And then there was one....

This past week I received some bad news from my training partners for the Cleveland Marathon. Both my brother-in-law and cousin went to the doctor to get some leg pains checked out. Several x-rays and MRI’s later, both of their doctors told them that because of the injuries that they sustained, that their marathon ambitions for this spring would most likely out of the question but there was a chance that depending upon their recovery process…maybe they could attempt the ½ marathon. Wow, sounds exactly like my situation last fall. Looks like I’m running Cleveland this year solo. Running is a tough sport. I once read in my running magazine a coach say that you need to be an active runner for at least a year before you attempt training for a marathon. At the time I thought it was a crazy statement to make but now that I’ve been running consistently for a year, I can see the absolute truth in that comment.

This weekend I took several steps into unchartered territory. Previous to Sunday’s run of 17 miles, my longest run was 16 miles about 4 years ago. With having run 15 miles two weekends ago, I felt pretty comfortable that I’d have no issues but based upon the injuries that I’ve been hearing about, I couldn’t help but be a little nervous heading into it. I used the same strategy that I did several weeks ago where I decided to run down from my house down to the towpath trail in the Valley. This allows me to get the majority of the miles on somewhat softer surfaces therefore limiting the overall abuse on my body. Seems to have worked out well because as I sit here today typing this blog, I’m feeling pretty decent. A little sore but nowhere like I would have expected it to have been. Here’s the link to my data.

Overall the run was good. Some things that I learned from my run:
1. Eat something substantial at least a few hours beforehand next time. I had only eaten a bowl of Cheerios about 4 hours before I started running. I had planned on being out on the run much earlier than I thought I would have.
2. Eat something while running. I had packed an energy bar and a Gu with me. I was able to eat about half a bar and I never ate the Gu. I paid for this big time as I was feeling great up to mile 15. After that I started feeling really sick and pretty tired. It took me a long time to recover after my run. A 2 ½ hour effort take a bit more than Cheerios and half an energy bar…oh and some Gatorade, at least I didn’t forget to hydrate during the run.

It took nearly 3 hours before I felt like I could even eat anything and keep it in my system. I know better than this as this isn’t my first experience in endurance sports. Not sure what I was thinking but I’m glad to have paid the price on a training run and not race day.

brian