The Not O.K. Corral

So one of the many things that is giving me agita about the marathon is this newfangled “seeded corrals” situation that the organizers are implementing for (I think) the first time this year.  I had never heard of a seeded corral before and the concept was so ludicrous to me that I had to read the info multiple times to make sure that I really understood.

At most races, participants generally queue at the start line based on their expected finishing time.  At our race, they are reserving the front for people who have run a marathon in the past year, based on the time they finished ranked A through E.  If you haven’t run a marathon recently (like me), then you’re relegated to the “Open Corral” behind all the seeded corrals.

 

I wouldn’t have an issue with this if it weren’t for the unlimited finishing times and high corral capacities.  This means that faster runners who didn’t do a marathon in 2013 are stuck behind a lot of much slower runners who did.  To give you an indication, Corral E will hold 2,000 people who took over 5 hours to complete their last marathon.  As it stands, A and I hope to finish in front of the C, D, and E groups, which essentially means we need to negotiate past at least 5,500 slower runners the moment we start the race.  This is assuming we score a good position in the Open Corral.

I fear that the start line will be so crowded that we won’t be able to run our pace until the second mile or so.  The fact that we now need to squeeze past so many people further hurts our chances to make our goal time and that, in a word, sucks. 

Hopefully my utter abhorrence of this system will work to my advantage and I’ll be pleasantly surprised at how great it worked.  Since I could not hate it any more than I do, anything is possible.

Crappy Diem

I have never been good about living in the moment.  I am constantly looking ahead to brace myself for problems that the worrier in me is wired to expect.  It’s obviously not the most Zen state of mind, but I justify my pessimism by feeling that if the issues I anticipate never materialize, than whatever relief I feel is bonus good energy I wouldn’t otherwise have had.  It’s a lame trade-off but one that’s worked for me, more or less.

My long runs have become a microcosm of my anxious approach to life.  I find myself anticipating – actually fixating – on landmarks ahead on the course.  Once I pass them, I allow myself a brief moment of relief before moving on to the next one.  I find this keeps me fairly motivated and breaks up an otherwise brutal slog, although it is a double-edged sword.  Sometimes my landmark is so far out that the thought of how long it’ll take to reach can make giving up way too tempting.

Another issue is that I fear I’m robbing myself of an experience by constantly living in the future and ignoring the present.  A keeps reminding me that we love running, we should be happy while we’re running.  I think this is code to not obsess about what’s ahead but revel in the journey your own now, a concept I obviously do not embrace.  When I’ve tried practicing mindfulness and taking anatomical inventory (“checking in” with my body, so to speak), I’ve found it only makes me lose motivation and become negative.  So for me the challenge is how to stay grounded in the moment but still focused on the goal.

When we embarked on our marathon training, I foolishly thought the point was to get my body strong and ready for race day.  More and more I’m realizing that physical strength is linear, mechanical, and will be a natural byproduct of dedication and diligence.  It’s building mental strength that has been elusive and frustratingly nonlinear.  I hope that in these last few weeks leading up to the race I find the right alchemy to create the mental fortitude I need to help me reach my goal.

Milestoned

Yesterday marked the official home stretch: only one month to go before the marathon.  The day before yesterday marked our penultimate long run before the marathon: 21 miles.  And the day before that marked the opening ceremony for the 22nd Winter Olympic Games, which has nothing to do with our marathon training other than to provide a bit of context and inspiration.

Inspiration has been much needed as of late.  I was feeling really burnt out after four months of earnest training.  And then we suddenly found ourselves off-schedule when we both got sidelined by illness.  A fell first and I followed shortly after.  All told, we lost about ten training days, which meant that by last Saturday I hadn’t run long in over two weeks and A was going on almost three.

Starting off Saturday morning, I knew the 21-miler was a Must Do.  We’re both still trying to expel that last little bit of pulmonary phlegm, so we decided to be kind to ourselves and slow down.  Our philosophy was it’s more important to get the mileage in than to keep the pace.

Even with the slower speed, I still lost my resolve around the 10th mile.  I sent A ahead solo, although he stayed in my sightline for a good few miles after that.  I put music on and tried to find that place where imagination doesn’t exist.

Still nagged by negative feedback, I was ready to pack it in after 15.  I took an honest inventory of my body and told myself there was no real reason to quit.  I told myself that walking would hurt more than running and take longer to boot.  I reminded myself that this run was a Must Do, which meant that if I didn’t get ‘er done today, I’d have to do it later this week and all of today’s miles would be for naught.  I threw down a chew and FIDO-ed on.

Talking with a friend about the run afterward, I realized how long 21 miles actually is.  We came across a lot of whacky things on our run: spray-tanning body builders prepping for a competition at the civic center; a clean-up crew along the creek that were either volunteers, convicts, or both; an entire block that reeked of what was either fresh skunk roadkill or fresh skunk weed.

Towards the end of the run, I had moments were I thought I was really jamming.  Then I’d look down at my pace watch and realize, No, no I’m not.  Disappointed, I managed to take heart in the fact that at least I felt alright.  In the end, I ran much slower than I need to come race day, but A reminded me that that was our goal for this run.  He didn’t finish at pace either but was nonplussed.

These next two weeks will be focused on both recovery and getting up to speed, preparing ourselves for our last long run before the race.