Week 9
Planned runs: 6 + 8 + 7 + 18 = 39
Completed runs: 6.06 + 8.01 + 7.21 + 18.17 = 39.45
Last week’s 16 mile run may have felt amazing, but I was quite tired coming into this week. I went quite fast on my first short run of the week (8:23/mile), but slowed down considerably on the next two as I started to feel some minor knee pain. From what I read online, this sort of pain is fairly common when running a higher load than you’re accustomed to, which, you know, was a fairly accurate description of my situation.
From what I could tell, long runs were the most important piece of the training plan to maintain, so I decided to still go for my 18 mile run, though I’d skip a short run the following week if I needed to. For my longest run yet, I decided to revisit the Emerald Necklace from my 15 mile run, but since I didn’t have to come back early with Jenn, I could go much further along it.
I entered the Back Bay fens by crossing the Charles on Mass Ave, then turning right on Commonwealth. I followed the Emerald Necklace through Fenway, Olmsted Park, Jamaica Pond, the Arboretum, and finally Franklin Park. And while it had rained for the middle half of my 16 mile run, it rained for the entirety of my 18 mile one.
Once again, my shorts frothed up detergent down my legs, and while the rain kept me cool, it also just weighed me down and sapped my energy. At some points deep in my run, I would stop beside a giant intersection, wait surprisingly long to cross, rain beating down on me, and wonder what I was doing out there. However, by the end, I was able to pick up my pace, finishing the run at an overall 10:12/mile pace, but the last mile at 8:58/mile.
My knees were feeling surprisingly okay, but I was generally quite sore and definitely still wanted to consider skipping a short run in the upcoming week.
Week 10
Planned runs: 6 + 8 + 7 + 14 = 35
Completed runs: 6.03 + 8.20 + 6.83 + 14.05 = 35.11
While my 18 mile run went surprisingly well, I came into this week’s short runs feeling quite tired, similar to last week. The peak weekly mileage this training plan reaches is 42 miles, so last week’s 39 has brought me into the hardest few weeks of the plan. I made it through 39 miles, so I feel like I can make it through 42, but I’m very glad I won’t have to go higher and that I only have 2 more really long training runs left (except the actual marathon of course).
On my first short run, my quads were incredibly sore, and my knees were still hurting a bit (though not as bad as I expected). For the next two, I tried adjusting my form to use my butt/hamstrings more than my quads, which seemed to help both with the quad and knee strain. As a result, I didn’t end up having to skip any runs this week!
Even so, I was a little hesitant going into my 14 mile long run, but I was very thankful this was a taper week. Jenn planned to join for the first 9-10 miles of this run so we ran a path along the Mystic River that was new to me. The scenery was beautiful, and compared to my rainy last two long runs, the weather was perfect. It was refreshing to run on a day that was neither rainy or too hot, with the temperature ranging from high 50s to mid 60s.
I had forgotten my little water bottle, and the path was somewhat barren of fountains, so by the time Jenn peeled off (~9.5 miles), I was quite dehydrated. Thankfully I was close to home, so I grabbed the bottle and chugged a bunch of gatorade before heading off for the rest of the run. This actually made a huge difference, so I was able to really speed up for the rest of the run, finishing with a total pace of 9:11/mile, and with my last three miles at 8:18/mile, 8:37/mile, and 7:51/mile! I love taper weeks!
Even though I was a little concerned about my knees going into this run, I ended up feeling totally fine during it. In a strange contradiction, I was generally feeling more fragile but also stronger than I ever had. I constantly felt sore and my joints were mildly stiff, but I knew that if I just cut my mileage in half, I’d still be running quite a lot, and I’d also feel pretty bulletproof. Even this taper week, just going down from 18 to 14 miles on my long run ended up feeling very easy, and my muscles didn’t even get close enough to fatigue to put additional strain on my joints.
Week 11
Planned runs: 6 + 8 + 8 + 19 = 41
Completed runs: 7.4 + 7.51 + 7.18 + 19 = 41.09
Thanks to my taper week, I actually felt pretty good coming into this week. Unfortunately, it was uncharacteristically hot, so my short runs were still tiring, but more as a result of heat vs muscle soreness. By the time I got to the third one of the week, I was still getting pretty fatigued. Either way, I was anxiously looking forward to my 19 mile run.
