Pre-Race Jitters

When 2022 began, I set a goal to requalify for the Boston Marathon and join my friends from South Africa back in Beantown for the 10th anniversary of the bombings. My first real training in several years was sailing along and I was building mileage and nailing a pace that had me scoping the 3-hour marathon again. Then one day, for no rhyme or reason, I finished a run and went to the ground. Searing pain in my lower back had me doing MRIs and physical therapy. It ultimately proved to be a strained muscle, perhaps a stressed ligament in the hip area, which pulled on the back/pelvic joints. 

The injury cost me 15 days off and another 2 weeks to get back to reasonable running shape. In that time, the weather turned disgusting, and regular runs were leaving me stumbling to the finish, with legs twitching all day, a constant headache, nausea, and even occasional diarrhea. I'd had enough. There was no way I was going to be able to do the kind of training needed to run a Boston Qualifier in these conditions. Running was supposed to be my outlet, my break from the stress, and instead, I was going on runs and suffering, only to be more and more fed up with the Chinese on the path, cutting me off, covering their mouths and noses as I ran by, and blasting annoying music. I called off the marathon attempt - well, I would still run in June but easier, no pressure for the time. I cut back my mileage to 40mpw, took away the 20 milers, and readjusted the goal pace to around 7:19/mile (about a 3:12). I started to feel better and running became manageable again. 

When it became clear that my fall marathons would be too late to use for Boston, I had a choice to make - miss Boston or pony up and do the work and hope it was enough to give it a go. So I got back to it, adding mileage and resuming the long run. My weeks got back to 50 or so miles with a few workouts. I went from 0 runs over 16 miles to doing three 20 milers in three weeks. Karma for my injury came full circle when weekdays of gross heat and humidity turned to slightly cooler, rainy Sundays, making those long runs possible again. I wasn't running necessarily all that much faster than pre-injury but I was running longer, more consistent workouts in significant humidity, and I was feeling great, recovering well, and my hope is that all these months put together will pay dividends when the gun goes off June 18th. 

Then the humidity became bad. I got gastritis in the final weeks and no run felt good. I even took an extra day off at the end. Stress was at it's highest in the final days, trying to leave a country with no certainty of being able to get out. It was not an ideal finish. 

Some key workouts are listed below:

• 10x1K - most of them under 4 minutes.
• Continuous cutdown run. 1 mile easy. 3 miles @MP (7:10, 7:00, 7:02) 3 min jog, 2 mi @ HMP (6:47, 6:39) 2 min jog and 1 mile @ 10K (6:15). 
• After a 10 miler, I planned on 2 mi warm up and 4 mi MP. Instead ran 7:13, 7:12, 7:02, 6:53, 6:34, 5:58 in a cold rain, absolutely unloading. 
• 2 mi warm up. 3x2mi @HMP (6:40, 6:37) 3 min jog. (6:31, 6:31) 3 min jog. (6:38, 6:36) 1.5 mi down.
• 10mi "warm up" with Sarah in 1:18:47 and then changed into the new Vaporfly. 8mi solo sub MP (6:52, 6:49, 6:53, 6:52, 6:49, 6:46, 6:48, 6:44).
• 4 mi warm up. 2x4mi @MP (7:10, 7:08, 7:04, 7:04) and (7:09, 7:05, 7:08, 7:04) with 3min walk. 4 mi cool down.
• 2mi warm up. 4x1200m (4:46, 4:44, 4:48, 4:48) w/ 2min walk on each. Then 4x400m (88, 88, 85, 87). 2mi down.
• Yasso 8s (800m) in 2:59-3:01 w/ 2 min recovery. 

China was oppressive, both in weather and behavior. There was a lot of racism and anti-Westerner sentiment that made things challenging. Two years of no travel outside of China (and restricted, stressful jaunts here). It's one thing to be challenged by the weather and another to be challenged all of the time in every aspect - from professional to athletic, to personal. My only two marathons in China were 6 days after not running for 3 weeks in hotel quarantine and the other after a summer of no running due to heat and after 8 days off in Tibet. Hell, even before that I only jogged a marathon in my final year of India. So it's been a hell of a long time since I challenged myself to rise up. Just getting to the US was a breath of fresh air. I can only hope that just 6 days of not working, eating well, cooler weather, and stability/security will leave me primed for the hardest race I will have run in many years. Will it be enough? Time will tell.

Literally. Not only has the Boston Qualifying time for my age group dropped from 3:15 to 3:10 in recent years, but Boston has also become so popular that on any given year, it takes a time 2-7 minutes faster than the cut-off to be accepted. Not only does this mean I have to run faster, but I won't know how fast it takes to enter until September. Sitting on my run for more than three months until I find out my fate is not the easiest way to do this (assuming I go sub-3:10 in the first place). But I have no choice. Come decision day, my time will be accepted or it won't.