Plan B
This almost didn’t happen.
Friday morning I had a slight sore throat that led to feeling kind of bad that evening. I felt like I was shaking it off, but as I had trouble sleeping, I had brief thoughts of a DNS.
Feeling good 13.1 miles in
Fast forward 13.1 miles to the middle of the Baltimore Marathon. There’s no reason not to — I fought of those stupid thoughts, started the first few miles slow (my first official split at mile 5.8 was 49:10, an 8:29 pace) and at the half way point I had picked up the pace and was at just under 1:50, an 8:23 pace. I was in the zone like never before.
But that feeling of a cold was still there and 20-30 mph winds were in the forecast. I had to push it before the weather elements hit and before my body would have no more of that running a marathon stuff.
Well, around mile 18 the wind hit. And a few miles later I suddenly needed water like never before. I wasn’t thirsty, but a bit of a stopped up nose and slightly sore throat was making my mouth so dry. I’m sure the wind didn’t help.
I couldn’t have prepared for what I was feeling. I was able to push mile 19 out in 8:35 as I tried to fight those thoughts; slowed down to just over 10 minutes for mile 20 and then managed to do mile 21 in 9:18.
I kept doing math in my head of what I could do, but I just wasn’t feeling good. My legs were actually doing great — there was no “wall hitting” feeling — but everything else was getting to me.
So mentally and physically, I axed my “A” goal of 3:45. I knew that if I slowed down, walked a bit every few minutes and grabbed two cups of water plus Gatorade that I would easily hit my “B” goal - a sub 4-hour marathon.
Getting ready to head through Camden Yards for a very cool finish.
I spent the last few miles soaking in the sights and sounds (tons of cowbells in Baltimore), backing off quite a bit (miles 23 and 24 were a few seconds over 10 minutes) and doing what I could to avoid further sickness.
Then it hit.
I had the absolute worse cramp ever in my left leg. I nearly fell down. I stopped, stretched, rubbed it out, and … nothing. I could not move. While I freaked out a bit, I had a little more than 15 minutes to spare with a mile to go to get to my “B” goal.
I took a deep breath, repeated those steps and took the shortest strides of my life for the final mile. I wasn’t going to get to the huge crowd through Camden Yards and walk.
My time? 3:56:17. 762nd out of 3,207; 582nd out of 2,015 men; 104th out of 336 in my age group.
This was far and away the best running experience since finishing my first marathon 4 years ago. There’s a lot more from this race and weekend that I’ll eventually blog about, but for now this is a moment I want to soak in and celebrate.
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If a sub-4 was your Plan B, I would definitely consider that race a huge success!! Congrats - all that hard work definitely paid off.
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Whoa! Excellent finish and a sub 4 marathon. Congratulations, David. You've inspired me to start thinking times and goals…I've always just been out there for the fun but maybe it's time to step it up a bit. Nice work, man. It's been fun reading about your training and thoughts along the way.
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Jim, ever since my injury I've been much more intentional with mygoals for both races and runs. Running has actually become more fun inthe process. I had a great time out there yesterday, and I can't waitto see if the cameras caught my poses for them.
Awesome! Great and speedy Plan B recap!
Awesome recap! Congratulations!
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Parts of that sound like the making of a truly horrible experience, but you turned that around and made it something awesome. Congrats on finishing, and CONGRATS on sub 4! You, my friend, are running in awesome! (see what I did there? Ahh?)
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Way to assess, adopt and excel! How are you feeling today?
Feeling pretty good today - cold wise I'm actually better thanyesterday; soreness wise, it depends on which way I turn.
That is a fantastic result given the circumstances. Way. To. Go.
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Sorry to hear you didn't hit your A goal but still impressive considering the cold you are fighting off! That wind would have killed me if I had a dry/sore throat to start. I've read some other Baltimore recaps, it sounds like this course has great support from the crowd! Congrats.
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Love your report and how you took a potential DNS or DNF and made it a victory!
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Great job! And as always I am very proud of you.
I can not picture a DNS from you. Nope, no way, you'd have to be tied to a railroad track or something. Your will is too strong.
Glad to see all your hard work pay off, that's the greatest thing to witness I think.
Congrats on the sub 4!
If I would have had a fever or been light-headed, I wouldn't have goneto the start line. I've had one DNS before because of a fever and Iknow that running when sick isn't something I'd mess with. Any othernormal run, I would have taken the day off yesterday. That all said, Iwasn't about to let a normal feeling cold stop this marathon fromhappening.
Great job!! Fantastic time considering you weren't feeling your best.
I don't know what else I can say other than "awesome!" Sub-4 is fantastic under any circumstances, and it sounds like you had a couple curveballs thrown your way. But, then again, is there a such thing as a perfect marathon? Some issue always pops up. But you were mentally and physically prepared, with plenty of time in the bank at the end of the race to meet your goal. Well done.
Thanks for all your support Jeremy! I was thinking these same thoughtsin the last few miles. I'm not about to beat myself for circumstancesthat I couldn't control. For me, I was glad that it wasn't the elementof starting too fast; with looking at my splits I was doing everythingI had planned on doing up until about mile 22. The dry mouth thatcomes with a cold was just something I couldn't overcome though and itkind of freaked me out knowing how well I had hydrated in the daysbefore, that morning and during the race. No need to sacrifice mylong-term health. But I'll take all these things in, soak them up andapply them to the next race.
Congrats. That is a great result that is even more impressive given what you were dealing with.
Really inspiring David! It's been fun to follow your training for this - congrats on a sub-4 finish and overcoming the obstacles. You were clearly mentally prepared…something I want to work on! Nice job!
Being mentally prepared is definitely harder than being physicallyprepared. There's no easy trick to it, but I seem to be able toprepare myself for just about anything. I think hitting the lowest oflows a year ago helps.
It has been great reading about your training and journey to this. I think you did amazing and plan B was a success!!!! Congrats on another successful race and sounds like you learned a lot to help you with the next one
Even with a cold you made an awesome time of under 4 hours I am impressed!!!!!
Thanks for the support! I hope the final weeks of your training go well.
Great job, David. Sick or not, that was a tough course!
Sorry I missed you, hopefully we'll cross paths at another race soon!
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Nice work! (Now go get some rest!)
AWESOME job David!! Congratulations on the plan B win!!
SO MANY congrats! I was excitedly following you on twitter.
awesome job!
I'm glad the notifications on Twitter actually worked. A lot of peoplehad problems with it! Thanks Katie for your continued support!
Awesome David! Way to tough it out…look how strong you can be! Congrats on fighting a tough fight and winning.
Congrats again David - Nice recap -
congrats!!! sorry to hear about the cramp in your leg though, at least you got through it.
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Congratulations David…love the photos. I'm glad you finished so strong and are happy with the race.
Carol, thank you for your comment and support. It’s nice to know you’re out there secretly reading.
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