The heat advisory of the week unfortunately continued through Friday when I was scheduled to do my run, so I decided to wake up early to get the bulk of the mileage in before it got too hot. I intended to start at around 7:30am, but I woke up extra early feeling restless and anxious about the heat, so I set out a little after 6:30am.
For today’s route, I chose to go to Fresh Pond and do 5 loops because the pond loop is quite well shaded and has multiple water fountains. Plus, if the heat got too much for me, Neha’s apartment is just off the loop, so I could retreat there to cool off.
From the start, the sun was just starting to come up, and the streets were quiet. Already, it was just above 70F and the air was quite heavy with humidity. I took my first couple miles quite slow to avoid overheating, but once I realized I was going at around a 10:30/mile pace on average, I decided to speed up and just take walk breaks as needed.
I was quite worried about the heat, but it ended up effecting me less than the rain had during my 16 and 18 mile runs. Even though rain is good at cooling me off, it also just makes my shoes and clothes heavier and saps my energy by cooling me off a bit too much.
Once I sped up a few miles in, I was able to maintain that pace through the bulk of the miles. Neha joined for a loop too, and I even ran into my old coworker John with his dog Emmett! Eventually I headed back towards home. By the last mile, I was feeling quite fatigued, and ended up slowing down to a 10:01/mile pace, but my total pace was a 9:46/mile, which was much faster than normal for my long runs!
Week 12
Planned runs: 6 + 6 + 6 + 13 = 31
Completed runs: 6.02 + 6.04 + 6.11 + 13.15 = 31.32
This week is a pretty aggressive taper from last week, which could not have come at a better time. My 19 mile run left me very sore, maybe because of the pace I took it at, and this was certainly reflected in the paces of my short runs. Even though I did my 3 short runs on consecutive days, I took them pretty slow, and they’re shorter than the 7-8 mile short runs I’ve been having to do. As a result, they felt like a reasonable recovery, with my paces being 10:12/mile, 9:32/mile, and 9:03/mile respectively.
The reason I had to do my 3 short runs on consecutive days was that this week I was going on a short trip to Iceland! When planning the trip, I wanted to avoid skipping any long runs (or having to do them there), but worst case, I could skip a short run or two.
The trip was from Tuesday evening to Sunday afternoon, and since I’ve been on a Friday long run schedule, I could do my three short runs on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday preceding the trip. Then, I could just do my 13 mile long run on Sunday upon returning. This would be quite tiring, but I just hoped that 13 miles was easy enough at this point of training plus the 4 days break from running would have me feeling refreshed. Plus, switching to a Sunday long run wasn’t too big of a deal as I’d be starting work just over a week after this, so Friday long runs wouldn’t last much longer anyways.
I finally arrived home after the trip at 7pm amidst heavy traffic. This was 11pm Iceland time, which meant I was very much ready to sleep. However, it was time to run. I used the bathroom, ate a snack, changed, and stretched. 12 minutes after arriving home, I was back on the road.
Despite my head and soul feeling sleepy and heavy, my legs were surprisingly fresh after a few days break from running. My first couple miles were around 8:20/mile, and so I decided to push for pace on this. The training plan listed this run as a “half marathon” instead of just “13 miles”, so maybe that implied it was supposed to be run like a race.
I lost some pace throughout, especially as it got later and I got sleepier, but I still finished the run at an 8:49/mile pace. Afterwards, I collapsed in bed until my heart rate settled enough to eat, then fall asleep.
Week 13
Planned runs: 6 + 8 + 8 + 20 = 42
Completed runs: 8.05 + 7.87 + 6.08 + 20.01 = 42.01
After my nighttime half marathon, I was surprisingly sore from going faster than normal. Hopefully this wouldn’t hurt my ability to make it through this week AKA peak mileage week!
I decided to front load my short runs to keep fresh for the 20 miler, so I did 2 ~8 mile runs on subsequent days. I was quite sore for the first, but felt slightly better by the second. By the third short run, my knees were still feeling a bit sore, but it wasn’t too bad.
The day of my 20 mile run was forecast to be rainy again, but thankfully, the rain didn’t start later in the day, though I certainly continued to expect it as I went. I decided to do the full emerald necklace this time, so I crossed the Charles on the Longfellow bridge and came to my first park: Boston Commons!
