On April 26th, 2003, I successfully completed the Country Music Marathon. It took me roughly a year and a half to go from pinnacle of lazy to marathon runner, though I only trained intensely for three months prior to the run.
A marathon is 26.2 miles. The tradition dates back to the Persian War, fought between the Athenian League and Persia; in 490 BCE the Persian fleet landed at the plain of Marathon and the Athenian army went to meet them. Though outnumbered, the Athenians defeated the Persians, and the Athenian general selected his fastest runner and sent him to Athens to announce the news. It was 24 miles from the plain of Marathon to the city of Athens; the runner ran as fast as he could, ran into the city and screamed, "Victory is ours!" He then dropped dead. The modern marathon commemorates his run. This story is probably apocryphal (for one thing, how did he learn English?); better authenticated is another associated distance run: when the Persians landed, the Athenians sent a runner named Philippides 150 miles to Sparta to enlist their aid; he made the journey in two days. The modern marathon was created for the first modern Olympic games in Athens in 1896; it was 24.8 miles.
For years the marathon was 24.8 miles. In 1908 the Olympics were in London, and the marathon was to end 1.4 miles from Windsor Castle. The Queen wanted to see the runners but didn't want to leave the palace; she ordered the marathon extended to 26.2 miles. Bitch.
To make the Country Music Marathon more country-musicy, there were 27 stages set up across the course with bands performing country music. A few of them were really good, but most of them were just sort of standing around tuning or whatever while their speakers blared recorded music.
The best part of the run was undoubtedly the people who came out to watch and cheer. There were also 28 high school cheerleading teams along the course, as well as thousands of people who were just there to watch, and it's so much easier to push on when people are cheering.
A breakdown of my experience and ten of the lessons I learned:
| Time | Progress | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 4:30a | I wake up. Ten minutes of staring at the ceiling tells me I'm too nervous to sleep; I read a bit, drink a little water. Eat a banana. Food and water management is important when running. I decide not too eat too much pre-run, I don't want to risk an upset stomach. The race pamphlet has promised lots of food along the way. Marathon Lesson #1: The pamphlet lies. | |
| 6:15a | One last check of the weather -- 53 degrees and cloudy, says weather.com -- and I head out to the race. I had been checking the weather all week; at first it was supposed to thunderstorm on the morning of the race, then it was going to rain, now they were saying no rain but clouds. I put on a t-shirt and shorts and head out. It was raining and very cold. Marathon Lesson #2: Weather.com sucks. I got about 30 feet before I turned around and put on a long-sleeve shirt. | |
| 6:45a | I get into my carrel -- #10, the last one. I registered at the end of the cycle and I think I got stuffed at the end, I'm surrounded by walkers. It's way too cold to stretch, all I can really do is stand near other people and concentrate on stealing their body heat. I tell myself I'll stretch a few miles into the race. | |
| 7:00a | The gun goes off! And we do nothing. There are 10,000 people in front of us. Eventually we begin to shuffle forward (very slowly). | |
| 7:08a | I cross the starting line and my official time starts. The race is using the ChampionChip system, a little radio thingy that you tie to your shoelace so you can get your actual time instead of the time since the gun went off. I start out with a light jog, but there are too many people in the way to get any speed at all. | |
| 7:18a | I ran the first mile way too fast. I immediately try to cut back, though I feel really good. I haven't stretched yet; I decide to stretch after five miles. | |
| 7:28a | I ran the second one too fast too. This is a bad pattern, but I'm feeling great. "I'm a marathon runner!" I think. Then I think, "Maybe I should wait to see if I die before patting myself on the back." | |
| 8:03a | I hit the five mile marker and I have to go to the bathroom. Sadly, every port-o-let has a giant line outside it; I decide that I can make it for a while. I consider stopping to stretch, but I figure I'll have to wait on one of these lines soon, I can stretch then. Marathon Lesson #3: There are never enough port-o-lets. If you had 70 billion port-o-lets in one place, 200 billion aliens would immediately land and get on line. We're in my neighborhood, so I've trained on these hills -- they're the steepest ones in the run. | |
| 8:14a | Score! An empty port-o-let. I dash in and out and get back on track. Notice the lack of stretching; I decide to stretch at 10 miles. At this point I start to get hungry; there has been no food, as of yet. | |
