Marine Corps Marathon #2.

After a weekend like this, I have no idea where to begin. There are so many emotions. So many stories. I'll just start from the beginning and do my best.

Pre-Race

Beth Ann (my wife) and I started the trip down to Washington, D.C. for Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) Weekend on Saturday morning. We had a few stops to make before going to bed. First on the list was Packet Pickup and the Expo followed by checking in at the hotel and then we were going to walk to our friend Brian’s house for a party, to church, and then to dinner before going back to the hotel to sleep. As the saying goes, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”

When we arrived at Packet Pickup, there was no parking anywhere. We drove in circles before finally spotting a parking lot with TONS of parking. When we got close, the entrance was closed… so how did those cars get in there? We found the exit, turned into it, and parked our car. The line for packet pickup was an hour long. Apparently they had a power outage in the tent which delayed pickup quite a bit. Lines got progressively shorter throughout the day. Getting into the expo was only about half an hour. The line to buy stuff was only about 15 minutes. We didn’t spend much time at the Expo because we wanted to get to Brian’s party. We left and drove to Brian’s instead of the hotel.

Some of my friends and family might not know that I’ve been posting on a message board on Runners World’s website for the MCM for about a year and a half. I started posting there originally to get a few questions answered about the marathon, but I got so much more. I’ve met some incredible people. Brian and the guests at his party make up a large portion of those people. Since before I joined this amazing group, they’ve been convening at Brian’s house the night before MCM to meet up, eat some food, and talk. It’s a great (and rare) opportunity for us to meet face to face. Brian was nice enough to order some gluten free pasta so Beth Ann and I didn’t need to go find some on our own. We actually cancelled our dinner reservations and found a brew pub to grab a burger at after church and before we went to the hotel.

We got to the hotel around 8:00. We pinned our bibs to our shirts, laid out our clothes for the morning, packed our post-race bags, and we were in bed by 9:00. Everything was going perfectly.

Our alarm went off at 5:00am. Even though I know it sounds dumb, and might be just that, I always shower before a race. Yes, I’m about to go get sweaty, but there’s something said for getting really clean before getting really gross. Once we were all done getting ready, it was time to hop on the metro and head to Pentagon station to start the trek over to the starting line.

Beth Ann and I checked our bags, moved over towards the starting line, and found our group from the night before to grab a few morning pictures. Before walking to our corral, we got to witness one of the coolest and most emotional race start celebrations I’ve ever seen. Looking up to the sky, there were nearly a dozen skydivers falling from the sky, parachutes open, with American flags hanging down. Then the crowd stopped moving forward, got quiet, and we stood in silence while the national anthem was sung. A truly patriotic moment. It was made even more special knowing that many of those skydivers were wounded warriors.

After the anthem was over, we said our goodbyes to our friends and moved up to find our coral.

The Race

As we stand in line, it’s finally hitting me that we’re running a marathon today. I tried not to let myself get too excited or emotional about this thing because I didn’t want to get too hyped too soon. But now it’s time. I’m allowed to feel it. It feels exciting and horrifying at the same time. Last year was so hard. So painful. But so much fun!

The howitzer blast signifies the start of the race for the hand bikes and wheelchair racers. We’ll get our turn soon enough. I’m wearing sweatpants and a fleece top over my race clothes. I decide to take off my sweatpants so I don’t have to stop running later on to take them off. Beth Ann does the same. We’re standing here talking, planning our race, anticipating the next howitzer blast to let us know it’s time for us to run.

BOOM! The shot echoes through the chilly morning air. Our turn. The crowd slowly lurches forward. About ten minutes after the blast, we’re finally walking towards the starting line. As we cross the line, we start to run. It feels great. It’s been days since I’ve allowed myself to really run. The crowd is still thick so it’s difficult to run our pace.

I’m wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and arm sleeves right now, but it’s getting warm. I pull down my arm sleeves, but I quickly realize that it’s incredibly inconvenient to see my watch and hard to see my pace band on the other arm. The sleeves must go. We’re implementing a run/walk strategy after last year’s early meltdown (10 minutes of running followed by 2 minutes of walking). It’s been half an hour now, so it’s time to walk. I hand Beth Ann my water bottle so I can get my sleeves off. I ball them up together and toss them aside. Beth Ann hands me back my water bottle and we walk a little more before it’s time to run again.

My main goal is to beat 5 hours. That’s an 11:27 pace. We cross the first 10k mark and we’re averaging 11:06. It feels easy. I’m excited. I ask Beth Ann if we can skip a few of our planned walks to gain more time. She says no.

