And it began.../Free State Race

"Hey you need to change, that's totally inappropriate."
"Oh, I don't start for another hour, I'm just doing the marathon."

WARNING: THIS IS LONG

An hour before the start of my first marathon, that was the moment that I realized how much I had changed over the past 10 months, but I should probably step back in time about a year.

In June 2008, I realized that I was getting out of shape. I can't remember now if it was while walking up stairs at work, or just working out at the gym that made me realize my health was going down hill. Two years of being married, having a moderately stressful desk job, and various other poor health habits had changed my body significantly. I was finally fed up with feeling unhealthy, and decided to make a change for the positive, I made a plan that I would do the following things (not kidding):

• Stop eating Hershey's Cookies and Cream Bars.. not kidding.. I had a serious serious addiction to these things. seriously.
  
• Consume alcohol only once a month, at most.
• Workout everyday.
• Run at least 2 miles a day, and in a month be able to run 6 miles one day a week. (this killed me)
• Eat less generally, and less red meat.
  
• Stop taking life so seriously.

I was pretty sure that I could do these things, I just needed to make sure I could stick to the long term commitment. Starting in January of 2006, I had ran a few 5k's with my wife, and even a 10k at one point in time, but I was never in very good shape for the races, and they were truly "fun runs." During the 10K I actually came down with a case of runner's knee that nearly stopped me running altogether. Combine this with a particularly bad year healthwise, involving a commute to work, less time and desire to workout and quite a bit of stress at work.

So I started in June, at 14 miles a week, then 18 by the end of the month. I continued lengthening my workouts, so that by the end of August I was running about 30 miles a week, and had lost quite a bit of weight.

At the beginning of September, I started a marathon training program. I told Kristin I had no intentions of running a marathon, but this was just to give structure to my workouts and so I would be using a tested program. Two weeks later my opinion changed; I decided to run a marathon. I kind of thought that if I were putting in the work, I might as well try for a marathon.

I continued my training program through the fall, and set my goal first marathon as the Kansas City Marathon, in Fall 2009 (a year later). In the first week of November I finally crossed the 50 miles a week barrier. I had no idea how much I should be running to prepare appropriately for a marathon, and have since learned than many people run marathons on far fewer than 50 a week.

The same week I ran more than 50 miles, I had my first major setback: a sharp pain in the arch of my right foot. I could still run, in fact the foot felt better after running a mile or two, but it was a problem nonetheless. After some research online I found out about trail running, which was purported to protect joints, reduce injuries, increase leg strength, cure cancer, etc. It also could solve my foot condition, which I now knew as plantar fasciitis. There was even a local group called the KC Trail Nerds that ran on local trails, held events, and had weekly group runs.

Rather than contact the group, I decided to go it alone. I had my first few trail runs on Saturdays throughout November at Clinton Lake. Finally I broke down and showed up for a trail run, the day after Thanksgiving (consequently also when my wife was planning to do some black Friday shopping.. hmmm.. convenient). Only two other runners showed up, Ben and Sophia, but these two were very knowledgeable and helpful, but also enthusiastic about the group and trail running in general.

Throughout the winter I ran with the group, meeting new people, logging more and more weekly miles (up to about 65 miles by this point). I was really enjoying running with other people, having someone to talk to on all of my long runs.

In late January I had another setback. While running a strong 24 miler with a couple of trail nerds (Brad Bishop and Gary Henry to be exact), the outside of my left knee started feeling a bit irritated. Throughout the week it slowly felt worse, but I didn't think much of it until my next scheduled long run the following Saturday.

That day I showed up early, 6:15 am for a quick 4.5 miles with some faster runners, then we would loop back around to pick up some slower runners for the 7:15 am normal run. The first 4.5 miles went fine, but when we returned to the parking lot, I could barely walk. The knee hurt too much, I went home and quickly to the emergency care clinic (Kristin may have pushed me to that :) ). The Dr. asked me to reduce my mileage to 10 miles a week for the next couple of weeks, a prescription for a pain killer, and a diagnosis: ITBS, a common running injury.

I had planned to do a few races throughout the spring, but after the diagnosis and reduced running, I essentially cleared my calender. The next weeks went by fairly quickly, I ran 10-20 miles a week, and gained a little weight (although I was still in much better shape than I was in June of the previous year).

