(Hmm, I just can’t remember who wrote that 
As you may know, when the double centuries are winding down each year I tend to don my running shoes in peparation for the California International Marathon on the first Sunday of December. This year was no different though I was dealt an extra adversity when my coworker, who was supposed to teach some classes in Italy, tried to see if his Geo-Metro could withstand the onslaught of a full-sized SUV. (He lived and I did the teaching in Italy.) Rather than let jet leg excuse me from running the CIM, I opted to overlook the extra long 25 hour day with 12 hours spent in coach class seating the day before the CIM. Had I whimped out, I would need to change my favorite movie quote from Ed Harris’ Apollo 13 line “Failure is not an option” to something much less manly!
Here’s a brief overview of my time leading up to the CIM.
- Run 19, 23, and 25 miles on consecutive Sundays until three weeks before CIM
- 2 weeks to go, try in vain to keep up with cycling buddies on rolling 70 mile ride
- 1 week to go, spend 20+ hours traveling to Milan, Italy in coach class
- Less than 1 week, eat too much cheese, drink way way too much wine, and party past midnight every night with the European team composed of 4 Germans, 2 Frechman, 2 Italians, 1 Belgian, 2 Brits, 1 Swede, and 1 Spanaird.
- 36 hrs to go: Rise and shine 4am Italy time. Arrive home at Midnight (Italy time.)
- 11 hrs to go: Finally sleep after 25 hours, give or take some deep rest periods on the plane.
- 3 hrs to go: Best night sleep I could imagine before an event, but biological clock says I’ve slept half the day away, because it’s 2pm in Italy.
- 7am Sunday December 3rd, 2006. Go time!
At the 37 degree start my brother and I used hats, gloves, and sweaters we could throw away. A secret learned from the death riders this year. All of the extra clothing kept us warm for the 35 minutes from the car to the 7am start time and for the first few miles of the race, after which they were ditched.
As the crowds of people slowly spread out at the start I found myself running from behind the 4hr 15 minute pace group up to the 3hr 30minute pace group. However, a brief pit stop at mile 10 quickly repositioned me to the 3hr 35 minute group , who should have been running 8:20 miles. However, this Cliff Shot pacer was going a bit fast (explaining how a minute pit stop resulted in a reposition to the previous group) and given how long it takes the 4000 strong crowd to pass over the starting line, my watch said I was no more than 1 minute off the 3hr 30 minute pace through the half way point.
My nutrition for this event was similar to what I would do in cycling. The main difference is that more calories are burned running for 3.5 hours than bicycling 3.5 hours. So, I used a full servering of Perpetum shortly after my 4am wake up, followed by 1/3 cup of oatmeal. Seconds before the 7am start I did another full serving of Perptum. Then I carried a small Cliffbar, jelly beans, Endurolytes, a shot vial with 4 shots of Hammer Gel and vitamin I. At the aid stations I only supplemented with water. (I carried no fluid.) At about mile 17 Scott McKinney took my arm warmers and shot vial while supplying another full serving of Perpetum. Being a self reported camel, I downed the nutrition and returned the bottle to Scott.
Shortly after the pit stop and almost an hour before meeting Scott is where the real rolling hills of this run start. It’s also where my heart rate went up and never came down. I seriously doubt I would have made it to the end without the re-supply by Scott exactly where it happened. Prior to the pit stop my heart rate had stayed below 80% which kept me mostly in the 140 bpms. Near the pit stop it went over 85% and stayed mostly between 87% and 92% for the rest of the run. I’m not certain why this happened as I did not feel as though more effort was happening until many miles and hours later. To put it in bicycling perspective: On the Devil Mountain Double in May, I had my hardest hour of climbing on Mt. Diablo where my average heart rate was above 170 bpm. On this CIM, I ran for about 2.5 hours with an average near 170 bpm. Prior to this event, I would not have believed I could withstand an average above 165 for 2.5 hrs.
At mile 18 I ran through the point where I first walked last year with a smile on my face. Then came the infamous “Wall” at mile 20. When I ran through it, I punched the air and honestly felt a mental lifting (perhaps it was a rush from the oranges and bananas I had just eaten) but I had no desire to walk at that point. However, it was about this time that the 3:35 pacer started to gap me, though I was able to see him until mile 22 where I did my first 9 minute mile. In 2005 I walked more than I anticipated for the whole event before I even got to mile 20.
With 4.2 miles remaining and the goal of 3hr and 30 minutes clearly out of reach my new goal was to make certain that the 3:40 minute pace group did not pass me. That I only lost 2 minutes to the 3:35 pacer can only be attributed to my personal audience, both the mobile audience, in the form of Scott McKinney and his son Spencer, who followed the course on their bikes all the way to the finish from mile 17 as well as my wife, daughter, and son whose faces with 0.2 miles to go produced my fastest pace of the day. In the end I missed 3:30 but I beat my time from last year by almost exactly 30 seconds per mile and I completed a marathon the day after flying home from Italy!
While I said this was “not about the bike” I have to say the calls I received from my biking buddies on Saturday night, to make certain I was home and ready to run, really helped remove the doubts and gave me a mental boost. And though it’s not about the bike, the support I received from my double century buddy Scott McKinney was quack cyclist quality!
Since this is not about the bike, I also won’t mention that on the very next ride after the CIM, I discovered my new 2006 Tete de Course frame was broken in the exact same place as the frame that broke in February. I’ll still say 2006 was a great year even if I do end up getting two “new” bikes this year.
