Mixed Emotions

Well, it’s over.  Months and months of training finally culminated in Sunday’s 2015 Vermont City Marathon.  Other than really having to pee and freaking out while standing on the port-o-potty line when the announcer said that all runners needed to be in the starting corral, the day started really well.  I felt very strong over the first few miles. I don’t know if it was race day adrenaline or proper training, but I felt great.  I started the race hoping for a four hour finish, and started the first few miles at the proper pace to finish in this time, but I was also intent on building up enough of a cushion to walk a bit towards the end of the race.  The first loop around the southern section passed without incident.  Other than trying not to collide with any of the thousands of other runners, my day could not have started any better.  Coming back up Church Street was great.  The crowds were cheering and I was feeling strong.  Then, as we started out on the beltline, the clouds moved in for a welcome break from the direct sunshine.  Still feeling fine… Seeing the elite runners coming back towards town, after their 6-mileturnaround was great.  Rounding the bend and turning towards town was even better.  Realizing that I was ahead of so many runners made me feel very confident.  I came off the beltline still feeling good and began the stretch back into town.  I was supposed to meet my wife just before mile 9 for a resupply of Gu and liquids.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see each other and I was worried about not having enough nutrition.  However, the number of water stations on the course, as well as the Gu handouts easily made up for this slight setback.  The run down Pine St. was great.  I ran into some friends along the way (both runners and in the crowd) and the whole home-town atmosphere of this event really began to set in. I was still feeling fine through South Cove road and back into Oakledge Park (the ½ way point).  The lake views were great as I headed back into town.  I guess that it was somewhere in this vicinity that I began to mentally fade out.  I recall seeing my wife at the bottom of Battery Hill, but realized that I was halfway up the hill before I heard the Taiko drummers.  I was really looking forward to seeing, and hearing them, and couldn’t believe that I had passed them without even realizing it!  Somewhere in this general vicinity is also where I was passed by the 4:00 pace group.  I couldn’t figure out how this was possible,  if my mile splits were where I thought they were, but either way, I was not able to catch the pace group.  I recall thinking- that’s ok, I’ll just do my best to stay ahead of the 4:15 pace group. By the time I got to Burlington High School, I was really beginning to fade.  It was at this point that I knew that the 4:00 finish time was truly beyond my reach.  The urge to start walking really hit me at around mile 18, when I first entered the North End neighborhoods.  I was beyond excitement when I was offered a freeze-pop as I turned onto Oakcrest Drive.  On my training runs these neighborhoods were difficultfor me, because they come at a point in the mileage where my energy level is low, and it is mentally difficult to come back out to North Ave exactly where you entered- giving the feeling of much work completed for no overall mileage gain. With that said, I want to give a huge shout out to all of the neighborhood crowds.  The cheering, freeze pops, orange slices, and chunks of watermelon were all greatly appreciated.   Additionally, the sprinklers provided welcome relief to my heated body. I could have been easily convinced to stop running and have a seat with the guy handing out beer on Oakland Terrace! After exiting the neighborhoods, I was pretty excited to reach the bike path for my return to the waterfront.  However, it was at this point (around mile 22) that I was truly out of it.  I had to start interjecting walk breaks more and more frequently, and for longer periods of time.   I was really bummed out to be passed by so many runners while walking.  The real blow to my psyche came when the 4:15 pace group passed me and I couldn’t muster enough energy to even think about sticking with them.  So, I continued my run/walk (more like crawl/walk) technique until mile 25.  At this point a friend caught up to me and basically dragged me to the finish line.  In a previous blog post, I had said that I would truly enjoy the last 385 yards of the race (remember that a marathon is 26.2 miles (those last 0.2 miles equal 385 yards).  Well, this was wishful thinking… As I was coming down those last 385 yards all I was thinking was “I WANT TO WALK, I NEED TO WALK, I NEED TO STOP RUNNING!”So, there it was, I had completed my first marathon.  It wasn’t the prettiest thing, but I had done it! However, the story doesn’t end quite yet.  I had mentioned, again in previous blog posts that I didn’t want to end up in the medical tent.  But the thought of dropping by just to say hello to my medical friends and colleagues was appealing, so I went inside… and minutes later ended up as a patient.  I made the mistake of sitting down on a cot, with my legs dangling… I guess the blood pooled in my legs and without much cardiac effort to bring it back up, I got more and more lightheaded and dizzy.  The next thing I knew, I was basically unable to speak and ended up getting carried to a cot.  A few minutes of lying flat was all I needed and then I was good-to-go.  Other than some leg soreness, 24 hours later, I am fine.  I finished my first marathon, and am proud of that.  Despite the fact that my desire to finish in four hours was an arbitrary number and only a best guess at my ability level, the competitive side of me is somewhat disappointed in my overall result. 

