What went wrong?

my boys could swim

Just wondering as to the opinions of the group here as to what the hell went wrong with my Twin Cities Marathon?

I trained harder than I ever have before, weekly tempo runs, 4 different 20 mile training runs. I put in more overall mileage and missed less runs than ever before. I had for the most part given up drinking alcohol, which I had never done for a previous marathon.

My first marathon was a 3:36 Mount Rushmore 2000
My second marathon was a 3:50 Grandma's 2001
My third marathon was a dnf Twin Cities 2001(illness)
My 4th marathon was a 4:02 Twin Cities 2002.

The weather was perfect, the crowd was great, my training had prepared me. I have no idea what went wrong.

I am getting farther away from Boston, rather than closer!
Help is needed here.

Member

Maybe you are trying too hard...? I don't know, I am not good at this stuff. FLARUNNER!!!

Frightened Inmate #2

Sounds like a nutritional problem to me, but I, like RWS, am just guessing.

Member

Mark,

The marathon can be a cruel race. The training cycle is long and difficult and to run your best you can only run one or two a year without burning out or injuring yourself. So any mistakes in training, bad weather conditions, tactical race errors, or just plain bad luck that occur during a marathon can't be corrected by going out and running another one in a couple of weeks.

I can speak from first hand knowledge, you were prepared to run this race. So don't start questioning yourself there. Wait a couple of weeks and then objectively sit down and see what you could've done or can do differently in the future.

The only thing I can think of that I might question was the timing of your last 20 miler. Did you feel like you ran that extra hard and/or had enough recovery time before the race? Maybe next time you might consider moving your last 20 back another week....but that is just a reach...like I said you were ready to ace this one.

Your half marathon time of a couple of weeks ago, your tempo runs and your long run times all indicated that 3:30 was definitely within your reach. I read in the paper yesterday that the medical director for the marathon said that there were a lot of runners that ran into problems on Sunday because of the humidity and because of the humid conditions it really was much warmer then most people realize. Cramping that early in the race must've been due partially to the dehydration / electrolyte inbalance. I've read that several runners, in addition to carbo loading also take extra amounts of Sodium and Potassium a couple of days before the race. I'm a big fan of V8 juice which is loaded with both and I drank 48 ozs right the night before and another 12 ozs the morning before the race and I still had some cramping around 23.

Get some rest and let those muscles recover a bit then start looking back at your logs and see what you might want to adjust for your next cycle.

---
megawill

Member

I think Mega summed it up pretty well. When I read your report the first thing I thought of was dehydration or perhaps not having enough electrolytes. Did you drink a sports drink during the race at all? I have heard that snacking on salty foods the few days before the race is a good idea, especially if you're upping the water intake (which most folks do).

If you figure it out, let me know! My race is in a few weeks and want to be ready!

Member

Thanks for the props, Randy.
I'm gonna have to agree with PH, Mega and FrogDoc on this. It sounds like you were on the verge of some serious dehydration. But again, follow their advice and check your running logs to pinpoint what could be changed. Hopefully you've kept an idea of your food/fluid intake during your training, but if not, that's one thing you might start doing for the next one.

Adjunct

how about intake of gels during the race

i typically take in around 7 1 at start then one
at 10 12, 14, 16,18, 20 or the water stops that are near them
seems to give me a boost through the tough middle sections

Member

Member

Well, I'm going with simple dehydration. My experience was that my whole body still felt strong--but the areas (thigh and calf) said no way and when I'd try to open strides--the calf would spasm in extreme pain....versus low on fuel---I know I get head tingly and run out of steam. Overhydrated---just plain feel sick. I've run the gamut....still trying to get it right.

Frogdoc-----I've questioned the use of gels forever. Since there is only about 100 calories per packet...how often should they be used? An average person burns 100 cals per mile....so why are we always told to take them roughly every 20-30 minutes? The more marathons I do, the further back it is before I take my first one. I used to take one starting at 8 or 9.......I now start at 14-15....I'm hoping to get it back to about 18 and then use 3-4 in my last 7-8 miles. My husband tried to explain it in simple terms: when you put a gel into your body it is quick and easy..your body gobbles it up in 7-8 minutes and it's looking for the next easy source...but there isn't any....so now we go back into the reserves that are harder to convert for 10-15 minutes and then "pow" here comes the quick stuff again......hubby says it's hard t0 switch back and forth.????????????

All I know is when I ran the 1/2 this past weekend, I ran back into the house and grabbed two gus (they have only 70 cals). He said "two? you don't need two".....in the end, I took one at mile 11....hope it doesn't screw up marathon training.

if I've ever get it right, I'll let ya know

What went wrong?

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