Race Recap

Tuesday morning after the 2011 P.F. Chang’s Phoenix Marathon: I’ve just lanced beneath the second toenail on my right foot which resulted in instant relief while shooting a stream of liquid 3 feet across the floor. (Yes, I cleaned it up). The sore toe and a sore right calf appear to be the only lasting pain from this recent episode of self imposed torture. I was able to manage a PR by bettering my 2009 San Diego Marathon by 40 minutes.

My training with the group this past 6 months or so could actually be entitled, “Chasing Jenn & Rob.” More often than not I found myself, the group leader, in pursuit, trying to keep up! Well that, along with Rob’s continual pep talks about qualifying for Boston obviously helped. Realistically I have never considered myself as having a shot at Boston until I realized that if I shaved 30 seconds off of each mile on Sunday I would have made the 4 hour Boston qualifying time.

I got a cold the week before the race and was still hacking phlegm on race day. I also developed a negative attitude late in the training cycle, “I want to sleep in on Saturday for a changeitis.” I did manage to miss a few Saturday runs thanks to working late on Friday night but my trainer/therapist/coach/pain-in-the-you-know-what/loving spouse usually provided the necessary spark to get me up for the training runs.

I’d been thinking a lot about race day nutrition and on Sunday here is what I did. Before leaving the house I ate a huge bowl of oatmeal with berries and banana and drank a cup of coffee. On the way to park my car I ate a Triple Threat Energy Power Bar and drank water. At the race site I drank one bottle of Cytomax and ate a plain bagel along with more water. I think this was all good. During the race we stopped at 16 of the 18 water stops along the way and instead of just drinking water like I usually do, I drank mostly Cytomax. I read that sports drinks work better during a race when they are not diluted with water and I believe this actually helped me on Sunday though some may argue this point, especially those who hate the taste of Cytomax!

One thing that did not work. I tried to eat another Power Bar somewhere around mile 8 or 10 and about croaked. It lodged about halfway down and caused me a lot of distress. I was hobbling along hoping for a water stop to appear when Rob suggested that I drink what I was wearing on my belt. Duh, the body/mind disconnect rears it’s head.

The volunteers, bands and spectators were fantastic, their encouragement was invaluable. My favorite comment came from an elderly gentleman as myself and another mature runner were passing. “Yeah for old guys!”