My Marathon Experience
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7 NRSV
This is the first opportunity I’ve taken to write a reflection on my first Marathon experience. The process for reflections has begun at various times and it has peaked through several sermons and bible study lessons but I wanted to take the time to write of my experience and my thoughts on the race as I’m beginning to prepare for my second big race the Philadelphia half-marathon.
The Beginning:
The Gardenspot Marathon was quite literally the culmination of a long journey which began in the winter and spring of 2010. In the winter of 2010 Katie and I realized that we needed to lose weight and we set out to do just that. The previous year we had joined Retro Fitness gym which was a good gym but after two months our schedules exploded to a point where we couldn’t make time for the gym as easily so we stopped going. For Christmas in 2009 we bought a Wii and I purchased the Wii fit game particularly for Katie. Both of us started using it regularly in January of 2010 and that is when my weight loss started.
I know that the Wii Fit program isn’t the best for weight loss but I have to credit it with starting us down the path. I don’t know what I weighed at the beginning because we already started some weight loss by cutting down on sweets, portion size and sugar in our beverages. I believe it was somewhere in March 2010 that I started to pay attention to my weight loss. At that time I was weighing somewhere around 230 lbs. knowing that I had come down from at least 237 (that was the farthest back data I could get but I know I weight significantly more than that at some point, I’m guessing around 250 at maximum weight.) It was at the end of March that I started running on a regular basis believing that the Wii Fit program had taken me as far as it could.
One of the first things I had to realize about running again was that I was not going to be able to run as fast or as long as I did in high school. I had run Track and Cross Country (that being my favorite of the two) in high school with a fastest mile time of 5:18 (track) and 18:12 5K (XC). I believe that mentally I could remember what it was like to have that pace and I think that my muscles could remember the pace as well. However my lungs and heart could not handle the pace nor could my joints handle the extra weight, remember at this time I was weighing in at 230 lbs and to put it in perspective I am only 5’ 7” on a good day for height.
So the first thing I had to do was I had to set up a few rules for running. The first and primary was that if I needed to stop and walk I would stop and walk. I still maintain this rule today. The second rule is just as important as the first it is that I refuse to feel guilty about having to stop and walk. I knew if I was going to lose weight and feel better about myself I needed to know that some days were going to be better than others and I needed to let myself off the hook.
On that note I have to include that I have never been on a diet during this time as well. I eat what I want when I want. I try to keep my portion size down but again I refused to feel guilty if I feel like I want to and do eat a large bowl of ice cream, or even better, have a slice of pie for breakfast.
The Marathon training:
Since high school I have had a dream of completing a marathon before I turned 30. After high school and all the weight I gained I didn’t believe it would be possible to complete this dream. In June of 2010 I started to realize that it may be possible for me to train and run in a marathon before my birthday the following year. I kept this thought in the back of my head but didn’t voice it. I think I didn’t voice it because of the fear that if I did and didn’t complete it I would have only myself to blame.
During this time I was slowly increasing my time for running. I was running strictly based on time as I did in high school and my goal was to run 30 minutes, without stopping, almost every day. It was at the end of June that I bought the Runkeeper app for my iphone and began to run with that strapped to my arm every day. This app kept track of all my time and distance (via GPS) and kept track of my calories burned which I began to pay more attention to for weight loss.
I kept running in Allentown all through the summer and fall slowly watching the pounds drop on my weight. In October I told Katie I wanted to run in a marathon before my birthday and to my relief she was supportive. So I started the task of finding one before my birthday and of finding a training program.
I settled on a program quickly, one of the free ones you can find on line, and started right away even though I hadn’t picked a race yet. One of the major adjustments I had was that I was no longer running by time but by distance. I set out with a mile goal everyday and did that amount no matter how long it took me. By the end of November I had already been running the program for one month and had decided because of that to run the Gardenspot marathon in New Holland Pa because it was the right amount of time away and was a close distance. So in the winter in north central Pa I started training for my first marathon.
I worked very hard that winter. I even have a photo I took of myself with my goatee white with ice. I only got sick one week in January and I missed very rarely. One run I even did in three inches of snow it was actually very peaceful. My phone was my best piece of equipment through all of this. It came with me on every run with the Runkeeper app keeping track of the data and music playing on the head phones. The sound track was varied with The Who being my primary band particularly the song Baba O’riely.
During all of this I continued to lose weight and would weigh in at just over 200 lbs for the race in May.
