Post Portland

Sunday was my first post-Portland Marathon run. Fall is a beautiful time to run… there is no doubt about it. The air is cool and crisp and the changing leaves provide a magical backdrop to any outdoor activity. The route for the 3 mile run was similar to the route I used when I first started running… long before my first Marathon. I mentally flashed back during the run… back to summer of 2006 when I was all out sprinting to try to run three miles in under 8 minutes per mile. At first I failed, but it wasn't from lack of effort. I can remember collapsing under the ceiling fan after those first early runs. I can also remember my first 5 mile run. I wasn't supposed to run 5 miles that day… but I was already over the 4 I was supposed to run so I decided to take an extra jaunt around the neighborhood to make it five. I can remember showing my wife my GPS watch. Five miles!!! Can you believe I ran 5 miles!!!

It is an amazing journey from there to here, but a journey that anyone can take. When you think about running 26.2 miles when you can only run 2, it seems rather overwhelming. But when you think about running 3… not so bad. Then next week… 4… then 5… in a few months you are running a half marathon. I can remember my first half marathon too. Again… it was rather spur of the moment. My training didn't have me running that far yet, but I just did it. The hardest part of the training is just keeping with a schedule… regardless of the weather… how you feel and whether there is a game on you want to watch. =) Consistency. Perseverance through nagging injuries. Determination. Stubbornness.

So now I am nearing the end of my first running week post Portland. I am not sure where I am running to this time, and I am not sure why, but I am running again, and it feels good.

Portland Marathon Race Report

In shocking contrast to my first marathon, the last six miles of the Portland Marathon destroyed me. Everything started out just fine. The 3:20, 3:30 and 3:40 pacers were all next to each other at the beginning of the race… and I was motoring along just fine. 7:32, 7:31, 7:58, 7:45, 7:28, 7:51, 7:41 and 7:55 miles to start, and I felt fine. One thing that worried me around the 8 mile mark, is that I was sticking with the 3:30 pacer and still clocking under 8 minute miles according to my watch. (Which means the watch I trained with showed me going 7 seconds per mile faster than I really was all that time)

They say you have a 2% fudge factor in a race. If you run more than 2% faster than what is in you… you will pay for it at the end. Just the watch difference alone was more than 2% for me. Around mile 10 I decided that I needed to drop back to 8:30 miles to finish without a problem. I ran a 20 miler at 8:30 per mile a few weeks prior… so no problemo I thought. Silly me.

There is a hill in the Portland marathon that is pretty nasty… about ½ mile or so and pretty steep… and it peaks about mile 18. I knew it was all easy sailing after the hill. As I started up it… my legs screamed. Not good I though. I kept running… and the hill just kept sucking the life out of my legs. By the time I crested the top of the St. John’s Bridge… instead of knowing I was home free… I knew I was in serious trouble. I was pressing down on the gas pedal, and nothing was happening.

My pace up the hill was 10:25, and I did manage 9:40 for the next mile, but by the time I took my first step into the last six miles, I knew I was done. I wanted to cry, but of course I’m in the middle of a marathon, there are people all around, and well… I’m dehydrated. All thoughts of finishing were a decent time were gone. I just wanted to finish… and the way I was slowing down… I wasn’t sure that was going to happen. I told my wife I’d meet her by 11:30 at Pioneer Courthouse Square, and if I wasn’t there by then something must have happened to me. That was a good HOUR after I hoped I would finished… but suddenly it didn’t seem like a good idea to have said that.

My running slowed to a jog, then a shuffle… then at one point I realized that walkers were going just as fast as I was. The only piece of dignity I had was that I would not walk in a marathon. I must have look pitiful moving just as slow as the walkers though. Mile 26’s pace was… get this… 13:21 per mile! The last few miles took an eternity, and I finally crossed the line at 4:08:26. Ugh. Just ugh.

I had to hobble over to my wife as quickly as possible. When I found her I had to disappear into a porta potty to dry heave for 20 minutes. I was sick… dizzy, and could hardly walk. Then I started to freeze. I didn’t bring sweats because I didn’t want the hassle of picking them up at the finish line… but that was a bad call. I was shaking the entire train ride home on the MAX.

