Gary’s Fitness Blog

So how was I going to approach the marathon at the end of my EndureChallenge journey?  It would have been easy to go into the race thinking that all I wanted to do was finish the race, but other than celebrating the transition from my 20’s to my 30’s, I wanted to try and break through some psychological barriers that I’ve developed around racing over the years.  (I’ll write more on that in some upcoming posts).

So here is how I approached the race:

1.  Even though I wore my Garmin 305 and the heart rate monitor (thanks Saori and Paul), I told myself that I would not look at the heart rate data at all during the race.  I also decided that I would only look at the watch at mile 10, 13.1, 20 and the finish.

2.  Without the feedback from the Garmin, stopwatch or race clocks (this race didn’t have clocks or timers along the course), I decided to run a pace/effort that felt doable - But an effort that was “hard”.

3.  I also told myself before the race that I didn’t want any excuses for not “meeting expectations”.  I knew that there would be periods where I would try and use the Great Illini race the week before or the bike touring during the week as reasons that I wasn’t running well - I decided before hand that those excuses wouldn’t be acceptable.  (Easier said than done.)

Race Start:

There were tornado warnings in the area and it was raining pretty hard on and off during the night, so the race was pushed back a half hour.  At one point I was nervous that they would decide to cancel the race, which would have meant that my week would have come to an anticlimatic ending.  But after some sitting around and with the race director trying to get the course remarked with chalk, the race got started.

First 10 miles:

Before the race, I heard two girls discussing how they had planned on running just under 3 hours.  I thought that if I was going to see what was possible, why not latch onto them and keep them in sight as long as possible.  And hope that they don’t go out in 2:50 pace, because I wouldn’t have any way of knowing.

As we took off, it felt pretty comfortable to run with the small group of 4 or 5 that chose to run that pace.  I knew it was harder than I’d run in some time, but not unthinkable.  The race consisted of 3 loops (1,2,3) then you ran over a bike path to another division around a lake and ran 5 more loops (a,b,c,d,e).  I ended up running just behind one of the girls through loop d (when she started to pull away a little).

I crossed the 10 mile marker at 69:xx minutes.  “Holy Crap,” I thought, “I can’t believe that I’m actually running this fast still.”  It felt good at that point and around mile 12 the second girl started to run next to me.  As we ran back through the bike trail towards the half way point she said that she’d hurt her knee and that she was going to fall out at the half.  I was a little bummed that I wouldn’t have anyone to run around, but also knew that with all the loops there would be ways to see others and pace myself.

As we ran through the half, my watch said 1:31:xx.  Still going pretty well, I thought, but wondered how long it would last.

After running loop 1 and 2 of the second half, I knew that I was going to be in trouble - so I decided to take a conservative approach to my walking breaks.  I decided to walk 30 seconds at every other aid station,  I had been doing 30 seconds every 3 to 4 miles.

It seemed to help as I was able to run strong during the run portions of my race.  The a and b loops went pretty well, even the c and d loops were steady (although I could feel the pace slowing quite a bit).  I ran through the 20 mile marker at 2:24:xx, pretty good I thought.  10k to go.

I could feel the pace slowing more and more, along with my legs beginning to hurt significantly.  Many times during a run/race when I feel the pain and hurt begin to set in, I have confidence that my legs won’t give out (like on the run during the Great Illini last week).  This week it didn’t happen.  The last 10k was pretty rough.  I never stopped moving, but at times I really, really wanted to.

Finish: 3:17:xx (results not up yet)

Final Conclusions and Thoughts:

Most people say that I should be incredibly happy with how the marathon turned out.  To be honest, I don’t think that I’m ever fully excited about a race result.  Even at the Great Illini I wasn’t too happy and I set an Iron Distance Triathlon personal best by 12 minutes.  There is always something to improve when I look back.

But, that wasn’t the point of the week or the marathon.  It was to celebrate and I feel like that is exactly what I did for a week.  How lucky am I that I have the ability to get out there every day and push my body to the limit, without my body caving in?  How lucky am I that I have the health that allows me to be active and mobile everyday?  How lucky am I that I have so many friends and family that were supportive and interested in my crazy-little-mess-of-a-week?  How lucky am I that I have a wife that loves me, puts up with this craziness and supports me and even encourages me?