In the Commons, I circled Frog Pond, then continued through the Boston Public Gardens, then onto Commonwealth Avenue. This took me all the way to where I had entered the park system during the 18 mile run: the Back Bay Fens. I continued along the path to Riverway, Olmsted Park, Jamaica Pond, the Arboretum, and finally to Franklin Park!
The weather this time ended up being perfect. It was cool, cloudy, and not raining. Last time I had made it to Franklin Park, I entered a path into the forest with surprisingly dense vegetation, and in the roaring wind and rain, I decided to turn back before getting lost in the wilderness.
In advance of this run, I compared my last run’s map to the Emerald Necklace walking path map and found that I actually had stayed true to it last time. I continued through Franklin Park for what felt like forever; it was the largest park of the day. I knew the end would be at a proper building with restrooms and water, but by this point, I was feeling great and just didn’t want to stop running, so I turned around, roughly 11.5 miles down!
The new portion of Franklin Park was very uphill, which was brutal at this point in the run, but it meant I could really fly down the hills on the way back. For the rest of my run, I walked for some of the few uphills, flew down the many downhills, and did my best to stay consistent for the rest. In addition to the many downhill portions, I generally ran downwind, so I was able to pick up my pace considerably in the second half of the run. My first half was just under a 10:00/mile pace, but my final pace ended up being 9:33/mile.
Overall, my 20 mile run felt great. I was able to go faster than any of my other really long runs and still be faster in the back half. Given my longest runs have all been in rain or heat advisory, this was pretty expected. However, it felt a little extra good that I was now done with all my long runs! All that’s left now is to taper and not get sick!
Week 14
Planned runs: 6 + 6 + 6 + 12 = 30
Completed runs: 5.36 + 6.85 + 6.30 + 12.03 = 30.54
After my 20 mile run on Sunday, I started my new job on Monday! I’ve been very appreciative of my free time while training, so even though I was starting the taper portion of my training, I now had to squeeze in runs around working hours like most people marathon training.
Even before any of the week’s runs, my walk to work Monday was mildly painful, both on my muscles and my knees. By my first short run Tuesday, I was so sore and tired that I ended it early, which is something I hadn’t done in a very long time. I felt slightly better by the next two runs, but still tired, so I was definitely appreciating the start of the taper.
Besides just total exhaustion, I also had to deal with how to schedule runs. I ended up planning my second and third short runs to take care of errands. For the second short run, I swung by to pick up new running shoes when I was almost home. These were the same model that I bought ~2 months ago, but those had 320 miles on them by this point, so it was time to break in a new pair for the race. On the third run, I stopped at the beginning to get a haircut!
This third short run also felt extra sore because I was still breaking in the new shoes. It was unbelievable how different they felt compared to my much squishier old ones. I imagine the support will be useful, but for now, the shoes felt just different enough to work different muscles.
My 12 mile run was slightly better, but halfway through, my knee started to feel quite sore, so I slowed down a bit on the back half. I adjusted my form a bit, and by the end, my hip flexors were quite tired. This was probably the result of both my tiring previous week (including the 13 mile run post travel) as well as the fact that I had started work this week and was spending a lot more time walking/on my feet as a result. I decided that I should take the rest of my taper extra easy.
Week 15
Planned runs: 6 + 5 + 4 + 8 = 23
Completed runs: 6.07 + 4.21 + 5.00 = 15.28
This week Neha and I went to MN for various wedding planning stuff. Even for my short runs, I felt whispers of knee pain near the end. On the weekend, we had long photo and videoshoots outside with lots of time on my feet, so I decided to skip this week’s 8 mile run to focus on recovery for my knee and muscles in general.
During the main body of training, my focus was purely on getting through the high and increasingly higher amounts of running scheduled each week. Every 3 or so weeks when I had a “taper” week, I felt strong and capable, with the ability to run much more than I needed to.
Similarly, I assumed that the final 3 week taper period would feel like a huge relief, but between recovery from my 20 mile run, starting work, and wedding prep stuff, I was exhausted. In addition, I no longer had ever increasing mileage to work towards, so my mind was focused on injury prevention and avoiding sickness. With this mindset, every ache or cough felt a harbinger of worse to come.
