I ran my first marathon on Oct 7th, 2012 in Long Beach California. My time was 4hours 50 mins and 29 seconds. I finished somewhere in 50 percentile among the runners, also similar position for men, and also my age group.
This entire journey started after returning from India in May, until then I had been running 6X week for approx 25 miles for weight loss. In middle of June I ran a 13 miler and decided I was going to get my training up to shoot for the October marathon. I had my weight around 163lbs and remained that until the race.
I ran a 15 miler somewhere end of June and then did 2 runs approx 20 miles each in August. Then did one final run of 23 miles in mid September. The first ~20 mile run was at 10min/mi pace in the start of august, but around the same time we started a blistering summer season with high 90s temperature, and thus the remaining long runs suffered in time. Nevertheless I was able to get close to the distance I needed to be at to prepare for the race.
At the end of august, I registered for the race and bought new shoes, with some extra support for pronation, instead of neutral ones I was training in. Looking back I should not have changed it so late in the game. I was able to run 23 miles with the new shoes, but always felt a bit of discomfort. In the first of 3 taper down weeks I ran 25+ miles with a fast 10.5 mi on the weekend. Thats when I picked up an ITBS on my left knee running too fast downhill on torrey pines road. This meant the remaining two weeks leading up to the race I had to ice it everyday and ran only twice per week that too with a IT Band tape. I also switched back to neutral shoes. Interestingly I could run with the tape without pain if I kept the pace below 6mph (10min/mi) and that meant I had to alter my run plan to go slow on race day.
I was a bit circumspect if I would be able to go even past 10 miles with the knee pain, but I know that I had trained hard, and did everything right so no time to quit, heck if I had to I would walk/crawl to the finish line. The worst thing that could happen was I may not be able to finish the race but it would not be for the lack of trying. There are many who run with so many disabilities and I did not want to make ITBS as an excuse for not running.
So we set off on Sat morning to long beach and picked up our race packet. I was running the marathon and Ingrid the 5K. For dinner I ate lots of pasta pizza and cookies around 6pm and went to bed early. On race day, sunday, I woke up at 4am and ate two slice of bread with peanut butter and jelly. We parked a mile away and reached the entrance at around 6:50 am just 10 mins before start ! Next time I am going to get there 45 mins earlier.
I had to use the restroom and there was a snailing long queue, and finally got done by 7:20am. The first 4 waves of runners had left by then and so I along with Vishwajeet, who was running his first half marathon, started at 7:30 with the fifth wave of runners. I carried my iPod nano a pair of sun glasses a visor cap, and some jells in my back pocket. I did not carry anything else.
My race plan was to run very conservative and drink gatorade every 2 miles and eat jello shots whenever they gave us, I did not eat any solid food in the entire race.
The day was nice, the weather was 65-70 in the morning, cloudy and very flat roads. Initially we were running in a thickly packed crowd of runners of all ages. It was expected to get hotter by 10am but because of my knee problem I ran slow at a pace of 10min/mi and crossed the 13.1 mile stage approx 2hrs 12 mins into the race. Originally I wanted to do 9min/mi for first half and then gradually taper to cover 23 miles by 3hr 45 mins stage so I could shoot for 4:15. I changed my target ti 4:30, run conservative throughout and finish strong (no walking) . So after crossing the half race stage, the sun came out and we were no longer running along the beach, we were in inner city road and it felt hot, not boiling but hot. I started slowly tapering off and I crossed 19 miles in 3hrs 19 minutes. I started again drifting slowly probably hit the wall around 22-23 miles, and in 4hrs 22 mins I was done with 24 miles or so. It would be take almost another half hour to finish the last two miles. The finish was off target by 20 mins but I have never felt better, I did not walk at all and heck, I had actually completed my first marathon!
During the race everyone was very comforting and cheering each other up, there was so many spectators and also cheer leaders when we ran past schools. I never cramped and the knee held up, and I finished the race!
Some take aways -
1. I may have too much gatorade, felt heavy in the tummy - need to learn how to drink the correct amount
2. I need to train a bit for pace, do some sprints and intervals, my training plan was too simple and to improve on pace i need a better plan.
3. Running the race conservative worked, Chris's idea - the first 20 miles is half the race and the last 6 the second half is so true.
4. Dont change shoes a month before the race, I think I am going to stick to neutrals from now on.
After the race I felt dead but could still stand, did not fall to the ground. After taking a little bit of fluid, I had a small glass of beer and then the pain started. I slowly limped and walked a mile to the parking garage and Ingrid drove us home. She had done her first 5k run and finished in 40 mins, so proud of her.
I did not feel hungry until we reached san diego in the evening and had a nice indian meal. For the next week I took rest, my left knee pain slowly started to go away and so did the stiffness. And today, 10 days later, I feel rested and started running again, but short runs only !
