Marthon Post Race

Yesterday I ran the Delaware Marathon. I was surprised to find out that they were serious about running the entire 26.2 mile course, no sense of humor.



I woke up at 5:00 am to get ready to go for 5:30. It is about a 40 minute drive from where I live to Wilmington, Delaware (the race site). I loaded up with some bagels and peanut butter and had to rush the family into the car for 5:45. I had to make up some time on the road but not too bad. I even made it with enough to time to hit the head before the race, but not much time. I did have to run to the start line and made it with about 10 seconds to spare.

The plan was to run the first 10 miles at 10:45 to 11:00 pace, the next 5.4 miles at 11:00 to 11:15, the next 5.4 miles at 11:15 to 11:30 pace and the final 5.4 miles at 11:30 to 11:45 pace. During the race I had to make adjustments as I got into trouble. I had to realize that I had to scrap the plan or I wasn't going to finish and I wouldn't have much fun that way. So at mile 14/ 15 I scrapped the plan.


This was really three races for me. Miles 1 to 15, miles 16 to 21 and miles 22 to the end. I started out on my game and it was great for the first 14 to 15 miles. The first 10 miles I was at 10:53, I was right in the range. The garmin is a bit off at times and for the race it said I ran 26.60 miles so it is not exact. With the variance I think I was probably at 10:55 and 10:57. I was right on pace. This was surprising as the little flu I have been battling was still with me a bit and I could feel it. For the next miles I wanted to just slow down to about 11:10 to 11:15. I was doing fine until mile 14. At about mile 14 I started to catch some stomach cramps. I had never experienced this before and didn't have a lot of experience with this. First, I decided I better slow down a bit. I cut back to 12:00 miles but this didn't really help. My stomach was on fire for the next mile. I had to stop and walk. At the next water stop I took some pretzels, I thought maybe I was running into a salt deficiency, but I didn't know. For the next mile or two I walked and ran and took on more pretzels. By mile 17 my stomach was better, not 100% but better. I could run again. I took more pretzels at each water stop and slowed by pace to about 12:00 pace.

I did this until mile 21. It was odd but at mile 21, I seemed to have recovered. My problem had something to do with the salt. I think that the first 14 miles had drained me of salt much faster than I was replacing it and it started to bury me at mile 14. It took me the better part of 6 or 7 miles to recover. I will remember this lesson the next time around. From mile 21 on were not bad. I was able to just walk the water breaks and run about an 11:30 pace for the rest of the race. I really did feel and didn't hit the late wall that is talked about. I know that is because of the stomach cramps at the 14 mile mark.

I did finish but it was about 30 minutes after where I probably should have. I don't care. My goal was to finish and I did that at 5:31:32 for an average pace of 12:40. I didn't set any records but I finished, which was the point after all. It was nice to have my wife and daughter at the finish line when it was all over. I am not sure how they entertained themselves for so long. I think they could have written a novel in the time it took me to finish. But I finished and I wasn't last and I did enjoy the race.

When I was done my legs were tired and my feet were sore but that was all. My hip didn't make its presence know at all during the run. So it was just an overuse injury that got a chance to recover during my taper. The only real injury I had was to my big toes as they bashed the front of my shoes. They had some fluid built up under the nail and came out with blood. I seem fine to today but for some slight hamstring tightness. Not bad.

I am glad that I finished, and I am glad that I did this. That said, the marathon takes so much training that there is little time for anything else. I think I will stick with half marathons for a couple of years and then think about it again.