I'm going to keep tweaking this post until it's the official version of my first marathon. I am psyched about finishing, but determined to do better next year.
Official Time:
Here's a graphic representation of my mile splits. This picture really tells the story of my calf problem from mile 17 onward. But for this problem, my time would have been 4:12 or something. That's not an excuse: I did have this problem, and I got the time I got.
Mile-By-Mile RaceI took the list above and copied it so I can type in memories of the race. Despite the calf muscle problem, I really did have an awesome run. I enjoyed it incredibly, and I am hooked. I will do this again.
- [9:43] Todd hung with me in corral "F" until a few minutes before the start. We were right in front of the Anchor Bar. I took off the Goodwill sweat pants and handed them off to Todd; they've made it through 2 big races now without being discarded! The wave start took a while, but you can really see why they need it. The waves left in 2-min intervals. The music that played when the horn went off was Eminem; then it was KISS with "Detroit Rock City."
- [9:50] Fort street was really crowded and dark. It was just starting to get light as we did the loop toward the bridge. I ran for a while with the sweat jacket on, but tossed it pretty early. I saw Todd standing on a concrete barrier looking through his camera, but he didn't see me. It was dark. I was playing my Joy Division play list.
- [10:41] This was the Ambassador Bridge. Wow, was that crowded. The bridge is four lanes; two were taken for traffic, one was closed for construction, and the remaining lane was for us. Serious bottleneck. Runners kept darting under the tape into the construction lane, only to be blocked by equipment or gaping holes in the bridge. They got yelled at by race officials and police. Where did they think they were going? The 5k mark was in the middle of the bridge. The field of runners slowed to a walk several times during this mile. Some people were freaking, but I kept thinking: "this is good... it's a long race." The view of Detroit from here was spectacular.
- [9:27] Going through the customs lanes on foot felt funny. The border guards just smiled and said "hi." I could hear them making jokes about declaring items, etc. I am sure they got tired of cracking the same jokes. Lots of Canadians welcomed us to Canada. I love Canada. It's such a friendly place. It's like Michigan, but more friendly. We didn't pass a single Tim Horton's, which seemed odd. The view of the Detroit skyline on Windsor's Riverside Dr. was very nice. The sun was up by this time. It made me realize how far west the bridge is from Downtown.
- [9:23] More of the same as Mile 4. Had I not encountered problems later in the race, this is the pace I would have chosen for the rest of the run; just below 9:30/M felt great.
- [8:52] Really felt strong here. Got a little carried away, but I felt fine. I honestly don't think this fastest mile hurt me. I did hours of training runs at this pace. I was also motivated by the 10k split; I didn't want it to be slower than 10:00/M. Another reason I was going faster is that I really had to pee! The bathrooms weren't right where I could see them at the previous water stops.
- [10:15] Stopped to pee in this mile, hence the decrease in speed. I had been waiting to find a good place and had to go pretty badly. This was the only time I managed to go during the race. Inside the tunnel, the pace was lightning. I am sure it was faster than mile 6; the tunnel feels mostly downhill. It's also pretty hot. There was a huge chant of "Go Green!/Go White!" in there, and you could tell it was getting to these Michigan fans running next to me.
- [9:03] I felt really great coming out of the tunnel. The view of the RenCen is really inspirational, and I think I felt the strongest of the race. This was a hopeful mile for me. I was determined not to gun it, but I seriously considered sticking with a pace in the low 9-min range.
- [9:41] I consciously backed off here. Still felt confident. I let the 4:00 pace group go, figuring that I'd reel them in later... or not. I was having a great time and didn't care about time. I kept pausing the iPod to pay attention or hear things that were going on during the race; sometimes I forgot to turn it back on. Listened to a Led Zeppelin play list for a while.
- [9:21] The turn from Lafayette to 18th was great, and it was cool to run by Mexican Village. How many family dinners did I have there as a kid. I loved to get a Super Nacho there. Fond memories. More pausing of the iPod, because I couldn't miss the Mariachi band in Mexican Town!
- [9:17] Another strong mile leaving Mexican Town into Corktown. Cool old houses, lots of people. This was one of my most confident miles.
- [9:45] Things got a little congested here as we crossed the 20k marker. Great to see all the buildings I remembered from my first job as a foot messenger at HMS&C. Looked up at the Buhl building where Marti had her office.
- [9:33] Went through Cadillac Square and saw the First National Building. How many years did I play in my Dad's office as a kid. That part of town is awesome now.
- [11:04] Met Todd along Lafayette to get my stuff. I took my time and talked--I could use the rest, and Todd was so cool riding his bike with me. When I left him, I turned onto Lafayette and saw 1300, where Dad & Marti lived for so many years.
- [9:17] This was another great mile. I felt strong on this long, flat street. Saw Todd and Jon Rabin, who was waiting for his leg of the relay to start. Got sick of the Zeppelin and transitioned to a James Brown play list.
- [9:51] The turn north into Indian Village didn't feel right. My legs were getting heavy, and I stopped to stretch them. I stopped to shake the hand of a very old fellow in a folding chair wearing a UAW sweatshirt. We exchanged the greeting of "Solidarity, brother." Here I paused the iPod and never turned it back on. Not only was I not paying attention to the music, I was feeling kind of disoriented. I had to pay a lot of attention to the runners around me and the road. Believe it or not, I wasn't interested in the music. There is a good chance that my next marathon will be without an iPod.
