My strength, I feel, has always been my positive attitude. What I lack in training, I tend to make up with thinking positive. I don't let negative thoughts linger in my head too long - if I do have any. I did have one negative experience the day before the marathon that I almost allowed to get the better of me. I was at the Expo on Saturday and a vendor let me use "The Stick" which is a massage aid for muscles. As I was doing my right calf there were two areas that felt kind of sore. My right calf seemed to be abnormally tight and the area along the outside part of my leg above the ankle had some pain that got worse when I used "the stick". I immediately looked up with concern at the vendor and I thought to myself that this is not good. I quickly put it aside and thought I would just do some self massage at night to help my calf muscle loosen up.

 

I also had another negative thought as I was lined up at the race starting line. This may not seem readily apparent. I ran into Martin Sandoval from the Tornados Running Club. We were both right in the front. We talked exchanged goal times. When I mentioned 2:52 it seemed that I was more amazed than he was. I turned for awhile and then looked back at him and told him that's a 6:33 pace. When I said this, I immediately thought to myself - Why did I tell him this? It seemed like I was more surprised and trying to reassure myself that I could run 6:33 miles. Why do I have to tell myself I can run 6:33 miles when I have been training to do this for the last several months. This bothered me for awhile as I tried to stay warm at the start and try to look like a runner who could run 26 x 6:33 miles.

 

First two miles of the marathon were uphill miles. I never saw a 1 mile marker or never heard anyone yelling the mile split for the first mile. At the mile 2 marker, I glanced at my watch and noticed a 12:38. This was much faster than I had planned on running my first two miles. I was trying to hold back but it seemed like everyone was passing me even at the 6:20 pace I was running. I slowed it down a little. I felt good until mile 4 when IT happened. My right calf cramped up so bad I barely run with a limp. The pain was unbearable that I had to stop and stretch it for a minute. This was my first stop for this cramped up calf. Over the next two miles I ran limping and stopped two more times to stretch and do a self massage. From my 4 to mile 6, I ran limping and thinking that I would have to pull out of the race. The last thing I wanted to do was to cause some more severe damage to my calf muscle. I had never quit a race before ... Never! So I said to myself, if I can run 1 and walk 1, I can still finish this race. It would be my worse time ever (thoughts of a 5 hour marathon went through my head), but at least I finished. One thing was for sure. I realized at mile 4 as soon as I cramped up that today was not a marathon PR day for me.

 

As I contined to run beyond mile 6 my pain in my right calf seemed to moderate a little. I remembered an article I had written a long time ago. I don't remember who wrote it or where I read it but I tried this stategy for awhile. The article was about focusing all your thoughts on healing a joint pain as you ran. The article even went as far as concentrating your thoughts on making your body to cause more blood flow to the pain stricken area. This in turn would help in alleviating the pain. I imagined more blood flow to my cramped up calf and continued to focus on this over a mile. I can't help but think that this is what actually loosened up my calf muscle. Running beyond mile 6 seemed more relaxed and with no pain just some slight tightness in my right calf. Around mile 12, I had some concern when I felt something really wierd in my upper calf right below the knee bend. It may sound kind of silly but I thought that my tight calf had actually stretched to the point where it become detached. Don't even know what kind of pain that would cause or how it would feel. The wierd feeling was there and I had to stop for a few seconds to check my calf behind the knee joint. It turned out that it was just sticky gatorade that had dried behind my knee and every bend of my knee it would cause my skin to stick together. What a relief

 

I felt very strong on up hills during the marathon. I continued to pass people on up hills. While my downhill running was OK. I focussed on swinging my arms more that usual and trying to relax on the down hills. The miles and the hills kept going by. I knew I didn't have a PR time. As far as breaking 3 hours, it was not even something that I thought about until the last few miles. Over the entire marathon I did not here once a time or pace called out by the timers at the mile markers. I kept waiting for a pace but it never came. In a way it was better because it helped me stay focussed on just running without having the pressure of maintaining and tweaking to a certain pace.

 

At mile 13, I got passed by a runner who seemed like he was going at a decent pace. I stuck with him for 6 -7 miles. It felt like a slightly quicker pace than what I was doing but it felt comfortable. As the miles kept passing, my right calf muscle seemed like it had loosened to the point where there was no more tightness. I thought to myself that this was definitely incredible how I could have gone from thinking about pulling out of the marathon to actually finishing the marathon in decent time. At mile 20, I did some quick math and decided that I still had the potential to break 3 hours with a 10K left to run.

 

Mile 23 came with a new pain. The bottom of both my feet in the forefoot area, especially the ball, became very painful. It can best be described by a burning sensation which was not getting any better as the miles went by. I was planning on trying to pick it up a little on the last mile of the marathon. It really pissed me off and I even recall yelling some profanity out loud when I turned and saw a massive hill climb in the last mile before you turn towards the Capitol building and finish line. What kind of sick person would put a hill in the last mile of the marathon?  As I ran around the capitol building, and you get your first sight of the finish line it still seems  like it still very far away. Way too early to start any kind of sprint to the finish.

 

Finish time: 2:59:13. Only my second sub 3 hour marathon. I don't feel bad not getting my PR. I am satisfied with my time, but I will not plan on doing the Austin marathon ever again if I can help it. I'm not exactly sure what even got it in my head that I could get a PR here.  Was it my crazy-loco positive attitude or the close proximity to the Houston Marathon. I was under pressure to get my marathon for the year so I could continue now with my IRONMAN training in June.