Guest
We've gotta go back a little ways for this one, but it's marathon story that has to be told.
I've always been an active guy with a lot of endurance related outdoor hobbies. Hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, road biking, bicycle touring, snowshoeing, XC skiing, downhill skiing and on and on. For the longest time, my main source of exercise was road biking and for a while it seemed like I lived to be on a road-racing bicycle.
On the other side of that coin, my job would shoot me off to distant locations for as much as a month. Bicycles don't travel well and the break in my routine was a real drag. Once I picked running up as a business trip norm things were looking up, but it was aways something of a rough transition.
These trips would be better if I was already a runner before ever heading off to the airport. I liked running and always have room for another excuse to be outside. So one night I decided to go online and find a daily routine or 5K plan to start following. Of course any search of training plans is going to slather you with marathon this, marathon that,... marathon, marathon, marathon!!!!
Well, in another 24 hours I was sucked in and signed up for the prestigious St. George Marathon! Prior to this point, I'd never run more than 3.1 miles but had 5 months to fix that little technicality. Marathon goals? Simple; to train and finish this thing without injury. A real conservative approach to ensure that my first marathon would be uneventful. How little did I know!
Training: The standard routines I found online were around 18 weeks long and had tempo and marathon pace runs included, if not track work too. I based my routine on a Hal Higdon 18 week plan, stretched it out to 25 weeks and replaced all higher paced days with regular old runs. On the schedule were 20, 22 and 24-mile long runs as well as bi-weekly hill routines and that was as exciting as it got.
The first real hurdle was finding the right shoes, which is the story of my life due to narrow and completely flat feet. In fact, I have a number of wonderful excuses I could use to give up and join the community of couch bound remote control actuators out there.
In 95 I had the ACL in my left knee replaced and to do this, the Doc basically deactivated one of my hamstring muscles in the same leg. An interesting concept for an athletic person to grasp.
In 93 I was diagnosed with pollen and exercise induced asthma and came to find that I'm allergic to every weed and tree found in Utah. Oddly I never had trouble in Tennessee, Virginia or Florida.
In 82 I fractured a bone in my left foot while running in my first (and last) high school track meet. So, add a history of running related injury to the list. However, I finished that race even with a broken foot.
Which brings us back to the hurdle of finding the right shoes...
Wow. New runners in this day and age have it made, don't they? I walked into one of the premiere running stores in Salt Lake City and walked out an hour later knowing that I'd bought the best shoes for the job. No question about it!
About 750 training miles later I found myself driving to St. George Utah. The training had gone off 98% as planned with no injury but I had to bail on my last 24-mile long run at 13 miles because I was too tired due to work related issues. In my mind the 24 miler was just icing on the cake and getting rest was the more important option.
Race Day:
You climb on these shuttle buses darn early and it's a long dark ride to the starting area. I heard about a lot of very short training approaches on that bus! I wonder what became of those folks. Are they still with us?
Man o man, is it dark up there! No street lights or any other lighting for that matter and it was really cold. Thankfully there seemed to be 100 huge bonfires to share with thousands of my closest running buddies. I wore a long-sleeve top to toss away in the early miles, which helped, but the hour wait was still uncomfortably cold.
I made a guess that I could run this race in less than 4 hours so I jumped in line with the 3:45 crowd. We were a tight knit bunch. What I really thought was: ?Holy cow there are a ton of runners here?. I just know this start is going to be interesting!
BANG and it's underway. It's still pitch black and I can't see anything except the people right in front of me. A minute or so into it and I've gotta do something! This pace is way too slow and it's hard to keep from stepping on people?s heels. No passing is going on but then I see someone go by on my left. It's a few runners and they're not on the road!!! I'm close to the left side of the road and every few seconds I see someone go by "over there". A couple of strides later and I've had it. Out into the sagebrush I go! Freedom!!! Not without a cost though. It's still dark and I'm really running (with a hundreds of others by now) across low-lying brush along the roadside. A couple of minutes later and the road bound mass is going my pace so I hop back in. Ironically, while I was concerned about tripping over the brush, it turns out that the only runners falling were on the road. People had been wearing trash bags as throwaway windbreakers and many of these folks dropped their improvised jackets amongst the crowd. No way to see these floating around at ground level and nowhere to go but down once your feet are snagged. How infuriating would that be?
