The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round... Until They Don't
So where are we now, huh?
Most of you are on Facebook, so you’ve probably heard about me pulling out of the Victoria Marathon on Sunday afternoon. It was a tough call, but it was the right one, and I can still say that 4+ days later, which should tell you something.
Two main culprits contributed to my 21-mile outing, as opposed to what should have been around 26 ½ mile outing – 1) going out too fast, and 2) nutrition.
You can never have too much body glide on. Yep, there I said it.
That said, I woke up on Sunday morning feeling pretty positive and fresh. There was no rain in sight and the temps were in a good place. All of the things that I didn’t have under my control were going in the right direction and I was excited about that. I didn’t know how my foot was going to hold up, but I made my peace with that by Friday when I finished up my pre-race blog entry. If the foot was in too much pain, I was going to stop and I was ok with that along with everyone else I had been discussing this with in detail.
Mile 1 (9:05) – The course is a bit annoying in that there are lots of narrow streets and turns in the 1st half of the 1st mile. Obviously it is more crowded at the start. But I had myself targeted for a 9 minute pace, so 9:05 didn’t concern me. I saw Marc and felt good.
Mile 2 (8:53) – The uphill here didn’t really phase me, and I was really trying hard to keep the pace for the first 5 miles.
Miles 3 & 4 (8:46) – Rolling makes it hard to keep an accurate pace and get into a groove, I am finding. A bit fast, but hey – if I can get a few seconds here and there without going crazy, that’s ok. Finished one CarboPro bottle and was taking some water at each water station to throw on my back and take in. Foot started to hurt – about a 4 of 10.5 miles between 8:50-9:00. So obviously – good here.
Mile 5 (8:28) – OK, that wasn’t supposed to happen. Told myself to take it easy. Like I said, the rollers made it hard for me to settle because you were either going uphill or going downhill as you can see from the course profile. Foot continued to hurt, but nothing significant – same as previous mile.
Mile 6 (8:41) – The goal from here until mile 20 was to stay within 8:40 – 8:50 pace. I figured in some places I would make it up on the rollers. Foot was still hurting, but pain wasn’t increased. I honestly felt like if I could stay like this, the day was going to be good.
Mile 7 (8:42) – Foot stopped hurting, but my hip flexors definitely tightened up. Still taking in CarboPro (about 8 oz. every 4 miles – more on this later). Still felt like things would be ok because I felt eventually the hip flexors would loosen up.
Mile 8 (8:45) – Hip flexors still tight, but I am feeling strong. Enjoying the scenery. Finish 2nd CarboPro bottle. I found myself consuming things a bit quicker than I expected and this is where I should have adjusted (again – more on this later). Still taking in water at water stops.
Miles 9 & 10 (8:27 & 8:36) – A little fast in these two, but I was feeling good. Saw Marc twice. I knew I had some work ahead of me, but when I made the turn to head out past the Golf Course for the out and back, I was in a good place.
Miles 11 – 13 (8:39, 8:40 & 8:45) – Got some CarboPro from Marc. Pace was good, but was having some trouble flexing my left foot. It was troubling to me, for sure, but I was happy with the paces. Finished more CarboPro and kept to my loading schedule.
Miles 14 – 17 (8:42, 8:55, 8:55 & 8:55) – Deliberately tried to slow down a bit because I knew I had a long road back, including the slow, gradual climb at 23.5 which you pass on the way out. Yes, I was laboring, but again I felt ok – not awesome, but decent. Decided to get more CarboPro from Marc than I expected. Felt something pop on one of my toes, which I figured was a blood blister (this proved to be correct, along with 7 other bloodied toes).
Miles 18 – 19 (9:07 & 9:09) – And then the wheels came off. I was battling right here and now. “The proverbial wall”, I guess? It all happened so quickly. Tried to take in more fluids, my HR had to be super high. I knew I was going to see Marc relatively early in mile 20, so I wanted to keep on running. The legs were starting to feel like bricks. I was hurting. At this point, I wished that my foot was what I was concerned about (no, it didn’t hurt – go figure). And I thought to myself – really? Another 8+ miles (more on this later). Taking in as much as possible.
