Saturday, June 16 2001

I got in my corral (H) a few minutes before the gun, and heard the theme music from "Chariots of Fire" and then the tape of the cock crowing.  Then the gun (I heard it this year, and then some good Zulu music.  After about 6 minutes I was across the starting line and chip mats, but still walking.  The crowd was pretty thick until I got to about 50K to go.

I went off in the bushes once, and was trying to keep in contact with somebody running with yellow balloons and a sign that said "sub-11:00 pace."  Well, I should hope so.  I was actually trying to be on 10:00 pace.  I had a pace card for 10:43, and I was trying to get 5 minutes ahead of it for each 10K.  I had agreed to try to meet up with Tiekie at the 80K to go marker.  She was planning to be there at 65 minutes, and we'd look for each other.  I got there at 67 minutes, and stood and waited until 70 minutes, but I figured she was ahead of me.

I wasn't trying to push it, but I was trying to keep moving efficiently and try to gain on the 10:00 pace.  I was staying 5-10 minutes ahead of the 10:43 pace card, but I couldn't close on 10:00.  I went off in the bushes one more time, and then was on the road all the way to the end.  I enjoyed running up Polly Shortts, as the hill wasn't very steep in this direction.  I enjoyed going through Lion Park and Camperdown, and I liked the idea that by the time I got half way, most of the climbing would be behind me.

As I ran down Inchanga into Drummond, I started feeling the metatarsal cushions in my shoes getting hot.  So I stopped and sat on a little bridge abutment and took them out, and got going again.  I was very happy to run across the halfway mark in 5:05 (6:52 / K pace - but I didn't know that at the time).  That would make my pace 10:10, which wasn't 10:00, but it was closer to 10:00 than it was to 10:43.  So I was very satisfied with how things were going so far.

I marked the time at 30K to go, 6:46.  I had been looking forward to only 30K to go, since that was 18.6 miles, and I thought I could run that far.  The pace for that 14.5K was also 6:52, but of course I didn't know that at the time.  A problem that began about here was leg cramps.  I started getting them in my calf muscles.  In the past, these have been devastating, bringing me to a complete stop.  This day, I ran through them.  I refused to let them overpower me.  I tried to visualize making my body burn some of my body fat and breaking it down and sending the nutrients to those muscles to make them stop cramping.  Probably didn't work, but it kept my mind off the cramps.

I then started looking forward to 20K to go.  20K is only 12.4 miles.  About a normal Sunday run.  It was a real goal, and when I passed it at 7:57 I was very happy.  I knew I was slowing (last 10K at 7:05 pace) but I was still within finishing territory.  I decided I could afford to walk 5 minutes at the beginning of each 5K block, and I took my first un-forced walk here.  Forced walks were now occurring on the steeper up hills.  I started looking forward to up hills, so I could walk for a few minutes.

In the emotional letdown that followed reaching my 20K to go goal, I forgot to set my next goal.  The result was that when I went by the 18K to go mark, I was certain I would not finish, that I could not possibly make it, and that I would quit here.  I couldn't even figure out how many miles 18K is, or what mile pace I would have to make to reach the finish.  I was devastated.  I walked without an excuse or a plan.  I only knew to keep moving.  I was trying to do the arithmetic and see if I could walk to the finish, but I couldn't be sure.  I must have recovered a little and tried running some more, and eventually I got to 15K to go.  I realized that was a Boilermaker, only 9.3 miles, and I had over two hours to get there.  But it was still too close to just keep walking, I had to run to make it.  I ran as hard as I could on the down hills, which were often and steep now.   It really hurt a lot to start running after each walk, but I forced myself.  After I'd run a little way the pain either lessened or I got numb to it.

Inside 15K to go, I was getting despondent again.  I hit on a gimmick to distract myself.  Each kilometer, I would think about a person I know, and by thinking about that person, recollecting things we had done together in the past, I would distract my mind from having to keep going.  I would say this saved the day for me.  I could concentrate on one person I knew for a full kilometer if I worked at it.  Then I wouldn't have to think about how long each kilometer was, and look for the sign for the next one.

I hit 10K to go (only 6.2 miles, a normal lunchtime run) at 9:15, which left 1:45 to finish.  I started thinking I could make it.  My pace for the last 10K had slipped to 7:47 per K.  I knew I was slowing badly, but I also knew I was getting closer.

For some reason, I don't remember passing 5K to go. I think I was delirious, and was back in the state of being sure I would quit.  I thought I had time to make it, but I wasn't sure I could go that far.  I wanted badly to reassure myself that I could finish, but I was reluctant to do so, for fear of jinxing myself.  What if I broke my leg, or pulled something, or just fell over?  I couldn't be sure yet.  I didn't even mark the 5Kto go split.  At 4K to go, it was 10:09, and I had run the previous 6K in 53:53, a terrible pace of only 8:58 per K.  This was terrible, but only 4K to go.

I ran the 4th K from the finish in 8:20, a slight improvement, because it was all downhill and I was running as hard as I could.  The 3rd K to go took only 7:56, a blistering pace, well, no blisters, but some really painful quad muscles.  At 2K to go I let myself think that I really could finish the race.  I walked, looking for the next sign.  I ran after a little while, still looking for the 1K to go.  I turned the corner and kept going, thinking I could walk a little way at 1K to go.  Next thing I knew, I saw a sign that said 600M to go.  At first I thought this was a cruel joke - 600K to go.  Then I realized it was 600M - 0.6 K, and I was inside the 1K to go. I don't know what happened to it, but I was inside it.  I walked.  I decided I could walk to the stadium tunnel, and that I'd run the entire rest of the way.  Must have been at least 250 meters.  I could run that.  I did run that.  It was on soft grass, and I had been warned about all the faux finish banners - there were lots of overhead banners that looked like finish banners, but they weren't.  I kept running until I was across both chip mats.

Then some very nice people handed me a time card, a badge, and a medal, and directed me to the International Runner's finish area.  Tom was yelling for me and I found my way to him.  He got me a chair, and I sat down, and immediately felt like blacking out.  I had to lie down on the grass with the chair over my head so no one stepped on me to keep from passing out.  This lasted a good 20 minutes.  A boy brought my bag and I changed shirts, and we finally headed out of the stadium.  Someone brushed against me accidentally going down some steps and I nearly tumbled.  I had no control left.  It was nearly 2 miles to our hotel and seemed to take forever, but we made it.

I was too sick to think about it, but I was happy with my results.  I wasn't sure I could even do the run this year, for some reason.  I had improved my time by 18 minutes, in a longer and more painful race.  I am satisfied with this effort.

There were 11,076 finishers out of 15,361 entrants.  I finished in 8,657th place.