Marathon Report

By: Jimmy Stroup

Posted: 2/20/06

383,000 people compete in marathons every year, according to MarathonGuide.com. Well, make that 382,001 - since I just finished my first 13.1 mile run last weekend at the San Dieguito 38th Annual Half Marathon.

And it was the most challenging thing I've ever done.

I got into running while in the U.S. Air Force, but never ran anything longer than a 10K, which is about seven miles. Running appealed to me as a way to exercise because I always felt like people were staring at me in the gym and because I look ridiculous on an Elipticycle. But running is solitary - which I like - and you can simultaneously listen to tunes or the radio, which is a great distraction from the physical rigor of maintaining a seven-mile per hour speed limit.

On average, I run maybe twice a week. So when my mother-in-law told me she and her middle-aged friends were going to run in the first Disneyland Half Marathon next September, I piped up and said, "Sure, I'll do that. It sounds like fun."

Flash to the Disneyland Web site, where I learned that on top of paying $85 for them to let me run in a circle around Disneyland, I had to prove to them I could finish their race in a reasonable amount of time - less than three and a half hours. This meant that I had to qualify for the Disney marathon by running in another marathon of equal length sometime before summer.

Not one to put things off, I found the nearest, soonest race I could, which was the San Deiguito half marathon run out of the San Dieguito County Park in Rancho Santa Fe (about 15 miles north of San Diego proper).

My family came to "rah-rah" the event, which started promptly at 8 a.m. I had my shorts, a tank top, my running shoes and my iPod - fully charged and ready to go. Volunteers were assigned to hand out water and Gatorade every mile, so I didn't need to bring anything for hydration.

They played the national anthem and sounded an air horn, and more than 2,000 runners of every shape, size and age charged off including me, wearing number 350.

At first it was a leisurely downhill for about a mile, and I thought it was going to be pretty easy. Then we took a right and started uphill. Uphill for five miles.

I made it all the way up without stopping, and the reward was a flat grade for the next mile. We turned around, went back down that terrible hill and on to the last bit, a mile-long uphill incline to the finish.

Now, I thought I was in good shape. But when you keep getting passed by 60-year-olds and tubby businessmen with determined looks on their faces, it's kind of demoralizing. But I was going to finish - this was my goal. Finish the race without falling over or dying. Both of which felt possible.

I had my headphones in, so couldn't hear the volunteers calling out the time at the mile markers. Since the race was uphill - which I wasn't prepared for - I figured my time was going to be awful. Under two hours is a respectable time for a half marathon, and the guy who finished first, ran in at just under an hour and a half. Fast.

I headed uphill for the last mile to the finish and my calf muscles on both legs started to spasm. I was in extraordinary pain. I was still running but at a pace that was hardly faster than a brisk walk. Soon the hill broke and there was the finish. Finally.

My wife and mother-in-law prepared all the strangers gathered at the finish line to call out my name, though I was almost too tired to hear since my body had commandeered all the extra energy it could find to keep going.

I ran in, to a chorus of people yelling my name, and some man with a bullhorn called out, "Way to go, Jimminy."

I crossed the finish line just to the right of a ticking green clock, the official timer.

It read: 1:55:38. I'd finished in under two hours.

I lay on a bench after receiving my little medal, totally exhausted. They gave me an orange, some water and a t-shirt.

So marathoners are lunatics. I can't imagine going twice as far as I went last weekend, but people do it all the time. Nearly 20,000 people run in the Los Angeles Marathon every year, and they're all crazy.

But I guess I'm crazy now, too. I'm kind of looking forward to the inaugural Disneyland Half Marathon in September. At least Anaheim is a flat city. Man, those hills are brutal.

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