Run for the Border Marathon Potsdam, NY April 29, 2001 Dyed my hair blond on Saturday afternoon. I hope I don't have an allergic reaction or the dye leaches into my system and wrecks my race. I am up at 5:45am Sunday morning. Ate and put eyes in and got dressed, and left Cornwall at 6:30am. It is a lovely clear blue day. Nice drive down to Potsdam. No problem with directions until I was in Potsdam itself. I did not take the turning onto Hwy 11, and ended up on a round-about route to Pine St and found the Pine St Arena. Street names were poorly marked and hard to see. I arrived at 7:25am. I took my time with bathroom breaks, stretching, eating gatorade bar. There is a cold wind - is this gonna be a difficult race to dress for? I tried a new warmup routine - walked around for about 15min, to try to make the beginning of the race easier. At 8:25am I took warmup clothes off and "HUH!" wind cold on legs and arms! I put a bit of sunscreen on my ears and nose. I walked to the start line and chatted idly with some ladies :=). I did not feel as cold as the wind is behind/beside us. It is a small group - 30-40 people. The 1/2 marathoners started furthur back of us. I am planning for 19:30-20 min 2 mile splits, depending on how the hills are. I will try to take 6 gels, one every 30min. I started a bit fast: 18:47 for first 2 miles, as expected as the whole field left me behind. Fortuneately, some soon fell back of me. I got into rythmn fairly early on - warm up walk helped? - and the hills were not large or long. Soon the 1/2 marathons came steaming past us. It is a lovely day, with nice scenery. A group caught up to me just before the 5 mile marker, most of them were 1/2 marathoners, including the ladies I had spoken with before the start of the race. I fell behind them abit as I took a gel break. I am running fine, hoping I'm not taking the hills too hard. It is gently rolling, although I do feel the hills abit. I stopped in the 6mile porta-pottie for pee break, by first bathroom break in a race ever. The 1/2 marathoners start coming back once I'm past the 5 mile mark, and at about 6.5 miles is their turnaround, where all but one of the group I'm with turn for home. I am left following a lady in blue. I am slowly gaining on her as she is slower on the uphills than I, and she doesn't cut the corners, whereas I do whenever I can. Also, she is taking walk breaks only at the aid stations (every two miles), whereas I'm taking them every 10 minutes. Up long hill past 8 miles, with a lovely view of river and Adirondac Mtns. "I love this sport" I shout out!! A photographer takes my picture on this long uphill. I ask him "do i get a copy of that?". He responds in the affirmative. I am in groove now. My 2 mile splits are good and consistent. I am catching a man in distance. He looks to be struggling a bit, with unusual motions. He is in the porta-pottie @ 9 miles as I come by and try to ditch my gel into it. The leading runner is coming back then, and I stop the lead vehicle to say "you might want to check on the guy behind me: i think he's been struggling for a while now". They do, but he keeps going, and falls farther behind me. Down into Norfolk at 10miles, and I'm feeling good. I am taking gels every 1/2 hr, and refilling my water every hour, and drinking most of it, but I'm starting to put some on my head and face now. Occasionally I feel the wind, as it hits from the side. It does not occur to me that it is behind me most of the way, and so will be in my face all the way home. I finally pass the lady-in-blue at the 12mil station. I run well to turnaround @ 13miles. "we're going home now!". Then the wind hit! Oh boy! I knew I was in for a hard haul home! I started playing tag with the lady-in-blue through the next miles. My legs start to hurt below the knees. This is exhaustion pain and lactic acid buildup (from the hills?), and I start to slow marginally. My 2 miles splits start to slip a bit. The haul up the hill from 16mile marker was tough and painfull. At this point i put time out of my mind, and just concentrated on keeping going. At top of hill before the 18mile marker, as I struggled to take down my last gel (stomach rebelling slightly), the lady-in-blue passed me and stayed ahead now. My legs are particularly paining on hills, a bit better on flats, but my pace is slowed. Approaching 20miles, I see a man ahead of me. "That's the guy i want to catch". He appears to be struggling - walking and working his arms around. I cross the train tracks at the 20mile marker and keep plodding along. I'm still sticking to my 10/1 run/walk routine, but the walk breaks are now most welcome. I notice that my breathing is harder than I ever remember, and