We’re running up a road where we can see the runners ahead of us coming back from an out and back part of the course. Man they’re fast. As we make our way up to the turn, it gets cramped. Everyone slows down to make the turn, and then we’re back on pace. Now we’re seeing the people behind us. Some of our runner friends are running as a group. Two of them are Marines. They’re carrying a Lima 3/3 Guidon (don’t call it a flag!) so they’re easy to spot. We see them coming up the road and shout to them. They look great. I feel great. Let’s do this.

As we cross the 20k timing mat, I’m still feeling great. The pace is right where it needs to be. We’re averaging 11:09 and still well on our way to a sub 5 hour finish. I’m ecstatic. Almost halfway there. This part of the course is incredibly difficult. Last year, this is when the meltdown happened. Not this time. Not now. The course through this park is lined with pictures and names of marine’s killed in action. There’s very little crowd support here, but there’s plenty to look at. I make it a point to try to read the names of every marine whose picture is posted along the course. I get a little choked up but I’m so thankful to have such brave men and women who fight for us every day.

It’s mile 16 now. My stomach is growling. I’m hungry. But I’m full of water. I’m averaging about 20oz of water per 5k. I’ve eaten a bagel and three gels. I have a snickers bar waiting for me at mile 19. No big deal. I’ll make it. WAIT! God bless these crowds. There’s a mom and her daughter handing out mini snickers bars. That will get me through to 19 without a problem. I grab one, scarf it, and keep running.

Ouch! What the hell was that? My quad twitched. I’ve felt this before during long bike rides, but not during a run. It was quick, though, so hopefully it’s an isolated incident. Great! Here’s Brian, Sarah, and Lisa. Brian hands me my snickers and Beth Ann gets here peanut M&Ms. He offers us lube too, but we’re doing ok. Our fans tell us we’re looking great, so we must be. We crossed the 30k mark averaging 11:21. We’ve lost some time, but it’s not a big deal. We’re still way ahead of where we need to be to make the 5 hour finish.

As we run down towards the “Beat the Bridge” (You must make it to the bridge at mile 20 by the 5 hour mark of the marathon start in order to continue. If you don’t make it, you’re not allowed to finish), we can hear the drummers. I wish I could take them with me. The beat is so strong and deep. I can feel it in my chest and it energizes me.

I’m so excited that we’ve only got 6 miles left. This is our strongest run of the year. Not even during training did we feel this good.

Oh no. There’s that quad twitch again. Yikes. I need a stretch. We pull over and I stretch my quads, but they’re not really tight. My back hurts so I take the opportunity to quickly stretch my hamstrings. I don’t want to take too much time stretching because every second I stand on the side of the road is one more second added to our finish time. We start running again. Crap. My other quad now. They’re both cramping. I’m not dehydrated, I know it. I’ve been drinking like a camel. I just had my snickers about 15 minutes ago. Maybe I just need to give my body time to digest some of the sugars and give me some more energy.

This isn’t happening. Both of my quads are cramping. Badly. I can’t figure out what to do. I’ve told myself that this race is it for me. I’m taking time off once I’m done. I don’t need to do anything for the rest of the week. I can push through any pain I have and deal with it later. This isn’t just pain, though. This is muscle fatigue. There’s no other explanation. We’ve got 5 miles left, and I’m not going to make it.

DON’T THINK LIKE THAT. You’re fine. It hurts. You’ve already beaten the bridge. You’re going to finish this if you have to crawl.

Here comes the guilt. I’ve trained for two marathons with Beth Ann. I love her so much. I can’t hold her back. She’s feeling fine. I know she can do this. She can go ahead and still beat our time from last year if not the 5 hours we wanted from the start. We talk about it but she says she’s not leaving me. I need to stretch again. We pull over and I stretch. I’m still not tight. My quads are just tired, but stretching makes them feel better, I guess. I can’t do this to her. Run. Just run.

Nope. Not happening. If I keep going, I’m going to fall. I tell Beth Ann that I’m seriously ok with her leaving me behind, and I mean it. We plan our meeting spot for when I finish. I give her a kiss and watch her run ahead. I don’t mean it anymore. I don’t want to be alone. I’m already on a death march. I suck it up and run. She’s only been gone for about 15 seconds. I can see her right there. My eyes well up. I can’t let her get away. I catch her and tap her on the shoulder. I tell her that I changed my mind. I tell her I’ll try my best. I haven’t given up, but I can’t do it without her. We keep running. Together.

