CIM, Sacramento
Dec. 8, 2013
3:52:14 31/127 in 60-64 2160/6435 overall 8:52 pace overall
Driving rain and 30 mph winds? Yes,
it was much worse at CIM last year. This year it was very cold-about 28
degrees, but it didn’t rain and there was little wind. So actually, pretty good
for a marathon. One interesting aspect of the freezing temps was that at the
early aid stations the spilled liquid froze on the ground and created icy,
slippery conditions. One had to be very careful not to fall.
Jodi and I drove up on Sat. morning
and had fun looking at the Christmas tree on the Capitol lawn and then going to
the expo. I ran into a group of friends that I knew from when I taught in
Reedley, and it was neat to hear that they were doing the marathon. I also got my award
from CIM loyalty group for having run CIM 10 times since I didn’t get it
earlier. They had 2 years with my name as Volkmar.
Sat. night we had dinner at the
Spaghetti Factory with a number of Fresno friends who were running CIM
including Paul, Amanda, Nick, Michelle, Juan (who was doing his 23rd
CIM and 140th marathon), and Bill. And then race morning, I got on
the bus at 5:15 and lo and behold it was the same bus that Amanda, Mark, Dion,
Kathleen and Paul were on. We had fun chatting and then freezing together when
we finally had to get off the bus.
I wore a short sleeve shirt and arm
warmers with a long sleeve shirt over the top. I debated long and hard with
myself, but finally did opt for tights which proved to be a good decision as
the cold prevailed the whole race. I also wore cotton gloves and a cap with ear
flaps. After mile 7, I tossed the long sleeve shirt and was not cold, just
invigorated. I felt really good and after the first couple of miles at just
under 9, I ran some 8:25 miles and some 8:35 miles feeling like I was holding
myself back as best I could. The paces came very comfortably. But then at mile
6 my right calf tightened, followed shortly my the left calf doing the same. My
right calf had been tight the week before, but very odd to have both of them
hurt so much. I did have an awful lot of soreness throughout my legs when I got
my massage from Kristie on Thursday so was wondering what was going on in those
let muscles. At one point I felt like the right calf had ripped and I had to
stop and stretch. Jodi really helped me by being out on the course to cheer and
take pictures and use “The Stick” on me. No, not to beat me to go faster. It’s
the one used to massage tight muscles and it really helped to have her rub on
those calves at miles 13 and 19. That and seven ibuprofen and a lot of grimacing
got me through somehow. This was the most painful marathon I’ve run because of
the calf cramps. It was doubly frustrating because I felt fast and in good
shape but couldn’t perform at peak level.
At halfway I was at 1:54 and still
hoping for sub 3:50. I did run an 8:35 and an 8:30 at miles 15 and 17 and
8:45-8:55 for miles 21-26, but had a couple of 9:30s at 19 and 20 where I had
to stretch and roll that cost me the 3:50. My time was a Boston Qualifying time
so I was very happy about that.
At the expo there was a young man
named Lance Casazza who has run 3 marathons in the 5 hour range. He hopes to go
from 260 lbs to 210 and get his time down to his BQ time of 3:15. See his quest
to qualify and to raise money for the Boston Marathon bombing victims at: http://thelongroadtoboston.com/ He points out that “less than 1% of the US population will ever finish a
marathon. Of that group, only 10.4% will ever receive an invitation to Boston.”
It certainly makes me appreciate all the more how blessed I’ve been to be able
to run Boston 15 times and be registered to run again in 2014 and qualified for
2015.
This was Marathon #134;16 states on 2d go round; 8 provinces..
Pictures at: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1JcNWbVkxY8Q
No comments:
Post a Comment