That was, by far, the hardest marathon I have ever done, which is saying something. Basically, everything went wrong. The bottom line is that I think this was timed too close to CIM, and my body simply wasn't recovered. I opened it up feeling pretty good and was clicking 7:35 miles pretty effortlessly. At mile nine, however, my right hamstring, which was still janky from California International, went, and it went fast. I knew I was done. Then about ten minutes later, my right calf was next to follow, probably from over compensation. At mile 13 I knew the day was gone and my legs were shot -- feeling like they should have felt at mile 20. I decided to dial it back - way back -- and try to enjoy the day. And then the sun came up. It will shot to mid 70's and I learned (the hard way) that desert heat is a unique animal. First off, I quickly became parched -- parched to the point where I was becoming concerned about dehydration. It was weird; since I no longer cared about time, I stopped at every aid station and drank 2 cytomax's and one water. And then two minutes later, I was once again parched. The other weird thing is I felt my shirt at mile 22 and it was bone dry. Not one iota of sweat anywhere on my body. Really weird feeling.
Anyway, I hobbled in at a time of 3:42. My worst marathon in ten years but as previously stated, I've become zen about all this running stuff. The truth of the matter is that I was kind of proud of myself for finishing this one. Similar to the Double Dipsea earlier this year, which I ran in 97 degree heat, I gave very serious consideration to packing it in at mile 20 when I saw the WIfe and Kids. The truth of the matter is that I didn't want them to see me quit; I think that's the only thing that held me back. Lesson learned: don't attempt back to back hard marathons five weeks apart. Especially if you are in your 40's.
So, that's the story. The rest of the weekend was terrific. We stayed at a nice hotel, we swam, the Kids raced a one mile race and did great. The only thing we weren't able to do was see CrazyMama; sorry about that. But we'll be back -- my Wife is crazy about your hometown and would move there in a heartbeat. I like it too but as evidenced by the above story, I don't think I'm phsyiologically cut out of desert living. I'm more of an Ocean kind of guy.
3 comments:
No worries for me.
it was a crazy weekend here for us.
way to go finishing. i don't know how you do it. but i would have quit,well i wouldn't start. but if i started i would have quit when the first problem happened.
the heat here is KILLER.and if you aren't used to it. holy CRAP! yeah. impressive you attempted it and finished. i'm sure your family was super proud of your effort!
awesome the kids did the fun run Saturday. very cool!
I think you were right to "dial it down"....not sweating, as you probably already know, can be a sign of severe dehydration. Glad that you were able to finish, there will be other days and other marathons.
Howard, I'm proud of you. You remain an inspiration.
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