WebCudgel.com

Yeah, it’s a nice pun, but I wanted to make sure you knew that this has a somewhat positive outcome. After all, I did not complete the marathon yesterday. But before we get to that, let me go over the whole experience.

Amy and I spent the night at the Marriott @ Dallas Market Center as that would give us about an extra 30 minutes to sleep instead of driving all the way from our home. This was the same hotel that would be the “homebase” of the wedding party.

We set the alarms (more than one to cover ourselves) for 5 a.m. That would give us time to get ready, get a small breakfast, and get to the W hotel near the American Airlines Center to meetup for the wedding (our deadline was 7:05 a.m. if we wanted to be included).

We left the hotel at 6:15 a.m. and found a McDonald’s where we could hit the drive through. I say “we”, though I turned down getting anything myself (more about that later). So then we get onto I-35 northbound and the traffic is bumper-to-bumper. I think we ended up getting parked and to the W hotel by about 7:00 a.m. Closer than I like, but that’s just a peeve of mine.

It turns out that everything was running a bit longer than expected, but they had planned a cushion in the schedule anyways. I got to see several people from the Time Warner Cable Irving offices (Marilyn, Sylvia, Gerald, Mike and Rob) that I knew and worked with in the past before moving to the Flower Mound office. We put on our wedding “racing bibs” that helped us stick out from other runners.

Around 7:20 a.m., we cross in front of the starting line (on the side away from where the runners were already gathering) and get together in The Boardroom. It is here that 95% of the ceremony was performed (everything except the final declaration that they were now husband and wife and the big kiss). They really had some well-written vows that were touching and humorous.

At about 7:40 a.m, (keep in mind I’m guessing on the times as I only had my Garmin on my wrist and I wasn’t turning it on until just before the race), the non-runners moved over to a canopy that was only about 50 feet beyond the starting line where the ceremony would be finished. The runners hung around at the patio of The Boardroom until just before it started.

At about 7:55 a.m., we are moved up next to the starting line (just off the side so we could see the elites line up and the start of the marathon firsthand.

I must interject at this point. The race was setup to be set off in waves this year. Thus, we were to be sent down the race path between the first and second wave where our group could easily stay together and the camera crews could get some good shots (Channel 8 news covered the wedding directly). Thus, all of the running members of the wedding party would run ahead of the minister and the bride and groom would come in last.

However, there was miscommunication and so there were no waves… all of the runners were going.

So at about 8:05 a.m., we are sent along to just stay together as best we could and get to the canopy. No order, just get there. We managed to make it and the ceremony was completed. Bob and Carolyn then stripped off the wedding clothes (except Carolyn wore her veil the entire run and Bob wore his yellow bow tie, which matched his shoes). They left and the rest of the runners in the wedding party soon followed… including the minister who was also doing the marathon.

At this point, it’s all about me.

I proceed to run pacing myself as best I could. This was very difficult to do when about 80% of the runners were still behind me and 79.999% of them were faster than me. I had planned on tweeting my location whenever possible and when it would not slow me down (meaning I only did it when I was already taking a walking break).

The following is a summary of the tweets (note that the times shown are from Twitter and may be off):

• 8:48 am @webcudgel is at mile marker 4.
  Pace: 11:00min/mile after 44 minutes.
• 9:29 am @webcudgel is at mile marker 16
  (typo as I deleted the period instead of the 1 in my text template on my phone) Pace: 14:01m after 85 minutes which is not good at this point
• 9:56 am @webcudgel is at mile marker 8
  Pace: 14:00min/mile after 112 minutes.
• 10:10 am @webcudgel is at mile marker 9 at 2h4m.
  Pace: 13:07min/mile after 124 minutes (methinks the pace listed above may be due to some twitter delays)
• 10:22 am @webcudgel is at mile marker 10.
  Pace: 13:08min/mile after 138 minutes.
• 10:57 am @webcudgel is at mile marker 12.
  Pace: 14:05min/mile after 173 minutes; I believe I was starting to really slow down at this point.
• 11:13 am @webcudgel is at mile marker 13.1 at 3h9m.
  Pace: 14:06min/mile after 189 minutes.
• 11:45 am @webcudgel is at mile marker 15 with blisters.
  Pace: 14:11min/mile after 221 minutes.
• 12:10 pm @webcudgel is at mile marker 16 and spent.
  Pace: 15:06min/mile after 246 minutes; I had hit my wall much earlier than I wanted about 2 miles back.
• 12:28 pm @webcudgel Is bowing out at arnund mile 18.
  I had already reached the decision to quit and had called my parents who were not far away as they were planning on being at the finish line.
• 12:33 pm @webcudgel is at mile marker 17.
  Pace: 15:14min/mile after 269 minutes.

It was heartbreaking to myself to have to make the call to quit, but I knew I was not finishing the race in 6.5 hours as I had to maintain an overall pace of 14:50. At the end, I’m just barely walking normal pace… I couldn’t even maintain a fast walk. I had blisters on both feet and my calves and flexors were on fire as if in a permanent cramp.

