my first full mary. what worked. what did not.

my first full marathon, as i may have said in a previous post, was actually unplanned. a decision made out of moment insanity. it might have been the Christmas ham, the sluggish feeling i got from overeating every other meal. the guilt. the sugar crash. but its over and done with, and all i can do is review what worked, and what did not - in that 42km quest for glory.

what worked:

the mileage - yes i know i just crunched-in, a 16 week program into 4 weeks. its insane, and any running expert would advise not to do that. but the strict following of the mileage requirement, really helped condition my mind to the pain and the fatigue. there was nothing unexpected.

rehearsing your run - 3 weeks before condura, i was constantly using the exact same gear during the long sunday runs, that i would be using in condura. same shirt. same tights. same socks. same shoes, same everything. even the same flavor of gu. come condura, i did not stress about the possibility of chaffing, blistering, or some piece of gear falling apart.

having a trailer for the last 10k - my best friend migs, did his 21k then went back for me on a bike. he did not need to carry any stuff that i wanted to unload, but during the latter part of the race, with the runners getting thin, it really gets demoralizing. having a buddy along to push and motivate you really goes a long way. in fact, it was just embarrassed to walk with him on a bike, so i kept on running.

fueling up - before the race: days before the race i ate a lot of carbo rich foods that really worked for me - even if i ran on empty during the later stages, i felt extremely well during the first half. after the race: stocked up on gu, powerade, and salt. plain old mcdo salt. im a salty sweater so i had to take up some, just to make sure i wont collapse.

making a plan - as early as october, i was planning already of making a full mary within the early part of the year. so at that time, i planned to make all the necessary adjustments to my running that would make that possible. i chose to do develop the forefoot strike running style as one of the key points to that. i read and did the necessary research to do that. i was thinking i needed a couple of months to adjust. and i did. i planned on making a "fighting weight" for the race, to make myself competitive also. diet and cross-training made that possible.

what did not work:

non-change of lifestyle - all that night outs and bad habits (drinking and smoking- yes i know) did not do me well. even as late as the friday night before race weekend, i was out with some officemates. and i paid dearly for it. by the last few kilometers of the run, i was already winded.

one point that did not work vs. a lot that did. good batting average. but obviously not good enough. i targeted a sub 5hour race. i finished it, just under 6. not bad. but not great. there will be other races. there IS one thing that i learned about me that had been with me all along. and one thing that could be one of the most important things to have when doing a marathon. that i hate quitting.