The First Marathon

I wanted to write an detailed play-by-play of my first marathon-distance run, but never got around to it.  So I'm going to record some thoughts and observations before it fades into oblivion.

I've been wanting to do this run for a while - running from my folks' house in Reseda to work in Pasadena.  It just sounded so cool and ridiculous to run from the Valley to Pasadena!!!

The run was initially 26.4 mi - pretty much exactly a Marathon - but I extended it to 27.5 mi by running on well-lit Ventura instead of the sketchy Vanowen.

I started running at 5:10 thinking it'd take 4.5 hours and I could be at work around 9:30.  The first 7-8 miles were cake and I was making pretty good time.  By my preliminary calculations, I may have been running below 9 minute pace (I need to run at 9:10 pace to beat Palin).  It was dark, there were few cars and even fewer people around.  It was kind of cool running on a deserted street along dark storefronts past the occasional commuter huddled in their coat at a bus stop.

The sun started creeping up as I got to Moorpark in about an hour.  That's when I figured I will really see if I'm running at 9 minute pace or my more normal 10 minute pace for long runs.  I started hitting my first little wall about 1-2 miles into the Moorpark stretch.

My left knee was twinging with pain - pain not nearly strong enough to be concerning, but distracting and irritating.  Overall my legs were feeling less springy and more complainy.  I noticed a slowdown in pace.  That wasn't good, so early into the run - about mile 8-9.

So I slowed down to a walk, took out a Clif bar and drank a bunch of water.  This is OK - some of the best marathon runners walk past aid stations and still finish with times in low 2 hours.  This seemed to help.  I think food's really important.  And while I can eat a Clif bar while running, it's really unpleasant, so walking for a bit to do it was OK.

After that I got some of the springiness back and kept going.  I was feeling good and said "Good Morning" to a few people standing about.

The next wall was much bigger... right around the industrial area between Glendale and the Valley at around mile 15-16.  That was killer.  My legs were hurting a lot more and they just felt stiff.  Various muscles felt like they wanted to start spasming - butt, hip flexors, hamstring... luckily they didn't.  While my left knee felt better, the ligaments behind it were more stiff and were complaining.

And that's when it hit me.

SHIT I HAVE 10 MORE MILES TO RUN.

UGH.

I also had to pee.  And I needed fluids badly.  So I looked up the nearest gas station on my phone - an Arco. And the vision of going into a dirty toilet while chugging Gatorade helped me along the next mile or so until I got to promised land.

The Gatorade helped a bit - I knew I wasn't drinking quite as much water as I would have liked - I didn't want to have to refill my 2L Camelbak.  That would require taking it off my sweaty back and taking time to fill it up.

Then, still feeling stiff, I pushed on.  At that point I wasn't feeling particularly light or springy.  Everytime I stopped, getting going again was tough.  I just felt increasingly stiff.  I also noticed I started heel-striking more.  Not all the way landing on the heel, but definitely more weight on the heel.  So I had to watch that.

It was grinding.  In fact, what kept me going was the thought of:

"Just grind it out, just grind it out" over and over and over.

I was able to get some mini-second winds, but they kept being interrupted by lights (UGH) or me deciding to eat a piece of Clif bar.

*NOTE to self: when feeling light and springy and second-windy, don't break it by eating, just keep going until it starts going away or I'm stopped by something else*

So the last 10 miles went about this way.  There were some killer hills at the end, as Glendale became Pasadena.

The best part were the last 7-8 blocks.  I thought back to some of the best runners described in Born To Run, who finished the toughest 100 mile races with a smile on their face... in fact kept the smile on the whole way, just happy to be running.  I started thinking of that while picking up the pace.  And this feeling came over me where the pain and hurt and complaints of my legs became abstracted from me.  It was like floating above my legs, feeling them remotely, while they did the running under me, and the rest of me just glided along.

Honestly, I think it looked much more awkward than gliding to an outside observer, but that feeling of going fast while subduing the pain and fatigue felt wonderful.  Just knowing that I could go fast right when I thought I had nothing left felt wonderful.

I finished in 4:45.  If I try to see what my actual race time would have been, I would subtract 15 minute for the extra 1.3 miles beyond the marathon, about 10 minutes for lights, distractions, finding my way, buying Gatorade.   So that's 4:20, or 10 minute miles.  LA marathon is also all downhill, so I probably could have squeezed a 4:15.  Still need to be 15 minutes faster to beat Palin.

Other thoughts:

I decided I'm not a huge fan of running through the city.  While getting places is certainly fun, all the lights and obstacles could get really irritating and they really break my rhythm.  Towards the end as I got stiffer, getting going again got harder.  I don't mind running on roads and it's kind of fun to be around people... I just don't like all the lights.

I wasn't super sore and was able to work a full day at First Wilshire no problem.  I was certainly sore and drained, but nothing beyond repair.  This was Wednesday morning and I went skiing on Friday in Utah and did another run on Sunday.  My left knee was probably the most sore up front, but still not bad overall.  One place that was surprisingly sore were the balls of my feet.  They felt bruised from the impact.  I guess the good thing is that my heels weren't sore at all - so I wasn't heel striking.  But this also went away in a couple of days.

Finally, I dislike feeling like I have something to do when I'm done or having a time constraint.  Like for this run, the thought of getting into work right after the run, having to shower and put on stuffy business clothes was not exciting at all.  I would rather just sit down and relax on my own or with friends.  Not that my co-workers are not friends, but I felt like I should get in and work hard since I already missed 2 hours of work.  I imagine this would change as runs like these become routine and I don't quite feel so drained.  To my credit, despite feeling drained, I also felt elated and surprisingly calm and had a productive day at work.