mile 6, I felt a sharp pain on the outside of my right hip which eventually migrated to the outside of my right knee. The pain was bearable, though, and I finished under 2 hours, which had been my outside goal.

But the injury had me worried - how much would it set my training back? I started regular Chiropractor visits and with careful management, I was able to get back on schedule within a couple of weeks. As I looked ahead into the schedule, I realized that our Costa Rica trip, scheduled for the third week of December would be right when I was supposed to do the long runs - 18 & 20. I decided it was better to complete those runs before the trip and indeed had very good training runs of 14, 18, and 20 in the three weekends leading up to the trip. I ran a couple of times during the trip, but they were relatively difficult which I attributed to the high humidity. However, upon my return I found that my conditioning had indeed relapsed. I stepped up the mileage in a bid to gain it back, but without having the option of doing a really long one, I would have to depend on the recalled confidence from the 20 mile run which would be 6 weeks old by the time race day arrived.

So here I was, a day before the race all nervous and anxious about what to expect. The obvious question was how I would deal with the 20+ region - a region never ventured into before. Ironically, I was actually looking forward to that, but was on tenterhooks about a dozen other concerns. I had my pasta dinner and went to bed early, but woke up around 1am with a queasy stomach. However, an Alka Seltzer seemed to help and I was able to go back to sleep soon.

On race day, I woke up easily with my 3.30am alarm and my preparations went well and I was ready when Greg showed up at 4.30. The drive up there was peaceful and I was gratified to note the abundance of porta-potties since the lines for using them right before the race is usually a stressful affair.

It was a bit cool, but clearly I could eschew all warm gear for the run. As it turned out the weather was almost perfect for the entire run. The first part of the run was going as per plan and I did the Palomar Airport Road hill without any problems. Around mile 15, Greg and I were still running together (Greg's family had shown up unexpectedly at mile 14 to cheer us on) when I slowed to a walk to have my first gel pack (I had had a Powerbar at mile 10). I was hoping to find a water station soon after, but had to wait more than a mile to find one. At this point Greg had pulled ahead and stayed ahead for the rest of the race.

Going into the race, all the concern had been about the Palomar Airport hill, but what really affected me were the several sharp climbs in the later half of the race. The climb up to mile 18 was one of them, leading up to the Southern tip of the route, La Costa Avenue. I was running alone and trying hard to ignore the low back pain that had pretty much settled in and was rather unexpected. As I crossed mile 20 and began another climb, my legs started feeling rather heavy and I really wished I had stopped to stretch. I was still under the 4 hour pace though and needed to keep going if I was going to finish that way. However, as I got past mile 21, it was becoming rather obvious that the 4 hour goal was almost gone. I tried to find a good rhythm and pound on.

Around mile 22, I heard somebody loudly call out my name and I reluctantly lifted my head to realize that it was Vito - another friend from work and a strong runner on his own accord. He had shown up to cheer us on and fell in next to me with the idea of doing a mile or so with me. He soon realized that I was struggling and decided to just stay with me all the way. It was kind of funny how that helped me - I pushed myself just a bit more almost because I didn't want to disappoint Vito, who was expressing so much confidence in my ability to finish well. Still, I took about 4 walking breaks in the last 4 miles and I almost took another one towards the end, but Vito's exhortations kept me going. As turned the final bend, I finally noticed Malini and the boys (I had expected to see them at mile 25) on the side of the road. I waved and powered on to the finish line, posting a time of 4:05, which though only 5 minutes outside my goal, left me with a slightly disappointed feeling because of how close I had come (Greg finished in 3:50).

No doubt doing the long runs so much before the race played a part, but so did my poor nutrition during the run. I had almost no protein or fiber either in the morning or during the run and realized later that I had been really hungry. In the days following the run though, I began to feel better about my effort - after all, completing 26.2 miles in 4:05 is a significant accomplishment, no matter how much better it could have been.

An insight that will surprise no one is that attempting things like these are more a mental challenge than a physical one. Indeed, the long runs are as much mental training (most folks baulk at the thought of having to run for 4 hours, let alone having the physical stamina to do so) as they are physical conditioning. Race day itself is manageable - its one day after all - most everybody can talk themselves into going out and putting out one big effort. The real challenge is the discipline to stay with the 5-month long training program - doing all the runs no matter what the situation, week after week. A big part of why I was able to do this was the support of Malini and the boys - accommodating my weekday and weekend running schedule was hard enough - the vegetable I turned into after my long weekend run just added to it. Keeping me going even as my confidence waned closer to the race was a challenge on several levels. But now I get to return the favour: I have almost talked her into doing the La Jolla Half Marathon with me.

Some stats from my training:
Number of training runs: 70
Total mileage: 470
Longest run: 20 miles (on 12/13/09, 6 weeks before marathon).