My legs are only allowing me to run for about 3-4 minutes at a time now. If that’s what I can do, that’s what I can do. I know Beth Ann is disappointed, but she might love me more than I love her… if that’s possible. She’s sincerely ok with staying back with me and helping me along. We run and walk, off and on. The walks get progressively longer. The runs get progressively shorter. I’m picking out signs, banners, people… anything I can do give me a target to run to. I point out the spot to Beth Ann and we run there. I have a fleeting moment where I think we can PR (get a new Personal Record), but then the realization of my quads comes flying back with a flash of pain. We’re on a highway overpass. We’re about to go down towards where the starting corrals were. Our pace is getting worse and worse. I saw a 14+ minute mile pop up on my watch. Yikes. It’s almost over, though.

We’ve got a mile left. One. Mile. I care about two things right now. I want to finish holding my wife’s hand and I want to run up the hill to the Marine Corps War Memorial. Now it’s about managing my muscle fatigue so that I can run the hill. We do a lot of walking this mile. As soon as I see the turn towards the hill. It’s on. Beth Ann and I start to run again. My legs feel ok. Go figure. The course is now lined with cheering fans and Marines. There’s a hand cyclist ahead of us. This hill is steep. A marine jumps out from the side of the course and starts pushing the bike up the hill. I wish I had a camera on me. What an image.

We cross the finish line after “running” for 5 hours, 22 minutes, and 51 seconds. We’ve missed our goal. But we’ve accomplished something great. We had a great time. We ran together. And damnit, we finished another marathon.

We get in line for our medals. This is the best part. I get a medal put around my neck by a marine. You’d think that would be enough… but no. I get saluted! I don’t remember if they did that last year or not. It doesn’t matter. This marine salutes ME. Who am I to them? Nobody. That’s who. But I took my salute, I shook their hand, thanked them for my medal and for their service, and then joined Beth Ann for our victory picture in front of the War Memorial.

Post Race

Beth Ann and I got our bags from the UPS baggage pickup, took off what sweaty clothes we could, changed shoes, went to CVS to get chips, sat on the curb, and ate. While sitting, we saw our friend Sarah who had cheered for us at mile 19 but joined our group with the Lima 3/3 Guidon for the last 7 miles of their marathon. She filled us in on some stories and then went to find some food of her own.

We found a porta botty (after drinking about 8 full 20oz water bottles… even with the sweating… it’s time to pee) and then “walked” over to the metro line. It was too long so we sat down for a little bit for some more snacks. Eventually we just mustered up the strength to get in line. Once we got on the metro, we stood for the three stops it took to get to our stop. Sitting down wasn’t an option… not because we weren’t offered a seat, but because I’m not sure either of us could have stood up again. Once back at the hotel, we showered and then made plans to meet up with our friends again for dinner and drinks.

Around 6 o’clock, we went to a restaurant just two blocks from our hotel. We met up with Brian, Jen, Benny, Sarah, Jen’s brother Matt, and two friends Jess and Janet. We stayed for a few hours, rehashed our marathon experiences, and imbibed a little bit. It was great to spend more time with these folks.

Once we were too tired to stay any longer, we started back to the hotel. We got about half a block from the restaurant and had to stop to stretch. We were in bed by 9:30.

Despite the pain and disappointment, I’m holding my head high today. I have finished two marathons. Will I do another? I don’t know yet. Maybe some day. I’m realizing that my legs don’t like marathons. My mind does, though. I’m not content with my time and I’d like to improve. But for now, I’m just going to be happy with what I’ve accomplished to date.

Thank you for your support and encouragement throughout this whole thing. Also, thank you for reading.

Let's Do This. Again.

Now that the Marine Corps Marathon is behind me, it's time to get a grip on things again. You'd think that training for a marathon would really help you lose weight, but... apparently not. Many runners have told me that it's hard to lose weight when training for a marathon because of the hunger. It hits so hard sometimes that it feels like you'll never bee full. However, most of these runners have faster metabolisms than I do... and aren't 30-40lbs overweight.

I realized a little too late that I was taking this training as a license to eat. I didn't think I'd even be able to gain weight while training as much as I was. I was wrong. I gained a solid 8-9lbs over the last month or two. I'm not overly upset about it, but I'm certainly not happy about it. But it's a wake up call. I need to monitor my calorie consumption better.

It is time to start all over. I'm going to start from scratch with a whole new set of goals. I feel like I need to start off slow and go with an 8 week plan this time around. Here are the goals...

Running
My wife and I are tentatively planning to run the Ocean Drive Marathon in March. Our training starts this week, as we are 20 weeks out. Luckily it starts relatively slow so we don't completely burn out by race day. Our current training program calls for 4 days of running and a cross training day. Because of my new job in PA, we'll be resting on Monday and Friday to accommodate for the 2.5 hour drive I'll be doing on those days. I will follow this program at least 6 of the 8 weeks. I will make exceptions for bad weather (for example... blizzards or hurricanes) or injuries.