 

As crazy as it sounds, I am already planning my second marathon, to try for a better result. I love the camaraderie of running events.  I see it when I coach my middle school Cross Country meets and I saw it on Sunday. The cheering crowds and the general atmosphere at the VCM were great.  Although I had a difficult time on my run, I don’t believe that running 26.2 miles should be easy.  If it were easy, more people would do it. I loved every minute of the day and of the race.  It was hard, and that is good.  Besides, after burning 3000+ calories, I can eat anything I want!  

 

My Rookie Blogger experience has drawn to an end.  I guess I’m not a rookie anymore.  I’m going to continue running, struggling, and getting better.  If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you.  Drop me a line sometime… 802running@gmail.com

See you on the road,

Greg

 

 

One week to go

One week to go.  I can’t believe that all of my training miles, assorted preparations, and anticipation will culminate this weekend!  I’m really looking forward to race day.  If you see me out there, please shout words of encouragement.  I’ll be needing them!

I ran the Burlington “Cycle-the-city” course this week.  It was great 8 mile run on a beautiful day, and the end of anything resembling long mileage until next weekend.  From here on out, I just have 3, 4, and 2 mile runs left to complete before Sunday.  I’m not sure what else I can do to get ready.  I’ve completed my training program and followed the recommended mileage as closely as anyone can (I only had one training related blister and still have all of my toenails!).  I’ve worked on my nutrition plan.  I’ve gone from running with no water bottles, moved up to one bottle, then two, three, and four bottles.  What fears do I have left to conquer?  There are two things I’m still worried about: bonking, and fighting my nemesis- Mother Nature

As far as my bonking fear goes-- I fully expect to be completely spent at the end of 26.2 miles, but if I am still feeling complete exhaustion at the end of my 20 mile training runs, how am I going to complete the extra, and hardest 6.2 miles?  I guess I’ll just hope that running on tapered, well rested legs will be much different than completing a 20 mile training run on purposefully tired legs.  I’m also betting on a little bit of race day magic.  Perhaps the cheering crowds and thousands of runners will add an adrenalin spike containing enough power to carry me over those final 6.2 miles. 

As for the weather…I’m a science teacher with very little faith in the validity of a 10 day weather forecast.  But I can tell you that I’m watching each day’s weather prediction more carefully than my students are watching the calendar for summer vacation.  I’m living in fear of a warm weather marathon.  I don’t do well in high heat on my best days, and the thought of running a marathon in heat and humidity is scarier to me than monsters in the closet are to a five year old child.  Thus far the predictions are looking good.  My fingers are crossed!

Not that I’m done with the race yet, but I can’t help but wonder what comes next.  I’ve already crossed skydiving and hang-gliding off my bucket list.  Next week I’ll hopefully be able to cross running a marathon off the list too.   Guess I’ll need to sit down and add some interesting “to-do’s” to my list.  Maybe, just maybe, I’ll sign up for another marathon, and attempt a PR.  But first, I’ll admire my freshly cut lawn, finish my beer, and wait excitedly for next Sunday (while watching the weather forecast, of course).

How many people does it take?

I’m humbled.  I am struck by the enormity of organizing an event as large as the People’s United Bank Vermont City Marathon.  I started reflecting on the number of people that are needed to successfully host an event of this magnitude, and the numbers quickly started spiraling out of control.  I knew from personal experience that just considering the medical team, the number of volunteers on race day is approximately 100 strong.  To keep everyone as healthy as possible, there are 12 MDs, 12 RNs, 35 EMTs, 30 Athletic Trainers, and other blood analysis lab staff available.  These medically trained personnel are located at 17 aid stations, three medical tents, and stationed along the actual course.  Knowing these numbers, I figured that the entire marathon would need something on the order of 1000 volunteers.  To put it bluntly, I was not even in the correct ballpark.  I checked with the RunVermont staff and found out that there are approximately 1700 volunteers needed for this year’s race.  This is a huge number of people, and doesn’t even include the city workers who assist as part of their regular career positions.

Here is an interesting analogy: when we had our house built, we came to realize that for every decision that we knew we’d have to make, there were usually four others that we hadn’t considered.  Everyone knows that a house requires a roof- but do you want metal or asphalt? 3-tab shingles or architectural? What color?  You get the idea… So, a marathon course will require water stops.  Have you ever stopped to think about the logistics of running just a single water station?  Obviously, everyone knows that water stops will need to be staffed with volunteers handing out cups of water, but someone also needs to supply the coolers, the tables and cups, and more volunteers will be needed to pick up all the cups.  That’s just a single water station. The VCM Course has 20 of them!  But did you consider that there are jobs like:

• Locals are needed to ride the shuttle bus, to answer questions from out-of-towners
• Someone to greet the bus riders and welcome them to Battery Park
• People at each of the local hotels to meet/greet the out of town runners
• Someone to hang up banners at the waterfront
• People are needed to handout bibs, verify bib chips, handle the race timing
• People are needed to staff the food tent
• People to handout thermal blankets and medals at the finish line
• Bicycle riding race course monitors
• People to distribute flyers to houses on the race course
• And let’s not forget… crowd control, PA announcers, food vendors, you get the idea…

All of this, just to assure that I can be as successful as possible in running 26.2 miles.  Would you like to help out?  If so, check out the volunteer page on the VCM website.

