Sunday - The Marathon

Run: 26.2 miles of pure joy and pain
Terrain: Mostly flat with a few mild hills
Time: 05:12:00

Pre-Run Glucose: 165 mg/dL
Post-Run Glucose: 188 mg/dL
Intake: 6 oz. Hammer Gel, 16 oz Powerade, ~36 oz. H2O, 5 Endurolite Caps
Run Pump Status: Suspend

   OK, so the deed is done. Am I glad it's done too. Before I go off in the wrong direction, let me just begin from the start.

4:00 AM: Arise and shine for D-Day is here. Check the glucose and it's like 135. Eat a typical pre-run breakfast.

5:30 AM: Take the dog for a walk outside and see how it feels out there prior to choosing my running attire. A little nippy, but so I decided to go with shorts and a long sleeve. That turned out to be the perfect choice for the day.

5:50 AM: Return to the room with Riley and start getting geared up.

6:20 AM: Head out to the start gate, 2 blocks from hotel (Nice...). Take some pics on the way there.

7:01 AM: Kiss the wife and keep warm with the other herded cattle at the gate. BTW - I'm back at the 9-9.5 minute pace zone., just behind the folks holding the 4 hr finish sign.

7:03 AM: Time to see how all of the miles in the bank and training pay off. I'm shooting for 4-4.5 hours. Slow to start due to too many runners crowded onto four lanes of traffic. Heah! Spread out for goodness sake.

7:40 AM: My training buddy and I were doing pretty well so far keeping a neutral to negative split. Not pushing it and the runners are thinning out a little...finally.

7:50 AM: My running partner is slowly disappearing ahead of me. I'm running to just complete and he's running to complete in 4 hours. My goal of 4-4.5 is just a hopeful thought, but honestly I've told my partner I was just seeking to finish and learn.

Convert to Miles

Mile 10: My right knee is starting to have a conversation with me that later will turn into a full blown shouting match.

Mile 12: I'm starting to get pissed about the right knee. I'm still in a 4-4.5 finish, but I feel it slipping and soon let go of the futile hope and tell myself "You are to finish and that buddy is your real goal". And so that's what I stuck with. Good thing too.

Mile 14: My pace is OK, but I notice I'm slowing. My quads are really starting to cramp up. Now I've been focus stretching every night for a month and a half, (realizing it's not going to stretch me into a perfect runner, but that it would definitely help), and I'm telling you it was feeling like all of that stretching to date was for naught.

Mile 15: Crap !#%#?~ my quads are REALLY starting to feel like an engine without oil. I've already taken 2 Endurolites and had Powerade and H2O at 4-5 stations. What gives man. I shouldn't be feeling this bad. I didn't feel this bad on any of the 12 or 14 milers we did and certainly not this bad this early on the 20 miler we did.

Mile 18: CRAP again. My blessing of a wife meets me at this point. She knows I'm having some trouble. I yank out the meter and tel her I need to do a check and stretch. Glucose is 211 so I haul out the pump and see "Battery dead, Pump Shut-off". Shnizit! I don't have another battery with me. Man, alright no fear. if it shuts off you can handle it. Off I go, and so does my wife on her own adventure to get me a AAA.

Mile19: I enter the water Zone and yell "anybody got a AAA battery? My insulin pump is dead and I need another one to keep it on?" Fruitless were my efforts. The only reply I got was something like "I've got a gel" or the best stupid reply I got was "I've got beer. That's almost as good. Right?" If I could have lifted my leg high enough I might have kicked that idiot. Anyway, keep running. Maybe I should say that at this point I'm running so slowly my HR is only like 130. I'm speed walking to take breaks and then run the best I can. It's starting to hurt like hell right now.

Mile20: I round the corner from the last H2O stop and go about .25 miles. There is a woman and her child out cheering on the runners. She's alone and doing a great and much appreciated job. I ask her as I pass if she happens to have a AAA battery. She says she isn't sure, but she'll look. I get a couple of blocks away from her and I hear a voice calling from behind me"BATTERY,BATTERY!" I turn and see an angel come running in my direction with a AAA battery. I thank her and tell her she's an angel. I wasted no time changing that sucker out. Lucky for me, I did not lose my settings. I just couldn't take a bolus. Trust me I tried.

Mile 21-25: I'm pretty much down to running up-hill, speed walking the flats, and walking down hill - wanting to snarl at the folks at the top of the hills saying "you're good it's all downhill from here". Lesson from this is if they're not cheering you on....don't listen to them. Those down hills were absolutely killing me. I've never hurt that bad before. I'm surprised my knees didn't just give up in me.

Mile 26: I told myself no matter how much it hurt, I had plenty of reserve, on that last mile you better run man and all of it. So I did. Probably in like 10-11 minutes.

Lesson: Make a checklist prior to all races (race type specific) and use it. I had everything nailed down except the pump batter.
Lesson: YOGA and start soon. I was extremely tight before I started training for this marathon. Stretching has helped, but I would need a years worth of stretching to get flexible enough for me to change my mind and sign up for another marathon.