This was my forth marathon and my second in 1992. It turned out to be another race that I actually did better than I had hoped. Here's what I thought of it in 1992:

The alarm went off first and then came the wake up call from the Motel Six front office. I reached for a Power Bar before I got out of bed. It was 5:30am and I wanted to eat some food well before the race. I had two Power Bars and two bananas and 64 ounces of water. The Power Bars are athletic food, low in fat, high in carbohydrates that digest fast. That's what they say. In the San Francisco Marathon I had had a lot of stomach problems after I ate them. But I had eaten one just before I started so I figured I hadn't given myself enough time to digest them. This time I was going to have at least and hour and a half.

Eric Hjort was running the marathon also and Penny Warren was along to take care of use before and after the race. We dressed, packed up the car and then drove to the start. Penny drove us along a lot of the course to the start. The weather was cold (in he 40's) and rainy. It had rained hard the night before and was still drizzling. I was not looking forward to running in the wet and cold weather. I had on my new fancy Nike poly-something-or-other top that wicked moisture away from me and kept me warm at the same time, some lycra shorts and some gloves. I was carrying my Iron Man watch (the band was broken) and my pace strategy sheet.

The water I dank was making its presence felt and Eric and I began the wait in line for the port-o-potties ritual. But the lines were long and the race start was imminent. I blew off the lines and went behind some bushes. Eric followed my lead after a few more minutes. Then we raced through the crowd to give our sweats to the race officials who would take them to the finish for us. After we did this Eric and I parted ways. He had another stop at the port-o-potties to make and I wanted to get a spot near the head of the pack. The countdown to the start was already beginning and I was still trying to advance to the head of the pack. As I found my spot the gun went off. I never broke stride as I headed to the outside and around a lot of people. There were just over 2000 people there. Not a huge race. Also the start was at a very wide street so I was able to get across the line with in a minute of the actual start.

My adrenalin was pumping in over drive. I did the first mile in 6:21, well ahead of my pace. But I didn't care. I had decided to run the first 13 miles hard and they finish with whatever I had left, no matter how much it hurt. I crossed the two mile point in 13:21 and wasn't even breathing hard. I felt great and I knew nothing could stop me.

Did I say nothing? About a half mile later my stomach began to hurt. It soon developed into such an agony that a lesser human would have torn open their own belly in order to relieve the intense pressure. I merely slowed to a crawl and found the first port-o-pottie I would to relieve my pressure. The stop was not as productive as it could have been, but I did feel a lot better and was able to get back on the road and resume my fast pace.

About three miles later the same thing happened, I had to make another pit stop. I hoped that this would be the last and that I would release all of the offending material and be on my way. Again I was able to get back on the road and pick up my fast pace. Now I was passing people for the third time. And the people I had been up with were no where to be seen. They were now about four minutes ahead of me. I knew there was no way to catch up to them anytime soon. But it was a long race and I felt I had a decent chance of seeing them again.

The pain hit again three miles later. I was falling into a familiar pattern. Three fast miles and then a pit stop. I was feeling good everywhere but my stomach. At the third stop I ducked into a port-o-pottie and found that the person who had gone in front of me didn't have very good aim. There was crap all over the seat. I spent a precious minute of my race time cleaning off the seat. I was pissed off, but I had to go.

I rounded ten miles feeling good again and running fast. Penny was waiting there. She was going to run a few miles with Eric. There were also some bag pipes and a big crowd. The rain was still coming down, but the wind was not noticeable. Not until I rounded the next curve.

We began our next eight miles south, into the teeth of a strong wind that blew the rain right in our faces. It meant nothing to me. I cruised by people for the fourth time. The rolling hills of the course were tiny compared to the ones I trained on and I passed as many people going up as I did going down. The packs were thinning though. By this time people were more intent on running and had lost some of the talking that had been going on at the beginning of the race. My pace was now in the 7:30's.

