Another Fun Marathon

Today was the culmination of my 16 week training schedule. It was a cool, sunny, and windy day. Great for running. Me and a few thousand other people lined up at 8 am to wait for the starting gun. There were lots of announcements in Korean for me to ignore. At one point, everybody stopped milling around and got in single file lines. They all gave shoulder rubs to the person in front. Then they turned around and returned the favor. That was something uniquely Korean to me.

After a lot of talking and many rounds of less and less enthusiastic applause, the balloons were released, the cannon boomed, and the shredded paper was blown into the air. We were off.

My goal for this race was to go slow enough to enjoy the whole thing and not be too sore afterward. Unfortunately, that is difficult to do when the crowd is cheering, the racers are zooming by, and the weather is so lovely. I wanted to keep my pace at almost 10 minutes per mile, but I was well under 9 minutes per mile for the first hour or so.

The course looped back and forth upon itself a few times and criss-crossed the city. Much of it was also along the river or out among the rice fields. It was very pleasant. I checked my watch frequently and tried to slow down, but did not have much success.

After a bit over an hour, I passed Rie on the side of the road and stopped to say hello. After a quick, out and back, I passed her again in the same spot and stole a kiss at the turn of a mile. Now I was only two hours from the end and still feeling good.

Unfortunately, the drink stations on this run were about 30 minutes apart. That was a bit spread out for me and I often found myself thirsty. However the sponge stations were frequent enough for me to keep the concentrated salt from my drying sweat from burning my eyes.

About an hour into the run, the man running with a big blue balloon that said "4:00" on it passed me by. He was setting a 4 hour pace for the run and many people were trying to keep up with him. Since, my target time was 4:15, I was happy to see him go by. I lost track of him in the distance and concentrated on slowing down. A while later, I spotted the balloon about 1/2 mile ahead. He stayed there for the better part of two hours.

Keeping the 4 hour group in sight started to play with my mind and I ended up having delusions of adequacy. I thought "If I can keep them in sight to mile 20, I can slowly reel them in the final 6 miles and finish in under 4 hours." Even though I did no speed work in my training, I figured a strong kick at the end could see me through.

By mile 20, the 4 hour balloon had disappeared in the twists and turns of the city, and I was suffering from the fast start. They say that the marathon is three races: two 10 mile races and a final 10km run. I enjoyed the first 10 mile run. I got tired on the second 10 mile run. During the 10km run, my legs started to get pretty heavy. I slowed down a lot and was eager for the end. I was paying for not sticking to my race plan. Also, it turns out that my strong final kick was last seen in my final cross-country race in 1986.

I finished in a disappointing 4:08. I was hoping for a much slower and more comfortable 4:15. In some of my previous races, I tried to go faster, but for this one I was trying out the theory of "Value Running." The theory here is that I spent a lot of time and effort training for this 26.2 mile race, I didn't want it to end too quickly. But, it did.

I did my final half-lap in the Gyeongju stadium, got my finisher's medal, and enjoyed some snacks.

I tried to stretch well, but there is still some soreness in my legs. I probably won't ride my bike to work tomorrow.