The 2012 Texas Marathon and Houston Marathon were just two weeks apart — on January 1st and January 15th, respectively.

I got to participate in both of them, and finishing yet another two marathons that close together was educational.

What made those fifteen days even more fun was getting to see IN PERSON (Woo-hoo!) the 2012 USA Olympic Trials Marathons — also in Houston — the day before the 40th Chevron Houston Marathon.

A Tale of Two Marathons

The Metal Saw Texas Marathon required participants to cover four scenic loops of a concrete foot-path in the Kingwood subdivision on the north side of Houston, Texas, with the start and finish lines at a local park. The Chevron Houston Marathon required one loop on bridges and streets paved with concrete or asphalt through several parts of the city, with the start and finish lines at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Although the Texas Marathon had a lot of shade from trees, the all-concrete nature of the course gave my feet and joints much more of a pounding than did the mixed-surface course of the Houston Marathon.

There are many more differences between these marathons, but let me share them in my …

Personal Lessons Learned

I learned — or re-learned — a lot by running in two marathons just two weeks apart.

• Hold back as much as possible for as long as possible. Before I ran Texas this year, I decided that I wanted to run it in 4:56 and that I wanted my four splits (It was four loops long.) to be 1:15, 2:29, 3:43, and 4:56. I ended up running a 1:11 on the first loop and a 2:28 by the end of two loops. So I went out much too fast and ended up with a 5:28 finish — largely because I burned myself out in the first half. In contrast, I focused a lot of my Houston run on holding myself back and came as close as I have ever come to achieving a negative split in a marathon. I finished Houston with a 5:18 (ten minutes faster than two weeks earlier!), enjoyed the route the most of the five times that I now have run it, and got a 2:37:45 at the 13.1-mile timing mat.
• Find and support a running partner who can hold back for the negative split. My running partner for Texas this year was very enthusiastic about beating the five-hour goal. I encouraged this enthusiasm by telling her about the split times that I wanted us to get. Unfortunately, I let her down by not keeping a close eye on how quickly we were running the first loop, so we completed that loop four minutes too fast. (To non-marathoners, that may not sound like a lot, but, believe me, it was!) After two of the four loops, I lost the ability to keep up with her, and she finished Texas thirteen minutes ahead of me. In contrast, I told my running partner for Houston (another person with whom I had trained all season) that I had NO particular finishing-time goal and that I wanted to hold back as much as possible for as many miles as possible. She, in turn, was able to support me for the first twenty miles, and we finished Houston within three minutes of one another.
• Take an anti-inflammatory around mile 20. No, I am not talking about a pain-killer such as beer, which I once tried around mile 24 in a marathon. (That did not work for me.) I am talking about an over-the counter (OTC), non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). I did not do this on my Texas run, but I tried it for the first time on my Houston run. I got the idea from Marshall Ulrich’s Running on Empty. I am not a medical doctor, and I am not prescribing or recommending any drug here, but I can tell you that — for me, anyway — an NSAID can take the edge off the dull pain toward the end of a marathon. (Your mileage may vary. Consult your health practitioner.)
• Insert ear plugs as soon as the crowd, bands, and stereo systems are too loud. Granted, Houston has some 250,000 spectators, lots of bands, and huge speaker-systems from various companies such as the beer sponsor, whereas Texas has maybe 250 spectators (pretty much all at the start/finish line), no bands, and no music blaring from speaker systems. So this lesson comes from trying something new in my 2012 running of the Houston Marathon that I had not tried in earlier Houston Marathons: wearing ear plugs from about mile 20 until I entered the finish-line chute. This dramatically decreased my stress level, which let me complete the 2012 edition of Houston with a much greater sense of calm than in previous years.
• Do not condition your happiness on your chip time. I focused most of my thoughts, as well as glances at my GPS wrist unit, in the 2012 Texas Marathon on the 4:56 goal and the splits necessary to achieve this — until, that is, I realized that it would be nearly impossible to achieve this goal. In contrast, I focused most of my thoughts, as well as glances at my GPS wrist unit, in the 2012 Houston Marathon on holding myself back as long as possible. And, you guessed it: I was much happier during and after Houston than I was during and after Texas. I don’t mean a little bit happier; I mean a LOT happier. There are at least two lessons within this lesson, and I will talk more about them in my next book.
• Use called-out paces to help you to confirm that you are running a negative split. My running partner for Houston this year taught me this. I used to ignore the paces called out by volunteers at various points along a marathon, knowing that they were based on me crossing the start-line mat at the sound of the gun and that several minutes always passed between the sound of the gun and when I crossed the start line. But my Houston partner got me to pay attention to each called-out pace — not for its absolute value (such as “13:43/mile”) but for its value relative to the previous called-out pace (such as “12:27″ for the latest pace versus “12:41″ for the previous pace). Hearing our pace slowly but surely improve– for most of Houston, anyway — assured me that we were running a negative split.
• Listen to your breath to tell you when you’re too fast. I have gotten pretty good at this, but I can miss it in the excitement of a race. My 2012 Houston Marathon running partner noticed my heavy breathing at one point when I missed it, and she got me to back off our pace until I could recover. Her bigger point was, “Let your body tell you when you’re too fast.”
• When you must walk extra, see it as something that could revert to running, NOT as a black-and-white sign of permanent failure. I use various forms of micro-level pacing in my training and racing, so walking is a given for me. But walking beyond my allotted walking period or instead of running during my allotted running period is not a given for me. I used to see the extra walking during a marathon or half marathon as a sign of failure. What I started to understand during the 2012 Texas Marathon and fully understood during the 2012 Houston Marathon is that a period of extra walking can revert to running, which gave me a new, positive perspective.
• Training to run with negative splits helps you to race with negative splits. I finally learned in the long training season leading up to these two marathons to run with negative splits. And it was that training experience that gave me the confidence to go for a negative split in each of these two races.
• Focus on how you feel more than on how you run relative to others (except perhaps relative to your racing partner — especially one whose pace you know well). Mental Tricks for Endurance Runners and Walkers includes some race-day tricks that rely on leveraging the racers around you. And those tricks work. But first and foremost you have to take care of how you feel during a race. If you find someone with whom you can partner for at least part of a race, then also focus on how your pace matches your partner’s pace. You can draw positive energy from one another, even if that partner was a stranger just minutes earlier.
• Spectators can make a big difference. Texas Marathon has maybe 250 spectators, most of whom are at the start/finish-line area. Houston Marathon has 250,000 spectators along the course, which works out to an average of 1.8 spectators every foot. I rely on spectators to renew my enthusiasm, especially toward the end of an endurance race. If you do, too, then pick your races accordingly.
• Good in-race nutrition can prevent deliriousness. Until the Texas Marathon and Houston Marathon in 2012, every marathon in which I participated ended with me becoming mildly or moderately delirious. I used to wonder whether this was a “runner’s high” that was kicking in at around mile 20. But, then I learned more about my caloric and electrolyte needs during a marathon, and I realized that I was not consuming enough calories and electrolytes. I did not have this deliriousness problem in these two races, and I attribute it to religious “dosing” for calories and electrolytes throughout each race.
• Focusing on heel lift toward the end of a marathon can improve one’s speed. I had what may have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see in person the USA Olympic Trials Marathons the day before the 2012 Chevron Houston Marathon. And “in person” means that I was just three feet or so from some of the best male and female marathoners in the U.S. as they passed me three times on the main loop of that course. Although I have traditionally been a shuffler in my marathons, seeing those 300+ Olympic hopefuls lift their heels quite high behind them inspired me to focus on my lifting my heels ever so slightly more than usual in the final four miles of Houston. And that little extra kick helped me to cut several seconds off my per-mile running pace in that stretch of the marathon.

