White Rock Marathon -- December 10th, 2006

Quotes from Lance Armstrong on his first marathon

After the finish he said that the marathon was, “the hardest physical thing I have ever done.”

At the press release he continued, “Even the worst days in the tours, nothing was as hard as that and nothing left me feeling the way I feel now in terms of sheer fatigue and soreness. I think I bit off more than I could chew, I thought the marathon would be easier,”

he said “Before the race that was my goal, I wanted to break 3 hours. But if you told me with 3 miles to go, `You’re going to do 3:05,’ I wouldn’t have cared. … Honestly, at the end I was so tired, I couldn’t care. Now I’m glad I did.”

Running a sub 3 hour marathon is amazing… but even the world’s best athlete talks about how difficult a marathon is

I was well aware of what I was committing to. I wanted to run a marathon for 3 years, but found excuses every year. I always blamed my work and travel schedule for not running a marathon. This year I was going down the same path, but something changed in early November. I realized another year was slipping away and I wasn’t achieving my personal goals.
I try to run consistently throughout the year, and so I knew I was already in good shape. Normal marathon training takes about 16 weeks, and I figured I had to short cut 4-5 weeks of training if I wanted to run the Dallas White Rock Marathon on December 10th, 2006

The Preparation:

November 8th: I was on an 8 mile run in Los Angeles, a guy on a bicycle came up from behind and warned me. It startled me and I turned around to look, and in that process went into the grass, twisted my right ankle and fell! I knew I had a bad ankle sprain and I hobbled for a bit until the pain started to subside. I realized that I was exactly half way into my run, so my choices were to hobble back home or run back. I ran back home on a hurting ankle. Once I got home I looked at my right ankle and it was size of a golf ball! I had to stop running for 5 days… This was a major blow as I was already a few weeks behind in my training

Week of November 13th: I was finally back running, and had to be in Dallas for a business trip. Well, I procrastinated and ran in Dallas for a couple of days and didn’t achieve much. Another week wasted… My only chance now was the week of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Week: I was heading to Lake Tahoe and realized that I can put some miles in bone chilling 25 F at 8000 ft. That’s exactly what I did… it’s amazing how the body adjusts to the environment. The first day I was winded quickly, but in a short time I was adjusting to the environment and running long distances. Combining the runs with long hikes made for long days at high altitude. Early morning runs by the lake are amazing, try it someday if you can! I felt confident leaving Tahoe and decided that I will run 20 miles the following week, and if everything went well, I will run the marathon.

November 28th: As planned I ran the 20 miles, it’s a beautiful run to Santa Monica beach and back, lots of hills and challenging. I felt good after the run and promptly signed up for the marathon.

November 30th, 10 days before marathon: I got out of bed and when I put my left foot on the floor, I had piercing pain at the bottom of my left foot. I knew something was terribly wrong. I stretched and stretched some more. The pain was incredible and I could not put any pressure on my left foot. I had the same pain last time I ran 20 miles and it took me 6 weeks to recover from it! This was disastrous, instant gloom, I was depressed and angry! I didn’t know what to do and felt helpless. Last time I had this injury, the doctor told me it was an internal muscle bruise and gave me Celebrex to get the internal swelling down. I figured the only way out was to ice my foot and take tons of Advil (Ibuprofen). I spend rest of the week immobile, sad and depressed!

December 4th, 6 days before marathon: I had to be in Dallas for meetings and it was the first day I could put pressure on my left foot. I was able to walk, although it was still very painful and sore. I continued to be optimistic that I would have a miraculous recovery. I flew to Dallas and was living on Advil. My foot was getting better and by Wednesday the piercing pain was gone, but my foot was still sore. I knew it wasn’t completely healed, but it felt better. I had not run in a full week and was supposed to run a marathon in a few days. The odds were against me.

December 7th: I consulted a doctor who basically advised me to run 5 miles on December 7th and see how my foot felt. He advised that if my foot was sore after the run, I might be able to do the marathon, otherwise he strongly advised me to cancel my marathon. This was the decisive run… My 5 mile run was encouraging, I was sore but nothing too bad. So it was decided, I was going to run the marathon, and now my goal was to not aggravate the injury and just finish, I didn’t care about the time anymore! I rested my foot the next 2 days hoping I could pull through!

