Holy Crap, I Ran a Marathon!

My 6 year old held this up when they saw me after the race. But I was really way too tired to have scored.

There were so many titles I could have used for this post:

• Bill’s Post-Marathon Race Report
• The 2011 National Marathon
• My Knee Made It
• One and Done
• Thank Goodness That’s Over

But no matter what the title, I have to say that I’m pretty proud of myself that I managed to eek out a 4:53:26 (11:12 min/mile) time in my first marathon.  I came in 247th out of 269 in my age group (40-44), and finished 2456th out of 2877 finishers overall.  Closer to the back of the pack than I’d have liked, but hey, I finished in under 5 hours and that’s all I really cared about, especially considering how I’d injured myself.*

Now, I suppose, should come the part where I write about how life changing it was when I crossed the finish line.  How tears started streaming down my face as they handed me my medal and mylar blanket.  How the clouds broke open, the sun shone down, and all was clear in my life.

Unfortunately, much like the coveted “runner’s high,” none of that happened to me.  I’m super proud of what I did, and you can bet I’ll hang the medal and pictures proudly, but at the end I was just so sore and tired that all I could think of was, “Boy I hope my wife is here with the car.”  (she was, but she and the kids missed my finishing by about 2 minutes)

Oh, I suppose I learned some things during this whole experience.

First, I learned that I’m easily goaded into running.  Kristen convinced me to run a 5K, then kept goading me all the way to doing the half-marathon last year.  Then Erika (Kristen’s running coach and my neighbor/running partner) took over and helped convince me to do a full marathon this year.  I’m never talking to someone who does ultras.

My 4 year old made this for me. Apparently the "congratulations" is what's upside down - the drawing is right side up. We haven't figured out what it is, but I think it looks like a skull with hair.

Second, I learned that you may not want to follow a marathon training plan and do it off-the-shelf.  I used Hal Higdon’s Novice 2 plan, and it’s a reasonable starting point, but I should have let Erika look at it and modify it for me.  Knowing that I have knee issues, we would have dropped one of the run days per week, shuffled the run distances around, and added more strength.  Had we done that, I probably wouldn’t have injured my knee*.  Running coaches are relatively cheap, and their experience and training (get one who’s certified!) can really help you get there.

Third, I learned that your feet swell up after a few miles, and then again around 15 miles.  I ended up having to buy bigger shoes for my long runs!  Watch for this because I hurt my right foot when my shoes got too small.  This may have had something to do with how my left knee got hurt, too.

Fourth, I learned that you really need to run the race for yourself.  Okay, I already knew that, but I confirmed it.  Originally I signed up with the intention of running this with Kristen as the Shredheads Marathon.  Well her busy schedule threw a wrench into those plans, but I still planned to run the first half with Erika.  Unfortunately, my knee slowed me down so I told her to go on without me (picture the old time movie where the guy shot in the leg says, “Go on without me!”) and I was left to run alone.  And you know what?  That was fine.  I was doing this for myself, not to have some company.  And despite my griping, it was all worth it.

So what’s next?

I have no idea where running and I will end up.  I’m definitely not going to stop, but I need to take a break and let my knee heal properly.  While I do that I’m going to be doing Jillian’s Ripped in 30 DVD throughout April to get my overall conditioning back (there will be an upcoming post about this).  I had no idea I’d end up so out of shape after training for a marathon!  My upper body is jello.  Then once I heal up and get some strength back I’ll either try to get an official sub-25 minute 5K, or I’ll switch to something crazy like barefoot running (not literally barefoot, but wearing something like Vibram Five Fingers).  Have I mentioned I’m easily convinced to do crazy things as far as running goes? But now that the marathon is done I have no desire to do another.  (of course, I said I had no desire to do a marathon last year, and look what happened)

Make sure you get your copy of Ripped in 30 soon – we’re going to be doing regular updates and reviews throughout April, and we want as many Shredheads to get ripped with us!  (you can get the DVD anywhere, but if you click our link we’ll get a small kickback from Amazon)

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*Shortly after my 19 mile training run THREE weeks before the race, my left knee started hurting on runs between 4-5 miles and then around 8 miles. I saw the doctor and he thought it was patellar tendonitis and told me to take a week off.  I ended up dropping the 20 mile training run in that week, and the next week’s 12 miler felt good.  Then one week before the race my knee hurt so badly during an 8 mile run that I couldn’t finish it.  Fortunately, a week of doing NOTHING with my knee let it heal enough so that I could finish.  It hurt at several points during the marathon, particularly after stopping to use the portapotties.  I had a ridiculous limpy run for about 1/2 mile following each stop, and then it warmed up and felt mostly okay.  My right side is sore in different places than my left, so obviously I had a lopsided gait going on, but at least it held up.  The only reason I was okay with this is that the doctor said running on my specific injury wouldn’t make it worse.  It would either be okay, or it would end up hurting so badly I couldn’t run.  DON’T RUN THROUGH YOUR OWN INJURIES WITHOUT TALKING TO A DOCTOR.

Tags: Marathon Results, National Marathon