Though I wanted to go to the AAC for the post race party, I thought it best to meet back at the hotel for me to shower and change. My brother, Jeremy and his wife had been waiting with Amy back at the AAC. So the 6 of us went to the hotel and then went out for lunch at Pappasito’s. When we got back to the hotel, I got to say hello once again to Bob and Carolyn who were having their lunch at the hotel. After final well-wishes and goodbyes, I went upstairs and pretty much crashed.

So, here are the following list of mistakes I made that in one way or another contributed to my disappointing “Did Not Finish” result:

• I did not stick to the training plan Bob had laid out for me to follow. I would have lost some weight and gained some speed so that today would have been a success (I constantly blame the overtime at work, but it really was me in the end).
• I did not lose any weight during the whole training process. Though mentioned above, Bob had specifically recommended I lose about 5-8 pounds in the last two weeks before the event. I didn’t.
• I did not eat breakfast. I look back on this event and the last half-marathon and realized both of those were poorer results than my original half-marathon in March (where I finished in 2h45m; my last half was 3h5m and yesterday was 3h9m). In both cases, I had not had anything to eat (whereas I had consumed a Clif bar and a banana on the morning of my first half-marathon).
• I had not double-checked what I had packed for the race. So I was missing my pair of shorts leaving me without pockets for the run (as I felt it would be too warm later on for me to have a pullover jacket on; it turned out to be much colder at the halfway point than I was ready for).
• I had made assumptions as usual about the correct gear to wear so I was in short-sleeve shirts and tights. I should have worn my long-sleeve shirt I had brought.

I have to say that not finishing leaves me with a VERY empty feeling. I had never entered an event and not finished (even though this was only my 6th event, it still burns). It will take me a while to get over this defeat. I’m pessimistic by nature and was already having doubts well before the event and then throughout it.

However, in all of this, I have the following as well:

• I ran the furthest I have every travelled in a single day, single period at any point in my life. So yesterday was a personal best regardless of the incomplete race.
• I got to participate in a wedding at the marathon, a very rare event and it involved a couple I really love and care about.
• I got to wear my super-cool mohawk hat and got so many comments about it before and during the race (it could even be seen in the ESPN coverage of the wedding at the event on their website). One course-guide called out “best hat of the marathon ever”. Getting all the comments about it really did boost my spirits until the last few miles where I just smiled and walked on). Sometimes I would run around the outside of a turn where there were a lot of onlookers just so they could see the hat and we give each other thumbs up.
• I never heard my name called out so many times with words of encouragement. I learned real quick why each runner’s name is listed above their race number on the bib. This also helped spur me on at times.
• I have had an experience few people will ever have. Both because of the distance I ran and because of the defeat of quitting. Most don’t even bother trying.

Finally, this has been a hit to my ego (and yes, I do have one and I had been keeping it somewhat well fed the last year with other races). It’s gone off into a corner to hide for a while. I fully intend to run the Walt Disney World Marathon in January of 2011. This gives me 13 months to get ready (physically and mentally). The marathon is open 30 minutes longer than the White Rock (ending at 7 hours). I know I can do it if I do the following:

• Lose more weight. Though a marathon training program will do that if properly followed, I need to lose some weight before the training begins… the months before I start my training in the summer should be put to this use.
• As noted above, STICK WITH THE TRAINING PROGRAM. The longest I had run before yesterday was about 13.1 miles. That’s not exactly something that should be extended to twice the distance without at least pushing your body to something in between. The program would have done that.
• Be better prepared on packing what I’ll need. Especially since we’ll have to fly to Orlando and may not have a chance for last minute purchases.
• Eat a small breakfast that morning. No quibbling or being a “man” about skipping. I know it hurt my performance in the end.
• Start feeding that ego a few little meals between now and the marathon.
• Attend at least one event as a volunteer… now that I appreciate what they did for me, I need to return the favor. (Feel free to join me, I’ll post when I plan on doing it.)

Well, that’s all I have for now… I haven’t given up, but I’ve taken a beating and need to rest for a while. I’ll won’t be doing any more running until next year (sounds like a long time, but that’s really only a few weeks). Thanks for sticking through to the end of this… at least you weren’t having to wait for 4.5 hours for me to just quit. :)

Oh, one last thing, I thank my wife for all the encouragement she gave and for being there for me (even to chauffeur me around after I was completely unable to drive after the event yesterday and today). I thank my parents for coming to pick me up when I needed them (my wife was not familiar with Dallas streets and my brother and his wife were probably even less familiar). I thank my brother, Jeremy, and his wife, D’anna, for showing up to support me. I thank Bob and Carolyn for letting me be a part of a very important event in their lives. I thank all of the rest of you who left messages of encouragement on my phone, on twitter, and on facebook. Although I could only see what was sent to my phone while I was running, it was so nice to see those when I got back to the hotel.

You all have no idea how much it meant to me. Thank you.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 7:14 pm and is filed under Health/Exercise, Running, WebCudgel. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Bookmark this post: