I'm a Marathoner!

This is the sixth and final chapter of my hub series about training for my first marathon. Please see:

26.2 at 47: A Marathon Story, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and The Final Stretch (Part 5).

I did it!

Today, I finished my first marathon. At the beginning of this year, I set a goal to run one sometime in 2011. While my first choice was the New York City Marathon in November, my lottery number wasn't drawn, so I chose instead to do the California International Marathon (CIM) in my own backyard, Sacramento.

Weeks of preparation, long runs, setbacks, illness and self doubt is now erased by two massively significant words: Mission Accomplished! Not only that, but everything went beautifully: the weather, my transportation, my body felt strong, I had friends and family to support me during the race, and at the end, and I finished a mere three minutes from my aggressive goal pace of 3:40 (which I thought was a wild dream), to finish at 3 hours 43 minutes and 34 seconds.

What a feeling of exhilaration to pass spectators nearly halfway through the race feeling like I just started; my body strong and healthy, my attitude exuberant, and listening to complete strangers shout their encouragement to myself and everyone passing. This often cynical writer, today, feels blessed and whole. And for that I feel extraordinarily thankful.

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"Energy and persistence conquer all things." ~ Benjamin Franklin

Following the last installment of my marathon series: The Final Stretch, I signed up for, and ran the Clarksburg 20-Mile Country Run, which wound through country roads, past farm houses and vineyards. Probably the best preparatory run I could have taken for the marathon, because it felt sooooo incredibly long. Went out strong, kept my 8:00 pace steady for the first 8-10 miles, then dropped 30 seconds per mile to 8:30, then another 30 to 9:00, and by mile 16, I was about 9:30, until the last lap when I picked up the pace, and finished the race at 2:54 (8:43 overall pace). Whether that's good or bad is a matter of perspective. I chose to see it as both. Good that I finished with a respectable time for a semi-old guy ;-), but bad that I dropped my pace so much 3/4 of the way in. But to complete my "good-bad sandwich", the good is that I then knew what I needed to work on for the marathon.

Specifically, I needed to learn to run progressives. This basically means running each successive interval (in my case, mile) faster than the last. So, I worked on that, using a ten-miler, and increased my speed each of the last six miles. When I was done, I felt exhilarated ... and pooped.

Also to remedy that problem, three days before the marathon, I did heavy carbohydrate-loading, to infuse my muscles with high doses of glycogen, which helps sustain energy to propel a runner past "the wall" that I obviously hit at Clarksburg. At the CIM, I felt and stayed strong well beyond my drop point from Clarksburg, and the results showed. I refused to let myself stay much below pace from miles 20-26.2. Cool also for CIM was that I had so many encouragers along the way - both friends and strangers. If for no other reason, that helped me keep my game face, posture and attitude!

Also, prior to the CIM, in talking to another running friend, I learned about pace bracelets or tattoos, customized for my targeted finish time for my specific marathon. I ordered bracelets online, but then went with the tattoo at the race (see photo at right). Of course, this may have been a little OCD, since I have a Garmin GPS watch, followed the pace group leader, and also glanced at my band! Every little bit helps win the mind game...

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"We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'm always searching for tools and resources to improve, mentally and physically. Recently, I was in a used bookstore and stumbled across a perspective-enhancing book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi titled Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. It is a challenging, yet simple concept to convey. As the author describes, flow is "the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it."

It is predicated on the notion that when a person invests his/her energy into a consciously chosen goal, and follows through in a deliberate, conscious way, there is a bliss that is achieved that makes life experience full and fulfilling. I've experienced this many times in life; particularly when I wrote my two novels. It was the act of completing my first one, and knowing that I could, that gave me a sense of life mastery. Running the marathon was another.

So the application here was that I knew I had to stay focused on the act of running throughout the nearly four hour race. When you run long distances, so many thoughts run through your head. One pretty demanding one says, "okay, that's enough." Some of the things I did were focusing on my form - keeping my spine aligned, keeping a clean midfoot strike, keeping my breathing rhythmic and peaceful, staying focused on what I was doing, and imagining myself feeling strong, powerful and clear of purpose.

Flow.

The other mind calisthenics I followed were reading uplifting books like Alan Loy McGinnis' The Power of Optimism, and of course, watched the first Rocky movie the night before!

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"We are either progressing or retrograding all the while; there is no such thing as remaining stationary in this life." ~ James Freeman Clarke

And so completes this life objective. Item by item, piece by piece, we create our lives by becoming who and how we want to be. There is a sense of mastery, of purpose, having set and accomplished a significant goal - or "bucket list" item - in advance and doing it. Much like Babe Ruth when he pointed to the bleachers and then homered exactly as predicted.

I love to reflect, and contemplate possibilities. Writing serves as a way to filter through those musings. But I know that this, like all things, requires balance. And that balance means that many things require volition. They require us to go to the places that scare us, to push ourselves, to be uncomfortable, to stretch and grow in order to enhance the beautiful complex being that we are continually becoming.

Will I do another marathon? I don't know. I do know there will never again be a first one, but I may do another anyway. What pulls me now is to find a new self-stretching goal. One that gives me a nervous stomach, that looks imposing, but is worthy of my energy and attention. Hiking a mountain? Scuba diving? Doing a decathalon?

I don't know now. I believe it will reveal itself to me.

Until then, until the day I leave this place, I am and will always be a marathoner.

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"The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can." ~ Robert Cushing