- [10:47] First serious tingles in my calves. Tried to slow down, stretch, and keep this from happening. Maybe I was holding it off, I thought. I tried to give them enough room to recover, knowing it would cost me time. I figured it was worth the investment--get them under control now before the difficult final 10k after mile 20. By now I was running totally on feel, not thinking of the splits.
- [10:18] I thought that maybe the calves would be fine here; I disciplined myself to take it slow. I had the sense that they were at some kind of tipping point, like a car getting ready to overheat. I felt determined not to let them get the best of me, so I really put the brakes on and did a 1-min walk break. I kept a positive attitude, but it seemed like it was inevitable that they were going to go. I put the whole thing out of my mind--just get to mile 20, I thought. If the rest of my miles are at at 10:00/M pace, so what? Who cares?
- [10:58] Here we crossed the bridge to Belle Isle. The calves were really complaining then; during this trip on the bridge, I thought that perhaps I had found the sweet spot--pushing it just to the brink of spasm, but not letting it get there. That seemed to be at about 11:00/M pace. As you can see from the next few miles, this trend line didn't hold. Passed the Detroit Boat Club, and... wow. How sad. That place is basically falling into the river. I felt an odd connecting with it given the state of my legs.
- [11:06] Belle Isle is beautiful. I was able to hold the 11:00/M pace until mile 20, but it wasn't going to stay. More walking. How many summers did I see gigantic family reunions and hipsters riding around with the hatchbacks open here?
- [12:27] This is where the wheels fell off. Tried to stop at a Port-a-John to go to the bathroom; figured I could use it and the rest might do me good. No dice. I leaned my head against the plastic wall of the box and said "get out there and finish." Stepped out of the box and made a go of it. Todd rode up behind a while later and caught me walking. He was great, very encouraging. I started running again and saw the beautiful Scott fountain where Marti and I kicked off the 2000 Supreme Court bike tour. Todd said he'd be taking photos on the bridge, so I made sure I ran.
- [12:46] The trip back on the bridge was the worst. That's not just an expression: it was the worst part of the race for me. I ran and attempted to run through some of the calf spasms. It started to work, but then they just increased in intensity. I stretched, walked them off, and started up again. When I saw Todd, I was running well--spasms were gone. He took some photos. About 20 strides beyond him, it all fell apart. I felt like an angry inmate had pierced my left calf muscle with a shiv (see note below for a detailed description of the calf pain). I fell against a concrete barrier and alarmed another runner: "Are you all right?" she asked. I was fine, except for that pain in my leg. I watched it quiver with electrical pulsation. It hurt like hell, and it wouldn't stop. I think a few years ago this would have frustrated me or made me break down or something... but it didn't. It was such a beautiful day, and I was nearly done with a marathon. Nobody was going to die. I was going to keep moving, and if I ran, or walked... who cared? When the spasms stopped, I started running again.
- [13:03] Believe it or not, I never got depressed or upset during all this. If I couldn't run, I walked. The minute the cramps were gone, I stood up straight, relaxed my leg muscles as best I could, leaned forward and took very short strides. When this was working, I felt strong. The Riverwalk section here was very pretty. A guy who didn't look too bad, but was walking, got an offer of a ride back from a race official. I took the fact that I didn't get a similar offer as a good sign. I guess I didn't look like I was in bad shape.
- [12:27] Things got a little better here. We were getting closer. I tried to run through the spasms again. Bad idea. They got worse.
- [13:26] Running through the spasms in the previous mile was a really bad idea, but I kept trying it a little bit. Here I decided to really give them a rest--walking more frequently. The 26 mile marker came up on me faster than I thought.
- [11:58] I am pretty sure I ran more than I should have here. I was trying to minimize the damage. I didn't want my time to be longer than 4:40. Because of the wave start, my watch already had 12 extra minutes on it. I didn't like the way that 4:40-something looked on my watch. For the most part, I was beyond caring about time, but hey... So I really did my best during this mile. That 11:58 was the most I could do.
- [2:38] The finish line actually startled me a bit. You turn the corner, and bam!, there it is. So I picked up the pace and paid for it with my legs. At this point, I felt like I could run through the spasms. The worst that could happen was that I'd get the shiv again like back on the bridge, but that didn't come. As I crossed the finish line, both calves were in full "Taser mode." Didn't care. I was almost done, I could see the finish line, so I just stood up straight and ran confidently (if a little stiffly) toward the finish line, and ignored the pain. My only moment of heroics for the entire race. Todd yelled out for me, and he had Kath and the kids right there. I went over and got big hugs and high fives. Finished!
Raw Splits
And here are the raw numbers from my watch, which worked just perfectly:
- 9:43
- 9:50
- 10:41
- 9:27
- 9:23
- 8:52
- 10:15
- 9:03
- 9:41
- 9:21
- 9:17
- 9:45
- 9:33
- 11:04
- 9:17
- 9:51
- 10:47
- 10:18
- 10:58
- 11:06
- 12:27
- 12:46
- 13:03
- 12:27
- 13:26
- 11:58
- 2:38
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