Some More About Last Sunday's Marathon

Since I wrote a couple of days ago about my second "official" running marathon experience, I realized there were a few extra items I thought merited mention.  One is the relatively involved amount of preparation during the days preceding the event.  This includes tapering down of running mileage and intensity, along with a stepped-up consumption of carbohydrates.  The latter is supposed to fill up the body's glycogen stores that normally would be depleted long before the end of this grueling 26.2 mile race.  So I did just that, easing up a bit on my training and stuffing myself with high-carb food.  I also conformed to the advice that I drink a lot of water, prehydrating myself for the expected race-day loss of such.  As it turned out I probably didn't need to prehydrate so much since I hardly even perspired the entire five-plus hours and actually had to take four different porta-potty breaks in the middle of the race.  But I should have ingested more electrolytes and stretch my legs more and better.  That may have largely contributed to my leg cramping issues during the final three miles, as well as during the first two hours following the marathon's completion.  I look forward to correcting these oversights for any possible future races...

During the run...four repeated out-and-backs on a 3.27 mile stretched of paved trail in the woods...I  imagined NYC marathon locations at different mileages on this largely undifferentiated run.  Also, I watched an old YouTube video that someone made going up and down the Hawthorne Trail and picked out a few landmarks to look for on the race course.  The Winnepeg YouTube running brothers, on their NYC Marathon video, scorned anyone they saw walking, because they seemed to entertain the misconception that this wasn't an acceptable option.  I, on the other hand, am an enthusiastic advocate and practitioner of the Jeff Galloway method of tackling long distances by alternating a set number of running minutes with one of walking.  Then again, I thought those two dudes were a little bit two much on the "alpha-male" dominance/pecking order side of the human psyche, reminding me a bit of some old overly competitive high school classmates that were totally into themselves and how superior they were to others (and me).  Still, they did give some good advice in parts of their video...

Right after I finished this marathon, I thought that this is too crazy...I'll never do another marathon again.  But the next day I was already figuring how I could tweak things to achieve a better outcome, both in terms of a faster time and in how I can withstand the stresses that this length of race...especially its ending...puts on my body.  But in the next two months I will be undergoing medical tests and, most likely, procedures that could well put an end to my running this season...or maybe not, I just don't know.  But there's other stuff I can do in the meantime if that happens...