Water
I've realized that I'm not drinking as much water as I should be. Again. I have been drinking plenty of fluids, just not the calorie free, hydrating, kind of fluids. Too much beer, too much soda, too much Gatorade. I'll be drinking 80oz of water, minimum, every day, for at least 50 of the 56 days.

Calories
I need to get my calories back under control. I'll be eating between 1928 and 2485 calories per day 6 out of 7 days per week. I'm going to also add four days for Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, and Man Weekend (something I planned with my brother). That gives me 44 days out of the 56 total. I'll be using LoseIt.com to track my calories. On days that I exercise, I will be allowing myself extra calories to accommodate for what I burn. I will take 1/3 of the calories I burn and add them to my budget for the day, if I need them.

Weight
I want to be able to lose an average of 1.5lbs a week, so I will be shooting for a 12lb weight loss. I currently weigh ***.*lbs, so my goal weight for December 30th will be ***.*

Pushups
I found that my upper body was getting more flabby during the last training cycle. To combat this, I plan on working my way back up to a 50 pushup set. I will be using an app on my phone called "Pushups." It's similar to the hundredpushups.com program, however, when I tried this app last time, it felt better than when I was using the other program.

Here is how you'll see me tracking my goals on the side bar...

Running: 0/6
Water: 0/50
Calories: 0/45
Weight: 0/12
Pushups: 0/50

Because of my work/travel schedule, I'm not sure when I'll be updating, but I hope to find a time that works out. I'll post links on facebook when I can get something written up.

Marine Corps Marathon 2012 Race Report

Before I begin, I need to thank all of our service men and women for all that they do for our country and what they do to protect our freedoms. Without them, we would not have the privilege to run the marathon’s that we do, to train like we do, speak as freely as we do, or quite frankly live the way that we do. For that, I sincerely thank all of them for everything that they do to protect us and our way of life.

I also want to make a disclaimer. Details of this weekend and particularly the race itself are fuzzy in spots and I don’t have a great memory of where things occurred. All mile markers/locations may not be accurate…

Back in March, when my wife and I were seriously discussing running a marathon for my first time, I signed up for the Runner's World message boards and started posting in a forum dedicated to the Marine Corps Marathon which was the marathon that we were looking most closely at at the time. The group of people posting on that board have become very good friends of mine, two of them I'd met in person before traveling to DC for this marathon, and many of them I got to meet for the first time the night before/morning before we started running.

On Friday night, my wife and I took our dog, Yahtzee up to PA to spend the night at my dad's house. He had agreed to watch Yahtzee for us for the weekend. We woke up very early and drove down to the DC Armory for check in and packet pickup. We got our bib numbers and then went in to the expo to get our race shirts and look at all the cool stuff that different companies were selling. We didn't feel like we needed to buy anything, but it's nice to see what's out there.

When we were done, it was only about 11:00am, so we called my wife's parents who were down in DC for the weekend to watch the race/sight see to meet up with them for lunch. My father in law had actually volunteered to work the finish line aid station for the marathon. We hopped on the metro and met them down town for some Mexican food (maybe not the best idea before a marathon, but it was well balanced and delicious). When we were done, we got back on the metro to go back to the Armory because we'd left our car there. When we stepped onto the metro, I heard a girl say my name. When I turned around, it was one of the girls who posts on the Runner's World forum. We'd met before for drinks once in Philadelphia. It was shocking to see her there... I knew she was running, but what are the chances that we'd get on the same metro? Anyway, after she got her packet and went through the expo, my wife and I drove her over to a party for the forum members.

We spent some time at the party and I finally got to put some more faces and voices to some of the names that I see every day. At around 5:00pm, we had to leave to get to church and then went back towards our hotel in Alexandria to check in and get dinner. When we were done eating, we laid out all of our race clothes and double checked our bags to check for after the race. When all was set up, we got ready for bed, set our alarms, and passed out.

Sunday morning was pretty much a disaster until we arrived at Runner's Village. My alarm clock didn't go off (thank goodness that my wife had set one that worked!), we were late leaving the hotel, and we got off the metro at the wrong stop so we had to wait for the next train to come by to take us one more stop. I guess there's a difference between Pentagon and Pentagon City stops. Who knew? We know for next time at least.

Once we checked our bags at the UPS trucks, it was time to meet up with more of the Runner's World folks. One of them made a sign that said "FREE NACHO'S" on it so we could find each other. It was no problem to spot. We got to meet a few more of the people who we didn't get to meet the night before at the party. We chatted for a little bit, and then it was time to get in our start corral and get started.

