2004 McMarathon

While sifting through the ruins of my fifth marathon, the 2004 New Jersey Shore
Marathon on April 25, it has again become apparent of how all too true those
well worn adages about marathons are.

1) You can pretty well predict your marathon time by how your long training
runs and races went. I had only two races leading up the marathon. The first
was the E Murray Todd half marathon in late February, really early March since
it was February 29. I ran about 7 good miles before being having my quadriceps
torn up by the hills and running my slowest half marathon time ever. Doing the
usual math (half marathon times 2 plus 20 minutes) led me to a predicted
4:08.Two weeks later I was to have my redemption at the Equinox 20 K in
Piscataway but after a better start, the last part of that race went even worse
and I didn’t have any hills to blame. In the Saturday between the two races, I
was unable to complete my training run because of a pain in my left
quadriceps/hip area which either was started the week before or enhanced, which
leads me to adage number 2.

2) If you have anything wrong with your body the marathon will wring it out. I
somehow survived my long runs leading up the marathon but they were done at an
agonizingly slow pace and although my longest runs lasted 3:30, I doubt I ever
hit 20 miles. In the Shore Marathon, my 20 mile time was 3:08 and at 22 it was
3:31, which was my full finishing time for this race in 1997. So for the
final 4.2 miles I was in a no man’s land for time. My quad and hip had become a
major issue and though my mind said keep going, my body would not respond. The
mile markers took forever to reach. The final turnaround seemed like it would
never come.

3) The race begins at 20 miles. At Philadelphia in November, I was excited to
reach 20 miles because my second ten had been so even. At Shore I had just done
the last five miles in 55 minutes and there was a non stop stream of people
passing me. One of the nice touches at Shore was the pacing groups they had. I
started with the 4:00 people but decided I needed a slightly faster pace but
not fast enough to be with the 3:50 group. At 20 the four hour group passed me
or was it the 4:15? It’s not enough to just feel like running at 20, you have
to feel like you’re getting somewhere and don’t appear to be standing still.

4) Just keep moving. You will finish. Thankfully that is true and as bad as you
feel there are always people doing worse. I saw the 5:40 pace group many miles
behind me and felt a tremendous sense of admiration for those who were toiling
far longer than me. In my very first marathon at Marine Corps in 1992, I had
an unreasonable goal of holding to 8 minutes miles. I did that for 15 miles and
then my calf inflamed and did my last 11 miles in what it took me to do the
first 15. I went into a panic as I saw the possibility of not breaking 4 hours
but somehow I just made it. It took me almost five years to want to run another
marathon but on
almost this exact course I ran what I am sure will be my fastest marathon. It
led to unrealistic expectations at the fall Philly Marathon. When things went
against me, I dropped out at 14. It took another six years to rid myself of
that feeling of quitting. There was no way I wasn’t finishing this one
regardless of the time and I don’t see that as an option for any future
marathons.

There is a huge mixture of emotions when the marathon is finally over. On one
hand there is a great sense of relief that it is over and you don’t have to
fear that every activity you partake in could result in an injury that could
ruin all the work you’ve put in. It is great to be able to stay in bed a few
minutes later because you don’t have to do 20 today. The other side is the
second guessing of what you should have done differently. Even if everything
worked perfectly there is always something that could have shaved another
minute or two.

But in the end there is almost nobody who really cares whether you ran 4:23 or
3:32. You finished 26 miles 385 yards and share something with a very small
percentage of the population.