Finally in early-March, I had a single 10 mile run that was successful with only minimal pain. I continued building up throughout the month. By mid March I felt better, but still had to drop out of a 15 mile run once due to pain. I thought I would never be completely better.

On March 21st I went out for 18 miles, no knee pain. I immediately decided to do the next long trail race I could get my hands on, the date was set for the Free State Trail Marathon on April 25th. Over the next few weeks I tried to put in as much running as I could without over stressing my knee. My maximum week was only about 42 miles leading up to the marathon, but I was determined to run, and to finish.

So, after less than a year of serious running, and 6 months before my planned first Marathon date, I showed up an hour early for my first marathon. I spent the hour talking to my wife and my friend Liz, getting nervous, and making sure everything was in my pack... repeatedly.



And finally, the race started. Three miles on grass cross country trails to start the race. I had never really ran on grass before, was nervous, and went out way too fast. I have no idea what I was thinking, although I had told a few people that I thought I wouldn't have the self-restraint to pace myself in the early stages. Stupid.

After the first three miles the trail goes back into some hardcore nature trails full of rocks, roots, hills, streams, etc. Here I slowed down considerably, and also tried to regain my composure. After about mile 5 people started passing me. A lot of people passed me at this point. A LOT. At mile 6 I went for my first energy gel, and totally hurled it all over the grass. The feeling sucked, but I decided to suck everything up and just keep running.

I kept a slow pace and was passed by a few more people, puked up one more attempt at a gel. At this point I was running just to finish. Finally by the "land's end" aid station, about the halfway point, things started to look up. The volunteers refilled my pack, and gave me a pbj sandwich, which did not come back up. After the aid station I actually passed a couple of people. Finally I felt good, but the mud was thick and I lost my shoes a couple of times in the thick, sticky mud. Most of this was my own fault for trying a new lacing solution for my first long race (Doh!).

After 4 more miles, I came to the aid station staffed by the Kansas Ultra-Runners Society. Also staffing this aid station was my wife. I was really glad to see Kristin, and kind of didn't want to leave to finish, only 10 miles to go. I was either delirious or just truly enjoying the day, and really enjoyed just talking to my wife. I probably stayed longer than I should have, but, oh well, it was fun hearing her tell me how good I looked (lying) and taking pictures.

At this point I relaxed, and just enjoyed the rest of the race. I passed a few more people, and no other marathon runners passed me for the final 10 miles... maybe seeing Kristin gave me a confidence boost, or I was just finally feeling good enough to actually run. When I came to the stream crossing with only a few miles to go, the cold water was too tempting to resist, and I laid down in the stream. The water felt really good.. no matter how nasty it actually was. A couple of minutes and I was up and running again, with cooler and cleaner legs.

A few minutes later, I made my way to the final aid station, again feeling light-headed and having what may be described as mild hallucinations. Here I asked one of the volunteers how many salt caps I should be taking, he replied with "about 3 an hour." Ok, quick math (the math wasn't actually quick that day) I've been running 4 hours X 3 caps an hour = 12 I should have taken. Actual number taken at that point: 2. Oh well, not much I could do with only 3.5 miles to go, but this is a long-term problem I should work on. Part of the problem is that I'm not good at swallowing pills, so I end up chewing salt caps; this is just as unpleasant as it sounds. More on this in a future blog entry :).

On my way out of the aid station, I chewed through a couple of salt caps and jogged the last 3.5 miles. I didn't see any other marathon runners at this point, but I did manage to pass a couple of 40 milers, and the front-runner in the 40 miler passed me. I walked a few steps here and there, but for the most part I still felt good enough to run. Then, suddenly the trail out of the woods to the finish, right in front of me. I ran out of the woods up the trail.. final time of 5:03.

Not what I was hoping for, but I was satisfied considering all the knee problems of the past months, and where I was a year ago. Ben and Sophia (Ben was the race director, for which he deserves many thanks) gave me the my medal.. somewhat full circle since I started running trails. Also, Kristin was at the finish cheering me on. Great to see her again. We capped our day with a lunch of mongolian bbq, a final induglence and reward for hard work. I was happy. Finally.

Oh yeah, and what was that nonsense at the beginning about "just a marathon?" Well some of my new friends that were running that day were running races of 40 and 62 miles! Those races started at 7am-I was an hour early.