The start of this race was absolutely amazing. They played the National Anthem, of course, but we also had an Osprey flyover and the start gun was a howitzer! When the howitzer fired, it was a little anticlimactic. Not because the shot wasn't awesome and loud, but because we didn't go anywhere. With 30,000 runners registered, it took us about 15 minutes to cross the starting line. Once we started running, it almost ended too quickly when my wife nearly face planted. She wasn't sure if she caught a toe, was tripped, or what, but she nearly hit the ground... hard. When that kind of thing has happened to her in the past, she usually pulls a muscle or strains something, but she didn't have any problems as a result of the trip. We took a deep breath and carried on.

At around mile 3 or so, we spotted two runners from the Runner's World forum. Athena and Post One. Post is an active duty Marine stationed in Germany. He came back specifically for this race and carried the Guideon of his unit for the entire marathon.

We made our way over to Athena (not pictured) and Post One to chat for a few minutes. The first 8 miles of the course are more challenging than the rest. There are hills that my wife and I aren't used to. I had to ask about them because I knew some of the bigger ones were yet to come. They gave us some encouraging words and then we moved past them in an attempt to find our pace for our goal time of 4:30. Fortunately, the hills didn't feel terrible, but I certainly noted a little pain as we topped the two biggest ones on the course.

Everything was going well, nothing eventful to note, really. We saw lots of people cheering, lots of inspirational runners such as the Marine walking in full bomb gear, a man with a prosthetic leg, many soldiers running in full gear and ruck packs, and lots of folks running in honor or in memory of fallen hero's. We also saw a lot of great signs. I'll list some of my favorites real quick:

• Worst Parade Ever!
• Worst Wet Tee Shirt Contest Ever!
• Run like Sandy is Chasing You!
• Bloody Nipples Are Sexy!
• If This Race Was Easy, It'd Be Called Your Mom.

There were plenty of other ones that I don't feel are appropriate for this blog... mostly because my parents read it.

Around mile 16-18, I hit a wall. Serious dehydration had hit me. Hard. My wife looked at me and said, “You look pale.” I felt pale. I had been drinking Gatorade for the entire run thus far because I normally do better with that than water. It was much more potent than I normally drink, it was also lemon lime rather than orange. I’m not sure if that was an issue or not, but I couldn’t take any more Gatorade. I also didn’t think I could stomach another gel. When we got to the next water stop, I filled my hand held with water and took a gel. I felt better, but still not great. My legs were seriously cramped, so we started to run/walk from this point on.

We were following a 1/5 ratio of run walking, initially starting with a 2 minute walk and 10 minute run, then going down to a 1 minute walk and 5 minute run. The ratio got progressively worse as we got farther into the marathon and my legs cramped worse. My IT band on my right knee was killing me. Every time we started to “run” again, my legs took a good 100 yards to loosen up. I had a fleeting ten second moment of “I don’t know if I can manage to finish this thing” but I moved that out of my mind quickly. 

On route, while run/walking, we ran across my mother in law, unexpectedly. It was very nice to see a familiar face in the crowd, and I have to say, it perked me up a little bit. A few miles later, we came across another Runner's World friend who was cheering from the side line (he ran the Chicago Marathon a few weeks ago). My wife had suggested that we put our names on our shirts so people could cheer for us by name. When the cramping got bad, hearing my name really helped motivate me to carry on. I will certainly be wearing my name on my shirt for any other marathon I run in.

Marine Corps Marathon is challenging for a lot of reasons, but one of the most famous parts of the course is called "Beat the Bridge." The bridge is on 14th street and is at about mile 20 of the course. The race allows you a 14 minute mile average from the time the gun goes off. By the time you cross the start line, that really lives about four and a half hours to make it to mile 20. We were never worried about not beating the bridge, but it was a very nice feeling knowing that, although I still had 6.2 miles to run, I was going to be a marathon finisher very soon. On the way to the bridge, there was a grouper of entertainers banging BIG drums. It was almost tribal. You could feel the beat in your entire body... and you could hear it from very far away.

Once we beat the bridge, I was experiencing some of the worst cramps that I’d had on the entire course. My legs were really hurting… my left calf was balling up, my right quad and hamstring were about toast, and my traps were even sore. I saw a guy pull over and vomit off the bridge. I felt better that I was only hurting… not sick. 

