I'm here to announce my retirement from marathons...The day started off with 38 degree weather and a head full of dreams...Although it warmed up, my dream turned into a nightmare... Without boring you with pace times and mile markers, let me just say, all was going well until mile 20...
I guess you could call it a wall, but a head-on collision with a freight train seems more suitable in explaining what happened.
I may be late coming to the dance on this one, but did you know Tennessee has hills? I mean mountains.... By the way, Florida is flat. In fact, Tennessee laughs at Florida when it comes to giant boulders that rise into the clouds. And most of the mountains in Tennessee happened to be on this race course... At least that's the way this Florida boy saw it... mile 21, 22, and 23 were uphill... That's right, 3 miles of continuous uphill running... Back-up, 3 miles of continuous shuffling along trying to imitate some form of my former self.
Allow me to go back to mile 20 and the freight train. I first felt a little tingle shoot up my thigh.... No big deal, little tingles are part of running, it comes with the gig...But what happened next, came out of a Steven King novel. My thigh contorted into several shapes until finally cramping up and shutting down. Which left me with the for amentioned 6.2 mile hobble.... I have never ran more painful 6 miles in my life,(or hobble, limp, shuffle, crawl.) At one point, I doubled over in pain. A guy on a bike, who was a marathon volunteer, ask me if I was OK? Now the guy was supposed to help runners who needed water. (i.e. have water with him.) I said I'm cramping up & I need water. He said the water stop is about a half a mile up the road... One more time, he said the water stop is about a half a mile up the road.I think he was also the guy who told me this marathon is flat...
So making a long story somewhat shorter, I missed my 4 hour goal by 6 min. and 2 sec.
My last marathon is a memory. I'm no marathoner, but I'll still run (in Florida, where the land is flat and the heat is not painful)however, it will be 5, 10, and 15k's.
I did get a chance to say hello to Brian before the race, I'm sure he did much better than yours truly.
See ya on the flat road, runron.
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4 comments:
Wow. Well, I'd let you know I had the same experience a week ago, but if you're like me, that doesn't quite make you feel any better. I'd also say that finishing just past 4 hours is nothing to be embarrased about, but again, tell that to the legs when they hit the wall.
I don't normally hate hills, but I make a policy exception on that anytime during the second half of a marathon. It just plain sucks. But I will hand it to you, you finished, though you probably felt like 'no way am I not finishing this after all that training in summer heat'.
So whatever I say or write, it's how you feel (and hopefully better by now) that counts. But you STILL trained and ran a marathon, and there are plenty of folks who'll never have that... uh... privelege.
Now you can re-direct your energy to something else, like a 10K. That does sound much nicer. In the meantime, congratulations on another marathon, Ron. It's appropriate that it took place on a battlefield... I'm sure that wasn't lost on you.
Ron, you are a funny man. They had some hills thats for sure. I had a bunch of trouble but I crossed the line and thats all I wanted to do. For me, I hope to run another, but this week I am going to take it easy and have a few beers.
Nice meeting you and I hope we can race again sometime.
-Brian
What are you some kind of whimp. I ran the same marathon as you did had cramps from mile 20 to mile 25, walked up all those last hills and it was great. I can't wait to run another one. In fact This morning just one day after the marathon I was out back on the road running the hills of TN. I don't go home until Wed. so I will runn a coouple more time here in TN. So what are you whining about?
I guess I will have to find someone else with which to train.
See you at home
Cranky,
Thanks for all your encouragement throughout this ordeal. You know better than most as to what it takes to run one of these things... You have the gift my friend, and you use it wisely. I'm envious of your ability to run as well as write.
But a good envy... It keeps me striving for improvement.
Brian,
Nice to meet you. You ran this race, so you know I may have exaggerated a bit... But, if I can't find some humor, I think I'd kill myself.
runrandall,
That's some big talk for someone who finished almost a full hour after I stumbled over the line.
I could've walked some... jogged a few 17 min. miles, and took a 20 min. brake to snack on various forms of carbs. But I choose to run a marathon. That's what runners do.
Maybe if you ran with a little more intensity instead of thinking about what snacks will be waiting for you at mile 5, then your blog would've sounded more like mine.... But wait, your last blog was posted when Bill Gates was still in college.
Seriously Randall, I'm proud of what you did... Few of us know what it takes to do one of these things. Welcome to the club, you are a marathoner....
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