Finished BSIM
This morning I took part in the 21st running of the Big Sur International Marathon (results online), and I did suprisingly well! My final chip time was 3:48 (about 8:45 min/miles) though it took me over 2.5 min just to reach the starting line after the gun shot off! So my official time was 3:51, placing 508 overall out of nearly 3,000. My longest training run had only been 2 hours long for 14 miles, so I had no serious plans to attain a sub 4 hour run, but luckily I was able to! One shocker was that I was just trying to keep up with this 17 yo female runner, while a guy the same age finished in 3:21! Quite impressive for high schoolers. I was actually perhaps in my running prime at this age though, running XC in high school just before I was diagnosed with cancer. For the next time, I’ll train harder (with at least one 20+ mile training run) and be sure to bring a small camera in effort to finish under 3:30 and have my own pictures to remember it by.
Update: Monday morning - it feels like every muscle in my legs took a serious beating yesterday! (mostly quads, hammies, glutes, calves and knees)
Update: Official photos are now online at marathonfoto.com, see mine here.
Update: the Monterey Herald newspaper has a photo slideshow online.
To walk or not to walk? - that is the question! Past Olympic marathoner and present nationally renowned running coach Jeff Galloway recommends taking walking breaks during a long run simply because “If you use a muscle continuously, it fatigues rapidly,” he states. Walking just a minute gives the muscles a chance to “revive” themselves to continue running again. I personally have always thought that walking was “giving in” during a run, and so I’d only ever slow down to a slow jog. During the marathon though, I did do some speedwalking in some of the aid stations and a couple times in the Carmel Highlands to help give me enough energy to start actually “running” again. I had thought I could just “sprint” the last 2.2 miles, but that was an error! Perhaps I might have had more energy if I walked some?
Dean Karnazes, perhaps the fittest man alive, ran a marathon warmup down to the starting line (instead of taking the bus) and then ran the official BSIM in a time of 3:33. I fortunately did get to run along side him from mile 10-11 up Hurricane Point, perhaps the most challenging part of the race! Meeting up with Dean on the course was great. The day before I had heard him speak at the expo, bought his book Ultramarathonman, got it signed and chatted with him a bit. He is really a down-to-earth guy simply living a life that is inspirational.
May 9th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Great job on the marathon…I did Lincoln Sunday!
October 23rd, 2006 at 1:12 am
[...] A friend of mine just finished the Columbus Marathon (her 5th marathon) this last weekend in a really good time, very close to my own time in the 2006 BSIM! It’s been an inspiration to me, and after 2 months+ of not running it actually got me out the next day for a good 50 min (the first 30 of which where quite a challenge!) jaunt before church. I did feel quite “purified” and cleansed physically and spiritually after that! I’m so far out of my peak running shape now, that I don’t know if I could run even a 10k effectively! Meanwhile, Dean Karnazes and Sam Thompson are running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days! [...]