AROUND THE LAKE MARATHON
PHOTO: Instead of getting my name printed on my bib, I decided to have "NOT RYAN HALL" printed on it. On multiple loop courses like this one, people always mistake me for Ryan Hall, America's premiere marathoner. It's probably because every time I approach the finish line, I'm just in front of the leaders. Everyone thinks I'm leading, when, in reality, I'm just about to get lapped!
Well, it's 10AM Saturday morning. I finished my fifth marathon about nine and a half hours ago. I didn't set a blazing pace, but I did manage to set a PR. My left knee and hip bore the brunt of the pounding from the asphalt and concrete. By the end of the fourth (of eight) lap. I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish, let alone finish well. As time wore on, my math grew fuzzy, but it looked like if I could keep my pace, I would probably beat my PR and, possibly, break 5:30.
After five laps, it looked like I was losing significant ground on my time, but by the end of the sixth lap, things looked a little more promising.
Pushing the pain out of my mind, I had a good seventh lap. At that point, I knew, barring a major problem, I'd beat my PR and, if I maintained my pace, I'd probably break 5:30.
On the eighth lap, I had a lot of muscle cramps in my legs. If I pushed hard and stretched out my stride, somehow I felt better. As I approached the start/finish line for the last time, I could barely make out the time ... low 5:17. I bolted on in for a high 5:17 finish. I'm calling it 5:17:59, but it should be a little lower than that.
- Posted From My iPhone
posted by Wii Fat Marathon at
10:39 AM
2 Comments:
Congrats! That's funny about the Ryan Hall thing. I used to absolutely hate running on a track because of seeing everbody (and I do mean everybody) pass me. I'd still rather run the other way around. :)
Thankfully (and mercifully), not EVERYONE passed me ... it was only NEARLY everyone! I did manage to lap a few people (a couple people I even lapped twice!). Still, I'm pretty sure the leaders finished eight laps before I finished four.
A minimally humorous anecdote: a guy and a gal running together I passed around lap five were in disagreement over the number of laps they'd run. She seemed lucid and was said they'd done four, he seemed disoriented and said they'd done five. They resolved their disagreement by saying she'd run four and he'd run five, even though they ran together. I never saw them pass me, so I think she was correct.
On lap seven, around two miles into it, I caught a guy finishing up lap eight. I was tired and hurting, but he seemed in worse shape than me. I pushed a little harder to the finish line, guaranteeing that not everyone who beat me had lapped me.
For me, it seems these races are less about maximizing victories and more about minimizing defeats!
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