PORTLAND MARATHON REFLECTIONS

Me and my peeps at run group Monday, soaking in the glory of our marathon finishes.

I have a lot of thoughts about by first ever marathon. I am just going to kind of write them down as they come, so this might not be the most organized post, but oh well.

First off, the biggest thing to me about this race was being able to finish it without having to walk and feeling fairly decent the entire time. Now, I definitely wanted to stop around mile 20, and my body was overcome with a fatigue around mile 23 that I hadn't really felt before, but I was able to finish. I'm used to my body screaming at me to stop but continuing to run, and that is what happened here. I am very proud I was able to run it in and maintain a pretty decent clip.

This makes me proud!

I think I can attribute this relative late race success to two things. First, my training. I did three twenty mile training runs. On these runs I was outside running nearly 3.5 hours. So I was used to being on my feet running for 3.5 hours. Running it faster is harder, yes, but with the extra rest for the taper, this wasn't as big of a shock on my body. Secondly, I fueled... a lot. I had two packs of Shot Bloks and lots of gummy bears and pretzels along the course. I probably ate 750 calories and I think I needed just about every one of those from mile 20 on. I didn't hit the dreaded wall and for that I am so grateful!

Overall, I LOVED the Portland Marathon. Some people are snooty about this race, especially seasoned local marathoners who prefer, cheaper, smaller races, but I thought it was great. It is the 10th largest in the country and I loved the size of it and the support along the course. It seemed HUGE and I can't imagine a race like Chicago with 4x the people! Maybe once I am a jaded marathon vet the Portland Marathon won't appeal to me as much, but it is my hometown race and I had an absolute blast. Like I said in the preview, I wanted hoopla and I certainly got that!

This is humbling. Before I even crossed the bridge!?!

A big plus for me was the support along the course. Except for the stretch on the St. Helen's Highway, the route was packed with spectators. Literally, they were everywhere! They really helped me along. I must have got over a 100 "Go Thomas!" cheers along the route. Really glad I put my name on my bib, because people would cheer for you. I high fived a bunch of people too. It was just really fun and took your mind off the race a little. The finishers chute was lined with spectators and totally chaotic... loved it!

Another thought from this race is the common marathon wisdom "nothing new on race day." Well, fuck that apparently. I ate a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast, which I never eat for breakfast. Honestly though, how could that hurt my stomach? Get the cheese and jalapeño one? Okay, did that, still fine. Second, I never trained with Shot Bloks. Plowed through two packs. I was fine. I don't have an iron gut, but I guess my stomach isn't super sensitive.

The average runner was over 5 miles behind me when I
finished. Not too shabby there TG!

Tapering. I tapered the shit out of this race. The weekends before the marathon looked like this... 20, 16, 12, 3. Ideally I think you'd want the 20 mile run a week later, because it had been over a month since my last 20 mile run. Then only 3 miles the weekend before? And only 12 the weekend before that? Most people would think you'd start losing your fitness. Maybe I did a little, I don't know. I was super rested though, so obviously it worked for me. Just goes to show you (along with the 'no new' thing) that everyone is different.

Today is Wednesday and it marked a huge improvement on the soreness of my muscles. Sunday, race day, was the worst, but I was still able to get up and down the stairs and it wasn't too bad. Monday and Tuesday were incrementally better. Today was the day I got a lot better though. I am still a little sore there are some minor pains in my left knee and right shin still, never of which I felt during the race, just after, but overall I feel much better. I'll probably go on a run Saturday, give myself tomorrow and Friday to heal properly. I just ran a 3:36 marathon, I think my body deserves a few days.

A minor slow down, but not a
breakdown. Half splits:
1:45:25 / 1:51:17

Will I run another marathon? I sure will! It was hard, it was a challenge, and I don't think I'd want to do one every month, but it was a lot of fun too. The feeling of accomplishment was huge and now that they are no longer an unknown I don't have to be so nervous about it. I think I'll rotate my weekend long runs to stay close to marathon shape. Do 12, 15, 18, repeat. Or maybe 10, 14, 18? If I can get to the point where 18 isn't really a huge deal, then "training" for a marathon should just be throwing in a couple 20 milers and making sure I'm running enough during the week.

I think I'll target Spring 2014 for my next marathon. I was going to do Eugene, but they moved it to July, so that's out the window. So I'll get looking. Any suggestions? Next October I either want to do Chicago, Detroit, or Portland again. And eventually I need to get in the NYC raffle.