When we got on to the second to last road, the wind hit hard. My wife almost lost her hat. Luckily a guy behind us grabbed it and gave it back to her. I had to walk for a little bit here, despite not wanting to walk anymore. While walking, I said to my wife, “I can’t believe Athena and Post didn’t pass us yet." As we got on the off ramp to the final straight away, I saw Post’s Guideon and Athena running next to it. We didn’t even see them pass us! I told myself that I wouldn’t walk anymore unless my wife asked to. All of a sudden, my legs felt great. I got over the wall, I guess. We turned towards the last aid station and a marine standing before the water tables called me out. He said, “Head up Matt!” I looked at him and smiled. I then looked back at the road and he yelled at me again, “HEAD UP!” I put my head up and told myself to man up. This thing is almost over.

As we got up towards the water station, I saw that Athena and Post had started walking through the water station. I asked my wife if we could try to catch them. At about half a mile to go, we did just that, chatted, got some pictures, and then we had to walk for one last time. It was more important to me to run the hill up to the Iwo Jima memorial at the finish than finish with friends at that moment.

When we started running again, Athena and Post were way out in front of us. We made the final left turn towards the hill and a spectator crossed our path with a stroller cutting us off and everyone around us. SO FRUSTRATING!

My wife and I CHARGED up the hill. I was so proud to pass as many people as we did at that moment. When we topped the hill and ran towards the finish, I grabbed my wife’s hand and held on tight. We crossed with our hands in the air, together, just like we had planned from the moment we signed up. I could not ask for a better training partner, support person, or wife. She is the reason I signed up to run MCM and the reason I finished this whole thing. I love her so much and am so thankful to have her in my life.

We finished in 5:16:30

After finishing, we ran into Athena and Post again. I got to watch Post salute a group of Marines with his Guideon, get awarded his medal, and then get saluted back by all of the Marine’s. He had to leave, so we didn’t get to chat with him much, but we stood with Athena in line to get our medals and finisher photo’s. When you get your medal at Marine Corps Marathon, a Marine Lt. puts the medal around your neck and salutes you. I felt strange being saluted by someone who put his life on the line for me, but honored at the same time. There were a few times that I almost cried on course because of the pain, because I knew I was going to finish, because I was about to cross the finish line, etc... but this part choked me up pretty good for sure.

While in line for our medals, my father in law spotted us from the finishers aid station. He walked over, gave us hugs, got a quick picture, then went back to work.

 I need to quickly thank Athena for all of her inspiration and her awesome photography skills while running. She took pictures while running backwards, stood with us in line, took all of those pictures, and even got this one in front of the Iwo Jima Memorial!

And because she was so heavily featured in this post and was a large part of my first marathon experience, we got a picture with her too.

We are still a little bit sore, even 3 days later, but over the last few days, every time I take a step and my legs almost give out or cramp up on me, I’m reminded of an amazing weekend, and accomplishing something I never thought I’d ever attempt let alone finish… I’m a marathon runner.

Oorah.

Marine Corps Marathon 2012 - Pre Race

It's been a while since I've posted. I guess you could say I've been busy? Maybe. I don't know. Maybe I lost motivation to post because things seemed monotonous and why would I want to bore you with the same post every week?

Well, today I'm writing because I need to. For my own sanity, really. This Sunday, October 28th, my wife and I will be tackling the Marine Corps Marathon. For those of you who don't know much about running, a marathon is 26.2 miles. Always. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked, "How far is your marathon?" It's 26.2 miles. Just like every other marathon in the history of marathons... OK, I got off track...

I don't know when my wife would tell you she started training for this run, but I have been training since October 7th, 2011 when I ran my first half marathon. The one that I did with my wife around our neighborhood just to see if I could do it. That day, I ran 13.1 miles in 2:26:33 (an 11:11 mile). Since then, I've always wondered what it would be like to run a full marathon. This half marathon was when the seed was planted.

After we moved to NJ, it was time to start thinking about our next running adventure. We decided it would be fun to sign up for my first REAL half marathon. Before it was time to run, we had to make the decision... are we signing up for Marine Corps Marathon or not? The date rolled around and it was time to sign up... March 7th, 2012. The race sold out in record time... 2 hours and 41 minutes. We were locked in.

On April 1st, 2012, my wife and I ran side by side for 13.1 miles through Atlantic City and neighboring towns along the coast. I'd looked into running calculators and talked with some more experienced runners about what kind of pace I could maintain for this distance based on training runs and shorter races that we'd done earlier in the year. I was told that I'd be somewhere in the 2:05 range. I wanted to run it under 2 hours. We decided that it was at least worth a shot. That day we took the starting line and off we went. 1:59:21 (9:06 pace) later, we crossed the finish line.

