With the exception of Andy, Nigel and perhaps a few others most don't know who I am, and frankly, you're probably better off that way. Andy gave me a little "ink" here on a charity stunt I pulled last month. I ran four marathons in 21 days to raise money for a children's hospital in the US. Go to
http://neverdieeasy.org to get the details if you need them...I won't get into it here. Let's just say that I have an over active conscience and when I see a need, I do crazy (stupid) things to try to make it right.
Anyway, I met Andy a few years back at Hal Higdon's house after the Chicago Marathon. I had given him some advice on watching a hockey match while he was here for the marathon and, well, we stayed in infrequent contact since then. I also stay in contact with Nigel (I'm the bloke who told him to run multiple marathons in a short time frame last year and the poor bastard actually listened to me. Sorry, Nigel). I love coming here to read what's going on, but I don't post much mainly because you all write so well while I'm grammatically challenged. I work with computers so math is my language and even spelling is chore for me. At any rate, when Andy gave me my little write up here he brought up the fact that he'd like to hear about the mental aspect of running four full marathons in such a short period. It was truly an interesting experience so I thought I'd share a few things.
For my training I strayed from my usual Higdon plan to Jack Daniels. I must say, Dr. Daniels is the task master. Long runs that start AND END with 1-2 mile repeats and worse. If you're looking to qualify for Boston he's your man! He has an incredibly scientific approach. But I knew that I needed a little more endurance so I changed things a bit. The long story made short, I ran more miles in July than in any other month in my life and even more miles in August. I felt I was ready. If you want the race by race report, again go to
http://neverdieeasy.org and there are race reports on each race there.
Some interesting observations (interesting to me anyway). I ran all the races at what to me is a very comfortable pace so it never took long to recover. Had I "raced" four in a row I would have never made it. Andy's original request was for a report on the mental side of doing four so closely together. I did find it interesting. Those who have run a marathon know of the post race "blues." That feeling of "what next" or "is that all?" Fortunately, I never really had time for that! It was a day or so of recovery, then start preparing for the next go. It was a bit taxing. I call it a "taperecovery." The most interesting thing about the time between races was that I was ALWAYS afraid of the next race. I was always fearful that I wouldn't be able to finish the next one. By "fearful" I mean deathly afraid! So you understand, my times for the four races were 4:20, 4:25, 4:19 and 4:20. I kept everything easy so as not to sacrifice one race for the other, but I was always DEATHLY AFRAID of the next race. I'd run several marathons before attempting this little stunt, but I've NEVER had the feeling that I wasn't sure I could finish. Maybe it's just me, but I found that to be extremely odd. Once I started each race I knew I would finish, but between races I've never felt so much doubt, even though I knew my training was far beyond what I really needed to finish.
I won't go on with every little detail of the whole stunt, but there is one other thing that might be of interest to runners. "What do you think about for 105 miles?" THAT is a very good question!! You have a lot of time for your mind to wonder! I remember at mile 5 of race number one thinking "99.8 miles to go!" That was truly depressing. I ran race number three, Detroit, extremely well. That marathon has its first time maratrhoners wear a different color bib so they are easily spotted as a "rookie." I remember the last two or three miles just wanting to encourage those people to keep plodding on. Those last few miles of your first go can be devastating and I knew I could give that little bit of encouragement to someone to make them feel ok, at least for a minute in those last miles, and those were probably the most rewarding miles I've ever run in my life. In general, you have a lot of time to think about everything. I thought about Nigel once or twice for a few reasons. I thought about my dad who passed away a few years back. There wasn't much I didnt think about actually. My mind wondered to music a lot. Songs would go through my mind to pass the time. Squeeze, The Clash, Sting/The Police...I can't remember them all. I also remember, vividly, the last few miles of my last race. I was tired and it was a tough race. My brother met me at mile 26 with my two youngest sons (ages 13 and12). They could tell I was spent and all three of them pushed me that last .2. .2 is nothing to a runner. It's even short for one repeat in a speed workout, but it felt like 1,000 miles. It was the best .2 of my life. I felt the support of my family and, for the first time in 104.8 miles I thought of the little boy I was running for, Robert. You'd think that in three previous marathons I would have thought of Robert, but I didn't...until I was the most tired and the closest to quitting. It was at that point where he first crossed my mind. Odd I guess.
So now I haven't run in two weeks but I'm ready to go again. Theres a crazy trail marathon in two weeks and a 50k ultra two weeks after that. Hmmmm.
