I got this great idea in December to do a marathon. Ok, somebody else gave me the idea ... "Hey, I'm doing a marathon at the Berryman in May, wanna go?"
I thought about it for a bit and there seemed to be some good reasons:
1) The Berryman is a really cool, 25 mile loop trail through the Ozark mountains (IMBA had an epic ride there a few years back). At least the scenery would be good.
2) The winter around here really sucks for riding. The trails get sloppy and sticky and you can't really ride from December to May/April, so I wouldn't miss much riding.
3) I could stand to lose a few pounds. Training for a marathon ought to do that, right?
Anyway, I commit to this thing and start training in late January (18 weeks out from the race). I felt that training went really well. I took my dogs on most of my shorter runs (and I recommend the Buddy System leashes for that) and they helped kill some of the boredom of running. I got much better at spotting squirrels, rabbits and deer in the woods too. Three weeks before the race, I drove down to the trail to do a 20 mile run. It went pretty well and I felt that I should do ok.
Cut to race day.
HOLY CRAP is it HOT! The normal temps in the 70s are up in the 90s. The weather has been fairly cool this spring and I am not used to the heat and humidity yet. I would bet that I haven't run more than once or twice in this kind of heat this year.
Start
About to hit the single track after a 1.6 mile out-and-back on a gravel road to bump the mileage up to a full 26.2
After about mile 9, I was hurting. My legs were already dead. I felt like all of the water and gatorade I had been drinking was sloshing around my stomach. Life was beginning to suck. I thought that maybe I needed some solid(ish) food, so I walked for a bit and ate a powerbar. I made it to the next aid station at mile 12 still feeling miserable. It was all I could do to walk 3 of the next 4.5 miles to the 4th aid station. The humidity in the bottoms between hills was stifling.
I was totally wasted and ready to quit at this point. I borrowed a cell phone from one of the guys working the aid station to call my wife and have her pick me up but I couldn't get a signal out. I sat down for 5-10 minutes and started to feel a little better. I figured that I might as well give a try to make the next aid station. I didn't feel like waiting until the end of the day to get a ride back to the start/finish. Nothing like a little ADD to motivate you.
I don't know if it was the little bit of rest that I got or that the trail got out of the bottoms and up on the ridge line where there was a breeze, or what. I somehow recovered enough and managed to finish the race. It sucked and I hurt, but I finished.
And then I sat down...
My final time was 7 hours and 2 minutes (my goal had been 5 hours, thirty minutes). It made me feel a little better that I beat one person who had run the race last year in 5:30. She had thought that she was in better shape this year and had expected to beat that time. The other thing that made me feel slightly better was that a lot of the 50 milers (2 laps on the trail) quit after their first lap, so at least the heat was hurting everyone.
Note: I ran 420 miles in training over 18 weeks and another 26.2 on race day. How much weight did I lose? 4 pounds. I dropped from 207 down to 203.
I thought about it for a bit and there seemed to be some good reasons:
1) The Berryman is a really cool, 25 mile loop trail through the Ozark mountains (IMBA had an epic ride there a few years back). At least the scenery would be good.
2) The winter around here really sucks for riding. The trails get sloppy and sticky and you can't really ride from December to May/April, so I wouldn't miss much riding.
3) I could stand to lose a few pounds. Training for a marathon ought to do that, right?
Anyway, I commit to this thing and start training in late January (18 weeks out from the race). I felt that training went really well. I took my dogs on most of my shorter runs (and I recommend the Buddy System leashes for that) and they helped kill some of the boredom of running. I got much better at spotting squirrels, rabbits and deer in the woods too. Three weeks before the race, I drove down to the trail to do a 20 mile run. It went pretty well and I felt that I should do ok.
Cut to race day.
HOLY CRAP is it HOT! The normal temps in the 70s are up in the 90s. The weather has been fairly cool this spring and I am not used to the heat and humidity yet. I would bet that I haven't run more than once or twice in this kind of heat this year.
Start
About to hit the single track after a 1.6 mile out-and-back on a gravel road to bump the mileage up to a full 26.2
After about mile 9, I was hurting. My legs were already dead. I felt like all of the water and gatorade I had been drinking was sloshing around my stomach. Life was beginning to suck. I thought that maybe I needed some solid(ish) food, so I walked for a bit and ate a powerbar. I made it to the next aid station at mile 12 still feeling miserable. It was all I could do to walk 3 of the next 4.5 miles to the 4th aid station. The humidity in the bottoms between hills was stifling.
I was totally wasted and ready to quit at this point. I borrowed a cell phone from one of the guys working the aid station to call my wife and have her pick me up but I couldn't get a signal out. I sat down for 5-10 minutes and started to feel a little better. I figured that I might as well give a try to make the next aid station. I didn't feel like waiting until the end of the day to get a ride back to the start/finish. Nothing like a little ADD to motivate you.
I don't know if it was the little bit of rest that I got or that the trail got out of the bottoms and up on the ridge line where there was a breeze, or what. I somehow recovered enough and managed to finish the race. It sucked and I hurt, but I finished.
And then I sat down...
My final time was 7 hours and 2 minutes (my goal had been 5 hours, thirty minutes). It made me feel a little better that I beat one person who had run the race last year in 5:30. She had thought that she was in better shape this year and had expected to beat that time. The other thing that made me feel slightly better was that a lot of the 50 milers (2 laps on the trail) quit after their first lap, so at least the heat was hurting everyone.
Note: I ran 420 miles in training over 18 weeks and another 26.2 on race day. How much weight did I lose? 4 pounds. I dropped from 207 down to 203.
nuts
no way in he11 you would ever catch me doin that...props on the finish
but congrats yo! mad props from yer friends from the west,.............................who are jayhawks
Anyway. I have been really slacking on my training for runs, but I think if I don't want to brave the marathon, I'll definitely hit up the half.
