From high school graduation to running my first half-marathon
The hardest part is starting. Once you get that out of the way, you’ll find the rest of the journey much easier.
Simon Sinek
I never really enjoyed running. I was a big kid who was always finishing last or near the back of the group. I played basketball, football, and tennis, but I saw running as a punishment. Once I was out of high school, I gained even more weight and was in the worst shape of my life. I went for a physical and weighed 246 lbs. I had every excuse in the book, such as genetics were the reason I was overweight, losing weight was impossible, and that it could be worse. However, I was very unhappy with myself and didn’t like what I saw in the mirror. I decided to make a significant change.
I started dieting and walking my dog twice a day around my neighborhood. I restricted my caloric intake to unhealthy levels though, with barely 1,000 calories a day. I lost 120 lbs. in a little under a year and went from overweight to underweight, going from one extreme to another. I was so scared that I would gain all of the weight back that I was almost neurotic about what I was eating.
I wanted to gain healthy weight and had decided that running might be able to help me. Running was not easy for me to begin with, as I could barely go 2 miles and was huffing while running and my legs felt like rubber. This was an eye-opener since I incorrectly thought that I was in good shape. However, I was feeling amazing every time I was finished, with an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. Each run I was able to go a little further and eventually I was going double digit miles. The negative thing about this is I went to another extreme. I was running double digit miles every day with the occasional day off maybe once every two weeks. I started feeling pain in my knee but ignored it, which led to a stress fracture. This had happened three weeks before my half marathon and I thought if I rested it until then, I would be fine. It was stupid and I should have just withdrawn from the race. I ran it and my knee started killing me by mile 8. I pushed through and finished, but couldn’t walk for two days after. This taught me moderation and I have been running smarter since.
Running has given me more joy in life than I have had in a long time. It has taught me how far I can push my body, how strong I can make my mind, and how to run my own race at my own pace. It took me far too long to discover running in life, but I intend to keep it in my life for as long as I can.
Failing forward is the ability to get back up after you’ve been knocked down, learn from your mistake, and move forward in a better direction.
John C. Maxwell
I might not look like it, but I was dying here
I never sleep well the night before a race. I always hype myself up so much that I end up getting around three hours of sleep, but this race I doubt I even got two. I was feeling good about my training and the work I put into the preparation, but I had never run 26.2 before. The longest I had ever run was a 20 mile long run about a month before the race. I was smart about my training and was careful to not let a nagging issue become an injury, so I thought this race would be as easy as a marathon could be. I might even be able to break 4 hours on my first marathon.
When I woke up on race day I was freezing. It was August 31st and wasn’t particularly cold, but I couldn’t stop shivering. It turned out that I had a fever, but I thought it was just nerves. The marathon was in Madison, which was an hour’s drive, so I had time to eat on the ride and crank the heat. Once we arrived, I stretched and kept my coat on, noticing I was the only person shivering. My mind was on the race though, so it barely registered at the time. I got into the 8:30 per mile corral, hoping to start slow and save my energy for the second half. The course would be two loops around Lake Monona and passing the Capital building. I waited in the group until the air horn and then we were off.
The start of races is a jumbled mess of runners. Everyone is so close to each other that you can’t really use a normal stride or even see in front of you. The latter came into play when I was directly behind someone in the first mile and he jumped to the side. I didn’t see why but suddenly fell, hitting a traffic cone. I sliced my hand, elbow, and knee up and threw my focus completely out of wack. The good news was that I bounced back up, and other than being embarrassed, kept running and tried to shake it off. The first half of the marathon went relatively well after that. My left hip flexor was bugging me a bit but I figured I would be fine. I even finished the first half at 1:52, which was well within the 4 hour mark and only 6 minutes off my PR. However, I was not stopping at the aid stations like I should have been and only drinking sporadically.
I managed to make it to mile 15 before I had to stop and try to stretch out my hip. It was beginning to change my form and I was compensating for it. I started walking, which is something that I had never previously done. My head started feeling foggy and my legs were feeling heavy. I tried to drink from the water bottles I had, but running that long with minimal fluids was a killer. I was able to try to push through to mile 19, thinking that I only had 7 miles left, but the walk breaks were becoming more frequent and even 5 hours seemed like a lost cause. My legs were dragging, my hip was causing me serious problems, and I couldn’t even think straight. I looked at the map on my phone and saw an aid station at mile 21, but I didn’t even think I could make it that far. I tried to make it and had to keep stopping. By this point I have been passed by nearly everyone, only seeing a couple runners every 5 or so minutes.
Someone stopped and asked if I was okay or needed help. It was a very nice woman from Missouri using this race as a training race for an ultramarathon. I told her that I did need help to the aid station and she walked with me. When I got there I told them I needed to drop out and they gave me a ride to the finish line. I was only 5 miles from the finish but couldn’t get there. My hip was killing me, my legs seized up, and I couldn’t even keep water down. It was not a fun experience. When I got back to the finish line, I was pissed. I put in months of training, running in the summer heat for hours at a time, and got a DNF for it. I was contemplating not running anymore, even though I knew that was never going to happen. I really didn’t know if I wanted to try another marathon though. I felt that if this one went so poorly, maybe I just wasn’t meant to run that far.
I had to take a long break from running to let my hip heal up. I even started doing yoga on the advice of my awesome cousin,(Thanks Laurie!) and it actually helped a lot. The more I thought about it, the more I saw all the things I could improve on. Yes, I ran enough, but I didn’t really cross train at all, and my hydration and fueling plan on race day was really poor. I also didn’t want that one marathon sour me from attempting another one. It was really bugging me that I couldn’t finish, so I started looking for marathons far enough out to give me time to properly train. That meant a spring half marathon, and the Madison Marathon in November. I couldn’t let the worst run of my life be the only marathon I ran, so I am determined to finish this one. I will not be attaching a goal time on this one and just run it with the goal of giving it my all and finishing. I will let you guys know how the training goes and how my race in April goes as well!
Only the disciplined in life are free. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and passion.
Eliud Kipchoge
Before the worst race of my life.
I figured writing about my marathon training and previous experience could be useful to me. So I decided to start a blog. I am not sure how often I will update it, but I will be writing about races, new gear I have been using, and my training. I want to write about my last race, which happened to be the worst run I’ve had. It will be coming within the week and detail the training that went into it as well as everything that managed to go wrong. Stay tuned!!!
Tough Runs Make Tough Runners 