Charbonneau - Overthinking the Marathon

2012 by Ray Charbonneau

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Edited by Vanessa Rodriguez

Book Design: Y42K Book Publishing Services/y42k.com

Second Smashwords edition

ISBN: 9781301691944

More info: http://www.y42k.com

Also by Ray Charbonneau:

Chasing the Runner's High

R is for Running

Edited by Ray Charbonneau:

The 27th Mile

To Ruth, who said she would never run a single marathon, and who just finished her third. You make everything possible.

I'm not the first person to say, "Writing a book is like running a marathon". A quick Google search for the phrase returned over 42 million hits. But the clich is literally true in this case. This book is exactly like running a marathon, specifically the Cape Cod Marathon.

Isak Dinesen once wrote, "The cure for everything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea." The Cape Cod Marathon has an ample supply of all three.

Actually, that's not the original quote, though the Internet seems to think it is. The Internet is both the most efficient way of copying information that man has ever known, and a giant game of Telephone that corrupts everything it touches. Since this book is based on seventeen weeks of blog posts leading up to the marathon, it seems appropriate to use the Internet's version. The original version reads:

"Do you know a cure for me?"

"Why yes," he said, "I know a cure for everything. Salt water."

"Salt water?" I asked him.

"Yes," he said, "in one way or the other. Sweat, or tears, or the salt sea."

Also, the author's real name is Karen Blixen. Dinesen is a pen name. Blixen is probably best known for writing Out of Africa, which was turned into a movie that won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1985.

But I digress (you better get used to that).

This isn't the story of some speedy champion runner. This isn't the story of someone beating the odds to overcome disease, handicaps, or fate to complete a once-in-a-lifetime goal. This isn't the story of someone attempting a relatively unique feat, like a cross-country run or 52 marathons in 52 weeks. And it's most definitely not a 17-week couch-to-marathon training plan.

This is just a story of some older guy (me), trying to run one more marathon as fast as he can. Hopefully that's enough. I guarantee this book will be more relevant to most of you than the training plan for some Olympic runner. And if youre starting to get a little old, or youve always been someone whose reach has always slightly exceeded your grasp, I expect youll feel right at home.

What follows is an intimate, day-by-day account of what it takesphysically, mentally, and emotionallyto train for a marathon. I provide practical insights into my daily regimen, but this is not the One True Marathon Training Guide (there's no such thing). I've spent twenty years trying to run the Perfect Marathon and I haven't figured out how yet. There's always more to learn, and that's what keeps it interesting.

Cape Cod has been the USATF-NE marathon championship race in 22 of the last 26 years and it regularly appears on lists of the most scenic marathons in the country. It's got something for everyone, both competitive runners and marathon tourists. I'm hoping this book has something for everyone, too. Let's get started and find out.

[1] from "The Deluge at Norderney", found in Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen.

Im a goal-oriented runner. I always have at least one goal that Im working on, sometimes more. When I dont have a goal, I feel lost. Sometimes it takes a little fishing around before I come up with a goal that catches my interest.

After I finished the Mount Desert Island Marathon last year, I was trying to figure out what my next goal would be. For years, my goals have revolved around marathons and other long distance races, when I wasn't cutting back to heal from injuries so I could get back to long distance racing. One of the things that I never managed to fit in was the Pub Series, a yearly series of shorter races that New England Runner (NER) magazine sponsors. Id usually do a couple of the races in the series every year, but I never made a point of earning the coveted jacket the magazine gives to runners who complete every race.

I figured, why not run the Pub Series? For once, Id train for speed in short races and see how I could do. I might even have a chance to occasionally score some Pub Series points in my age group. I had thought about doing the Pub Series in 2011, but I turned 50 in the middle of the series, which meant that I had to compete as a Master, not a Senior. Racing against the 40-year-old kids would eliminate any chance Id have of scoring points toward the championship. Not that I had any illusions that my score as a Senior would amount to much. My Somerville Road Runners teammate Robert Cipriano had won the 50+ age group in 2011. He was back for more, along with Paul Hammond, Reno Stirrat, and all the other record-setting Seniors from Whirlaway, and plenty of other fast old men from other clubs.

Given that nothing else was inspiring me to run, I figured Id give the Pub Series a try. To get the most out of the experience, I probably should have done the series while I was still drinking (it is the Pub Series after all). But at least Id get to try something different.

It wasnt a wholehearted choice, but I had enough early enthusiasm for the idea to carry me through subscribing to NER (a requirement) and signing up for as many of the races as I could. Not all of them were open for registration yet, but I was able to register for the first three races right away.

Sometimes I jump into an effort, truly believing its what I want to do, when really Im just trying the task on for size to see if it fits. This turned out to be one of those times.

Then my wife, Ruth, decided that she wanted to run the Cape Cod Marathon this year. Once the topic came up, I realized that my heart was still with the long races. I didnt really care that much about the Pub Series. If I was going to train seriously, I was much more interested in training to see how fast I could run a marathon, not a series of shorter events. I just needed Ruths choice to nudge me back on the right track. Or road, as the case may be.

If all goes well, on October 28th (a little more than 17 weeks from now), Ruth and I will be running the Cape Cod Marathon. Itll be Ruths third marathon and my twentieth. Itll also be ten years since the last time I ran Cape Cod, when I set my marathon PR of 3:13:28.

I just turned 51, and Im struggling with all the baggage that comes with aging. I have to work harder to run at a particular pace, and some paces just arent possible any more. An extra muffin or three matters more than it used to. It gets harder to avoid injuries and keep going. And no matter how much effort I put in, the results just arent what they used to be. Its a common story.

But Im stubborn, and ready to adjust. I will try some new things and see how much Ive got left. Let the timing chips fall where they may.