It seemed that just as soon as everyone got settled in on the road, the sun was coming up. I was moving along faster than the pace I'd trained at and wondered how long I could hold this. I felt like I could run all day at this level but I knew that could change at any time.
Before long I came across a work associate that I knew as a runner but didn't know was running this race. He was shooting for a 3:30 and his pace seemed about right for me, so we stuck together.
St. George is known as a fast marathon but fast marathons aren't always the easiest to run. Running downhill is hard on the body and you'd best come here prepared. Every other week of my training routine had hill work built into it. I have some great mountain passes close to home that I can run up and down. Though St. George is mostly downhill, I'd heard enough about mile 7 to know I'd need to work on running uphill too.
Mile 7, "Veyo" or "the hill at Veyo": You come around a smooth bend to the right and BLAM,... over two miles away "the hill at Veyo" smacks you in the face. Jaws drop, eyes bulge and I could hear runners gasping at the sight. About the time you can see this one significant climb, the downhill run you're on gets steeper. That two-mile run down to Veyo is where I said goodbye to my pal from work. I sail down the steep stuff and the upcoming pitch that Veyo flaunted didn't scare me. My training climbs were longer and I enjoy running uphill. Veyo is a test though, especially after running downhill for seven miles. After that first steeper uphill pitch, it continues climbing for about 3.5 miles.
This brings us to 11 miles and I'm still feeling really good. It's a beautiful day and I'm cruising along at a comfortably quick pace. It's pretty much all downhill from here on. The halfway point comes and the clock says 1:42, and I'm a really happy guy.
14 comes and the bottom drops out of the racecourse for more than a mile. I'm flying again and passing a lot of runners. This is steeper than anything I've done and I'm hoping it ends before I self-destruct. Finally, it levels off about halfway into the 15th mile.
It's not long now before this race takes an odd turn and there's no way back.
I'm still feeling great at mile 16 and I know that aside from a steep mile or so just beyond 19, that the rest of the descent is relatively shallow. 19/20 is notorious for causing trouble because it's so late in the race, after so much descending already. I see it as my last real hurdle.
At 18 it levels off and this is where the trouble comes. Stomach issues? Bonk? Dehydration? Blisters? Cramps? No. None of the above. I'm moving at what's been my average race pace and still feeling great. Suddenly, I've gotta move over to the roadside to retie my shoes. My big toes are beginning to strike the front of their toe-box and it really hurts! Retied and back underway but within a few minutes I have the same problem. Only difference is that now I know I'm laced up tight! I stop and retie them anyway. And again, and again. This really sucks! Every foot strike, BAM BAM BAM. Both big toes are taking a beating and guess what's next; mile 19/20! OMG!!! Someone lend me a knife and I'll cut the front of my shoes off, I swear!
I forge on. I try retying my shoes a few more times because if anything, it gives my feet a break for a few minutes. There's no way I'm stopping though. All those months prepping for today. I didn't come this far to let shoe troubles stop me. The good thing about miles 19/20 is after that intense pain, the rest of the road grade would seem easy to deal with. There's always a silver lining isn't there?
Moving much slower now. I come across someone of a similar pace. I try pitting the distraction of conversation against the sharp jabbing pain that comes with each foot strike. I never speak of my issue but focus the chat on why Mike has fallen off his pace and try to help him maintain our newly "adjusted" speed.
We're finally at the edge of town and the finish can't come too soon. The pavement grade has slackened and that allows me to pick up the speed just a bit. I say adios to Mike and press on.
You can see the finish from four blocks away but it seems like it's never getting any closer. I can't wait to get this over with and take these blasted shoes off. I say to myself "Press it up Ron". I push, but the limit on my speed is how much pain my toes can take. Finally across the line at 3 hours 42 minutes and some change. Done! Wahooo!!!
But little do I know, this story isn't over; not by a long shot.
