The Reasons to Train..

Wow. This is actually going to be a post that doesn't include a picture of Luca.

Crazy.

So, we woke up at 5:00 AM this morning and headed to downtown Vancouver to run the BMO Marathon. Well, half-marathon that is. And it was only me. My brother and his fiance were supposed to come up, but they did not. Apparently, neither one has ever heard of Outlook, or Google Calendar, but that's besides the point. The irony is they were the ones who contacted me back in March to say, "Let's run this half marathon"

So, I should preface this by saying...I had every intention of training for this event in the preceding 6 weeks, but as usual, my intentions are never as strong as my lazyness, so I did not train. I ran maybe 8 times in the last 7 Weeks.

Tosh and Luca dropped me off and I headed to starting line. I was right at the front. I was wondering why more people weren't up front. The answer came to me about 20 seconds before the start of the race. I was in the the "People who plan to run this half maraton in 1 Hour and 15 Minute section"

Ummm. Crap.

I didn't really have time to get out of the way, so I just started running. And for some reason, I thought I should keep up with this crowd. I'll save you more useless details, but just let me say the first 3 miles were brutal. I was actually looking for mile marker 2, but somehow I missed it. I was planning to walk after 2 miles, but since I missed it, I felt a little better about myself. So, what the heck, I say to myself...just keep running. Although, I decided that my presence was no longer required with the "cool crowd" and I slowed down.

I did walk briefly at the waterstations, but hey so did that guy, and that guy and that girl, and that guy, etc, etc.

At about mile marker 6, I was starting to get quite tired. I was going to make it to mile marker 7 and then walk for a mile, and then resume running at mile 8.

Once I made it to mile 7, I was doing okay, so I said, okay, one more mile, then I'll walk.

Mile 8 came and the same thing. I was doing okay. About 8.5 miles into it though, my feet started killing me. My ankles were incredibly sore. I was tempted to walk, but then I thought. "If I was being tortured right now, this would be the point where I would give up the information. I'm not that kind of person" So I kept on running.

At mile 9, I repeated the thought process: 1 more mile than I'll walk.

At mile 10, I was still feeling pretty good - cardio wise. My feet and ankles were pounding, but it was bearable. So I kept running.

Mile 8-9.5 was a pretty brutal climb through Stanley Park, so once Mile 10 came, it started going down hill.

Begin Sappyness

It was here, just after I decided to keep running, that I got a bit emotional. Briefly. Very very briefly. It just occured to me that I am going to run this entire thing, without training, or any prep at all. And that I should really try to apply this same determination in other areas of life.

End Sappyness

So the last 3 miles were really pretty tough on my feet and ankles. But I kept on keeping on and finished the half marathon in 2 Hours and 04 minutes. I was hoping to do it in 130 minutes or 10 minutes a mile, so I was delighted that I beat my expectations.

Now, to the point of the title: I realize now that Training isn't entirely for the Marathon itself, but rather for your body after running for such a long distance on the pavement.

I can barely move. Every joint from my hips downward are killing me. My knees and ankles are especially sore. A warm bath helped, but it's still quite painful.

I'm only saying this to help other lazy running hopefuls out there. It's really imperative to either train properly or semi-properly at least OR have a couple bottles of Vicadin for after the run.

Here's a pic of my race number, shirt, and medal. I'd show you a picture of me, but I'm still vain, and it doesn't look very good.

Labels: Marathon

posted by Jared Vallejo @ 5:56 PM