But there is another interesting point.  Let’s say that each marathon runner has received help from an additional 10 volunteers (perhaps we can go with the oxymoron “involuntary volunteer”).  These people are the wives, husbands, friends, and coaches who have supported our marathon training over the past 18 weeks (or more).  Heck, credit can even be given to the guy who gave me advice and helped me pick out my most recent pair of shoes at the running store! My point, is that if each of the 3600 full marathon runners has 10 people to thank, and the RunVermont staff provides an additional 1,700 volunteers who assist on race day, there are 37,700 people making this race possible.  When you look at it this way, there are a lot of people who should receive credit for getting me to the starting line of the race.  Now the rest is up to me.  Less than two weeks until race day!

On a more personal training note, I can’t help but wonder what happened in my life to make my vocabulary change so radically.  I’m in my taper period and went out for a 12 mile run this weekend.  The weird part was that I kept telling people that “I only have to run 12 miles”.  When did 12 become an “only 12” situation? Very bizarre.  Earlier this week I stumbled across this quote, and it seems to fit the situation…

Until next week,

Greg

Battery Hill, twice? but what about water?

Battery Hill twice? But what about water?

They say that doctors make the worst patients.  I think that maybe we need to expand that statement to include EMTs.  I took a pretty good whack to the head this week and have been a bit loopy since the incident.  I’m sure that I had/have a concussion, but I was too stubborn to seek medical attention. Everyone kept telling me not to complete my running mileage, but it’s my last big push in weekly mileage before beginning my taper and I didn't feel as though I could put it off, and I certainly didn't want to push it into my taper week(s).  So, with that background, I went out for my second and final 20 mile run this weekend. Saturday had picture perfect running weather.  I can only hope that Mother Nature is as kind to me/us on Marathon weekend!  I met some friends at Battery Park and off we went.  My plan was to take additional nutrition on this run, to see if this would be enough of a change to ward off the usual end-of-the–run lethargy I've been feeling on my very long-runs.  We had also set a pace for the day that was slower than my usual running.  I figured that with changes in my nutrition plan and speed, I would easily beat back the exhaustion beast.  The majority of the run was great.  Running in a group really does help the miles pass more easily.  I have no idea how they do it, but running with people who can carry on full conversations really helps me get lost in thought and I lose my ability to focus on my pain and suffering.  The women I ran with were telling stories, laughing, and carrying on the whole time!  How refreshing! About seven miles into the run, just before reaching Battery Hill, I divulged to my running partners the story of my recent concussion.  After all, I was an idiot for not seeking immediate medical attention, so I figured that they should know this detail, just in case I passed out or started vomiting on the hill.  I was hoping that they were kidding when their main concern was not for my immediate well-being, but about making a decision as to whether they should continue their run after calling 911, or to stay with me.  I’m grateful that there were no running-related concussion consequences, because I’m pretty sure they voted to leave me on the sidewalk as soon as sirens were heard off in the distance!  The bad news of the day was that after running a very satisfying 18 miles, my last two miles were still a struggle.  It turns out, that in the end, I did not beat my exhaustion demons after all.  Although I must mention, that upon reaching the waterfront in Burlington, we were about a mile short of 20.  So, you might ask, what did my running partners suggest?  They wanted to run Battery Hill a second time!  So off we went to run it again on the way back to our cars.  Are you hoping for some good news to counter the bad?  If so, I can tell you that I managed to run the hill again, and my overall recovery for the day was very quick.  I’m not sure that I’d have wanted to get in another short run that day, but I honestly think that I could have.  My legs were fine after a few hours.  It was mentioned to me that perhaps my issue isn’t necessarily nutrition, but hydration instead.  I can buy this as a plausible explanation, because when I add up my fluid intake over the course of the run, it simply wasn't enough.  I’m now wondering and hoping that extra fluid intake can help to counter the end game.  Additionally, in a chat earlier this week with Sam Davis, USATF coach, he mentioned that running 20 miles on purposefully tired legs is much different than completing 26.2 on fresh legs post-taper.  I guess we shall find out soon enough.  After all, the PUBVCM is happening in just three short weeks!

Any comments/suggestions? Find me on my blog and leave me a note! 802running.blogspot.com

Until next week,

Greg