26.2 miles/6:07:59

My first marathon was never going to be an easy run; marathon's just aren't. I thought I had a fair idea of what to expect since I used to do a lot of long distance cycling when I was younger, but what a difference twelve years makes.

The weather for the race was perfect - with the mist and light fog it didn't really start warming up until about tennish, but it was never cold. The beginning of the run was really pleasant, in fact.

Jen came down town to support me, and we met up with a few folks near the start including one of my regular Portland Fit training partners, J, and his wife. A second training buddy, C, didn't make it to that meeting point unfortunately. Then it was down to the start, with seconds to spare - any idea of actually lining up with our nominal pace group was lost as we just hurried to get onto the course before the horn blew!

As it turned out we were towards the back end of the runners, which is about right generally too... it took more than two minutes to get across the line from our spot. The first mile went smoothly, although a little quicker than target pace. I was aiming for twelve minute miles and a finishing time of about five hours (5:14 if I was consistent in my pace), and first mile pace was about 11:20. I didn't track any more splits after that, but before we reached the second mile, the race leaders were finishing their fifth mile. As if we didn't already know we were slow...

The early miles really flew past. We ran for a bit with another PFitter , and were caught up then overtaken by our missing training buddy (his finishing time entirely justified his sailing past us). These early miles should be easy, and they were. I did note some tightness in the outside of my left ankle, but nothing painful.

Mile 9 was notable for two reasons: it was the first place where there were obvious anti-cheating measures, and it was the first aid station with Gummi Bears.

There is a long out and back which goes up through the Albina stockyards and some unscrupulous individuals might try and cut the corner (if they could think of a way of not being lynched by the spectators, anyway). In order to enforce the full distance there are split time stations along the course and one of these was at the 15K mark, right on the turnaround at the far end of the stockyards.

As for the Gummi Bears... Gummi apocalypse, more like. Discarded bears were strewn all over the ground after the aid station. It made the road sticky - slows you down, having to unpeel your shoes after every step.

I lost J at about mile 11; the strap he had put on to alleviate late season tendonitis hadn't helped much, and he decided to walk the rest of the distance. I ran slowly while he walked for a little while, but eventually I had to get going. Disappointing.

Mile 12 marked the energy bar aid station, which this year was the newly released Snickers Marathon. Oh, how the irony tugs at my heart...¹

Things, although not the course, started to go downhill for me after the halfway point. You reach the halfway point coming out of northwest Portland. My time at this point was 2:52, almost exactly the same time as my first half marathon, although I felt much better than I did at the end of Helvetia. But I was getting more physically tired, and I was beginning to feel like I needed to walk. I resisted this need until about mile 15.

The St John's Bridge at mile 17 loomed suddenly out of the mist - it's a magnificent river crossing, although the view wasn't so hot on this day. I couldn't run up the hill to the bridge and decided to at least walk purposefully rather than strolling. This was a mistake for two reasons: I hadn't trained for this style of walking before, and it made running again harder. I stopped near the apex of the bridge to stretch my IT bands which were starting to hurt, and then continued on.

I don't remember much about the section betwen miles 17 and 21. I wasn't happy, I know that. I was playing leap frog with a number of other marathoners, runners and walkers, who would overtake me when I walked and who I would overtake when I ran, although I ran less and less frequently. The soles of my feet were getting sore and my knee was really hurting. It became more and more difficult to switch gears from walking to running. I called Jen at mile 20 to let her know that I was not going to hit my target time.

Mile 21 was fun because the PFit cheering station was there, and mile 22 was better because Jen was there to cheer me on. Then it was the downhill, which was cool but I had to take pain killers for my IT band. The stretching did not help any more, and I knew that I would not be doing any more running if I didn't dose up. Unhappy as I am about taking painkillers during a run, the thought of walking the rest of the distance made me even more unhappy.

On the way down the Interstate hill, J caught me up! He'd been strapped up at an aid station and found some painkillers himself, so he had managed to continue running after all! Good job, J! I was out of running juice, though, so he cruised on past me. He finished a couple of minutes ahead of me in the end.

Then it was just a matter of grinding out the last few miles. In terms of distance, I ran as far as I walked, but of course in terms of time... I just found it beyond me to run up even the slightest hill before the finish. I did run the last third of a mile, though, and crossed the finish line going faster than I had done at any point for the previous ten miles.

Then I went home, had a bath, and spent the rest oof the day unable to go up or down stairs.

I am glad I did this, but I am also very doubtful that I do another. Well, not unless I can figure out either how to make it hurt less, or how to go more quickly so that the pain doesn't last so long. Preferably both.

However, I made some good decisions as far as race nutrition went. There have been reports of bad reactions to the sports drink on offer, as well as the gel, so I am very pleased that I just drank water and took electrolyte capsules.

And I did finish. You've got to be happy with that.

[1] "Marathon" was the original name of the Snickers bar in the UK. There was (actually, still is) a great deal of annoyance that a well-loved chocolate bar could be renamed in the UK just because it was called something else in other countries, particularly when "Marathon" is just a much better name. Drole remarks about "running the London Snickers" were rife at the time. To have the name revived is... strange, after all these years.

And don't get me started on Opal Fruits.

Posted by Dunx at October 3, 2004 04:07 PM