We took a break for a few months until we "officially" started training for the 26.2 mile distance. Our break meant maintaining some level of endurance... so we ran between 8 and 12 miles once a week (as well as other shorter runs during the week) until it was time to start for real.

The average first time marathoner will follow a beginner program. Most of those programs build to 20 and then taper off for the marathon. But I'm not your average person, am I? We ran 20 miles three times. Between each 20 miler, we took a "step back" week and only ran 14 miles. Except for the weekend when we hopped on our bikes and rode 100 miles.

I have to admit, I laughed a little bit typing that paragraph. "Only ran 14 miles." Like that's some small feat. Let me be honest, though... when you've gone 20 miles, 14 doesn't feel so bad. For me, it's one less hour of running.

Now that the marathon is less than a week away and the last 20 mile run is almost three weeks behind me, I'm starting to over think stuff. How's the weather going to be? Will I be dressed appropriately? Am I going to have fun? Will the hills be too hard? Will my legs hold up? Will my feet and knees be ok?

Here's what I know from past experience. The mind is extremely powerful. So I'm going to answer my own questions... Who cares about the weather? You'll be dressed how you're dressed... you'll be fine. Yes you're going to have fun, no the hills won't be too hard, your legs will do what they're supposed to, and if you're in pain, you'll work through it.

I'll be telling myself those things for the rest of the week. Check back next week some time for a race report... I'm sure it'll be a doozy!

Reflection

I've had a lot of time recently to reflect on my journey thus far. When you run 20 miles, you've got a load of time to get lost in your thoughts. On Friday, my wife and I did our first of three 20 mile runs. During that run, I thought about how far I have come.

In high school, I remember doing Weight Watchers with my mom. Back then, they prescribed 20 minutes of physical activity a day. Yeah. 20 minutes. At the time, I thought it was outrageous. No way could I, at 300lbs, maintain 20 minutes of physical activity a day. And then, everyone started saying that you needed 30 minutes of physical activity a day. NO WAY can I do that! If 20 minutes wasn't hard enough, 30 was impossible.

I spent 6 hours doing cardio over the weekend. Four hours of running, two hours of cycling.

Obviously, I've come a long way.

Progress isn't something that comes easy. It takes a lot of hard work. I believe that's true in all aspects of life, but especially with fitness and weight loss (for me, anyway). When I started running a little over a year ago, I hated it. I learned to enjoy it to a point by setting my goals and working to improve my personal distance and time records.

Ultimately, I set a goal to run a half marathon, which I completed. It hurt worse than anything I'd ever experienced through exercise. My muscles were completely exhausted and my mind was struggling to keep my body going. When I finished, I broke down in tears. Partly from the pain, partly because I was so proud of what I'd done. That 13.1 mile run took me 2:26:33. It was a distance PR, but I'd left myself plenty of room for improvement on time. Right then, I didn't care about the time, I was just happy to have run the distance.

When my wife and I moved to the shore, I signed us up for another half marathon. This one, I was going to train better for. We ran through the winter and we set the goal of finishing under 2 hours. Again, we accomplished our goal. In Atlantic City, we ran 13.1 miles in 1:59:21, besting my previous half marathon time by over 26 minutes.

Next up, Marine Corps Marathon. We're most of the way through our training and things are going well. We had our best long run in a long time and covered more distance than I'd ever thought dreamed I could do. Until recently, 26.2 miles was outside the realm of possibility for me. I'm still a heavy guy, but damn if I didn't just run 20 miles on Friday night. I'm confident that once the weather cools off and the humidity dies down my speed will increase and the distances will be easier to cover. At this point, I feel ready to run a marathon and I'm excited about how far I've come.

So for any of you who think to yourself, "There's no way I can ever make any progress on this exercise stuff." Think about me and what I've done so far. I may still be overweight, but on October 28th, I'm going to run a marathon!

Catching up...

I have a lot of training and experience in the field of psychology. I can help people with a lot of different problems, but I would have to say that I work best in the field of behavior therapy. I started this blog with the idea that human behavior was modifiable through habit change. I still believe this to be true.

That said, I'm really struggling lately to "counsel" myself out of certain behaviors. Is it an issue of willpower? willingness? habits? desire? I'm not sure. I've been trying to work it out in my head for weeks.

When I was working with volunteers to figure out my Wellness Coaching lessons, a common theme for weight loss was willpower. However, I would give them this example for what willpower does for you... Imagine that you took a double dose of x-lax. Do you think that if you had all of the willpower in the world, that you could avoid the inevitable? I doubt it. It needs to be a permanent change.

