Thoughts on Detroit

There was alot of stuff going at the race and its taken a little while to think back through it all.

I got there pretty early, around 6:30, because I woke up at 4:00 AM, not being able to sleep any more. Even though I live nearby, I don’t go to Detroit much, and I don’t know the city well. When I got off the exit, I parked in the first garage I found. $3, such a deal.

I followed everyone else over to the stadium. Some guy asked me to take his picture in front of it, but the flash kinda made it dark behind him. There was a big line of buses taking people to the relay exchange points.

I walked over to the bag drop off area and got my plastic trash bag out and stuffed my sweats and jacket in the bag. This was the first time using a bag drop for me. I thought I should have waited a bit before doing that because it was about 40F outside and even with the trash bag, it was cold. Later, the line got huge so I was glad to be there early.

Short lines for the toilets. Yea!

I did my stretching and headed over to the Tiger to meet with Dawnie and the Taper Madness folks. I sat down on the tiger’s paws and realized I really didn’t know what they looked like. Finally I walked over to a small group where one woman kinda looked like Dawnie’s picture. I walked up to and was about to ask if her name was Dawnie, when my brain suddenly froze and I couldn’t think of her name! Fortunately, she was able to break the spell by asking if I was Jon. I’m glad other people don’t have this problem.

We walked over to the starting area and I tried to steer them around the other way so that they didn’t have to fight the crowd. Then they ditched me. Oh well.

I got in line for the toilet, but there was only 10 minutes to the start and there were 12 people in line. A minute each, and I’d still be late for the start. So I left and hoped for a stop along the road, which turned out to be a pretty bad idea.

I stood by the 4:15 pace group and helped people over the fence to where we were. It was alot warmer with people bunched up against you. There were three women looking for their friend who was coming back to meet up with them. They had her chip and number and she said she would be right back. I told them to hold her number and name up high while we looked for her. I never did see her show up and I felt bad that she might miss something she trained hard for.

We waited about 10 minutes after the gun before our section started moving, and even then it was walking. Our leader “Jim” was alot of fun. He held the pace very well, but asked us to excuse the 20 second delay on our first mile because we had to do some walking.

Mile 1 - 8:36 (but I forgot to start my Forerunner so its probably a minute and half off)

The city was a great run! Lots of people out cheering along the sidewalks. No rain, not even a cloud at that point, even though it was still very dark outside. I don’t remember alot of the run though.

There was a mariachi band around mile 3, I think. They were right on my side so it was kinda loud but fun to run with the music.

Mile 2 - 9:46
Mile 3 - 9:23

There a guy in our group named John that was alot of fun. He was tall, african american, ripped, and had a loud booming drill sargent voice. He was running in NYC too I think. He cheered and talked and laughed and really was enjoying the race. The guy was a total chick magnet too because all the women in the group moved right in next to him and were talking all at once. It was crazy!

Up and over the bridge was a real breeze, I couldn’t believe it. I had pulled ahead of our pace group because they had slowed for water and just wanted to hold the pace, knowing they would probably catch up again. The mile 5 marker was right after customs, and there was an announcer there talking a making jokes as we came by. I stopped right near there to use the bushes behind the trailers, with everyone else. Saw one woman come running out of there with a big grin on her face like had just gotten away with something. I discovered people also use their gloves when they don’t have toilet paper.

Mile 4/5 - 19:17

I saw my pace group pass by when I was there, and tried to pick up the pace a bit and meet up with them again. This was probably a really bad idea. In a half or 5K you can do that, not in the marathon. I should have just held back and the good pace and let them go.

Mile 6 - 11:11 (bathroom break)
Mile 7 - 9:04 (speeding up)
Mile 8 - 9:12

I caught the group again as we got into the tunnel, which was a pretty cool run. Lots of hooping and hollering in there. There was a group of guys with shaved heads with green and white shorts and shirts, that everyone called “The Green Team”. They chanted as they ran and I could hear them chanting behind us in the tunnel. We came up out of the tunnel to big cheers from the wall around us. As I passed through the customs gate a woman passed me that I recognized from my 20 mile run. I had run behind her for the last several miles that day. She looked pretty strong in Detroit.