St. George is a wonderfully organized event. As I'm sitting there allowing the official shoe-unlacing girl to do her job, I'm so happy that I'm about two seconds from getting these shoes off! Heaven I tell you!! Next I actually take the time to look at my beautiful new race medal. Mission accomplished and I was all too glad to have sandals to wear for the next two days until I get home.
At about the time where most are easing into their recovery, I'm discovering an increasingly shocking truth. I'm set to go for a nice spin on one of my road bikes and as I pull on my expensive Carnac road shoes that I've had for over 4 years.... they don't fit!!!! How can this be??!! I run back to my ?gear room?. Mountain bike racing shoes...they don't fit!!! Backcountry ski boots, XC ski boots, Skate ski boots, downhill ski boots, GoreTex hiking boots, GoreTex work boots, Motorcycle riding boots, dress shoes.... Every pair of shoes and boots I have, they're all useless to me now!!!!!!!!!!
I thought I was flat-footed but somehow, over the course of 17 miles both of my feet either flattened even more or in some other way grew over 1/2 a shoe size! Oh the humanity. Few of these perfectly fitting specialty shoes were easily found and most are no longer made as such.
That was one expensive race!! Imagine if you got hit with the same reality. I still haven't been able to sit down and total what my 2002 marathon really cost me. I suppose it's a good thing that I had some fun out there and still enjoy running. Perhaps it's a good thing I waited this long to write this report.
Thanks to Mizuno for making a great shoe that fits my feet so well, in sizes 10 and 11.5. Hopefully I'm done climbing that scale.
Which brings me to the requisite fashion report:
Long-sleeved white running top dropped at an early aid station, black RaceReady gloves for the early miles, Short-sleeved white and black Sporthill top, blue speckled RaceReady LD V-Notch shorts (which carried my Carb-Boom gels), Thorlo micro mini-crew running socks and Mizuno Alchemy shoes.
So as they say, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry..."
------------------
A little 411 on me.[/URL" target="_blank">
http://This message has been edited by Miles2go (edited Oct-23-2007).
http://This message has been edited by Miles2go (edited Oct-23-2007).
I've always been an active guy with a lot of endurance related outdoor hobbies. Hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, road biking, bicycle touring, snowshoeing, XC skiing, downhill skiing and on and on. For the longest time, my main source of exercise was road biking and for a while it seemed like I lived to be on a road-racing bicycle.
On the other side of that coin, my job would shoot me off to distant locations for as much as a month. Bicycles don't travel well and the break in my routine was a real drag. Once I picked running up as a business trip norm things were looking up, but it was aways something of a rough transition.
These trips would be better if I was already a runner before ever heading off to the airport. I liked running and always have room for another excuse to be outside. So one night I decided to go online and find a daily routine or 5K plan to start following. Of course any search of training plans is going to slather you with marathon this, marathon that,... marathon, marathon, marathon!!!!
Well, in another 24 hours I was sucked in and signed up for the prestigious St. George Marathon! Prior to this point, I'd never run more than 3.1 miles but had 5 months to fix that little technicality. Marathon goals? Simple; to train and finish this thing without injury. A real conservative approach to ensure that my first marathon would be uneventful. How little did I know!
Training: The standard routines I found online were around 18 weeks long and had tempo and marathon pace runs included, if not track work too. I based my routine on a Hal Higdon 18 week plan, stretched it out to 25 weeks and replaced all higher paced days with regular old runs. On the schedule were 20, 22 and 24-mile long runs as well as bi-weekly hill routines and that was as exciting as it got.
The first real hurdle was finding the right shoes, which is the story of my life due to narrow and completely flat feet. In fact, I have a number of wonderful excuses I could use to give up and join the community of couch bound remote control actuators out there.
In 95 I had the ACL in my left knee replaced and to do this, the Doc basically deactivated one of my hamstring muscles in the same leg. An interesting concept for an athletic person to grasp.
In 93 I was diagnosed with pollen and exercise induced asthma and came to find that I'm allergic to every weed and tree found in Utah. Oddly I never had trouble in Tennessee, Virginia or Florida.