Right on schedule at mile 12 my stomach began hurting again. It felt like this time I could stop and get everything out. But I was about two miles from the next aid station. I decided to run it out and stop there. I made it okay and cruised to the sole port-o-pottie. I found it in use. I looked at my watch to see the time, it was 1:37 when I stopped. I still had a good time going. I waited for the person to finish. Time sped by as I watched runners pass me and leave me in their wake. I asked a marathon staffer if there was anyone in the port-o-pottie. She knocked and a guy answered. More time passed. I kept looking at my watch. Aarrgghh! I had been there for almost two minutes. Those were two minutes that were gone and I could never get back. Damn! I decided it was better to run slow and in pain than to be stopped and I took off. The pain subsided in the next few miles and I passed a lot of people for the fifth time.

I was still in the 7:30's but now each mile added a second to my pace. I ran by aid stations looked and the port-o-potties and didn't stop. I had lost eight minutes at least and decided I couldn't afford any more stops. My stomach pain was bearable and sometimes wasn't even there. Finally we entered a more urban area and the wind died down. The rain had stopped by then also. Soon my stomach felt fine. Right on schedule the sole of my right foot began hurting and my legs started telling my it wasn't a good idea to go fast anymore, it was mile 20, and the time was 2:36. I had run this fast a week ago on a course with worse hills than anything they had here. But then it had been sunny and I only stopped once to get a drink of water out of a fountain.

Just a 10K to go was what I told myself. I ran one of those in less than 40 minutes on more than one occasion. I just had to keep it up for a little longer. At mile 23 a guy passed me and said "I've been with you for the last three miles. I saw you pass me twice and I never remembered passing you once." I explained to him my stomach problems and the stops I had made. He encouraged me to keep up with him and for about a mile I was able to. But I had to rest a bit for the final few miles. At mile 24 I started my kick, what little I had left anyway. I knew I wasn't going to make the 3:10 Boston Marathon qualifying time, but I knew I was going to beat my PR by a lot. Now I only wanted to finish strong.

The last two miles were in spurts of fast and not so fast running. I passed some people and got passed by others. Each person I passed kept up with me a little while and each person who passed me pulled me a long with them. I was beginning to feel a great sense of accomplishment. I rounded one of the last two corners and kicked the final time. I looked in front of me for some one to catch but found no one, they were too far in front. I looked in back for some one to hold off, but found no one, they were too far back. I rounded one more corner and saw Penny with her camera. I lifted my arms in celebration and sprinted to the finish in 3:26:55, almost a full 20 minutes faster than my PR I set three months earlier in San Francisco.

As I stopped running the pain in my legs hit with full force. The sole of my right foot had been hurting a lot so I was running funny with my right leg to compensate for that and my hamstring and calf were really tight. I limped a lot and a woman at the end asked if I was in pain. I smiled and said I was. A little girl handed me my medal, I smiled again and said thank you. The women helped me toward the medical tent. I smiled again and felt good to have run hard and hurt so much. Penny made it over and helped me to the tent. We were turned away at the tent because they didn't have a massage tent this year.

Penny helped me to a bench and I put on some dry sweats and sat in a blanket. I went really good even though my body hurt. I felt goo because my body hurt so much. I knew I worked hard and done well. If I had only been smarter about what to eat and when to eat it I would have come in about eight minutes faster, but I still felt great.

Eric finished 20 minutes later, taking an incredible 35 minutes off his San Francisco time! It had been a very good race for him also. Penny helped us both back to the car and we drove back to Berkeley. I showered ate some more carbohydrates and had some milk and cookies. Then we went out with Mark Gilkes and his wife Barb, who was in town so they could celebrate her birthday. We went to a mexican food place and I had a taco salad. I hoped the roughage would help get me regular again. I felt wonderful the entire time and still do. I know it wasn't the 3:10, but I ran a good race in of four stops. I'm happy. In three years I've taken almost a full hour off my first marathon time. If I progress at this rate of improvement (15 minutes per race) I'll qualify for Boston in New York with a time just under three hours. I hope to run one marathon in the early summer somewhere in the northern part of the US or southern Canada.

I'm taking a few weeks off to let my right foot heal. Also my ankles feel a bit sore, aside from the general soreness that comes along with running a marathon. I think I'll go see a doctor about my right foot. I think I have bruised it from a lot of hill running. I won't have that kind of problem in West Lafayette though.

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