So far, I've learned to enjoy drinking water. I've learned to eat healthier meals in smaller quantities. I've learned to enjoy a sport (running) that I formerly hated. I'm a more positive person. I'm happier. I'm healthier. However, I continue to struggle with weight loss. 225-230 is a fine weight. Just not for me.

If you ask anyone who knows me very well, they'll tell you that I'm a good talker. I can argue any point to death until I win the argument. Whether I'm right or not. Unfortunately, this "skill," if you will, also allows me to justify pretty much any action that I do as the right thing to do. I also truly believe that I'm right, most of the time. Which makes it really hard to talk myself out of doing something that I shouldn't... you know... since I think it's the right thing to do at the time.

After that long run of 16 miles the other week, I used my rationalized goal to eat extra calories on days when I burn 1500 or more and ate an extra 800-1000 calories. Except I ate junk food. That wasn't the point of the goal. But that didn't matter at the time. I wanted chips and beer and pizza. I said to myself that it was OK because I had the calories and it didn't matter where the calories came from. I was wrong. I gained weight. After a 16 mile run, I gained weight. After running for nearly 3 hours straight, I gained weight. After burning 2500 calories (1000 shy of a full pound), I gained weight.

So what did I do? I had an easy next two weeks for workouts because of an Ultimate Frisbee tournament and a 10 mile beach race yesterday. I took those two weeks off from my goals because I didn't feel like I was working. I had family in town who wanted to take us out for meals, too. But I wanted to go. I wanted to eat those deep fried meals, the french fries, burgers, etc. So I did. I ate and drank whatever I wanted. I did fine when I was at home, mostly... keeping my food in check. But at this point, the damage is done. It's time for damage control.

I'm not going to finish this 56 Day challenge. I need to take some time to reflect. I'll do another challenge down the road, maybe. I had a friend tell me the other day... "don't give up what you want MOST for what you want NOW." I think she hit the nail on the head.

Right now, I need to figure out what I want MOST. I also need to figure out what I'm willing to sacrifice for it. I'm hoping to spend this week figuring that out. A new challenge may be in order to help me stay on track, but for now, I'm putting a halt on this challenge to figure it all out.

Stay tuned. I'm hoping that I can be back on track soon.

Start of Week 3

As many of you know, I am training to run the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. in October. My wife and I have been building a base of miles since January. Originally, it was training for a half-marathon that we finished in a respectable 1:59:21, accomplishing our goal of a sub 2 hour half-marathon. When we finished that, we took a week off and then maintained our base at around 10-12 miles until it was time to start training for MCM.

Now that training is under way, we're already up to 15 mile runs for our long run. We do a long run once a week, usually on Saturday. Our longest long run will be 20 miles, and we're supposed to do that three times before we start to taper off before the race.

This week, we decided that because it's been so hot when we go out for our long runs on Saturday, and we don't want to wake up with the sun, or worse... before the sun, to get the run in, we'd wait for it to go down. Around 7:30 on Friday night, we hooked up some lights... I put one on my camelbak (basically a backpack for water), and one up on my shoulder. My wife put one on the front and back of her fuel belt. Obviously, we didn't get it by a car or anything. We also didn't trip, surprisingly.

Night runs are super fun. I used to do them in college sometimes. People would bust my chops because they'd be going to parties on a Friday night and I'd be heading out for a run. Mind you, my runs were usually around campus which was about a mile. I'd add a little bit here and there, maybe hitting two miles, so Friday's run was nothing like that.

The temperature was so much cooler than running during the day it was insane. I was so much happier, and to be honest, we both felt so much better running in the cooler 70-75 degrees in the dark than the 80-85 degree heat of the day. We'll probably continue Friday night runs through our training.

We also had a bike ride on Monday where we averaged 19.5mph. It was awesome. I didn't want to leave that tidbit out.

As far as my goals go, I did great with the exercise, I only used one high calorie day, and my pushup regimen is going well. I did 21 pushups in two out of five sets in my last workout. My max when I started was 25. I'm sure I could do more than that now.

The weight is the problem. I can't quite figure it out. I think my body is confused. During the week, my lowest weight was 224 (extreme loss, but I figured it was mostly water weight). I had been steady around 226-228, which would put me on target for my goal. After my high calorie day on Saturday, I woke up at 229 on Sunday morning. Fine, since it was after a meal out, probably lots of salt, holding water... no big deal. but this morning, I was 230.5!

I'm not sure what's going on. I'm going to stay the course. I feel good. I know that this process works, and I will continue to work on it. To be perfectly honest... my scale is from my freshman year of college which means it's a solid 8 years old at this point. I might need a new one. It's sticking a little bit and I wonder if that's effecting the read-out.