me2I think I can talk about it now…it has been about 3 ½ months since I ran the Colorado Marathon in Fort Collins, CO.  It seems that I am finally at peace with my marathon performance, results, and aftermath.  I am actually at the point of thinking about the next one … thinking being the key word.   I trained relentlessly for my first marathon – I had an 18-week novice schedule compliments of Hal Higdon and I followed it pretty precisely until I missed one long run and then a couple of weeks later, my 20-miler fell on a really bad snow day and I had to put it off a week.  I was pretty nervous about these gaps in my training but my dependable online community assured me that my weekly miles (about 40 back then), combined with the relative consistency of my training would get me through the biggest race of my life.  Armed with this support, I felt relatively prepared.   We headed up to Fort Collins the night before the race to be greeted by pouring rain. We hit the expo which was small but nice and decided to go out for obligatory pasta (lesson: I have since learned that there is an art behind carbo-loading that does not include eating a bunch of pasta the night before your race).

So we identified a couple of pasta places with our handy iPhone …only to discover it was prom night in Ft. Collins (lesson: research your race town, plan a dinner location ahead of time).   Long story short, we waited forever while the high school youngsters in their glittery gowns, tuxes and tiaras got their grub on, drank endless glasses of ice-tea and finally left for their proms.  We got seated for dinner at 9:00 p.m. – big mistake.  I ate my pasta – didn’t “load” per se but I was hungry and I ate a regular dinner.  About six hours later (yeah 3 a.m.), we were up, fueling and getting ready to catch the 4:30 a.m. bus that would drive us to our start location.  It was early – so much earlier than I had ever gotten up to run before (lesson: take careful note of race bus/start times and either train accordingly *or* pick a different race that starts at a more reasonable hour).  cm

 At least the rain had stopped – it really was ideal, a beautiful day weather wise.  In fact the experience of running Cache La Poudre River Canyon with the water running down and the sun rising was so incredible, indescribable really  – about as spiritual as it gets (for me anyway) – I was awed.

 

Back to the run – some of you may see where this is going and I am not going into details but let’s just quote one expert on running/fueling and say that “constipation is unknown among marathon participants.”  

Going into the race, I was pretty confident of at least a sub 10-minute mile pace – based on training, I could have reasonably expected about a 9:30 pace… still over 4 hours but close to that mark.  That was before the events of the previous night conspired against me – the late dinner carbs, the early morning bus… all led to a few unexpected potty stops along the race course … starting at the 8 mile mark, done by mile 15…  3 port-o-pot stops in all.  I estimate I lost at least 15-20 minutes – not to mention my stress and distress.  

Anyway – I finished in just under 4 and ½ hours and then I fell into some post marathon blues.  I was in typical post-marathon pain.  Fatigue was my constant companion and I didn’t have a race time I could be proud of.. that I could embrace as my true best effort.   I wanted a do–over so badly.  I have run a few 10K’s and a half distance since this run – but have stayed away from anything that involves any kind of extensive training or commitment… But now I am feeling better, I am realizing that I did it, I ran a marathon and I learned a lot along the way… and maybe it’s time to take those lessons and try again.

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