This entire journey started after returning from India in May, until then I had been running 6X week for approx 25 miles for weight loss. In middle of June I ran a 13 miler and decided I was going to get my training up to shoot for the October marathon. I had my weight around 163lbs and remained that until the race.
I ran a 15 miler somewhere end of June and then did 2 runs approx 20 miles each in August. Then did one final run of 23 miles in mid September. The first ~20 mile run was at 10min/mi pace in the start of august, but around the same time we started a blistering summer season with high 90s temperature, and thus the remaining long runs suffered in time. Nevertheless I was able to get close to the distance I needed to be at to prepare for the race.
At the end of august, I registered for the race and bought new shoes, with some extra support for pronation, instead of neutral ones I was training in. Looking back I should not have changed it so late in the game. I was able to run 23 miles with the new shoes, but always felt a bit of discomfort. In the first of 3 taper down weeks I ran 25+ miles with a fast 10.5 mi on the weekend. Thats when I picked up an ITBS on my left knee running too fast downhill on torrey pines road. This meant the remaining two weeks leading up to the race I had to ice it everyday and ran only twice per week that too with a IT Band tape. I also switched back to neutral shoes. Interestingly I could run with the tape without pain if I kept the pace below 6mph (10min/mi) and that meant I had to alter my run plan to go slow on race day.
I was a bit circumspect if I would be able to go even past 10 miles with the knee pain, but I know that I had trained hard, and did everything right so no time to quit, heck if I had to I would walk/crawl to the finish line. The worst thing that could happen was I may not be able to finish the race but it would not be for the lack of trying. There are many who run with so many disabilities and I did not want to make ITBS as an excuse for not running.
So we set off on Sat morning to long beach and picked up our race packet. I was running the marathon and Ingrid the 5K. For dinner I ate lots of pasta pizza and cookies around 6pm and went to bed early. On race day, sunday, I woke up at 4am and ate two slice of bread with peanut butter and jelly. We parked a mile away and reached the entrance at around 6:50 am just 10 mins before start ! Next time I am going to get there 45 mins earlier.
I had to use the restroom and there was a snailing long queue, and finally got done by 7:20am. The first 4 waves of runners had left by then and so I along with Vishwajeet, who was running his first half marathon, started at 7:30 with the fifth wave of runners. I carried my iPod nano a pair of sun glasses a visor cap, and some jells in my back pocket. I did not carry anything else.
My race plan was to run very conservative and drink gatorade every 2 miles and eat jello shots whenever they gave us, I did not eat any solid food in the entire race.
The day was nice, the weather was 65-70 in the morning, cloudy and very flat roads. Initially we were running in a thickly packed crowd of runners of all ages. It was expected to get hotter by 10am but because of my knee problem I ran slow at a pace of 10min/mi and crossed the 13.1 mile stage approx 2hrs 12 mins into the race. Originally I wanted to do 9min/mi for first half and then gradually taper to cover 23 miles by 3hr 45 mins stage so I could shoot for 4:15. I changed my target ti 4:30, run conservative throughout and finish strong (no walking) . So after crossing the half race stage, the sun came out and we were no longer running along the beach, we were in inner city road and it felt hot, not boiling but hot. I started slowly tapering off and I crossed 19 miles in 3hrs 19 minutes. I started again drifting slowly probably hit the wall around 22-23 miles, and in 4hrs 22 mins I was done with 24 miles or so. It would be take almost another half hour to finish the last two miles. The finish was off target by 20 mins but I have never felt better, I did not walk at all and heck, I had actually completed my first marathon!
During the race everyone was very comforting and cheering each other up, there was so many spectators and also cheer leaders when we ran past schools. I never cramped and the knee held up, and I finished the race!
Some take aways -
1. I may have too much gatorade, felt heavy in the tummy - need to learn how to drink the correct amount
2. I need to train a bit for pace, do some sprints and intervals, my training plan was too simple and to improve on pace i need a better plan.
3. Running the race conservative worked, Chris's idea - the first 20 miles is half the race and the last 6 the second half is so true.
4. Dont change shoes a month before the race, I think I am going to stick to neutrals from now on.
After the race I felt dead but could still stand, did not fall to the ground. After taking a little bit of fluid, I had a small glass of beer and then the pain started. I slowly limped and walked a mile to the parking garage and Ingrid drove us home. She had done her first 5k run and finished in 40 mins, so proud of her.
I did not feel hungry until we reached san diego in the evening and had a nice indian meal. For the next week I took rest, my left knee pain slowly started to go away and so did the stiffness. And today, 10 days later, I feel rested and started running again, but short runs only !