| 9:00a | I've mentally divided the race into a ten mile run, another ten mile run, and then a 10 kilometer (6.2 mile) run. I rejoice in the completion of the first ten miles -- I feel pretty good. I reach the first food area around now, volunteers hand out "gel". I take some gel packets. I have never tried gel before. It's really good. Also, we're running through one of the worst neighborhoods in town. I have forgotten all about stretching. Marathon Lesson #4: Don't forget about stretching. | |
| 9:01a | I should have taken more gel packets. I'm still hungry. I've been drinking a lot of gatorade though, cause it has sugar. I was hoping that would curb my hunger. Marathon Lesson #5: Gatorade will not curb your hunger. All the half-marathon people are beginning to say things like "ooh, only three miles left!" I hate them all. | |
| 9:12a | The first runners are finishing now. I'm not even half done. Oh well. | |
| 9:13a | The half-marathon runners veered off to the right, now it's just us. | |
| 9:24a | I'm feeling really good, I guess this is the "runner's high". We've made it past the part of the course with the most hills and the next 6 or 7 miles are flat. Rick and Ali are cheering on the sidelines, they run with me for a quarter mile or so. That really helped my spirits. | |
| 9:35:33a | Half done already! This is easy! | |
| 9:45a | Runner's high gone. I feel pretty bad; I've drank way too much Gatorade and every time I take a step I hear it slosh in my stomach. It's very unpleasant. | |
| 10:09a | Ten miles to go. I feel like crap. Also, this is a really ugly industrial part of Nashville, with no one cheering. There was a very elderly man with one tooth who growled out at me, "You keep running, I'll keep smoking," and then took a big hit from a cigar. That was pretty cool. | |
| 10:32a | Feeling better, another runner's high or something. Some more gel packs and a banana, that helped. Although I'm determined to run as much as I can, I decide that when I'm handed a cup of Gatorade I'll walk while I drink it, ostensibly so that I don't spill. Marathon Lesson #6: It is easy to make excuses. | |
| 10:55a | The second ten miles is gone. I don't feel great, but I'm still moving. The last 6.2 miles is the hardest part of a run; a commonly heard saying: "A marathon has two parts, the first twenty miles and the second half". 20 miles is where most people hit the big wall, and the 21st mile is usually torture. It's extra bad on this marathon, where the 21st mile has some of the worst hills in the run. On the plus side, I've discovered that if you do math using the Metric system, you feel like you've accomplished more -- I've already run more than 30 kilometers! Marathon Lesson #7: The Metric System isn't entirely useless. | |
| 11:32a | 5 kilometers remaining -- 5Ks are a common race distance. It suddenly dawns on me that I might actually be able to finish this run. Some quick math tells me that my original goal, finishing in under five hours, is impossible unless I can run 3 miles at 9 minutes per mile. I don't have the strength to do it and I give up on my goal. | |
| 11:44a | Wait a minute! I screwed up the math! I *can* make it in under 5 hours! Except that my knees feel terrible. I decide to try for it. | |
| 11:53a | Wait, I can't make it, I'd have to run a 7 minute mile. Oh well. | |
| 11:56a | Hold on a minute! One mile and 12 minutes to do it means a 12 minute mile! I can do it! Marathon Lesson #8: It's hard to do math after running 24 miles. | |
| 12:04p | Finish line in sight. Everyone's massed around the line cheering and it really helps -- I find a lot of energy I didn't know I had and I sprint the last .2 miles. Marathon Lesson #9: People cheering really does help. | |
| 12:06p | Made it! Four hours and fifty-eight minutes! Mike and his serfs are there to give me Powerbars and oranges. This is good. | |
| 12:15p | Waiting in the area past the finish line is... the PEEPS FUN BUS! I tell them all about The Great Peeps Mystery. They don't seem amused. I suspect a conspiracy. | |
| 12:30p | I'm done, I'm very cold and I don't have a way to get home. I clearly planned this poorly. Fortunately, David is nice enough to come pick me up and give me a ride home. | |
| 3:00p | The sun finally comes out. 5 hours of running in cloudy weather and the sun comes out now. Marathons should start at around 4 p.m., so it's warm before you start running, and then it cools down as you warm up. | |
| 4:00p | Becca and I go eat. I eat a lot of salty food and immediately feel better; I guess I didn't do a very good job managing my salt levels. |
3,876 people signed up to run the Country Music Marathon; 3,263 people finished it. I was the 2,209th person to finish, number 101 in my age group (20-24). My total time was 4:58:43, a pace of 11:24/mile. 8,368 people ran the Country Music Half Marathon.
In all, this was a great experience. I learned quite a lot, and not just the Marathon Lessons enumerated above. Will I do it again? Ask me in a week or two.
My legs were very sore and I couldn't walk for two days. I should have stretched. Marathon Lesson #10: Really, don't forget about stretching.