First Marathon

So the day came! The weather was good and I felt great. I was a bit worried for my knees.

Partners Come and Go

I was supposed to run together with a collegue, but his mobile broke so we couldn't find each other. Luckily my brother-in-law had promised to come and asist me during the run. He handed me gels and took some video of me running .. it felt very good to have him on the side line cheering me on.

During the first 5k I saw a friend of mine (Katja) and I decided to stay near her while "getting warm". To my suprise she ran at the same tempo as I had planned, I think her plan was to go for the same tempo the whole way, mine was to run the first half slower than the second. I told her that i properbly would leave her when the first half was over, but she ramped up her speed to match the speed I had planned for .. this was not my doing .. I told her to go for her own speed, but I really enjoyed talking to her while running ;)

Then at about 23k we stopped so that her husband could take a few pictures of us. He had some trouble so we stayed there fore what felt like 2 minutes before we moved on and at 25k she had to stop and walk for a while .. at this point I still felt strong and was fealing really good about the pace (avg 5:40) but was ready to ramp up the speed a bit.

The Pain!

Then my back started to hurt, at first it was just an annoyance, but after a few kilometers I was forced to walk a few 100 meters. I forced my self to run again and was able to run about 300 meters before I had to walk again. This pattern I followed the rest of the race, about 12-15k ;( The last split from 30.6 to 42.2 took me 1:26:44.

I did complete the full marathon!

When I entered the stadium where the finish line was I noticed an elderly man running a few 100 meters in front of me. I decided to try to reach the finish line before him .. I always try to finish by a sprint. I passed him 50 meters from the finish line, but as soon as I ran past him he sped up to regain his position .. and then the devil came into me and I ran with all that was left and finished just ahead of him. I feel a little bad about it now .. like I stole his thunder or something.

The final result was 4:23:41. An ok first marathon result but still I'm a bit disappointed. On the positive site: my knees did not complain at all!

Knee Solution

My solution to the knee issue is to use the stairs to canteen at the 4th floor at work as "canary" to tell wether I'm training too hard.

I did not run until today, but bicycled to work twice (2 x 16km).

Testing the knee by racing.

The 10k race today was paid for so i though .. I'm just going to run this one a bit slower than usual and then see how the knee reacts.

After the race I drove back home, had some lunch, and decided to go for another 10k. I knew it was reckless but could not resist. The knee feels ok!

Injured Again!

Hmmpf .. I was too eager to get my traing back on track for the marathon in Septemper.

My knee started to hurt a bit after running. I wasn't too worried as it felt like when I just started running. And it was only hurting a little bit and only for a day or two.

But then today after a 5k race (DHL Staffet) I could barely walk back to the car.

I will give it a full rest for a week .. lets hope it's enough. I've only got 30 days left before the marathon.

Problem solved

After only 2 sessions at the chiropractor the foot problem is GONE!

Dooh .. I've wasted a month of training on something that wasn't really a problem.

Well .. at least it wont be holding me back from running the marathon.

The Reason

Today I went to get a running test, just to make sure that the new shoes I was going to buy was the correct ones.

The test was supposed to be done by a physiotherapist, but he was sick so his partner (a chiropractor) took over.

The first thing he noticed was that I was running on the forefoot and asked me if I could land on the heel or midfoot. I told him I had trained to land on the forefoot to prevent the knee problems I had starting out. He said the reason for my foot problem was properbly from forefoot landing and told me to get an appointment with him to fix the foot.

Foot Injury

Dammit, I think I injured my foot by overtraining. I swore that that would never happen to me. .. read more