Several moons ago,1 I ran the Antwerp Marathon. I decided to do it 5 weeks before the day.
A little over a year ago, an email from a friend of mine set me on the track to the marathon.
He suggested that we do the Belgian edition of the Strong Man Run. Since I had run no more than a couple kilometres at a time in the last 4 years, I figured a 10km+ obstacle course would be something that'd be tough on me; something to inceive thoughts of quitting in the middle of it, a test of will. Much to my disappointment, I was only really getting into the swing of things by the final/2nd lap, and was kind of looking forward to a third lap. To be fair, I had no idea what was a comfortable pace for me, and therefore stayed at the back of the pack; between an overly conservative tempo and bottlenecking at the obstacles on the first lap, it was too easy on me.
At work, I lamented this to another martial arts enthusiast. Out of sympathy, or possibly curiosity, he invited me on "The Pussy Run".3/sup> I am now a huge fan of it!
It is a 10km circuit around the Scheld. The first part concludes with a run up 130 or so steps (something like ten flights of 13 steps - I think). The second leg, atop the steps of the courthouse (hence the allusion to Rocky). And finally, the coup de grace is a run up the downward moving escalators in the pedestrian tunnel.
Really, the sole purpose for the previous 10km is that you are "warmed-up" for the escalators. Their total vertical distance is 34m. I find the last few moments on them grueling. :)
It starts off well enough, a nice springy stride; thinking such a pace is maintainable ("I'm invincible!"). Halfway up the first one, the burn in the legs is noticeable; I don't pass by the pictures on the wall as easily as I did before; the lungs start wheezing; the body begins to wheedle ("We can't do it", "Haven't we gone far enough?", "We might fall on the escalator; just stop", etc.)...
There is a very satisfying endorphin rush at the end of it all. :)
So. Running was back on the radar as something to pass the time with. For various reasons, I only did the Pussy Run twice in October/November. The next time I got to run was a 15km jaunt on Christmas day.4 I was pretty happy with my 12.3km/h pace.
My curiosity was definitely becoming piqued... how far could I run? The next time was in near the end of March. Since I had decided to do the marathon at this point, I went for a 23km run to make sure that my joints/feet were OK for longer distances. This time I ran it 11.7km/h overall, with the last 7.5 km or so at 12.1km/h to pull the average up. I felt pretty comfortable at this pace, like I could have done it for another few klicks5 at least. In the days afterwards, my legs were a bit tender.
So there it is - in the 6 months prior to the marathon, I ran 2 x 10km, 1 x 15km and 1 x 23km. Naturally, there were quite a few doubters when I declared my intentions to run the marathon... 5 weeks before hand... With little to no preparation...
Stay tuned for the riveting continuation of this tale of mind and body.6
ooooooooooooooo
1I have been "rather" lax in keeping my blog current :/
2Running
3A shorthand for the "Rocky is a Pussy Run"
4You know how it is; I had some time to kill.
5That's army lingo alpha charlie zulu tango bonza
6I was tempted to say mind vs. body, but that's like saying Scottie was fighting with the Enterprise's engine... Really what we do is coax, egg-on, encourage, trick, entrap, bribe, blackmail our innately lazy bodies to work up a sweat. It's not the least bit adversarial.
