1st Marathon Down!

1st Marathon Down!
By Zetti


The weekend weather forecast had been looking sunny all week, so naturally I assumed rain for race day. A nice upper 50s lower 60s drizzle would be perfect, I was thinking. However, as race day approached, the forecast got sunnier and warmer. By Friday afternoon, the forecast read 78 and sunny. Well, at least the spectators were going to be happy! :)

That night, I managed to completely change my diet by eating a full steak and half a chicken breast, accompanied by the usual salad. Well, worst case scenario, I end up stopped-up, not letting loose…so I figured no harm done. I finished off a seasonal Oktoberfest brew and played a game of Apples to Apples with the family.

The following morning, I woke up rested and ready for my first marathon. I ate my usual bowl of cereal and two pieces of toast with peanut butter. I rolled out my legs, stretched minimally, and off we were. I ran this even with a buddy of mine, so we chatted merrily on the ¾ mile warm up to the starting line. (I have family that lives near by the starting line). Upon arrival, we went straight to the port-a-John line. We got there with 20 minutes to spare, so I figured that we would have plenty of time to use the facilities and get into the chute. Well…we ended up waiting in line of 19 minutes and 45 seconds leaving exactly 9 seconds to empty the tubes and 6 seconds to get from the port-a-John to the chute. Luckily, the race was super small (under 200 in the marathon), so our timing worked like a charm.

The gun went off, and we set out dodging those individuals who decided that they were going to run sub 3.30 marathons and 1.3 halfs, but in reality, would be lucky to finish under 4.3 or 2, respectively. Nothing against taking your time and enjoying a race, but geez…why in the name of running would you go to the very front of the chute if that is the case?!? By the time we dodged the overly optimistic runners, we reached a beautiful bike trail that circled Spring Lake.

The course was beautiful and already warm at 8 a.m. Unfortunately, the marathon course was a repeated loop around the lake, but that’s about all I have for complaints. As usual, the aid station crew was super-friendly, helpful, and encouraging. I heard the classic comments as well as those comments of disbelief mixed with passive/aggressive condescension. You can’t help but chuckle when you hear some of those comments.

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8 mile mark...all smiles

There was a 1.5-2 mile stretch where the road was really torn up, and I was very glad I had my Lunas in hand to make for the most enjoyable race experience possible. I slipped them on for that portion and easily slipped them off once the road/bike trail became reasonable. It was by no means un-runnable, but I will definitely say that it was much more enjoyable to have the min shoe option. I’m all about relaxing and enjoying the run, so it worked out nicely for this race!

The first 13 miles went very smoothly. My buddy and I were oscillating between 8.30 and 8.45 min/miles so we were happy. For 16 miles or so, we chit-chatted and cracked jokes, but somewhere between 17 and 18, we got real quiet and realized that we needed to focus on the task at hand. By mile 19, I realized that I might end up gassing around mile 21, so I grabbed a GU, just in case, from an aid station. At this point, my ability to rationalize and recall that I should change NOTHING from my training was outweighed by my body's craving for calories. Just before mile 20, I ended up taking the GU (orange flavor), and man was that a mistake. Not only was this my first GU ever, but it had been warmed to a super tasty 84 Degrees Fahrenheit! The warm, sticky, way-too-sweet goop oozed out of the tube, and I almost lost it. The second it hit my tongue, I knew it was a huge mistake! Oh well, down the hatch it went. It also left a very unpleasant sticky residue on my hands that just about drove me mad until the next aid station. One Gatorade and one water later, I could still feel the slime of my bad decision in the back of my mouth. Luckily, I was able to hit the aid station again after a short loop to add an extra .5 miles to the course.

Somewhere around mile 22, my body decided that all basic functions including breathing were a little too much to handle, so it slowed time to a crawl so that I could savor each fraction of each second. By this time, my buddy had stopped to walk due to a bum knee, but he told me to keep going. As much as I would have loved to stop and walk with him, I knew it would have been my demise as (for me) walking is the next closest step to death…I stop to walk, and bad things happen. So, needless to say, I carried on.

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beautiful day for a run

By mile 23 and 24, I wished I did not have a watch on, to check every 27.3 seconds, to see if I was nearing the next mile mark. I had never before felt like 3 miles took such a long time to complete. Based on the handful of people I passed from that point, I think they too were feeling the drag of the last few miles. About ¾ a mile from the finish, we wrapped around the back of the brewery that was putting the marathon on, and they had a time mat laid out, and they were announcing runners as they went by, and people were cheering. When my name was announced someone in the crowd yelled “AND HE DID IT BAREFOOT!” At that point, I figured it was a member of my family or a friend, but I still don’t know who it was! In any event, thank you to that kind soul as the cheering that resulted from the crowd was enough to push me through the last little bit.

When rounding the corner to the finish line, a halfer who was sitting on the ground jumped up and said to those around her…. “HEY…that’s that guy I was telling you about!” I immediately was reminded of the immense pride in being part of the wider barefoot running society.

I finally crossed the finish line a 3:51.33 which put me at 8:50min/mile. I ended up 3rd in my age group (again it was a small race) and was overall happy with the experience. My buddy came in just a few minutes behind me, and we commemorated for 10 minutes or so, stretched for another 5 and took off. Ends up, I am making a bad habit of leaving before the results are posted and not picking up my award. This time, I think it was a bottle opener so a huge bummer as I would have gotten some use out of that! :)

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Happy to be done and in one piece!
(and check out those stars and stripes shorts in the background)
Overall, I would consider my first marathon a complete success and a total blast. I by no means intend to stop here and look forward to many marathons to come (maybe even an ultra some day).

A huge thanks goes out to you guys for your support, knowledge, and banter! There’s no way I would have been able to complete this even injury free without you!

Post-race follow up:

So, the only things that were sore on Monday and Tuesday were my quads. No calf soreness, no foot soreness, no hip soreness, woohoo!! Looks like with two days off, I will be able to get back to running. I don’t plan on any high mileage for the next week or two, but I am stoked that I feel as good as I do. Went on two decent walks on both Sunday and Monday so I’m sure that helped as well. My feet were almost not fazed by the distance (I’m sure it helped that I donned the Lunas for 4 miles or so) and resorted to a slight tingle for only an hour or two after the race.
 
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Michigan on the front page! Way to go Zetti!
 
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