Week 16
Planned runs: 3 + 3 + 4 + 2 = 12
Completed Runs: 4.11 + 2.3c + 2.12 = 8.55
During last week’s runs, I was feeling a hint of inner knee pain, so this week I really took it chill. I did a few short and slow runs to keep loose, but otherwise rested. I continued to stress out about avoiding injury and sickness, mostly killing time until race weekend.
At this point, my biggest fear for the race was that my knee pain would flair up during the race and prevent a finish. I was able to push through for my 12 mile run earlier, but that was a far cry from the full 26.2.
The Race
I headed out at around noon to pick up my gig, after which, I went to the nearby hotel I had booked. Bib pickup was only available until early afternoon, so I was bored and waiting in the hotel by around 3:30pm. I mostly just read my book and watched TV while eating the large amounts of carb heavy food I had cooked and brought from home: dal chawal and peanut sauce noodles.
I got my race day outfit together, took a shower, and settled in for an early night. Nerves kept me restless, and I ended up waking up at around 4am to use the restroom. For some reason, the flush and faucet didn’t seem to be working, but I decided to try sleeping some more before worrying about it.
By around 5am, I was anxious enough to be fully awake, and I found the faucet still wasn’t working. I called the front desk: apparently a pipe had burst, so the entire hotel was without running water. They were giving out bottled water in the lobby, which was enough to carefully brush my teeth and wash my hands besides what I needed to hydrate. This was pretty unfortunate considering how many other marathoners were also staying in the same hotel!
I headed over to the race, which like most races just had porta potties and no running water. I felt a little gross, but the energy around the start quickly made me forget. Before I checked my bags, I called Neha, and while talking to her, I received a wonderful surprise. Keshav and Shriya had come into town for my race! They’d join Neha at the 18 mile line where I had planned to have her waiting with back up water, gatorade, and snacks.
Eventually we lined up and the race began. In advance, I had devised a system to keep track of my approximate pace, since my cheap watch had a stopwatch, but no GPS tracking. I decided to memorize each mile’s pace’s 15 second bucket. To make it easier, I associated it with musical scale tones, so 9:30-9:45 was 1, 9:45-10:00 was 2, etc. and going down, 9:15-9:30 was 7, 9:00-9:15 was 6 etc.
Miles 1-5: 21777 (avg pace ~9:32)
I started off at a fairly safe pace, and as I warmed up, I felt great! At around a mile in, I ditched my throwaway sweatpants, and a couple miles later, my throwaway sweatshirt (both sourced from the by-the-pound pile at Garment District). I started to pick up my pace slightly, and had my first gu after around 4 miles.
Miles 6-10: 21171 (avg pace ~9:38)
The miles still felt pretty good here, I overall kept to a very similar pace as to the first set of 5. At around mile 8, I hit the first turn around point, which would end up being mile 18 on the second loop. This is where I’d see Neha and crew on the second lap! Around now, I had my second gu. Sometime in the first half of this set, I started to pace myself to a group of three guys having entertaining conversations.
Miles 11-15: 77111 (avg pace ~9:32)
I continued to keep to a similar pace, and I continued to feel pretty good! The portion of the course after the bridge turnaround at mile 8 was beautiful and well shaded. I continued to pace to the same group of guys. At two different points, one member of the group peeled off to pee, then caught up after a few minutes. I was pretty surprised at how much faith the pee-ers had in their ability to catch up! Around mile 15, I started to slow down a bit, and this was where I finally started to lose the group I was pacing to.
Miles 16-20: 41414 (avg pace ~10:05)
This is where the pain began to set in. It started with the inside of my left knee, as I expected and feared. It was pretty mild at first, so I was able to push through, but at the same time, I was starting to feel fatigue across a fair amount of my lower body, especially my hip flexors. By mile 18, I was able to keep running at a decent pace, but I felt that if I stopped and walked, things might start hurting more once I resumed running. As I approached the mile 18 crew, I saw Neha, Keshav, Shriya, and a few other family members I didn’t even realize were coming! I blew a kiss and gave a big smile to let them know I was ok. As I passed them, Keshav ran with me to offer drinks or snacks, but I was feeling fine from my gu and the course’s gatorade/water stops, so I just shook my head and huffed out “all good, in pain”. After 18, the pain and fatigue got steadily worse.
