Delusional & Dejected in the LBC

So many things in our lives are centered around numbers…our age, our height, our annual income, the cost of a pound of bacon…all numbers that affect our daily lives in their own special way.  For me, over the next few months all of my running will center around one number…26.2.  Yes, for reasons I still don’t fully understand, I have signed up to run the LA Marathon.  It all happened so quickly…I was strolling through the expo for the Long Beach Marathon (I ran the ½ marathon – report below), my nostrils filled with the scent of new race t-shirts and muscle conditioning spray when I came upon the LA Marathon table.  The nice lady was offering a free t-shirt to everyone that signed up at the expo…WOW!!  Free t-shirt!!!!  So, I turned to my 12 year old daughter…”what do you think, should dad sign up for the LA Marathon?”    “It’s up to you dad…you can if you want to.”   What conviction, what drive...with motivation like that how could I NOT sign up?!?!  So, with one swipe of my credit card my fate was sealed.  On Mach 18^th, 2012 I will attempt to travel 26 miles 385 yards on my legs…I have a feeling I might be a bit delusional – especially considering my Long Beach half marathon performance.

2 hours 30 minutes…2 hour 30 minutes…2 hours 30 minutes…this was my mantra for the first 9 miles of the Long Beach marathon.  The prep was good, I did a shorter long run, but my legs felt good the week before the run and everything seemed to be going ok…staying clear of odd food, drinking plenty of water, and getting plenty of rest.  The pre-race was pretty uneventful…and except for the uptight runners yelling at the guy with the dog in the stroller, it was pretty relaxed…considering there were 20,000 people jammed into a tight space.  (Did I happen to mention that running a race with a stroller is a kin to spitting in someone’s face? Just sayin.)  The first five miles went by well…on perfect pace for a 2 hour 30 minute finish…despite the fact that Famous Dave’s decides to start cooking those amazing ribs at 6 a.m…it took every bit of will-power in my body to run past Famous Dave’s without stopping for a quick half rack of baby back ribs.  Then I got to Denise and the girls…Katie jumping up and down, Denise taking pictures and Danielle peeking out from underneath her blanket as I ran by…such a great morale boost!  They almost made me forget I was developing blisters in both my feet. 

Half way mark (6.214 miles) time: 1:08:44 – average pace: 11:28 – perfect pace!  Then it was on to what I had expected to be the toughest part of the run….the 3 miles along the beach bike path…I had imagined a feeling of being in a desert, surrounded by sand, camels and searing heat…in reality, it wasn’t that bad…except for the blisters…oh and I started to feel sick…I really thought that if I stopped I was going to hurl…so the conversation started in my head…maybe getting it over and done with would be better…that was all I could think about for ½ a mile…hurl, don’t hurl, hurl, don’t hurl, hurl, don’t hurl, hurl, don’t hurl, hurl, don’t hurl,.  Unfortunately the increasing pain in my feet made the state of my stomach less urgent…and so it happened…after 9 miles of fairly consistent running, I started walking.   

The next 4.2 miles were wrecked with pain in my feet from the blisters and a decreasing urge to lose the previous night’s dinner plus I was starting to get dizzy.  Not an ideal running physical state.  I could feel 2 hours and 30 minutes slipping out of reach, which only served to further increase the feelings of dejection.   Then like a mirage in the desert, there was the hotel that marks mile 13…I was at mile 11, but I could already see it; or was I imagining it, either way, I decided to use all of my powers of persuasion to force my legs to run through to the finish…instead they rebelled…maybe I should have fed them some ribs at mile 5…2 hours, 43 minutes and 43 seconds after I crossed the start line, I stumbled across the finish line, I got my medal, my banana, water, and the kind of gross coconut water drink knowing that 26.2 miles is technically only twice as long as 13.1 miles, and yet it will require so much more than twice the effort…what have I gotten myself into?!?!