Personal Trainer Michael Anders running marathon

What I Learned From Quitting A Race

I am still processing this, I am probably still not quite right in the head (if I ever was).

Today I ran the Myrtle Beach Marathon, or rather, I started, ran 20 miles and then quit at 20.36 miles. This blog post is as much for me as it is for you, since I am still processing everything. This is the first time I did not finish a race.

Before

I had a pulled an adductor muscle two weeks ago, and it had kept bothering me. During the two weeks since the injury I had contemplated forfeiting the race altogether. I decided against it. My plan was to just run the race easy, instead of trying to break any records. My hopes were that the adductor would be fine with an easy run. Leading up to the race I had not run for pretty much two weeks and used the elliptical instead, since that did not seem to bother my groin

The Start

It was b***ching cold prior to the race, so I was glad when the run finally began. My hydration strategy was sound and to be quite honest throughout the run I felt good in that regard.

The First Half

I kept the pace easy, even started chatting with someone for 4-5 miles but around mile 8-9 I felt the need to pull back and stop the socializing. Around mile 13, I knew I was in trouble. It no longer felt easy and my calves were announcing that they were working way to hard for the short run so far. I backed off the pace even more and finally found a rhythm again.

The Second Half

Between mile 13 and 18 I felt pretty good. The ocean view was beautiful and distracted me from the increasing discomfort in my adductor & calves. At mile 18 though I knew I was in trouble. I had kept a fairly decent overall pace of 7:45 min/mile, but once I hit the 18 mile mark, running felt so much harder. In addition we started to have headwind coming towards us. My pace slowed by 15s/mile on mile 19 and 20. Right at the 20 mile mark the right knee (same side as adductor pull) as well as both quads, calves and the adductor pretty much fell apart.

The Decision To Quit

I don’t quit things. I often hang in there too long, even when knowing I should quit, regardless of the issue. I refuse to give up.

Today after 20.36 miles I gave up. My pace had slowed by another 30s/mile since the 20 mile marker, the effort was excruciating because of the pain.

I asked myself what is the right thing to do?

With each step I was risking to get hurt even more. My ego wanted to keep going finish it, not be a quitter. For once common sense won. I have run multiple marathons during training and in events. I knew I could run one. It was simply not worth it. But, I also knew that right after quitting I would be haunted by feeling down on myself, angry and disappointed. What makes me so successful most of the time, my inner drive, is also what can be terribly hard on me.

Writing this, confirms my decision. I can always run another one, because I made the decision to stop today. If I had not quit, there would be no knowing what kind of injury I would have inflicted on myself.

This was a good lesson for my ego also. I attempted it, I acknowledged when I could not go on and quit. That was not easy for me.

In the end, I run because I enjoy it, I absolutely did not enjoy it at the end anymore.

Time to have a shower (I reek to high heaven), put on the big boy pants and acknowledge that I am human, that I can fail. At least I tried and for part of the race I definitely had a good time.

I am grateful for this lesson today (kind of)

Michael

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