Miles 21-25: 7(11:15-11:30)19.. (avg pace ~slow)
Now I was in a lot of pain. At this point, both knees were feeling pretty rough, both on the inside and outside. In addition, my hip flexors, glutes, quads, and hamstrings were all feeling battered. Though I had earlier felt a walking break would hurt me more than help me, I finally gave in and walked for around a minute after each mile marker. Each break was restorative, and within a minute of resuming running, I craved the next one.
I also realized I was feeling quite dehydrated, as I’d been pounding gus every 5 miles and only drinking gatorade, so I started to get 2 cups of water at each stop. Even when I ran, my pace slowed down considerably, and I lost the energy and will to manually calculate mile times and memorize them. I just stared at the ground 10 feet ahead of me and kept telling myself: one foot in front of the other. I knew there would be a water break at 25.2 miles, so I convinced myself to put off the 25 mile walk break until then to leave myself an even mile for the end.
Miles 25-26.2 (avg pace ~slow again)
I took my final water break and powered through to the end. This race was really making me understand what everyone meant when they said that a marathon was all about mental fortitude. For the last hour and a half, I wanted nothing more than to stop moving, but I knew I could push myself through.
Over this last mile, I pushed myself to go as fast as I could, or at least not slow down, with the desperate goal to finish within my goal window of 4-4.5 hours. Eventually I got close enough to the end to start to hear crowds, and I heard someone from the side say “you’re almost there, just 3 turns then the finish line!”. Those words played over and over in my head with each turn counted off.
With just 2 turns until the end, I saw a big group of additional friends and family who had come to cheer me on! Finally I pushed through the finish line, every muscle and joint in my lower body screaming in pain. A race volunteer draped a mylar blanket around my suddenly cold upper body, and I stumbled forward until I collapsed into Keshav’s arms and cried in pain and joy.
My final time was 4:28:05 (10:14/mile), just within my goal window!
Reflections
After the race, I collapsed on a bench, legs cramping, and sipped a giant bottle of gatorade which I knew I needed, but my body barely felt it could ingest. Once I gained the strength to stand, I walked to the post-race area where they had tomato and minestrone soup! Both tasted wonderful after all the sugary gu and gatorade I had had all morning!
One thing I was slightly worried about was if I’d need to use the restroom during the race, but surprisingly, I was fine even until around an hour after the race! I think my body just really efficiently used all the nutrients and water I had put into it.
The next day, I was extremely sore, especially on the inside of my left knee. Thankfully, the pain faded each subsequent day until I felt totally fine walking by around 4 days after the race. I did my first post-marathon run on Sunday exactly a week after, and while it felt great initially, my knee started to hurt within a couple miles again. Over the next couple weeks, I continued to run just once or twice a week, and while I got better and better, my knee still would start hurting after 3-4 miles.
I went to physical therapy to learn some exercises to strengthen the muscles around my knee. To my surprise, the physical therapist found a variety of things for me to work on with my strength and flexibility in my ankles, hips, and hamstrings. In addition, my left calf was significantly smaller than my right! At this point, it’d probably be best to slow down my running until I can improve my flexibility and balance.
Even during the race, I felt completely fine on cardio. The first limiting factor was my knee pain and second was general strength. If I were to do this again, I’d definitely try to prioritize more cross training and strength work.
Overall, I’m so happy that I did this. Running a marathon has been a longshot goal that I’ve aspired to for most of my life. Even now, once or twice a week, I’ll remember the fact that I did this and just feel so happy. I don’t know if it would have been possible if not for the fact that I was laid off when my last company collapsed. This was the moment when I decided to fully commit to running a marathon because I suddenly had the free time and energy to train for one.
At this point, after focusing so hard on distance running, I want to reintroduce strength training and running for pace. My upper body really lost a lot of muscle mass during my marathon training. For now, I want to try to improve my pace on shorter distances like 10k or half marathon.
Maybe one day I’ll do another marathon, but I’d need to have the free time to train properly again. In addition, I’d want to feel pretty confident that I could beat my time, hence my focus on pace for shorter races until then.