PRUDENT, CAUTIOUS AND RESPECTFUL

The stuff I’ve been reading lately – the 2 books I mentioned Monday, as well as some Dr. George Sheehan – has talked a lot about the pain management side of running. This has me thinking back to my TCM performance. Afterwards I said I was pleased with my race. However, when I think about it from the pain management aspect, I can’t help but feel like I took the easy way out. With any marathon things are bound to get tougher towards the end – that’s a given. And while that was the case at TCM, thinking back, it seemed like I was dealing with discomfort, not pain. Even though I was passing 60 people during the last 10K, I can’t remember thinking about digging deep, making things hurt a little more, pushing myself to my limits, etc.

Here’s what Sheehan had to say in Running & Being about a similar performance;

You may have seen my name in the Shore Marathon results; “69th, George Sheehan, 3:18:32.” Not bad, you might think. Not a bad place, with 235 starters. Not bad for time, about midway between my best (3:02) and my worst (3:33) serious efforts. You might think that. And you would be wrong.

Because it was a marathon without tears, without pain, without distinction. It was a marathon that I am ashamed of, a marathon I would like to forget. It was a marathon that proves there is a point where prudence becomes timidity, where caution becomes cowardice, where respect becomes fear.

The 26.2-mile distance tends to make all runners prudent, cautious and respectful. “Anyone,” said the great Percy Cerutty, “can run twenty miles, but only a few can run the marathon.” That extra six miles changes the game from penny ante to table stakes. Your entire physical bankroll can dissolve in a matter of minutes.

The runner knows that no matter how he feels at any particular stage of the race, disaster may be waiting for him at the twenty-mile mark. This makes the marathon a chancy and risky business, where the initial pace can be all-decisive. Too slow and you have a poor time; too fast and you may not finish. So those even more timid sometimes use the first seven miles to warm up, and thus change the marathon into an ordinary twenty-mile road run.

Now I’m not going to go so far as to say I’m “ashamed” of running 3:05. But looking back, I wonder if I was too timid and turned the marathon into “an ordinary twenty-mile road run.”

Here are a couple of updated Team USA Minnesota journals; Chris Lundstrom, Meghan Armstrong, and Katie McGregor.

Quote of the day;

“Members of the endurance subculture grow so close to the subject they lose sight of the vastness of their achievement. Without thought or even the barest of acknowledgement, they pass through mental and physical boundaries on a daily basis. Meanwhile, the public stands in awe.” – Mike Plant, author of Iron Will