In 82 I fractured a bone in my left foot while running in my first (and last) high school track meet. So, add a history of running related injury to the list. However, I finished that race even with a broken foot.
Which brings us back to the hurdle of finding the right shoes...
Wow. New runners in this day and age have it made, don't they? I walked into one of the premiere running stores in Salt Lake City and walked out an hour later knowing that I'd bought the best shoes for the job. No question about it!
About 750 training miles later I found myself driving to St. George Utah. The training had gone off 98% as planned with no injury but I had to bail on my last 24-mile long run at 13 miles because I was too tired due to work related issues. In my mind the 24 miler was just icing on the cake and getting rest was the more important option.
Race Day:
You climb on these shuttle buses darn early and it's a long dark ride to the starting area. I heard about a lot of very short training approaches on that bus! I wonder what became of those folks. Are they still with us?
Man o man, is it dark up there! No street lights or any other lighting for that matter and it was really cold. Thankfully there seemed to be 100 huge bonfires to share with thousands of my closest running buddies. I wore a long-sleeve top to toss away in the early miles, which helped, but the hour wait was still uncomfortably cold.
I made a guess that I could run this race in less than 4 hours so I jumped in line with the 3:45 crowd. We were a tight knit bunch. What I really thought was: ?Holy cow there are a ton of runners here?. I just know this start is going to be interesting!
BANG and it's underway. It's still pitch black and I can't see anything except the people right in front of me. A minute or so into it and I've gotta do something! This pace is way too slow and it's hard to keep from stepping on people?s heels. No passing is going on but then I see someone go by on my left. It's a few runners and they're not on the road!!! I'm close to the left side of the road and every few seconds I see someone go by "over there". A couple of strides later and I've had it. Out into the sagebrush I go! Freedom!!! Not without a cost though. It's still dark and I'm really running (with a hundreds of others by now) across low-lying brush along the roadside. A couple of minutes later and the road bound mass is going my pace so I hop back in. Ironically, while I was concerned about tripping over the brush, it turns out that the only runners falling were on the road. People had been wearing trash bags as throwaway windbreakers and many of these folks dropped their improvised jackets amongst the crowd. No way to see these floating around at ground level and nowhere to go but down once your feet are snagged. How infuriating would that be?
It seemed that just as soon as everyone got settled in on the road, the sun was coming up. I was moving along faster than the pace I'd trained at and wondered how long I could hold this. I felt like I could run all day at this level but I knew that could change at any time.
Before long I came across a work associate that I knew as a runner but didn't know was running this race. He was shooting for a 3:30 and his pace seemed about right for me, so we stuck together.
St. George is known as a fast marathon but fast marathons aren't always the easiest to run. Running downhill is hard on the body and you'd best come here prepared. Every other week of my training routine had hill work built into it. I have some great mountain passes close to home that I can run up and down. Though St. George is mostly downhill, I'd heard enough about mile 7 to know I'd need to work on running uphill too.
Mile 7, "Veyo" or "the hill at Veyo": You come around a smooth bend to the right and BLAM,... over two miles away "the hill at Veyo" smacks you in the face. Jaws drop, eyes bulge and I could hear runners gasping at the sight. About the time you can see this one significant climb, the downhill run you're on gets steeper. That two-mile run down to Veyo is where I said goodbye to my pal from work. I sail down the steep stuff and the upcoming pitch that Veyo flaunted didn't scare me. My training climbs were longer and I enjoy running uphill. Veyo is a test though, especially after running downhill for seven miles. After that first steeper uphill pitch, it continues climbing for about 3.5 miles.
This brings us to 11 miles and I'm still feeling really good. It's a beautiful day and I'm cruising along at a comfortably quick pace. It's pretty much all downhill from here on. The halfway point comes and the clock says 1:42, and I'm a really happy guy.
14 comes and the bottom drops out of the racecourse for more than a mile. I'm flying again and passing a lot of runners. This is steeper than anything I've done and I'm hoping it ends before I self-destruct. Finally, it levels off about halfway into the 15th mile.
It's not long now before this race takes an odd turn and there's no way back.