December 10th – Marathon Day

I got to the American Airlines Center at 7 AM, the weather was cloudy and about 45 F. I was nervous and worried about my foot! I stretched and warmed up and make sure I was ready. I was part of the 4hr 30min pace crowd (being a bit optimistic considering my situation). Since I had run the 5 miles without much pain a few days back, I knew I would be ok for 5 miles. At the 2 ½ mile mark there was a band playing Red Hot Chilly Peppers… nothing like listening to them at 8:30 AM! I made a strategic decision to run with a different stride for as long as I could. This was to take the pressure off the part of my foot where I had the injury. However I knew that another part of my foot will probably get a blister due to extra friction and weight, but I figured I could deal with the pain of blister versus the pain of my original injury. The race goes uphill from mile 3-6 and it was a nice gentle uphill going through a nice neighborhood. It was nice to see supporters out early cheering the runners on. I was keeping a 6 miles/hr pace, slower than normal. I wanted to cover as much ground before my injury flared up… so running a bit slower was my best option. Miles 6-9 were downhill and I was feeling pretty good… but again I was holding back and not pushing myself. I had a lot of people passing me, so it was really tough to hold back. The first 9 miles were uneventful, just like a normal run that I do all the time. I made sure I was getting the right amounts of fluids and electrolytes, I knew it would make all the difference later in the run. I felt a blister coming at mile 10… about 10 miles earlier than I was hoping. I ignored it and tuned out the pain. Eventually it got quite painful, but I just had to ignore the pain and keep going. For those of you who have run through the pain will understand… it is possible to tune out the pain for the greater good. I will revisit the blister later!

No Zone: During my normal long runs I always get in a “zone”, this helps me run long distances without feeling it. The whole race I was looking to get in that zone, but never did. There were too many distractions, too many water stops, people to navigate around, dogs barking, people cheering you on etc. This made it difficult as I was constantly aware of my mileage and time. Running long distances is like car racing, drafting and pacing behind someone is a good thing. I was pacing “Holly” for 14 miles, it helps to have someone with a nice “view” in front of you. Eventually Holly slowed down and I tried different pace groups, but eventually they slowed down and I had to go around them. I started doing simple math to figure out how much electrolytes I had consumed, what my average pace was etc. I was trying hard to find the zone. Unfortunately I never did

Mile 9-19 is around White Rock Lake which is flat and easy to run. I found myself slowing down and realized the pace group I was with had slowed down. I lost a few minutes around the lake, I wasn’t too happy about that. There were a lot of people out by the lake, it was great to see some of my extended family come out to support me, it just gives you an extra boost at the right time. I was still feeling quite good at mile 19 except for the blister, which was quite painful. My injury was starting to come back and my foot started to hurt, however I was really hoping the piercing pain would wait for another 6 miles!

Mile 20-21 is the “Dolly Parton Hills”, tough place to have hills. I told myself to get over the hills and then it will be easy, but I never found the hills. Dallas doesn’t have real hills, this turned out to be no big deal. Running in LA, I run through hills all the time and the one’s in Dallas didn’t bother me. There were locals at mile 21 handing out beers… they definitely brought a smile out, but I refused to give into beer yet!

Mile 21-Finish was fun! Yes, fun! My body was holding up pretty well and I was feeling good. Now I didn’t care if my injury flared up, I knew I could run the last 5 miles with pain. So I increased my speed and continued to feel good. I paced with the 4 ½ hour group for a while. The pace leader was a trainer with a group who had trained with her, she was giving them a pep talk to keep them focused, she was funny and entertaining for a couple of miles. At mile 23 I passed them and continued on my own. I was still feeling good and continue to increase my pace each mile. It had been raining for about 10 minutes and it was about 52 F, the rain was quite refreshing and welcomed! I was running sub 9 minute miles and passing everybody, it’s a great feeling to pass people when they are worn down and you are feeling great! The last mile was great… and I finished with a flurry and ended up with 4:29:05

Splits: 10k/1:06:47 Half/2:16:12 35K/3:47:23 Finish/4:29:05

Honestly, I was thrilled to have run the marathon considering my injuries and the mental torture I had to go through. Self doubt is the worst enemy and I had it with me most of the race! The marathon was more mental than physical for me as I was worried about my injury. Physically, I felt fine after the race. I could have run another 4-5 miles. I never hit the wall everyone talks about… I was ready for it, but I am glad it never arrived. My family supporters surprised me at the finish line, which was great!

Blister update… when I finally took my shoes off, I was too scared to see the blister... I ran through the pain of my blister and injured foot. My blister started from the middle bottom of my left foot and wrapped around the top of my toe, it was huge and was full of blood! Yikes, it wasn’t pretty! Enough said!

Considering that 6 days before the marathon I was not able to walk, I am very pleased that I ran a decent time and finished. I constantly reminded myself of the single goal I had that day… finish the marathon no matter what, no excuses! There were no other options or compromises, I would have walked or crawled across the finish line if I had to!
If I can focus on a single goal and achieve it, there is no reason you can’t

2006 Facts: 168,000 Airmiles, 185 Hotel Nights, 1 Marathon -- Priceless!

What Next?
More marathons, 50K, Kilimanjaro, Himalayas, Grand Canyon…