The Race:
I won’t deny it when I lined up on race day I thought I was crazy. I had never run 26.2 mile before. The highest amount of mileage I did in training was 20 miles and on that run I had to walk the last five miles. The evening before I didn’t sleep well, we stayed at Bob and Erin’s who lived only 10 minutes away from the race, the comfort they gave us wasn’t the issue it was my mind going to fast not to mention the continual thoughts that I was crazy.
When the gun sounded for the race I was somewhere near the middle of the pack not know where I should line up. I remember doing the first half of the marathon faster than I thought I would have been able to at about 2:18. When I saw that my heart soared I had been planning on running the race in 5:30 but at that pace it would be 4:40ish. However shortly after I hit the inch worm hills that define Lancaster County farmland and it hurt. Shortly after mile 16 I started walking and walked almost entirely the rest of the race. I still finished better than I thought at 5:18 but not as well as I hoped. One of the best compliments I got from a runner when I was walking was “you’re a fast walker, I’ve been trying to catch you for the last 2 miles.”
The last two hundred meters were the most special for me. Honestly even at that point I wasn’t sure I would finish but I came around the corner and there waiting for me were Katie, Olivia and Sophia. Olivia came running out to me and completed the end of the race with me. Besides almost crying it was one of the most precious experiences I’ve ever had with my daughter to date.
When I finished the race I walked around, or I should say waddled around because my inner thighs looked like two raw steaks and felt worst. One runner asked me how I did as I was making my way to the showers. I said fine, and that it was my first race. His response “congrats on finishing.” That was all that mattered I completed the course. Afterward we went to Shady Maple and I pigged out in royal fashion.
Reflection on the Experience:
I believe I am stronger for this experience. It was hard and painful. I sacrificed time and my family sacrificed time but I feel I understand myself better from the experience, knowing I can finish an experience like this even though it was difficult.
Now I have lost almost 50 lbs and feel much healthier than I used to. My weight is still an issue to me and the weight loss has significantly slowed down. It has taken me almost three months to lose ten pounds. To date my fastest mile has be 7:10 and at the moment I’m hoping for a final half marathon time at about 2:10 but won’t be surprised if I only have a 2:30
This is the first opportunity I’ve taken to write a reflection on my first Marathon experience. The process for reflections has begun at various times and it has peaked through several sermons and bible study lessons but I wanted to take the time to write of my experience and my thoughts on the race as I’m beginning to prepare for my second big race the Philadelphia half-marathon.
The Beginning:
The Gardenspot Marathon was quite literally the culmination of a long journey which began in the winter and spring of 2010. In the winter of 2010 Katie and I realized that we needed to lose weight and we set out to do just that. The previous year we had joined Retro Fitness gym which was a good gym but after two months our schedules exploded to a point where we couldn’t make time for the gym as easily so we stopped going. For Christmas in 2009 we bought a Wii and I purchased the Wii fit game particularly for Katie. Both of us started using it regularly in January of 2010 and that is when my weight loss started.
I know that the Wii Fit program isn’t the best for weight loss but I have to credit it with starting us down the path. I don’t know what I weighed at the beginning because we already started some weight loss by cutting down on sweets, portion size and sugar in our beverages. I believe it was somewhere in March 2010 that I started to pay attention to my weight loss. At that time I was weighing somewhere around 230 lbs. knowing that I had come down from at least 237 (that was the farthest back data I could get but I know I weight significantly more than that at some point, I’m guessing around 250 at maximum weight.) It was at the end of March that I started running on a regular basis believing that the Wii Fit program had taken me as far as it could.
One of the first things I had to realize about running again was that I was not going to be able to run as fast or as long as I did in high school. I had run Track and Cross Country (that being my favorite of the two) in high school with a fastest mile time of 5:18 (track) and 18:12 5K (XC). I believe that mentally I could remember what it was like to have that pace and I think that my muscles could remember the pace as well. However my lungs and heart could not handle the pace nor could my joints handle the extra weight, remember at this time I was weighing in at 230 lbs and to put it in perspective I am only 5’ 7” on a good day for height.
So the first thing I had to do was I had to set up a few rules for running. The first and primary was that if I needed to stop and walk I would stop and walk. I still maintain this rule today. The second rule is just as important as the first it is that I refuse to feel guilty about having to stop and walk. I knew if I was going to lose weight and feel better about myself I needed to know that some days were going to be better than others and I needed to let myself off the hook.
