Dijital Life

Running Toronto Marathon - 9/28/2008

September 30, 2008 – 9:28 pm by coachwei | Category marathon |

A couple of years ago my friend Kaushal Vyas blogged about his first marathon experience. His blog entry started with some quotes from Lance Armstrong on his first marathon:

“the hardest physical thing I have ever done. 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…”.

It didn’t resonate with me at the time. In fact, I didn’t feel anything besides saying “wah, cool”. What I didn’t know (I’m sure Kaushal didn’t know either) is that he planted some seeds in me at the time that would only grow two years later.

In Boston where I live(Kaushal lives in LA), my friend Ying actually has been running marathon many times. I always admired her for such achievements. Every time when she encouraged people to run, I always thought “nanh, not me”.

I know myself - I was never a good runner. My body type is not built for running with a BMI of 27. I hated running long distance when I was in middle school. Over the last few years, I did do some running here and there along the river, only because i wanted to take some time to think of things. Further, I’ve never been able to run for more than 2-3 miles without stopping. 26 miles? It is just way out of my league.

In June 2008, Cliff (of LiteracyBridge, very cool non-profit startup) and I somehow got into talking about marathon. His background is similar to mine (never enjoyed running, never run more than 3 miles, …) but he did it. What I learned from him is “a non-runner’s guide to marathon”. Yes, that’s me - a non-runner.

So I dipped my toe into training. Two friends(Ying and Jana) were training for the September 2008 Toronto race. I joined them in the end of June. Normal marathon training takes about 16 weeks. So my time was a little bit short, but I figured that I am not trying to win the first place and I can drop out if it turns out to be too much, so I went for it.

The Training
The training was actually quite enjoyable, because marathon training schedules are all designed to take someone from 3 mile run to 26 miles in a gradual, incremental fashion. Every few weeks, the running mileage increases, but still within the limits of a normal human body. Such increases give a real sense of accomplishment that keeps one going.

I did have challenges almost all the time though. In the first month or so, my calves were very sore that I have to stop running from time to time. I thought my calves were injured. It turned out that it was probably just weak. After a month, the calves problem went away. The I ran into breathing problem, having pains below my right ankle, thigh problems…. one problem after another one. But nothing was serious to stop the training.

August 31 2008
On August 31 2008(four weeks before the race), I successfully completed a 21 mile run under four hours. I was very tired after the run, but my body felt good. There was no injury or pain. I felt for the first time that I can run marathon. That’s the time that I actually registered for the race.

September 7 2008

Three weeks before the race: we were trying to run another 20+ mile run in the morning. I had too much wine the night before and went to bed fairly late (2am?). I didn’t feel good running. I kept telling my running partners that I “am very sleepy” during the run. Bad things happened then. After the 13th mile, I suddenly felt a sharp pain on the outside of my left knee. The pain was so severe that I couldn’t run anymore. I walked for 5 miles to finish the route. But I wasn’t too worried, thinking of it as a glitch that will go away if I’m better rested next time. My running partners told me to take Ibuprofen, and have plenty of rest.

September 17 2008
Typical training schedule ends after a couple of 20+ mile long runs, which would be sufficient to run the marathon. On Sept 17, I decided to do a 14-mile run to see whether my knee has fully recovered. I also put on knee braces for extra support. After ten miles, I felt early signs of knee problem again. I knew it would develop into sharp pains in a couple of miles. With only 10 days to go before the race, I started to worry whether I can run the marathon.

The problem I have is called “ITBS” (Iliotibial Band Syndrome), a very common problem for runners. After consulting various sources, I stopped running. Instead, I started taking Ibuprofen, doing ITBS exercises, and swimming every day, hoping to put the problem under control.

September 25 2008

With only three days to go, we went for the last run, a 2.5 mile short run. Both Jana and I didn’t feel good about our knees after this run. Fortunately we found some good strong knee braces, McDavid’s Ligament Black 425. This knee brace is so good that we both gained confidence again.

Racing Day - September 28 2008
Marathon races typically start at 7:30AM, and requires participants to line up one hour before that. Having to get up at 5AM killed me. But being together with so many runners, it was exciting. We crossed the starting line around 7:40AM. The route started at Toronto’s City Hall, then went down along the waterfront to the east. I felt fine besides being a little bit sleepy. while praying my knee is going to be OK.

After about 2-3 kilometers, my left leg started to feel numb, probably because the knee brace was too tight. Having problems this early is obviously bad. I slowed down, completely loosened the belts on the brace. Loosening the belts means taking a big risk in giving up a lot of of knee support. But I had no choice. After another kilometer or so, the worst happened. My knee started hurting. It may soon develop into sharp pains that would stop me from running.

This was not even 5 kilometers yet! I have to face the possibility of dropping out of the race. But not even completing 5 kilometers would be a real shame! While I resisted the idea of dropping out, I knew it would be unlikely that I’d be able to finish the race today. It was a bitter realization, and all what I could hope for was to run a decent distance worthy of my training.

So I tried to figure out ways that could help me last as far as I could. First of all, I tightened my knee brace belts to delay the knee pain from further development. Secondly, I tried to minimize the usage of my left leg. In fact, my left foot didn’t touch the ground except for a few toes, basically hopping/limping along by putting most of my weight and forces on my right leg.

With the new strategy, I finished 12 kilometers. Fortunately the knee problem didn’t seem to develop further. However, the unnatural running position made my body very tired. With 30 more kilos ahead, I knew the impossibility of finishing the run. Mentally I started to prepare for dropping out of the race at half marathon.

At 18th kilometer, half marathon runners were instructed to stay to the left of the road and marathon runners on the right side. 90% runners went to the left side. The right side was actually relatively empty. For some strange reason, I decided to stay on the right side of the road. Not sure what I was thinking at that moment. My right leg was really tired and I had to walk instead of running a few times to give my right leg a break. For the next several kilometers, every kilometer was a struggle. My body was very weak. I was struggling to fight off the idea of dropping out and getting this over.

After 26th kilo, it was as if my training started to kick in. I started to feel some strength coming back into my body. When I crossed 28 kilo, someone cheered “you’ve finished 2/3″. My mental state suddenly changed. At that moment, I realized that I will not drop out and will finish the race.

The rest of the journey was difficult, but nothing insurmountable. The last 1200 meters were actually quite enjoyable (given that so many friendly people were cheering for me). I crossed the finished line, and saw my running partners holding cameras towards me. Exhausted, but felt invincible.

In the End
I finished the run in 5 hour 35 minutes, a lot longer than I hoped for. However, I was thrilled to have finished the race without dropping out considering that I have to run on one leg most of the time and the mental torture associated with it. Self doubt is the worst enemy and I had it with me until I finished the 28 kilo. Yes, a lot of things in life depend on mental strength, rather on the sheer physical strength.

Physically, to be honest, I was exhausted after the race. However, I could have run another couple miles though, because in the end, running was just something to do. I hit the wall early - from the 15th to the 25th kilometer. That was the time I was most exhausted, had very little faith in myself and couldn’t see the light in the end of the tunnel. It was dark as the deepest night even in the end of the 27th kilo. But the moment I turned into the 28th, I knew I got it.

I can see myself run better when someone was cheering for me. My friends, running partners, family and the friendly Toronto people were doing an incredible job at cheering for me. Big thanks!

In retrospect, I wasn’t totally well prepared. I have yet to develop more strength around my left knee to support running a marathon. Consequences? My left knee still hurts. One of my left toe nails was full of blood. I also discovered my knee brace has cut a half ring into my skin, right behind my knee cap. Nevertheless, it felt really good!

If I can do it, so can you!