Austin Marathon -- 4 Marathons in 4 Months = Complete

Let me begin this by letting everyone who reads this know that I absolutely HATE hills! I completely understand why John the Baptist preached "Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low..." Luke 3:5. This obviously points out that Jesus very strongly disliked hills and John the Baptist was trying to help Him out a bit and get rid of the hills and mountains so Jesus wouldn't have to deal with them. Apparently they forgot about the New World (probably because it hadn't been discovered yet) and never got around to removing the hills from Austin.

Anyways, to the real point of this post. This past Sunday (Feb. 19) my brother and I ran the Austin Marathon with a priest friend, Fr. Michael. I would like to thank family for allowing us to stay with them on such short notice. I called my mom's cousin on Friday and asked if we could crash on their floor Saturday night, and they graciously allowed us to along with cooking us an awesome pre-marathon dinner.

Going into this marathon, I was actually dreading it. Running a marathon, especially when you have not properly trained, is extremely painful. Here are a few quotes I found that only begin to explain:

"To describe the agony of a marathon to someone who's never run it is like trying to explain color to someone who was born blind."
Jerome Drayton

"Marathon running is a terrible experience: monotonous, heavy, and exhausting."
Veikko Karvonen, 1954 European and Boston Marathon Champ

"You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming."
Frank Shorter

As I said, these only begin to describe what I was feeling before the marathon. I had run 3 in the past 4 months, ill prepared for each of them. I came out of each of them in a lot of pain and still had the pain clearly in my mind. I knew exactly what I was going to feel throughout the marathon and exactly how I would feel after. I was really just drained from doing too many too quickly without preparing myself. Needless to say, I will not be doing 4 marathons in 4 months again unless I am actually in true marathon shape and put forth the right amount of training necessary.

Of course, as much as I was not looking forward to running this marathon, there was no way I would not run it. I've never been the type to say I'm going to do something publicly and then back down from it (which is part of the reason I have this blog - to force myself to follow through on running a 50 miler). So, going into the marathon, I was just looking forward to it being over. Crossing the finish line was going to be great. It would mean the end of something I had started back in June (my goal of doing 4 marathons in 4 months), I would be getting a break from marathon running for at least 10 months, and I would have no specific events or goals coming up until training for my next marathon and 50 miler begins on June 25. I just wanted to take that step over the finish line and be done!

So the morning of the marathon my brother and I met with Fr. Michael at the start line. Planning to meet at 6:45, we found each other within about a minute of the start (7am). No need to worry though. We were so far back from the start line, we didn't cross until over 10 minutes after the marathon started. We started out at a decent pace around 9:45-10min/mile. We held this for awhile, but slowly began to slow down each mile until eventually clocking a mile as slow as 10:45. By now, we were around 11 miles in which is where the turn around is.

Fr. Michael had not yet decided if he was going to run the full or half marathon. He had not put in as much training as he had wanted to and was starting to get sick. He had signed up for the full but had been going back and forth about turning back early and just doing the half. When we reached the turn off, he was feeling pretty good and wanted to do the full so he pushed on. About a mile after this, my brother and I slowly started to pick it up. Neither of us were accustomed to the slower pace and it was beginning to take a toll on our legs and especially our knees. Feeling bad, but knowing it needed to be done, we slowly left Fr. Michael. Knowing him well enough, I knew he would be able to finish. Once he made up his mind to do the full, he wasn't going to back out. Just as in Dallas, my brother and I decided to take the best approach to avoid injury and had to leave a runner behind (guess we wouldn't make very good marines).

Actually, speaking of marines, I have a side comment on that. So my brother's first marathon was the marine corp. We both have multiple shirts from it that we wear quite often. Well anyways, my brother was wearing one of his marine corp. marathon shirts during this marathon. There were so many people who were cheering for him because they assumed he was a marine. Several runners who either passed us or we passed even asked him if he was a marine. We joked about it for several miles on and off and finally just decided to go along with it and shout "oorah" to anyone who decided to cheer for the 2 "marines" running the marathon.