I'm still feeling great at mile 16 and I know that aside from a steep mile or so just beyond 19, that the rest of the descent is relatively shallow. 19/20 is notorious for causing trouble because it's so late in the race, after so much descending already. I see it as my last real hurdle.
At 18 it levels off and this is where the trouble comes. Stomach issues? Bonk? Dehydration? Blisters? Cramps? No. None of the above. I'm moving at what's been my average race pace and still feeling great. Suddenly, I've gotta move over to the roadside to retie my shoes. My big toes are beginning to strike the front of their toe-box and it really hurts! Retied and back underway but within a few minutes I have the same problem. Only difference is that now I know I'm laced up tight! I stop and retie them anyway. And again, and again. This really sucks! Every foot strike, BAM BAM BAM. Both big toes are taking a beating and guess what's next; mile 19/20! OMG!!! Someone lend me a knife and I'll cut the front of my shoes off, I swear!
I forge on. I try retying my shoes a few more times because if anything, it gives my feet a break for a few minutes. There's no way I'm stopping though. All those months prepping for today. I didn't come this far to let shoe troubles stop me. The good thing about miles 19/20 is after that intense pain, the rest of the road grade would seem easy to deal with. There's always a silver lining isn't there?
Moving much slower now. I come across someone of a similar pace. I try pitting the distraction of conversation against the sharp jabbing pain that comes with each foot strike. I never speak of my issue but focus the chat on why Mike has fallen off his pace and try to help him maintain our newly "adjusted" speed.
We're finally at the edge of town and the finish can't come too soon. The pavement grade has slackened and that allows me to pick up the speed just a bit. I say adios to Mike and press on.
You can see the finish from four blocks away but it seems like it's never getting any closer. I can't wait to get this over with and take these blasted shoes off. I say to myself "Press it up Ron". I push, but the limit on my speed is how much pain my toes can take. Finally across the line at 3 hours 42 minutes and some change. Done! Wahooo!!!
But little do I know, this story isn't over; not by a long shot.
St. George is a wonderfully organized event. As I'm sitting there allowing the official shoe-unlacing girl to do her job, I'm so happy that I'm about two seconds from getting these shoes off! Heaven I tell you!! Next I actually take the time to look at my beautiful new race medal. Mission accomplished and I was all too glad to have sandals to wear for the next two days until I get home.
At about the time where most are easing into their recovery, I'm discovering an increasingly shocking truth. I'm set to go for a nice spin on one of my road bikes and as I pull on my expensive Carnac road shoes that I've had for over 4 years.... they don't fit!!!! How can this be??!! I run back to my ?gear room?. Mountain bike racing shoes...they don't fit!!! Backcountry ski boots, XC ski boots, Skate ski boots, downhill ski boots, GoreTex hiking boots, GoreTex work boots, Motorcycle riding boots, dress shoes.... Every pair of shoes and boots I have, they're all useless to me now!!!!!!!!!!
I thought I was flat-footed but somehow, over the course of 17 miles both of my feet either flattened even more or in some other way grew over 1/2 a shoe size! Oh the humanity. Few of these perfectly fitting specialty shoes were easily found and most are no longer made as such.
That was one expensive race!! Imagine if you got hit with the same reality. I still haven't been able to sit down and total what my 2002 marathon really cost me. I suppose it's a good thing that I had some fun out there and still enjoy running. Perhaps it's a good thing I waited this long to write this report.
Thanks to Mizuno for making a great shoe that fits my feet so well, in sizes 10 and 11.5. Hopefully I'm done climbing that scale.
Which brings me to the requisite fashion report:
Long-sleeved white running top dropped at an early aid station, black RaceReady gloves for the early miles, Short-sleeved white and black Sporthill top, blue speckled RaceReady LD V-Notch shorts (which carried my Carb-Boom gels), Thorlo micro mini-crew running socks and Mizuno Alchemy shoes.
So as they say, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry..."
------------------
A little 411 on me.[/URL" target="_blank">
http://This message has been edited by Miles2go (edited Oct-23-2007).
http://This message has been edited by Miles2go (edited Oct-23-2007).
I'm sure some of you know that uneasy feeling well. 
