Monday, December 5, 2011
2011 Las Vegas Marathon: Crash and Burn
I know better. I am upset with myself. I should have trained for an afternoon long run. I gave others that advice and I did not follow it myself. I should have trained an afternoon long so I could see what the nutrition should be. I found out the hard way what it should not. I am embarrassed and I am upset. I have a new marathon PR but its no where near what it should be. NO WHERE NEAR. I began trouble at 4 miles, heart burn and curling stomach. By mile 10 my knee was hurting but I was able to use mechanics to get through that and it wasnt a factor. At mile 14 I was only 5 min slower than expected. Then the bottom fell out. My stomach turned into knotts, my abs, my back, my quads, my hip flexors, my calves, and my toes cramped. My race came tumbling down. I have had long run after long run with absolutely no cramping or digestive issues. I think it was the smoothie I had for lunch. TOO MUCH SUGAR. I ran walked the second half. 2:10 for the first half and 3:05 for the second half. 5:14. A 9 min PR but a horrible result after the training would support much faster. The cold didnt help. The cold rain didnt help. The walkers I had to weave through didnt help. This was just not my day. I had great training, I had a great plan, I just had a bad night. Thanks to my wife for supporting me through thick and thin. Thanks to Karl for putting me in the right position, thanks to people like chuck and the other commenters for your continued support.
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5 comments:
Ron
Yeah, the smootie was probably not a good choice. Live and learn.
On the bright side the recovery should be quicker (2 weeks or so) and you have a great base to continue building on for Surf City!
The two times I have run sub 3 hours I had run a previous marathon 2 months before at a slower pace.
Don't let it get you down.
Hey Ron...I thought about you out there and looked up your race time this morning and knew something had to have happened. I heard that race was a total night trying to weave around the halfers and then afterwards when it was one huge cluster of freezing people. ugh.
I can't imagine trying to run a marathon in the middle of the evening after ingesting all sorts of foods all day. Just too many if's can occur. I'm sorry it didn't go better...but it sounds like, from Karl's comment, you are about to embark to Surf City - yay! I ran a couple marathons 8 weeks apart before and in both times, the 2nd marathon went much better than the first. Just make sure you rest and recover this week!!
Nice job, Ron...you didn't give up and gave it your all despite how miserable you felt. Many would not have done so. Congratulations on that and on the PR. Watch out SC, Ron's coming! :)
Hey Ron, I know the feeling! I felt the same way after my Wichita Marathon. Karl's training program had me in my best shape in years. I really felt like I let him down when I had a poor race.
Since most long training runs are done early in the morning planning for a late afternoon marathon is tricky. The closest I've come to an afternoon marathon was back in 2002, when Boston started at noon.
Look at the positive! You gained valuable experience, ran a 9 minute PR and it will be very easy to run another PR in your next marathon.
I say F- it. You ran ANOTHER full marathon! How many people ever get to say that? When you hit your goal time it will just be THAT much sweeter. Good luck to you at Surf City. I'm sure you'll do great on that one.
And if it counts for anything, all the friends I have that ran complained about their slow times due to the overcrowding. I say you and Julie are soldiers for getting out there and completing yet another race. Congratulations.
You finished it! You got through all that adversity and finished, so be proud, not embrassed!
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