My First and Last Marathon

by Guest Blogger Brian Deatherage

One great thing about racing distances up to the half marathon is the lack of planning required.  There is no need for carbo loading, no nutrition plan, no build up, no taper, no elevation analysis - ok wait, there is some of that, ummm, all of that - but no big deal right, just show up with your game face on and run!  I was perfectly content with running the 5k/10k, or a mud run, or the Vegas half marathon, which is until my super-athletic, ironman/marathon running co-worker walked into my office in December 2014.  It must have been the egg nog, somehow he convinced me oh what fun it would be to run the Big Cottonwood Marathon the following September.  I think I might have mentioned it to my wife – I don’t think she was all that impressed.

I started reading online about marathon plans, whether I should have a coach or not, nutrition/hydration plans, pacing, on and on – there is A LOT of stuff out there on the Net.  I had plenty of time to plan.  I am a stereotypical guy when it comes to planning – I don’t do it, its way to much effort.   Very reluctantly I read about “Plans” for Marathon training.  I didn’t notice, until now, that they all implied that someone is going to run more than one, like your “first marathon” or “marathon for newbies” – I don’t think I ever saw an article or plan that was written specifically for the runner who was never going to run it again. Huh.  Strange, why would I want to do more than one?

Let’s fast forward a bit.  My “Plan” was going well, until 9 weeks before the race.  It was time to start my “speed” phase.  My first session went great….until 2 hours after I finished.  Without any warning aches or pains, I all of sudden could not get up from my chair – shooting pain from my gluteus maximus to the back of my knee.  Strange, clearly I must have tweaked something.  I tried to jog that night – I couldn’t.  I rested a few days – the aches were always with me – even when I slept.  I finally ran through the pain, it didn’t stop when I ran, but I could manage it.  If I was a little smarter I would have went to see someone about it, but like I mentioned before, I am a typical guy –I can handle the pain, it’ll go away.  4 weeks later I mentioned it on my Thursday night TRP run.  I wasn’t alone in my symptoms – my two running partners that night had a similar issue – it was their Piriformis.   I got the contact info for their physical therapist.  Made an appointment – same diagnosis!  I wasted, that is too drastic, I lost the timeframe for my most intense training – both the longest distance and the speed.  But, I’m a guy, who needs intense training; I will just start my taper and fake it on race day.  Not really, I was intimidated at the thought of 26.2 miles knowing my longest run had been 18 to date.  At least that 18 was just over my goal pace, with the last 5 of it being identical to my marathon elevation change much faster than my goal pace.  I must look at the positives, stick to the plan (less the month of the most important part) and move forward with what I have.  Awesome, taper time – I wasn’t sure exactly what I was tapering at this point but knew I needed the glycogen stores built up and ready to go.

The trip to Salt Lake was hectic to say the least, rushing everywhere –it seemed as if everything was getting in my way to stop me from running.

Made it to the hotel about 9 PM.  Got everything out and ready to go for my 3:30 AM wakeup.  Tried to sleep, kept trying to sleep, looked at watch, then again.  I decided at 2:30 AM to take a shower and get ready to go.  3 AM I ate a bagel and pop tart (pop tarts are my favorite pre-race meal!)

4 AM walked out the hotel door to load on the bus to transport all of us to the start line, way, way up the mountain.  About 26 miles up – that is sure a long ride.  We stopped at the half marathon start line to let those folks off – I was very tempted to go with them!

5 AM to 6:30 AM, 50 degrees, sitting on my butt with my feet on the ground and legs bent – head resting on my knees.  I was thinking this was a bad idea as I remembered my co-worker telling me on multiple occasions to buy a cheap folding chair and take it with me – stay off the cold ground he said.  I was able to snag an extra aluminum blanket to stay warm.  There were several runners walking around in short sleeve shirts and shorts holding onto their aluminum blanket in one hand not even noticing the cold – Crazy people!

A Marathon is a long way – I will just use the first few miles of it to warm up, get my blood pumping – then hit it hard.  First- I am bad at warm ups, second - I let the overbearing energy from the runners at the starting line rub off on me – I was amped and ready to go, mentally.  Note to self here – start doing warm ups pre-race or just start slower.

Go run a Marathon he said, it’ll be fun he said………….

I began training for this race just to say I did a Marathon, no goal other than to finish.  The intent was that this was my first and last Marathon.

I accomplished what I wanted – I finished.  No need to bore you with the mile by mile agony…. I mean….fun.  The mind has a way of forgetting the stuff that causes us pain and because of my inability to remember the last 10K of that Marathon (what I refer to as the second marathon within the first marathon), here I am 1 year later and 12 training weeks away from running another 26.2 miles just for fun.   My goal is the same – just to finish, plus, to make a personal record, plus to kick butt!

This time it will be my Second and Last Marathon.

If you want to see a little more of my journey via a video, here it is:

https://www.facebook.com/brian.deatherage.58/videos/10206415698085671/?autoplay_reason=gatekeeper