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By William H. Sloan on January 1st, 2009
I Finished my First Marathon and Learned a Valuable Life Lesson II: The Marathon
In Part I, I walked through the months of preparation for my first full marathon. In Part II, I literally walk you through the marathon itself and the simple life lesson I re-learned.
Since I was so excited about the day, I ended up going to Kiawah, a good hour drive from the house, two days before the event to get my package, that is my timing chip and race number. My wife and I arrived in plenty of time the day before the marathon to leisurely be ready. We ate the big pasta dinner, but not too much the night before. My friend Jimmy had safely arrived; I talked him into doing his first half-marathon. After four months of training, he was ready. He also relied on walking.about.com for his training schedule. At first he was intimidated by the long distance. However, he built his confidence with the slow mileage buildup. He was ready. I was ready. The big day had finally arrived.
We were both up good and early to eat a light breakfast and get ready. I had one equipment problem; I forgot my belt. I had lost so much weight that the pants I used would not stay up (with the drinks and items I carry) without a belt. I tried to fill the void with an undershirt. This helped moderately, but the pants staying up were still a problem.
800am finally arrived. The weather was perfect for me, 40 degrees at the start. I could wear shorts and a short sleeve t-shirt at that temperature. The high temperature only got to about 53. We heard the gun go off from far away. Of course, we were in the back with the slow joggers and the other walkers. It took us about 4 minutes to get to the starting line. I was not sure how long Jimmy and I were going to walk together. We decided we would walk the first 4 together, then play it by ear. As expected, the first mile was tedious since there was a mass of humanity. (It is stated that 4000 enter the full and the half which start at the same time. However, only about 2000 finished the ˇ°halfˇ± and 850 the ˇ°fullˇ±). Either way, it took a mile or so for the sea of humanity to spread out a bit. We finished the first mile with a clock-gun time of 17 minutes. This meant it took us 13 minutes from when we made it to the starting line.
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We settled into a good routine. We consistently did 13 minute miles, sometimes a little faster, but always right at 13 minute miles. My friend Jamie runs marathons and he always gives us ˇ°over-undersˇ±, prediction times for the runs, and so Jimmy and I made over-unders. Jimmy made his 2:55 and I made mine 5:37. These 13 minute miles would do it for him and it would put me right at it. Jimmy does not jog at all, I jog 10-20% of the whole distance, sometimes more. However, walking with Jimmy and just walking had many benefits:
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Fitness determination, marathon, perseverance, racewalking, self-confidence, training, Weight Loss
Comments: 1 | Post a Comment | Trackback URL
Jack Donlan | Jan 6, 2009 | Reply
PLease read my most recent article on why I keep walking.
http://www.authspot.com/Journals/I-Need-to-Keep-Walking-Even-Though-I-Lost-Weight-Running-the-Marathon.435717
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