On that note I have to include that I have never been on a diet during this time as well. I eat what I want when I want. I try to keep my portion size down but again I refused to feel guilty if I feel like I want to and do eat a large bowl of ice cream, or even better, have a slice of pie for breakfast.
The Marathon training:
Since high school I have had a dream of completing a marathon before I turned 30. After high school and all the weight I gained I didn’t believe it would be possible to complete this dream. In June of 2010 I started to realize that it may be possible for me to train and run in a marathon before my birthday the following year. I kept this thought in the back of my head but didn’t voice it. I think I didn’t voice it because of the fear that if I did and didn’t complete it I would have only myself to blame.
During this time I was slowly increasing my time for running. I was running strictly based on time as I did in high school and my goal was to run 30 minutes, without stopping, almost every day. It was at the end of June that I bought the Runkeeper app for my iphone and began to run with that strapped to my arm every day. This app kept track of all my time and distance (via GPS) and kept track of my calories burned which I began to pay more attention to for weight loss.
I kept running in Allentown all through the summer and fall slowly watching the pounds drop on my weight. In October I told Katie I wanted to run in a marathon before my birthday and to my relief she was supportive. So I started the task of finding one before my birthday and of finding a training program.
I settled on a program quickly, one of the free ones you can find on line, and started right away even though I hadn’t picked a race yet. One of the major adjustments I had was that I was no longer running by time but by distance. I set out with a mile goal everyday and did that amount no matter how long it took me. By the end of November I had already been running the program for one month and had decided because of that to run the Gardenspot marathon in New Holland Pa because it was the right amount of time away and was a close distance. So in the winter in north central Pa I started training for my first marathon.
I worked very hard that winter. I even have a photo I took of myself with my goatee white with ice. I only got sick one week in January and I missed very rarely. One run I even did in three inches of snow it was actually very peaceful. My phone was my best piece of equipment through all of this. It came with me on every run with the Runkeeper app keeping track of the data and music playing on the head phones. The sound track was varied with The Who being my primary band particularly the song Baba O’riely.
During all of this I continued to lose weight and would weigh in at just over 200 lbs for the race in May.
The Race:
I won’t deny it when I lined up on race day I thought I was crazy. I had never run 26.2 mile before. The highest amount of mileage I did in training was 20 miles and on that run I had to walk the last five miles. The evening before I didn’t sleep well, we stayed at Bob and Erin’s who lived only 10 minutes away from the race, the comfort they gave us wasn’t the issue it was my mind going to fast not to mention the continual thoughts that I was crazy.
When the gun sounded for the race I was somewhere near the middle of the pack not know where I should line up. I remember doing the first half of the marathon faster than I thought I would have been able to at about 2:18. When I saw that my heart soared I had been planning on running the race in 5:30 but at that pace it would be 4:40ish. However shortly after I hit the inch worm hills that define Lancaster County farmland and it hurt. Shortly after mile 16 I started walking and walked almost entirely the rest of the race. I still finished better than I thought at 5:18 but not as well as I hoped. One of the best compliments I got from a runner when I was walking was “you’re a fast walker, I’ve been trying to catch you for the last 2 miles.”
The last two hundred meters were the most special for me. Honestly even at that point I wasn’t sure I would finish but I came around the corner and there waiting for me were Katie, Olivia and Sophia. Olivia came running out to me and completed the end of the race with me. Besides almost crying it was one of the most precious experiences I’ve ever had with my daughter to date.
When I finished the race I walked around, or I should say waddled around because my inner thighs looked like two raw steaks and felt worst. One runner asked me how I did as I was making my way to the showers. I said fine, and that it was my first race. His response “congrats on finishing.” That was all that mattered I completed the course. Afterward we went to Shady Maple and I pigged out in royal fashion.
Reflection on the Experience:
I believe I am stronger for this experience. It was hard and painful. I sacrificed time and my family sacrificed time but I feel I understand myself better from the experience, knowing I can finish an experience like this even though it was difficult.
Now I have lost almost 50 lbs and feel much healthier than I used to. My weight is still an issue to me and the weight loss has significantly slowed down. It has taken me almost three months to lose ten pounds. To date my fastest mile has be 7:10 and at the moment I’m hoping for a final half marathon time at about 2:10 but won’t be surprised if I only have a 2:30
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