The Marathon Story, Part 1

Well - the short of it is - I did it! On Sunday, Dec 4, 2005, I ran my first marathon ever - the California International Marathon in Sacramento, and finished it in style, nice and strong, in 4:00:06 (four hrs and six seconds). Everything went well from start to finish - a beautiful day, just the perfect weather, friends and family to support, and so on. And in the process I found that all the superlatives people tend to associate with the word "marathon", are indeed true. A very memorable experience, and an immensely satisfying feeling at the end of it.

Ok, now for the gory details. Lets start from Saturday - the day before the marathon. (The next posting will cover the actual day of the marathon.) I headed out to Sacramento from Santa Cruz on Saturday morning. It was a clear, beautiful day - not a speck of cloud in the sky. It had been raining cats and dogs on thursday, and I was worried that it might rain during raceday. This race has a notorious reputation of raining out every two-three years or so - I knew of atleast two people that had run this race through pouring rain in 2002. Not something I was looking forward to - and luckily, looking at the sky, it seemed that I wouldn't have to worry about any of that after all. As I approached Sacramento, the Sierra Nevada mountains came into view in the east. It was a spectacular sight - the recent storms had resulted in a fresh dumping of snow, and the snow-covered mountain peaks in the backdrop were glistening in the sun.

The first thing I needed to do upon reaching Sacramento was to go to the "Sports and Fitness Expo" to pick up my Bib number and a bunch of other stuff - including my ticket for the shuttle bus I would need to take the next day to get to the starting line. As I parked my car, and walked toward the convention center, I realized that despite the sun being out and all, it was actually rather cold and windy. I was mentally prepared for the cold, but now the wind? Thinking back, I think I was in a state of mild paranoia in those last couple of days - I saw anything and everything out of the ordinary as potentially adversely affecting my running.

The "Expo" was the usual hubbub of activity. One issue I take with big races of this sort is that they force you go to to the "Expo" to pick up essential info. And in the process, you are subject to some serious marketing - the expo floor is filled with runner gear - not just essentials such as shorts, shirts, shoes and socks, but things like special gels to "warm up" and "cool down", a thousand different kinds of fuel belts, heart-rate monitors, accelerometers, nutrition foods and what-not. The "Expo" had been advertised as "you can do all your christmas shopping here!" - well, if everyone in your family was a runner, then sure. Granted - you can get some good buys on essential stuff - one cannot go wrong with a decent pair of shorts, for example. But most of it is stuff you don't *really* need, IMO.

I picked up my bib number, and bumped into Roger and Doug, two of my running companions - they were in good spirits. We chatted briefly, but soon I hurried out of there and was on my way to the Sacramento airport - my dad and mom would be arriving shortly. I duly picked them up at the airport, and we got back in town and checked into our hotel. Around 4.30pm or so we headed out, on our way to a group dinner, organized by our track club (SCTC - the Santa Cruz Track Club). We had to walk around 15 blocks, and in the process, we walked through the Capitol building area (the Governor's office, which was also where the finish line was).

We arrived at the "Old Spaghetti Factory" - the restaurant where we were to "carbo-load". Its a long-standing running myth that you should stuff yourself with carbs the night before a race, in order to have extra energy (due to extra reserves of carbs) the next day. However, in reality, to create extra/enough reserves of carbs, one should be eating well throughout the week - eating a heavy meal the night before will just make you sit in the loo a bit longer. In fact its probably a better idea to eat carefully the night-before. The last thing you want is an upset stomach on the day of the race!

It was very cool to see so many of us from the track club, at the dinner. We were led by Diane - easily one of the most inspirational figures at track. She wasn't running, but she would be on the course the next day and cheer for us. All 5 of us from Cristy's group were there - and so were some of the fastest/experienced folks from track - Stefan, Larry (our prez), Greg, etc. We chilled for a bit, my mom and dad got to hear interesting running stories. Greg came around and gave us a pep-talk about last minute strategies - "don't run too much before the start, use the first few miles of the race to warm up instead", "take the early bus to get there, since there might not be other buses","get a trash bag, cut holes in it and wear it to get some warmth at the starting line"- and most importantly - "don't start off too fast!". It seemed like one big family, and it was a good feeling to know that so many familiar faces would be out there at the race and on the course.

It was 7.00 pm and we were already done with the meal and on our way back to the hotel room. It all seemed rather early but the plan was to hit the bed early, since I would need to get up around 3.30am the next day. I reached my hotel room and found out that two or three of my friends from the bay-area were planning to come to the race tomorrow to cheer me. That would be NICE. Venki, my uncle from San Jose also showed up around 8pm or so. We talked about plans for the next day - I would leave early in the morning, and then the three of them (mom, dad and uncle) would leave around 8am or so and head toward the half-marathon point, to meet me there - that would give me something neat to look forward to during the run. After that, they'd head back to the finish line.

I set my clothes out for the next day, loaded up the various pockets of my running shorts with my "magic" bar (a nuts-and-protein bar that works really well for me, and actually TASTES decent), a couple packets of chocolate flavored and expresso flavored GU - (concentrated carbohydrate energy gel). I hit the bed around 9.30pm, and set alarms in 3 different places, just in case. Paranoia was beginning to set in again. My left leg had been hurting/feeling funny during my walk back from the restaurant. And as I lay down to sleep, it still felt funny. Was this a disaster waiting to happen? Was this the dreaded ITB Syndrome, finally rearing its head at the worst possible moment?Who knew. I finally decided that at that point, things were no longer under my control - the only thing I could possibly do was to to wake up the next morning and go to the marathon starting line - and see what happens. With those thoughts in my head, I went to sleep. Tomorrow would be a new day.
[To be concluded ...]