The Wall

Anyone who reads about the marathon will eventually read about, or hear about, The Wall. It's a point approximately 20 miles into the race when the body runs out of the glycogen it has been using as fuel and has to switch over to the alternate source, which is fat or cartilage or maybe brain cells.

There are some legendary stories of athletes hitting The Wall and suddenly losing all their energy and strength and stiffening up to the point where they can barely walk, let alone try to run. According to myth, they feel like they actually ran into a brick wall. Hence the name.

My encounter with The Wall was not of mythic proportions. I did, however, feel a distinct drop in my energy level soon after the 20-mile mark. Soon after that my calves felt like they were burning. They weren't cramping--I haven't had cramps in quite a long time--but they burned like muscles feel during intense weight training or speed training.

Then, soon after the 21-mile mark, my legs felt stiff from hip to toe. I stopped to walk for a minute or so and then ran--kinda ran--the rest of the way. According to USATF.org, I did just shy of 22.2 miles (I was going to link to my route, but apparently I did not save the thing. Sigh.).

The good news is that I did feel strong through 20 miles. I set a slow pace and walked every 20 minutes. I had no pain in the hips, knees or ankles, no hint of cramping, and at some intersections I had to pick it up, almost sprint, because drivers were waving me through.

I had a funny experience with a bottle of Gatorade that I bought at the Jiffi Stop in Chatham. I couldn't find the perforation in the plastic wrapper on the top. This thing had a fancy drinking top to it. I twisted the top off the bottle and discovered one of those paper-foil seals on the top of the bottle! So I had to remove that thing and screw the top back on just to get some drink. Sheesh.

It was a 24-ounce bottle, so I drank half of it and stashed the rest at the base of a lightpost north of the Route 4 intersection with Woodside. It was still there when I came back.

I sucked down two packets of CarbBOOM and tried to decide whether I needed to suck down another. I finally decided that I wanted to find out how far I could go on how little gel. I did gel around 5.5 miles and at 14 miles. Maybe, maybe another one would have helped.

And I started my day with oatmeal with peanut butter and a banana. That seems to be the best way to prepare for these runs.

I started running around 5:35 am and hit 22 miles at 9:50 on the dot. That's about 4 hours 15 minutes for 22 miles, which means I'd have to maintain an 11-minute pace for the remaining 4.2 miles to finish under 5 hours. In other words, I don't think I'm gonna come in under 5 hours. On the other hand, I won't be stopping at stores to buy Gatorade and water during the actual marathon, so who knows.

Now we taper. As people keep telling me, tapering is good.