Chemo-Man Completes Grandma's Marathon

I finished Grandma’s marathon beyond my expectations and I have a wonderful story to share. However, tonight I’m relaxing with my family and need to keep this post short. I just wanted to let everyone know that the race went well. In the next couple of days I’ll make a post with all the details. For now, here are some statistics.

Number of Entries (record): 9,888
Number of Starters: 7,103
Number of Finishers (need to finish under 6 hours): 6,759
My Place: 2974
My Gun Time: 4:23:09
My Chip Time: 4:19:54

Listen To My Heart

I'm in the living room at my suite in Two Harbors, MN. It's almost 9PM and Grandma's marathon starts tomorrow at 7:30AM. My family will be getting up at 3:30AM to drive to Duluth, get on a tourist train that will take them back to Two Harbors to see the start of the race. The train will then follow the runners to the finish line. I'll take a shuttle bus from the Superior Shores Resort to the starting line. The shuttle doesn't leave until 6:10AM I get to sleep in. Ha ha.

The temperature is already very cool. At race time it should be in the 50s, near perfect temperature for running. Temperature and humidity have a big impact on a runner's speed. Tomorrow should be a good day for a fast race. When I ran my 8 mile run last weekend I was surprised at my average pace, about 9:00/mile. That's fast enough to finish Grandma's under 4 hours, which has been a big goal of mine. However, I need to be careful and not get too greedy. I was never planning on doing Grandma's under 4 hours, I just wanted to complete the race. If I start out too fast, I'll have a poor finish and poor time. Adrenaline from the excitement will make it difficult for me to feel excessive speed. So my strategy is to listen to my heart.

I'll be wearing a heart rate monitor. My heart rate will be the best indication of a good running pace. For the start of the race I need to keep my heart rate in the mid 150s, then let it slowing climb to about 160 to 162 up to mile 20. After mile 20 I think I can finish the last 6.2 miles letting by heart rate approach 170. If I do this I should have a good finish time. It should be under 4:26 based on my long runs. How much better than 4:24, I don't know. I'm not going to shoot for a time. I'm going to listen to my heart and take what it gives me.

I am Ready

Plan C is working. I ran 6 miles on Saturday and a fast 8 miles on Sunday with absolutely no foot pain. My left ankle is still a little weak, but is improving. I need to stay injury free for the rest of the week, so from now on only easy 3-mile runs to stay loose. I’ve decided to race with the shoe inserts that I got from my podiatrist. They felt good on the 8 mile run and provide extra cushion from the impact of running. The extra cushion may make a big difference when running 26.2 miles on hard asphalt.

After about a half a year of training, two-thirds of that during chemo-therapy, 704 miles of running, 425 miles during chemo-therapy, I am now ready to run Grandma’s marathon.

Plan B Stupid; Plan C: Listen to Wife

Well plan B was really stupid. I found some new muscles riding bicycle yesterday. I don’t need sore muscles for the marathon. So I listened to my wife and saw a podiatrist yesterday. X-rays show no stress fractures. My problem is tendonitis, inflammation of the @#$%## tendon. I love my podiatrist. Rather than saying I had to stop running and rest my foot, his approach is to treat the foot in a way that will allow me to run Grandma’s. So I got a tape wrap that immobilizes the tendon. I also got shoe heal inserts that should help. I need to wear shoes around the house and socks to bed so I don't start walking on cold feet first thing in the morning. I can start running again on Thursday, but my foot already feels much better. The shoe inserts feel really strange; I’m not sure I’ll be able to run in them. I’ll give them a try on Thursday.

Darn Foot; Plan B

I just don’t know what’s going on with my left foot. It was perfectly fine during my short runs this last week. But it started hurting just as I started my 16 mile run on Sunday. I would not have been surprised if the pain came back after running about 10 miles, but it started hurting as I was walking to my starting place. At first the pain wasn’t bad, so I started running anyways, but after 10 miles the pain really started to increase. Rather than toughing it out, I quit running after 11 miles. This is not the time to tough it out; I need to get to Grandma’s healthy and that is less than two weeks away. So now I go to plan B.

My foot is not going to heal if I keep running, but I don’t want to get to Grandma’s out of shape. So for most of this week I’ll ride my mountain bike to keep in shape. I’ll try a little running maybe by Friday. Any sign of foot pain I’ll quit and ride bike instead. Riding bike works the body much different than running, but it’s better than not doing anything.

Whew!

Because of the sudden onset and severity of the foot pain I was really worried that my foot injury would keep me from running Grandma’s marathon. Earlier this year, before I knew chemo would be successful, visions of running Grandma’s helped me forget about the dreadful possibilities I faced. Not to run Grandma’s would be a huge letdown. Yesterday I ran for 3.4 miles and today for 5.4 miles without any foot pain – whew! I still feel some discomfort in my left ankle, but it seems to be improving a little bit. I think my ankle will be ok as long as I’m very careful with my remaining training. One change I’ve made is that I’ve stopped running on pavement and now do all my running on a bike trail that was converted from a railroad. The bike trail is made of crushed limestone, which is much softer and easier on the joints than asphalt. Last year when I was training for the TC marathon I had a lot of problems with hip pain. I was able to make it go away without a break in running by making some small adjustments to how I trained. By staying off asphalt, running a little slower and shorter, I should be able to get to Grandma’s in good shape.