Gafoo's Blog

Strap in peeps, it’s a long one…

So I did it. I ran the LA marathon. I think I did pretty well for a 1st timer. It helps to have a good plan and makes me again say thanks to my best friend Nacho for getting me a great training book.
There were 2 key chapters in this book that helped me more than anything. The 1st being a chapter about “hitting the wall.” I can still vividly remember reading that chapter in which a beginning marathoner describes the process of “hitting the wall” and crying a little because I was deeply afraid. To go through that is a completely demoralizing experience and one that I was not particularly looking forward to. I think in truth though, I had probably hit it several times throughout my training. I know I was at that point the 1st time I ran 18 miles. I was about 14 miles in and I was trying to so hard but felt like I was running in molasses. I felt like I would never be able to finish but somehow the molasses I was running in thinned out and I pushed the last 4 miles out. At the time though, I felt quite beaten and very unsure of my ability to finish a marathon.
There was one other time when I know I hit the wall and I was very fortunate that I was near my apartment. I was trying to run a 24 mile run. I was being ridiculous and trying to push myself to the limit. At any rate I was finished with 20 miles when I got back to the apartment to meet up with Alyssa for a gatorade break. I was exhausted but I kept thinking that I have 4 miles to go so I finished up my gatorade and took off for my last 4 miles. I got a block away from the apartment when all of a sudden I just could not run any further. I could barely even walk! It was the strangest feeling I have ever had. I didn’t even have the energy to think about going any further and even though I was a block away from the apartment it took me about 10 mins to walk home. It was humbling to say the least…which leads me to the next chapter of great help:
It was actually a chapter that was basically the story of the Little Engine that Could, only re purposed for a marathon runner. As cheesy as it sounds that chapter completely defined my marathon experience. I ran as conservatively as I felt I could for the marathon thanks to that chapter. I can easily run a 10k in about 46 minutes but if you look at the image above you will see that my 10k time is 12 minutes slower than that. Also I ran the Pasadena 1/2 marathon in 1:53 but here my 1/2 marathon time is about 5 minutes slower than that. I took along 5 packs of the Jelly Belly sport beans and ate about 4-6 of them every mile. Every water and gatorade station I drank and walked about 30-60 seconds just to keep myself fresh and at mile 20 I opened up a gel pack and took it. All these factors made my “wall hitting” moment more of a non-issue.
I won’t say that I didn’t hit the wall but it was different than before. Breathing wise I was fine. I didn’t have any sort of side stitch or trouble with being out of breath. I didn’t feel like my muscles were any less sore than any training run or that I didn’t have the energy to finish. In fact I didn’t really feel like I needed the gel shot at mile 20 but I took it anyway just to err on the side of caution. When it kicked in I felt invincible. I picked up my pace a little bit and was smiling a lot. At mile 22 just around the corner from the Emerald Nuts station I saw Alyssa with June holding up a sign and I ran up to give them a kiss. It made it seem like the rest of the race would be easy but a little after mile 23 my right knee started to have pain (just like my left knee from a couple weeks back) and it made the rest of the race that much harder.
I definitely slowed my pace considerably when the knee started acting up but I was so close to finishing that I decided I was gonna run through the pain and deal with it when it was over. I did what I had done on many training runs: I looked down at my feet. I zoned out of everything else around me and just stared at my feet. When the pain was really buggin me I started chanting “just look down, just look down.” When I stare at my feet it allows me to clear my mind and focus on that one goal of continuing. If I do it long enough I will look up and suddenly be done with a run and so I decided I would do it for the rest of the marathon. Sure enough it worked as next thing I knew I was looking up and staring at the banner above me that read mile 25. At that point my chant changed to “one point two, one point two” and, after a completely euphoric experience running up Flower st with all the spectators cheering us on, I finished.
Some things I would change for the next marathon (which may be as early as October)…
1. Stretching more. I am really bad about stretching properly which is one of the reasons why I am getting these knee injuries.
2. Leg strengthening exercises. Sort of a complement to the stretching but any little thing to help prevent injury and downtime.
3. Speed runs. This one I am apprehensive about cause I don’t want to turn into one of those people that are staring at their stopwatch. I really just want to increase my speed a little bit and I think adding some speed interval training would go a long way towards that goal.
4. New training schedule. while the schedule I used worked for me, it is really designed for one goal: to help a 1st timer finish. I would like to move up to an advanced novice schedule…something with 5 training days a week instead of 4.
5. Training partner. I want to bring someone in on this crazy addiction of mine. If you’ve never run a marathon before and would like to just hit me up!

I could tell a million stories about my experience training and running the marathon. I definitely feel like a different person for having done it and I can’t wait to do it again. I’m tired now. Thanks for reading.