Mile 9 - 9:28 (the underwater mile, but I think the official time was different)

The next few miles were a big blur. I was starting to feel bad and couldn’t shake the feeling. I took a power gel about this time, but it was hard to shake the feeling. I also needed the bathroom again pretty soon.

Mile 10 - 9:38
Mile 11 - 10:04 (stop momentarily at a porta potty but gave up)

I lost the pace group when I stopped for the second time. I remember going over the half marathon mats alone and I glanced at my Forerunner. 2:08 something. I couldn’t tell if that was good or bad for this race, but I knew I had run faster than that before and didn’t feel awful like this. I knew I should have been feeling really good at this point.

Mile 12 9:37

Now I had to stop for a bathroom break. I found one on the side of the road, but some guy had just ducked into it. A woman stopped too.

“You don’t want to come in here.” he called
“Is it bad?” she asked
“Oh, God.”

She ran off to the bushes and I stayed. After a million years he emerged. He wasn’t even a runner. Grrrrrrr. And it was worse than he had described. Gack!!

Mile 13-14 - 20:49

As we were heading down this back road section, there was a guy on the corner with two little girls and he starts yelling “Its Aunt Doris! Aunt Doris! Look! Look!” and the girls are jumping up and down and waving signs and screaming. The blonde woman in front of me (Aunt Doris) was laughing and ran over to accept a gel from the guy. We did a hairpin turn and I saw the guy again down below cheering for Aunt Doris. Yea! Go Aunt Doris!!

At the Mile 15 marker there was a Gu station where allegedly Russell was hiding. Thinking about it now, I remember this gauntlet of young women handing out gu in every flavor you could imagine. I tried to grab one and ended up with two orange ones. I stuffed them in my glove and tried to keep moving. I had just taken a Gel of my own but I was happy to have an extra.

Mile 15 - 9:46 (slowing down)

Now I began to feel really awful. I think it was at this point that I pulled out the gummy fish and sour gummies. It felt good to eat them just because they are a bit of a comfort food. The funny thing was just how unsour the sour ones tasted. But they helped I think. So very sore though.

Mile 16 - 10:34
Mile 17 - 10:30

Next we headed over to Belle Isle. I didn’t know what it was at the time. It kinda looked like a big park. We did a big loop and it was here that I ended up stopping (not sure what I said before). I did some stretches along the way near an aid station, near mile 19, but it didn’t help. I talked to a guy who said he knew me from work from years back. He was fighting PF. But he held an even pace and moved along without any limping.

Mile 18 - 11:03
Mile 19 - 11:38

As we came back across the bridge I spotted the guy from Running Fit again. I had seen him when I passed the first time. I see him at the Running Fit races and I think he was at the Dances with Dirt registration too. A good guy and very upbeat. He was cheering and encouraging the Team in Training folks.

Just after the bridge there were these guys in white and blue school jackets, about 15 of them. As I came up they screamed “JOOOONNNN!” at the tops of their lungs. I was laughing despite how bad I felt. I could have used them the whole way in this race.

Mile 20 - 11:41
Mile 21 - 11:32

At this point I would stop occassionally and try to stretch my calves and my ITB which was hurting quite a bit. And none of it seemed to help. I even saw one of the “Green Team” members hobbling and his teammates trying to help him along. We snaked through a neighborhood here and it was pretty rough going for my legs. I had that wobbly pain and it hurt to lift my legs.

Mile 22 - 12:58

Right at the mile 22 marker I made a turn and BAM! my right knee buckled and I got the old familiar shot of pain from ITBS. I wanted to die. I knew I couldn’t run on it. So I walked for a bit and tried again. Nope. It wouldn’t work. I walked. A long ways. I saw the Green Team guy walking too. I stopped and squatted against the curb and that loosened things up a little. I jogged for a bit.

My hip flexors were killing my by now. It hurt so bad to just lift my legs. When I stopped to stretch, my calves cramped and I had to tend to them first before working with my hip. Lots of people raced by me. I pulled out a Gel I think in here somewhere and had some of the gummies again as well.