At one point early in my collegiate career I sat down and wrote out a sketch of goals in most of the major areas of my life.  The areas included:  education, financial, career, athletic and personal development/spiritual.  As I look back, many of those goals are starting to become a reality or have already been realized.  I remember after running my second marathon in 4:00, I thought that qualifying for the Boston Marathon may never be possible.  I sit here today a little dissappointed that I didn’t run under 3:10 a week after an iron-distance triathlon and 323 miles of bike touring - YES, I am a very lucky guy.

Athletic Conclusion to Marathon:

I am almost always very conservative when I develop a race strategy for triathlons and marathons.  I rather be conservative and finish well then go out and limp my way home - is my normal line of thinking.  While this often proves itself well in triathlons and marathons, I also realize that by always being too conservative we may never realize our full potential.

Fear of Failure is often the biggest limiter we face in endurance athletics

As I mentioned above, I did not want any excuses or reasons for not giving this marathon everything I had.  This meant I had to be ok with walking, stumbling or crawling across the finish line.  So I gave it a shot during this marathon and I feel very good about the opportunity my mind allowed my body have.

So was it realistic to run under 3 hours or even 3:10 at this race, with this training or in this situation?  Probably not, but it sure felt good to at least try!

I spent yesterday working at the finish line of Ironman Louisville again this year.  Again, it was motivating to see people accomplish this athletic feat.  But it also left me thinking, “Why do I find this fun again?”  When you see people collapsing, vomiting, delirious and unable to walk - it requires some inner-searching.

But I’ll say that I was more motivated than deterred.  So, Nikki and I signed up for the race next year.  I’m excited because it was a lot of fun to train side-by-side for Ironman Wisconsin last year.

The other thought I kept having yesterday - What in the world have I got myself into?  Saturday will start my “Living Well, Challenge“.

It will be interesting to see what I have to say Saturday night after finishing the Iron-distance triathlon (Great Illini) and realize I still have 260ish miles to ride and another marathon to run in the next 7 days.  If you want to keep track of what’s going on here are a few ways:

youtube.com/endurancebasecamp –> I plan on uploading video updates each day

twitter.com/ditschfitness –> I’ll be txt tweets all the time, follow me and receive the txt’s

facebook.com (my profile) –>  check in with friends on blackberry fairly often on my page

I’m also looking at setting up a gps tracking site, which will track my blackberry as I travel along the highways of Illinois and Indiana.  When I get that finalized I’ll share here.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog using the links in the right sidebar –>

I want to give a little shout out here to Nikki, Lake City Marathon and my parents.  All three have helped me out to financially leave my clients for a week and do this adventure.  I also want to thank all of my clients (coaching and personal training) who are willing to put up with my craziness and let me be absent from the studio for a week.

*note* This is an old race report that I’m adding. It currently sits on my website and I wanted it included in my blog archive. If you haven’t read it, then go ahead. This was Nikki’s first marathon! *end note*

Tecumseh Trail Marathon

Pre-Race: - The start time for this race is 10:00am, which is one of the nice things about this race. Even though you have to board the bus at 8:45am, the later start time allowed us to wake up a little bit later and not worry about getting our breakfast in. So Nikki and I woke up around 6:30am and started to drink our Ensure. We got ready and headed to the finish line to board the bus at 7:30am (which is later than many races start times!).

We boarded the bus at 8:45am and took the hour long bus ride to the start line. This is the first point-to-point race I’ve done. I liked it because the bus trip allowed me to meet a few runners, which is always nice. One thing I didn’t know what to think about were the stories that past runners of the race were telling us. One of the guys told us to add an hour to our slowest marathon time to estimate our finish time for the race. Since this was Nikki’s first marathon, we didn’t know what to do? We had hoped that we could do 6 hours, but with that knowledge, I thought maybe 6:30 would be expected?

At the start we had to wait a little because three of the buses hadn’t shown up, but the race only started several minutes late.

The Start: - The start was exciting as they always are, so I kept in mind that this was Nikki’s first marathon. I also kept in mind our walk/run race strategy that I had used to develop Nikki’s training plan. This was difficult at the start for both of us. At 10minutes I looked at Nikki and said “It’s time to walk.” She kind of looked funny and said, “already.” “Yep,” I said. So we started walking.

