Ran a marathon yesterday.
Here is some free advice - even if you think you are in good shape, you should still plan ahead and train a little to run a marathon. I found out about this one just a few days ago, and the start / finish point was at a park less than a half mile from my home, so I figured "What the heck," although I haven't had a run longer than 10km in over a year.
It was a pretty big event with about 10,000 runners (including 1/2 course, 5k, and 10k runs) from all over Korea (but I didn't see any other foreigners), celebrating the first set of blossoms (maeshil fruit, or Chinese plum) on our famously scenic springtime road. (do I overuse parenthetical notes?)
I snuck into the starting group without registering, but no one cared about my lack of number bib. I told myself to just take it easy and see how many 8:00 miles I could crank out before my body gave up. One nice feature of this marathon were groups of pace setters with helium balloons tied to their hats announcing the pace they were running. I stayed with the 3:40 group until about the half way point, then started to slacken off the pace. I made the 3/4 mark just ahead of the 4 hour group, but by now I was starting to feel really fatigued. Actually I still felt I had some energy, and wasn't cramped, but my joints especially knees, were aching. I walked a little way. I guess this is a classic mistake that just tightens up your muscles and makes it harder to run again. So I ended up walking most of the last 6 km. Also I stopped at the associated street fair which was 3k from the finish to take a break and chat with some locals.
Met some interesting people along the way. Including a couple of university professors from Seoul who have ran almost 1 marathon every week for the last year. And the guy who stopped at the 30km checkpoint to self administer some acupuncture.
Like I said earlier, this whole Korea experiment is partly about testing myself, so it is fitting to throw in a physical challenege. I feel satisfied with how well I did, and also suitably humbled at not being able to run it out. I was a little concerned about some lingering blisters from ultimate that hadn't quite healed, but I lubed my feet up with a tub of Vaseline and they were no problem; I did get some chaffing on the inner thighs where my lubrication was less conscientious - or maybe it is just the delayed prize of my Thailand adventures. Today I feel really sore in the thighs, and my left knee feels swollen - strange because the right knee felt worse when I was running. I can walk around, but not with the smooth confident stride which is my trademark.
3 comments:
Oops- I could have given you the same free advice! I ran about 12 miles in 2006, thinking that the peak of my ultimate conditioning would be more than equal to the task. And the conditioning was, but the tendons and ligaments were not. 12 miles of pavement pounding ended up giving me a strained hamstring or something, which actually took almost a year to fully rehab. Of course, playing ultimate regularly is not part of a good rehab program.
So my other advice is HEAL FULLY! It's frustrating and slow now, but could save you a lot of time in the future.
"...but not with the smooth confident stride which is my trademark."
How true!
-Jeremy
WTF! You should have just asked me if this was a good idea. Then you would have done it, and I could have told you "I told you so", but you still would have done it. End result is better for everyone!
Time?
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