Just a quick run-down of my marathon this weekend in Sacramento.
I've been preparing for it since finishing cycling season in July. To date, my longest run was 20 miles, about 4 weeks ago. I've had a few minor overuse injuries, including shin splints, foot neuroma and hip flexor strain, but most of these have healed nicely in the past 3 weeks. So basically I had no excuses going into this weekend.
Weather was great (53° at start) until about 10:00 when the temps jumped up to almost 80 degrees, about 20 degrees warmer than what I usually run in.
At the half marathon split, I was in decent shape, on pace for a 3:50, close to my target of 3:45.
Then the cramps hit me. About mile 17 I could feel things start to tighten up a little bit, but was able to work through it. At mile 20, both quads, both calves and my left hamstring all sequentially began cramping up on me if I tried to go faster than about 9:15 per mile. So my pace dropped significantly for the last 6 miles, also reducing me to a walk every mile or so.
I've never felt that kind of pain before - a searing pain in my quads with every step. The joints were all fine – absolutely no pain whatsoever. But the muscle pain was pretty unbelievable.
So I hobbled across the finish line with my 8 year old son who met me 100 yards up the trail. About 45 minutes slower than I had hoped, but I'm not really bothered by that. It felt good to finish, especially with how freaking hard it turned out to be.
I've been preparing for it since finishing cycling season in July. To date, my longest run was 20 miles, about 4 weeks ago. I've had a few minor overuse injuries, including shin splints, foot neuroma and hip flexor strain, but most of these have healed nicely in the past 3 weeks. So basically I had no excuses going into this weekend.
Weather was great (53° at start) until about 10:00 when the temps jumped up to almost 80 degrees, about 20 degrees warmer than what I usually run in.
At the half marathon split, I was in decent shape, on pace for a 3:50, close to my target of 3:45.
Then the cramps hit me. About mile 17 I could feel things start to tighten up a little bit, but was able to work through it. At mile 20, both quads, both calves and my left hamstring all sequentially began cramping up on me if I tried to go faster than about 9:15 per mile. So my pace dropped significantly for the last 6 miles, also reducing me to a walk every mile or so.
I've never felt that kind of pain before - a searing pain in my quads with every step. The joints were all fine – absolutely no pain whatsoever. But the muscle pain was pretty unbelievable.
So I hobbled across the finish line with my 8 year old son who met me 100 yards up the trail. About 45 minutes slower than I had hoped, but I'm not really bothered by that. It felt good to finish, especially with how freaking hard it turned out to be.
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