SO now I am left deciphering the train wreck of a race. On one hand I am glad I got to experience the wall. I think it will make me a better runner… and certainly it has context for me now. I really wondered what the heck was wrong with all the people I was passing in Eugene at the end of that marathon. I know now… boy do I know.

The Portland Marathon...

The night before the marathon at dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse… when my son was crying over something that he had done wrong, I told him that no one was perfect, and what defined you was how you responded when you did something wrong. I explained that he could keep crying and feeling sorry for himself, or he could do everything he could to fix what had gone wrong.

The Portland Marathon… went very wrong for me.

All systems go

Did my 2nd to last run before the marathon Sunday. Just a mile at a pitiful 6:40 and another 400 meter sprint at 5:30 and some jogging. I was up before dawn and out into the cold wet darkness that is Oregon. Friday I will do another 3-4 miles at my projected marathon pace… which is… ??? Well now… that is the question isn’t it? =) I will decide based on how I feel Sunday… the weather... the alignment of the planets… all that good stuff. I actually have a pretty good idea of what kind of run is in me… my training tells me that… but I reserve the right to adjust up and down at my whim. If I decide to go slow I could recover in time for the Seattle marathon at the end of November. If not… well… the worst that could happen is I end up collapsed on the side of the road somewhere unable to finish.

I weighed myself this morning and I am about 5 pounds over my dream marathon weight… the weight at which I thought I’d need to get down to be able to qualify for Boston. I didn’t adjust me eating habits enough. I have a healthy breakfast, but lunch needs some work. Dinner is OK, though I eat too much pizza. (Every Friday at the minimum) There was also a football game last Sunday where I drank more than my share of beer. (Damn that fumble into the endzone rule). I imaging that *after* my marathon I will be at my weight… but that doesn’t count. =)

The weather Sunday is looking iffy, but you can pretty much say that for every day from now to Spring. For the most part even on a rainy day that odds are pretty good you can sneak a marathon in without too much rain. It was raining on my run last Sunday but not bad at all. Now for walkers or racewalkers (Steve) maintaining that body heat in the rain could be a bit more of a trick. For me, I am just hoping for no downpours that will rub skin raw… and that odds are pretty good against that regardless of what the weatherman says.

3 days, 20 hours, and 42 minutes to till go.

Running is...

Lia and others have pointed out that running is painful and a not altogether enjoyable experience. I both agree and disagree. It is definitely equal parts pain and elation, and most of the time I have my radio tuned in right between the two. If I wasn’t trying to qualify for Boston… I’d be tuning to the ‘runners high’ station more often.

After a run though… it is hard to not feel good. I mean… unless you are limping or cramping or dehydrated or have that powerful PANG you can feel in the pit of your stomach after a very long run. You know… the hunger so strong you are will to eat just about anything… including the stale crackers that have been in the back of the cupboard for 3 years. Of course… first you have to hobble yourself into the kitchen to get the food… and sometimes even that is too much of a chore.

But wait… after running it is great… and it is… there may be pain, but there is also a glow of accomplishment… a buzz sometimes… a general feeling of goodness. It may very well be the same feeling dying people go through as they ‘head toward the light’, brought on by a mixture of excessive exercise, nuclear radiation color sports drinks, lack or oxygen to the head and the collision of sound waves from the left and right IPod earbuds in the middle of the brain.

Ultimately, running is what you make of it. For me it is a bit of everything all rolled into one… for others… it may be something entirely different.
I managed to get another run in… albeit just six miles. I am supposed to be tapering now… and am… but I will run a bit more than scheduled to try to get my wind back.