that there is a slight muscle pain in chest - in the area of my diaphram. Weird. On the nice flat section around lake between 21 & 22 miles, all hell breaks out: left hamstring starts spasming! OH HELL! How can I go 4.5 miles with this? I was afraid of losing control of my legs and collapsing, or of pulling the hamstring, and the pain it would bring. How do I do it. I try to keep plodding along (I am plodding, not running now), and I break and walk when the hamstring becomes too uncomfortable. I am not happy now. At 22miles I nearly catch lady-in-blue and man as they are walking together. I stop my 10/1 timer and start taking walks when I want now. I just want to get to the finish line - nothing else matters now. I am walking up the hills now, and fighting to keep running to the next one. The pain and problems are controlling my race, not me. I am disappointed in this mental state, but I do not care. The lady-in-blue has slowed. On the hills she is barely faster than my walk, and when I run the flats, I noticeably gain on her, only to lose distance when I next walk. "Why do I do this? It hurts, and is no fun. I don't want to do another marathon if this keeps happening!" The 3 of us catch up to another man, who is wearing brown. He is not in good shape, and we leave him behind in the 3mile porta-pottie. Just past 24miles, I pass the man as he walks. He is holding his back (back stiffness?). He passes me back the next time I walk, and doesn't slow down (second wind? going hard to the end? diggind deep?), and I soon lose him in the distance. Keeping an eye on my watch, I can see a 4:30 time slipping away. I don't really care. Today it is about finishing, and that is all. I'm having trouble drinking now as well. I get terrible gas, and a couple of times think i'd like to throw-up. I almost wish I do, cuz then I'd have a reason to give up. I thrust that thought from my mind. "I am not giving up/in today! Remember, it hurts more to quit/not finished than it does right now" Lady in blue seems to be on a yo-yo to me. I gain on her when running, but lose her when i walk. The 25mile marker comes, and I try to bear down, but there is one last hill, and it feels like a killer. I walk up it, and it seems to take me forever. Lady in blue seems to be about 100m or so infront of me. I crest that hill and start running again, and enter a long sweep. I see traffic on a cross street? in the distance, and I know that this is the stretch to the start line. All that is left is up the hill, left at the intersection, and then dowm, turn left into the Pine Street Arena, and that's it. "This is it" I exhort myself, and I give it, ignoring the pain and the jumping hamstrings. "That last mile seemed to go quite quickly!" I remark to myself as I pass the start line. I gain on the lady in the blue, and catch her at the top of the rise as we bear left at the intersection. "Yeah! Giving it!" Uncomfortable. The side of the road is roped off for us runners, and I run down brushing against the rope. There is a U.S. cop, with the lights flashing on his car, marking the turn into the Arena. I turn in, and am going hard. I check over my shoulder, but lady in blue is not following my burst. The volunteers direct me to the finish 'gate', and I see the photographer, line up on him, and try to cruise in in sensible fashion. I did it! AAARRRGGGHHH! That was brutal! The lady in blue comes in a few seconds later, and we give each other a little hug. I think on this day we pulled each other home. Kinda neat. Stats: ====== 4:31:41 finishing time 2 mile splits: 18:46, 19:46, 20:10, 20:39, 19:40, 19:54, 19:45, 20:48, 21:12, 20:58, 21:20, 23:38, 23:00 Post-race comments: =================== As we can see from my stats, the first 14 miles were good - just what I planned. Then, the next 8 miles were about 30sec/mile slower, as I started feeling fatigue from the hills and fighting the wind. The last two splits were really bad as I was now fighting the hamstring as well. I am happy I finished, but disappointed in myself in the way I did not handle the problems that arose - the fatigue and lactic acid, the distressed hamstring, and the gas and nausea. I need to figure out how to deal with them. The course was harder than I expected. I did not do enough strength training, hill training, and stretching for this race. Afterwards, I was not as sore in the quads as I usually am, possibly because of the slower pace. I am happy I had a finishing sprint. I should have put sunscreen on all over me - I was quite sun burnt from 4 1/2 hrs under the sun. Back of my calves, top of my quads, forearms, and round my neck were quite red that night, and they made my epsom salts bath quite painful.