Mile 20 (10:49’ish) – Run/walk. Saw Marc. Got extra CarboPro. Tried to stay positive. Felt my HR starting to get really high, so figured that I would try walking it out for 5 minutes and see if that would calm me down. It did.
Mile 21 (9:27) – Pushed up another roller, but was just fading. And then I felt like my legs had absolutely nothing. Nothing. The gait was modified and I couldn’t get it back to “normal”. So I made the decision to stop. It sucked.
After 10 minutes of waiting for the van to get me, I started to get cold so one of the bike medics gave me his fleece. My abs muscles hurt like they have never hurt before. I bent over to stretch and keep loose/warm, and I had a pain that I never experienced. That concerned me, but later found out from the massage therapist at medical tent that if you’re breathing heavy for a long period of time, that is typical. My calves and feet felt fine. My toes hurt. Hips were very achy, as were quads. Took about 35-40 minutes from the time I stopped until when I hit the massage table.
Got a massage and couldn’t bend over. She took off my socks and we noticed my toes were pretty bloodied. Not surprising. That happens with me, although not to this extent. She gently worked my abs and some other lower extremities. I was too pissed off about the Giants losing to the Seachickens to notice, although I probably did tell her that my quads and hip flexors hurt so I imagine she worked on those. I was able to bend over again without my abs hurting too much so that was $20 well spent. The sheet on the table was soaking wet.
Went back to the room and didn’t really want to eat. Just started drinking some water a bit, and then Marc got the ice bath ready. Getting clothes on and off hurt like hell because of the sports bra issues and where my fuel belt was on my waist. Then the ice bath hurt – more from the chafing than the shock of cold water. Shower was worse, but needed to get warm. Packed up and walked to Clipper. Opted not to eat because if the ride back was bumpy, that would have made me nauseous, and that would not have been a good outcome on a boat. To be honest, I wasn’t hungry and was just sipping some G2. Tried to walk around and stretch on ride home but things were stiff.
Lessons Learned/Questions:
· I think the adrenaline of racing expended more energy than a training run. I am used to handling it in a half marathon, but obviously not in a full. My normal ratio of 8 oz. of CarboPro/G2/Water for every 4 miles wasn’t enough. I think it needs to be every 3 miles. I need to load up more in the beginning, so I have more in the tank to be able to climb that “wall”.
· I have to figure out the electrolytes issue. My clothes and Garmin were covered in salt. Fortunately got some recos for the same product from 4 different people. It’s been ordered and will be tested out between now and early November but I was definitely in an early stage of severe dehydration.
· I didn’t really start paying attention to everything I was eating until Thursday morning. I clearly needed to start on Monday for a Sunday race. But I felt like I ate well from that point on, and was alcohol-free from the previous Sunday morning.
· The good news is that I will be up probably 4 hours before my start in my “target full” because of the bus schedules out to the start. That means I will have plenty of time to eat solid food before the race. But I need to be more precise on my calorie intake pre-race.
· A marathon is not really a doubling of a half-marathon with respect to fueling, endurance, etc., because you are going to be more fatigued so it kind of has a multiplier effect.
· I need to stretch my hip flexors and IT bands a lot between now and NYC. Maybe some squats and lunges (no weights)?
· The massages and Dr. Perry totally worked for my foot. Obviously am going to keep the treatments going through NYC and then re-evaluate.
· And of course, you can never have too much body glide on.
I learned a lot on Sunday and am feeling good enough to live to tell the tale, so that’s as good of an outcome as you could hope for when talking about a DNF. I’m disappointed and wish I could have a do-over on the fueling part. But that’s life and you live and learn. And I got in a 21-mile training run, albeit the hard way. :-)
Special thanks to Marc and PNak for being right by my side....