The discipline to walk at that point was tough because the trail was just starting and it was still flat terrain. I kept saying to myself that running the last 8 miles is more important today than running the first 8. Nikki looked at me and said “18 more to go,” which is a saying we developed in training that meant no matter how far we have run, always approach it like you have 18 more miles to run. I smiled and said, “not quite yet.”

The race was advertised as a tough race. The hills were said to be something you wouldn’t think of when you think of Indiana. There were reports we read about lots of stream crossings and log crossings; the runners we talked to on the bus ride to the start confirmed those reports. It is also December and the weather report called for rain or snow. Even with the mental preparation for these conditions, I will admit that this race was A LOT more difficult than I anticipated, even if the weather never turned awful. (Nikki said that she mentally prepared for the worst and that it wasn’t as bad as what she thought it was going to be. I guess mental preparation and perception can change everything.)

Mile 13 “The Hill”: - As we went through the aid station around mile 12, I began looking for the “gigantic hill” at the half-way point. Coming from Kentucky, I couldn’t imagine that it would be worse than what Nikki and I trained on when we looked for hilly runs at home. I WAS WRONG! As we came around the bend, we caught a glance at a long line of runners snaking their way up this incline. The lady that we had been running with said, “I’d like to see you run up that.” The challenge was very tempting, especially because not a single person was jogging. Everyone was walking. But wisdom prevailed and we walked too. We took a look back from the top and the line of runners continued to stop and walk. It was pretty awesome to see what we had just accomplished and then realize we had 13 miles to go!

Mile 18: - There was an aid station around mile 18. Nikki and I stopped to get some Gatorade and food, plus I looked at my watch. It read approximately 3:40! “Nikki,” I said, “we can make it in 5 hours!” She responded, “We would have to run 10 minutes miles, I don’t want to think about it.” “You’re right. That’s pretty quick, especially on the trails here. Let’s see where we are at when we get to mile 24.”

Mile 22: - We came to another aid station and Nikki kept saying she was feeling good, so we were not walking as much. I looked at my watch again and it read 4:20. I was hesitant to say anything to her again about time, but we had a continuous dialog at this point about how we felt running. The truth is that I think she was stronger at this point then I was…. But I was not about to tell her that!

Mile 25: - To be honest, I had given up on the time by this point because I thought the aid station was supposed to be at mile 24. And if we hadn’t reach mile 24 by that point in time we were not even close to making 5 hours any more. As we ran down the hill towards the last aid station, the volunteer said “Mile 25, one more mile to go!” I looked at my watch, 3:49. “Nikki, we have 11 minutes.” She looked at me and said, “Let’s do it!” Then she took off running like she had just started a track meet. I grunted and begged, “This is way too fast!” She smiled, “You’re right, we could slow down.”

The Finish: - At 4:55 we started to run up the last hill, which hurt quite a bit with the effort we were putting in. But it also felt good because we were passing people pretty quickly and one of the other runners yelled out, “You are going for 5 hours.” “We are trying” I responded, trying to smile. I lost almost all hope by the time we got to the top of the hill though. We had less than 3 minutes to finish and the turn to the finish line was still quite a-ways-ahead. Running down the last stretch, I saw we had 30seconds to 5 hours. I wasn’t into the sprint finish, knowing we were too far away, but as we got closer it seemed more and more possible. I grabbed Nikki’s hand and said, “We can do it!” We sprinted down the gravel road into the finisher’s lane and crossed at approximately 5:00:04! I haven’t seen the official times yet, but Nikki did remind me later that because we started in the back of the starting pack, that by the time she started her watch at the start line we would have been under 5 hours. (Too bad they didn’t have chip timing. Smile.)

It really doesn’t matter to me, because we expected 6 to 6:30 anyway. Plus it was a great experience to complete this very challenging race, side-by-side with my wife. What a good experience for any newly married couple! I am also inspired by the dedication that Nikki had to the training program I developed. She admitted later that she was nervous that the longest she had run was 15 miles. It meant a lot to me that she trusted me as a husband and “coach” and didn’t listen to all the nay-sayers that thought she should be running more.

She also asked me later that night, “so does that mean I could have run 4 hours at a normal marathon.” I smiled.