Mile 23 - 17:04

I tried to pick it up again and started jogging when I got to the next aid station. The women there were very encouraging. It hurt to move but starting up again was worse. I kept taking a mile at a time. I wanted to stop and just wait to be picked up, but I was afraid that this close to the end, they would not do it. And the disappointment would be pretty awful too. I kept thinking of that phrase, “Pain is temporary, but quitting is forever.”

Mile 24 10:54

I kinda did a walk/run thing after that. I remember thinking it was only 2 miles and that I could do that. I think the 4:30 pace group passed me somewhere in here but I’m not sure, it may have been earlier.

It was now bright and sunny out and getting kind of warm. I went to take off my gloves and they went flying off along with my two Gu’s from the race. I wanted to get them but I couldn’t bend over to pick them up. Dammit.

A guy ran by me and patted my back and said he liked the blog name that I had written there. Another woman passed me saying “Chocolate Runner’s Blog, hmmmm.” But all I could respond with was “Yeah.” There was another woman that I saw doing the run walk thing too. She looked incredibly fit but would stop and rest bending over like she was nauseous or something, then get up to run again. I told myself I would run the last mile.

Mile 25 - 16:55

So at the 25 mile marker I began to run again. We were now zig zagging into the city and somewhere in here the 4:45 pace group passed me.

Mile 26 - 11:36

As we came closer to the end, the crowd got bigger. People were cheering in here now and as we got close to the stadium, a woman was yelling “Just ahead! You can see the top of it from here.” I looked up and there it was. Never been so happy to see a building in my life. We headed down a chute of metal gates and people are leaning over the sides cheering like crazy. It was deafening!

Then down, down into the tunnel leading to Ford Field. I had to walk at this point. The hill was so incredibly steep that I could not run, because of both the pain and the inability to control my legs. People were running down this but I had to go really slowly. Once I got to the bottom, there was the soft, green fake grass for the last 50 yards, and it felt so damn good to run on it, so I bolted.

Mile 0.2 - 5:21

Up above there was a giant screen with images of us coming across the line. As I came over the mats I thought of Dianna’s avatar pic and raised my hands up and threw my head back. Never been so happy to end a race.

Chip time 4:47:06

They took my chip and gave me my medal and my shiny blanket thing. Then I realized there were no snacks on the field. I got some water and drank as much as I could. I rested as long as I could until I thought I could climb the stairs. I went over and had my picture taken with my medal, then began the ascent. 132 steps. Dreadful. I had to move over so people could get by.

Upstairs there was a line for snacks. I couldn’t believe how much my legs hurt. The pain was incredibly deep and just got worse and worse. The line moved slowly and I kept eating or drinking until it moved again. They didn’t have snacks like Running Fit does. Bananas, Gatorade, orange slices, and some funky yogurt drink. That was about it. I think Whole Foods had these little mini-miffins.

I spent alot of time sitting with my bag and eating the stuff I had packed for emergencies like this. Took my ibuprofin, drank a quart of Gatorade. Then I walked back to the truck. Along the way I found a dogtag from a guy that placed first in his division for the half marathon and I mailed it back to him this AM. I walked pretty slowly and had a hard time crossing the street before the light changed. Some kids behind me were making fun of me but I didn’t have the strength or balance to turn around and give them a smartass reply.

Today life is very sore. I tried some stretching but it doesn’t help much. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. A day after the race, I think I don’t feel as badly about how the race went. I’m glad I decided to finish and not give up, although I still feel bad that I fell apart so early. I had pictured keeping it together until mile 18, and not feeling bad until then. Mile 10 was just too early.

If I had to put down reasons for it, its obvious that my injury and being away the last week just took everything out of me. I lost alot of strength and endurance and it was critical to my making this work. Looking back, I think that a slower long run pace would have been better for me, and kept the injuries at bay. Also, if I could have found softer ground for tranining on, it might have been less brutal on my legs.

Thanks to everyone here in blogland for all your support and encouragement. You were definately in my thoughts during this race and thinking of your kind words helped push me onward when things were very bad. Thankyou!!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 24th, 2005 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Injury and Pain, Races. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.