Marathon Interrupted

Reading my August Runner's World issue on the plane ride from Houston to New Orleans Tuesday morning I came across Dean K.'s FAQs where he offered his if he could offer only one piece of advice, it would be: "Listen to everyone, follow no one." Given my current setback I just need to listen to my body to figure out when I should start running again.

Not running since Saturday has the taper phantom aches showing up in my legs. Or is that part of the effects of shingles? Anyway, got me wanting to get out running. Also not running has me thinking that I've been plagued by some marathon curse or something. 2 completed marathons and 2 DNS attempts and now this setback have me seriously missing my comfortable half distance.

I ran my first marathon in January 2000 prior to running a half marathon; 6.2 miles was the furthest I had run prior to starting training in the fall of 1999. The curse was weak for that first attempt. My 2 co-workers that also signed up for the event were going to train with me; they both ended up being put on a long term audit engagement and were out of town the entire time we were training. We ran one long run together; the only long run that I ran while training. My training was also hampered by a fixer up home acquisition that took away much of my training time as well as a change in jobs. After running the distance, my reaction was of the "I'm NEVER going to do this again" rather than sign me up for the next race attitude.

NEVER lasted a little over 4 years for me. I got into the 2004 NYC marathon lottery and was accepted so was set to begin training that July for my second marathon. I was diagnosed with hep A in May that year so didn't even log a mile training in 2004, my first NYC DNS. I deferred my entry for 2004 so that I had guaranteed entry for the 2005 marathon.

2005 NYC training started out on schedule. Between July and August 26th I followed my training schedule to the mile. August 27th with Hurricane Katrina on a projected path to the New Orleans area, I packed my running gear along with a few other essentials and evacuated to my moms in central Louisiana, fully intending to be back home training within a couple of days. A couple of days turned into not being able to get back home for a week and a half and then only to pack a few things and set up shop in a new city. While I fell off the mileage I was still running throughout this period. Less than a month later, I was evacuating again, this time from the Houston area, from Hurricane Rita. I didn't even pack my running gear for the Rita evacuation. After Rita, I got settled in again in Houston and was getting back into running mode when I came down with a strep infection. I called training quits then and deferred NYC until 2006 for my 2nd DNS.

NYC 2006 was my first year training with Woodlands Fit and was a smooth training experience. I ran my long runs with Scott Brian, Colleen Hayman, and Amber Brock; they were training for the Portland, OR marathon which was a month earlier than NYC. I ran back to back halfs the same weekend as they ran Portland; my second half that weekend was in Portland, ME.....a pretty cool coincidence. Anyway, training and the marathon itself went fine. The curse didn't strike until the week following the marathon. Wednesday following the marathon, I developed a thrombosed external hemerroid that I had excised 2 days later.

NYC was also supposed to be my final marathon but moving into an older age group and getting an additional 10 minutes to BQ got me signed up for Chicago this fall. Once again, six weeks of training went fine. After completing my week 6 Saturday long run of 10 miles, a cutback week for me, I felt body aches the rest of the weekend. I also noticed a small rash near the middle of my lower back Saturday evening. Still not feeling right Monday morning, I went to my GP and was diagnosed with shingles. I'm not sure what brought it on as I have not had any additional stress in my life. Maybe its the additional miles weakening my immune system? Maybe its just the marathon curse as I've run this many miles training for back to back halfs.

I'm just going to cautiously monitor my recovery process; I seem to still be breaking out so not on the downside of this thing yet. I'll figure out where to jump back in the training when it feels right and am confident that I will be able to complete Chicago, most likely not at the pace that I was anticipating back when I started training in early June. In the meantime, the additional rest will do my Achilles good I'm sure.