Anyways, back on track. So after picking up the pace, we dropped down to as fast as a 7:50 at one point, although not holding it for a full mile, but stuck around 8:30 for the most part. Around mile 16 we both needed to stop and stretch. We both knew it was going to be very hard to continue running non-stop after finishing so we agreed to run 10min on, 1min off to keep ourselves from stopping every other minute. After doing this a few times, we both needed longer walking breaks so we switched to 9mi on, 2min off. By the time we switched to this we were about 23 miles in. We stopped the last time with about 3 quarters of a mile left.

After almost a minute of walking, I looked down at my watch. 4:06. Prior to this marathon, our slowest time had been at Dallas. I didn't know the exact time, but I knew it was 4:10 something. Seeing that we could still beat this time, even if just barely, I pointed it out to my brother and we both took off. One minor problem. Remember the beginning of this post? My extreme hatred for hills? Well, being Austin (dumb t-sips), there was a hill from about 800 meters out til around 300-250 meters out. My brother, being in a little better shape than myself took off up the hill. I was attacking it, but not quite well enough to keep up.

I knew I was going to be cutting it close, but I just couldn't find any reason to run faster. Reaching the top of the hill, there is a quick right turn, about 100 meters, left turn, and then the finish. Usually, for the last mile, I find something that is extremely important to me (usually a particular person) and run the last mile for them. I ask God to take all the pain I suffer, while pushing faster than I think possible, and use it to strengthen or help that person in whatever way they most need it. For some reason though, I just couldn't get myself into the right mindset. I couldn't find the motivation to push myself any harder no matter how bad I wanted to beat 4:10. Coming around the right turn, I looked up.

Just ahead of me, I saw my brother destroying the final stretch. I saw him fly around the left turn and pick it up even faster before he disappeared around the corner. There was my motivation. That was my brother. Nothing has ever been able to hold him back. Once his mind is set, you can go ahead and assume whatever it is has already been completed. The pride I felt being able to say that the kid flying around the corner and sprinting the final stretch as if it was a simple 100m dash was my brother, is what gave me that final bit of energy I needed to go. I picked it up, made the final turn and ran for the finish. No where near as fast as m brother had just taken it, but still pretty fast for having just run a marathon. I raced across the finish line and pressed stop on my watch.

My brother was there waiting for me at the finish. We gave each other an awkward hug (when two guys are shirtless, dripping sweat, and in so much pain every step is agony it is kinda hard to give any real hugs). Then, looking down at my watch I saw 4:09:58. Two hundredths of a second. That is all that separated me from the time I had chosen as my goal less than a mile beforehand. The only reason I had been able to accomplish it was standing right next to me.

My official time was 4:09:59 (still beat 4:10). My brother ran a 4:09:35. We had done it. We ran 4 marathons in 122 days. I was so glad just to be done. Later that afternoon I found out Fr. Michael finished in 4:57:sumthin finishing his first full marathon.

There were several lessons learned from this marathon along with the entire experience of running so many marathons in such a short time. The most obvious and important lesson: NEVER RUN A MARATHON (or multiple marathons) WITHOUT TRAINING UNLESS YOU LOVE PAIN!

As I said earlier in this post, I am now done with official events and such until I begin training on June 25. Hopefully I will be doing so under my high school coach, who thinks I can run a 2:45 or better marathon. I have not yet decided which marathon I will be doing, but as of right now, the idea is to attempt to race the B/CS marathon on Dec. 9 at the end of this year. I am also contemplating running the Houston marathon instead because having run it in the past, I can personally say it is the fastest course I have ever run and has the best support of all marathons I have done.

In regards to my 50 miler, I am looking at the Rocky Raccoon in early February, but that will be changed if I decide to run the Houston marathon instead of the one in B/CS. I think that is all I have to update on right now. I'm not sure how long it will be until my next post because I'm not sure how much I will be doing between now and June 25. I hope to keep everyone updated at least once a month but that may not happen.

As always, I do not take any responsibility for my accomplishments. All I have done, plan to do, and will do is possible only by the grace of God who has graciously given me a gift. I run because I love it, but also because to not run would be a waste of God's gifts. I pray that we always remember we are given gifts to use them, not only for ourselves, but to help others. Do everything in God's name and offer it up as a prayer to Him.

As a final side note, I ask that everyone who reads this, whether Catholic or not, will take a minute to pray for an end to abortion and for our country. We are in a very pivotal moment in regards to not only religious freedom, but all freedoms we hold dear as Americans. May God bless us and show mercy upon us as a nation.