A Marathon Man

Slow and steady finishes the race with a smile!

A few weeks ago I was asked to contribute a short piece to the website of the running group I belong to about my experience in running my first marathon.  The original text (http://www.warsawtriclub.com/news/)  was edited a bit; however, the following is the orignal text.

Shortly after spending the first half of 2012 making the transformation from weekend jogger to spirited runner by participating in the Warsaw Half Marathon, I spent an evening under the influence of a couple of beers pondering my chances of actually completing the full marathon in September.  As alcohol can often impair one’s decision making process, I came to the beer-goggled conclusion that I would be up to the challenge  to complete the 42.195K in one go by the end of September.    So without making any other serious calculations I made the proverbial leap of faith and registered on the marathon’s website.  After receiving my race number a couple of days later, it became official.  I was going to run in my first marathon.    

Still standing!

The course of action was fairly straight forward: to run as often as possible between May and September.  Fortunately, being an English Teacher affords one an opportunity to take advantage of those long vacation periods in order to rack up the miles in order to be ready for a long run.  All things considered, the gist in getting ready (in my experience at least) is in fact to run a lot.  More specifically, however, is to run increasingly longer distances until about two weeks before the race.  At which time one should be able to run about 30-35K in one go.  Then, a couple of weeks before race day, one should let the body rest a bit.  For me, at least, in three and a half months I was able to transform myself from a moderate runner struggling to push through a 15K run into someone maybe more similar to a Forest Gump type is able to just keep running.   The only glitch on my side was not taking in enough water on the long run before the marathon.  It was a painful ending to a long 36K run in the afternoon with only three quarters of a liter of water to carry. I found myself feeling nauseous and unable to eat anything for a couple of hours after the run.  Lesson learned.  I am not an expert on running.  However, if I could impart some advice to you dear reader: stay hydrated.

On the big day I had my pre-run, morning breakfast ritual consisting of a big bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios (no product placement intended) with sliced bananas, a strong coffee, and about two liters of water.   After eating, I successfully attached my race bib to my WITC shirt and made my way to the national stadium.  Upon arriving, I dropped off my extra clothes, and dutifully waited to use the bathroom.  Judging by the size of the line, the other participants all seemed to be well hydrated before the race as well. After the bathroom break, there was no time to waste.  It was time to run a marathon.  Publically I mentioned to most people beforehand that my goal was to just finish the race, but privately my goal was to finish under four hours.  So, I moved myself as close as possible to the 4 hour pacer.  Once I got started I didn’t stop.  With an exception of one bathroom break around the 15^th kilometer, I just kept putting one foot in front of the other.  I kept a pace of about 11K an hour and finished in just under four hours.  I kept a steady pace, and luckily didn’t run into that proverbial wall most runners speak of so ominously.   So that was it.  I ran my first marathon.  I think there were three or four things, however, that carried me through the race; staying hydrated, good tunes, and the amount of people who came out in support of the runners-especially, the people from WITC who were all such a welcome sight with the cheers and high-fives.  Thanks guys!  So now it’s time for a run.