The Tin/Tri Man

     8-8-08.  It’s an interesting date for an interesting race.  This is the second time I’ve participated in this event.  The report on my first SFMarathon can be found on my personal website HERE.

     No matter how good or bad any race has gone to date, I can say that I learned something in each.  This race was no exception.

     Life has a way of getting in the way of my training plans.  Work, home, family, lack of good time management, etc.  We all have our priorities and my training takes a back seat to many at this point in time.  It’s no wonder that I failed to accomplish my training goals fully.  The biggest thing was not getting in a long training run over fifteen miles.  I knew that my goal of finishing under five hours was unlikely and I didn’t want to kill myself like last time so I formulated a PLAN.  Yep, I did. The plan was good but in the end I let my ego win out and became a bit over ambitious.

     Following instructions on the Jeff Galloway website, I formulated a run-walk-run plan but decided to shoot for the five hour mark.  Too ambitious for the training or lack thereof.

     The day went really great overall.  I got out of the house a little later than I wanted but quickly found parking on the street close to the start.  I knew where the short lines were for the port-o-potties and took my time getting physically and mentally ready for the run.   I walked around enjoying the sights and sounds and didn’t join my wave group until it was ready to go at 0625.  We were out of the chute and I almost sprained my ankle twenty feet off the start line finding a partially consumed bottle of water underneath the mass of people, Yikes!  

     The hard part was taking those early, but required, walk breaks.  I wasn’t tired and people would pass me like crazy but I knew the breaks would help me later in the day.  It was overcast and cool, just the way I like it.  It was fun running along the wharf area and around to the base of the Golden Gate.  My favorite visual, like last time, was at the crest of the GG looking at all the people going both directions over the bridge.  I had to wait in line for a “natural” break at the turn around on the north side of the Gate.  I was pretty comfortable up to about mile eighteen, just leaving Golden Gate Park, when I started feeling the signs of cramping.  One nice thing is that over the last few years, I’ve come to recognize the different sorts of pain I tend to feel during training and racing.  Of course there is going to be some pain but the trick is recognizing if it’s the precursor or result an injury.  We don’t want to go there for sure.

     So for the last eight miles I got to experience pain.  Believe me, I paid attention to it.  I will never drop out of a race unless I am physically unable to continue or they pull me off the course.  Run, ouch, hobble, feel better, walk, run, hobble, repeat.  It’s not what I was hoping for but not really unexpected.  There were quite a few people experiencing similar days by the look of it.  I finished very close to the last time I did the SFM but felt much, MUCH, better.  Took in a little nourishment and headed back to my truck for the drive home.  Had lunch and worked my regular shift that evening.

     So what did I learn?  First off, that run walk run thing works pretty well but it takes discipline.  Two, it’s fun to do the same event again because I already know the ropes.  Three, once again, I continue to learn to manage obstacles and endure to the end.  Some life lessons there as well.  Think I’ll have to do it again next year!