Portland on the horizon

Once again I find myself on the doorstep of a marathon, and it looks like an awful big step from here. I was at the beach this weekend so I delayed my last long run until Monday… this after skipping a run last week… and I got sick during the run and had to drop out after 6.5 miles. WONDERFUL.
So instead of sprinting to the starting line… I will be limping to it. I am still sick, but I need to try to get some kind of run in tonight. A few weeks ago just under 8 minutes per mile seemed like a possibility. Now even that has probably slipped away. Regardless… I will run another marathon. This will actually be the 3rd I have completed… there was an ugly stepchild marathon back in 2001 that I ran half and walked half. I was going to walk the whole thing… but I started in the wrong line and was too embarrassed to walk. I ran 13 miles without having ever run one for training. Good lord that was dumb. I damaged a nerve in my foot that didn’t fully recover for a year! Never again.
Anyway… flash forward to 2007. I have the Eugene marathon under my belt already, and was hoping to make a push for BQ at Portland. While I didn’t make that… I realize what an effort that would have been. I *could* have made it, but it would have taken a devotion that my work and family schedule just don’t support. I still trained long and hard. Got out on the track which was a first for me… sprinting! At first I hated it… then it was much better. Training for a marathon feels a bit like climbing a mountain. One small slip and you slide back down. The closer and steeper you get to the top, the more costly any kind of slip is.
My work schedule will make running a bit interesting over the winter. I work 8:30 to 5:30. Getting up early is fine in the summer… but it is cold and rainy (and dark) in the winter. I am not looking forward to that. I am thinking about running at lunch, but I am not sure yet. Somehow… someway.
I sure have enjoyed reading everyone’s blogs. As a rather solitary runner… I rely on them for tips and motivation, and really… I doubt I could have kept up with my training without feeling a bit like I was on a train with other dedicated runners out there. Everyone seems to have a different reason to run (or race walk). Mine is not different… no more special. Every step I take is on a trail that has been blazed before, but in their own way, each marathon is a gem… full of pain, sweat, tears, and joy. In just over a week… I get to make another memory.

Last 20 mile run before Portland

Sunday was my last 20 mile run before the Portland Marathon. As such, I was not about to accept any excuses from my body. My goal, smooth 8:30 miles, with no drop off at the end. Around mile 16 in my delirium I decided that mile 20 also had to be my fastest mile. Obviously at that point I was overcome by some runners high… or runner’s insanity, but that is what I decided.

Following the FIRST training plan, I have experienced some endurance issues late in my long runs. The schedule has picked up the mileage a bit now though… and anyway… it is so close to the marathon that I needed to prove to myself that I can sustain pace through a 20 mile training run.

For the most part the run was uneventful, well… except for me losing my mind around mile 16. Around mile 17 I started to hurt… but drove on. Mile 19 came faster than I thought, and I gave it all I got. Would it be enough? No idea… I didn’t know what my fastest previous mile was… =) but I usually keep a pretty consistent pace. I felt like I was sprinting, but I was only moving at 8:15 pace, and I could feel the energy draining out of me fast. I held on and finished the last mile at 8:20. When I got home, I found my previous fastest mile was 8:21. =) WHEW! Success.

So I can run another marathon after all. Final pace was 8:29. Now how does that translate to what I will run in Portland? I am not too worried about that. I think I might reserve that decision to game time. If there is one thing I have learned about running, is that knowing exactly how your body will run on a given day, is hard to predict. I know the signs are there… and I know more experienced runners can probably read them much better than I… but my body just seems a bit unpredictable.
I am looking forward to Portland though. I am getting the butterflies at times… which is damn good. Everyone needs things in their life that gives them butterflies… regardless of what that may be. (Good butterflies… not evil mutant radioactive ones) If stamping a marathon date on my calendar can give me some butterflies… I am all for it.

I can remember sitting on my porch at about 8 year old, waiting for my mom to come home to take me to my little league baseball game. I had those butterflies back then… nervous, anxious, excitement, longing… for Christ sake… I worried that my mom might get in an accident that could cause me to miss the game… yet not for a second about my mom getting hurt! At times I feel my marathon quests now are too self serving… there is so much time spend training… and then hobbling around afterward. It seems to be worth it… but I am lucky I have a wonderful wife that supports me.