A Paradigm Shift

My biggest “A-ha!” from these two marathons is actually a paradigm shift. When I see an endurance race as yet another training run, in which I hold myself back as much as possible in pursuit of a negative split:

• I enjoy the race more.
• I get to stay in the moment for each part of the race.
• I can finish the race faster.

How can you make this paradigm shift? Here’s my advice for seeing your marathon or other endurance race as yet another training run or walk:

• Enjoy being able to throw down your trash.*
• Enjoy having all those spectators out to cheer you.*
• Enjoy being able to run down the middle of the road.*
• Enjoy having police and medical personnel right there to serve you.*
• Enjoy having photographers there to document your run or walk.*
• Enjoy having water or aid stations every one to two miles.*
• Enjoy having others track your splits.*
• Enjoy getting a finisher medal upon finishing.*

*Remember, you are paying in one way or another for all of this. So be grateful for and enjoy all of these ways that an endurance race is not the same as a training session!

What Say You?

Have you ever run two marathons just fourteen days apart? In the same city? What lessons have you learned? What was your favorite lesson? Do you look at your endurance races as yet more training sessions? I would love to hear from you. And your fellow readers may benefit, too. So please leave a comment below!

Tapering and happiness go together. Tapering is the process of cutting back on your training distances in the weeks and days leading up to an endurance race such as a marathon or half marathon. Happiness goes with tapering because those endurance runners and walkers who master tapering tend to be the happiest with that pre-race period as well as with their race results.

I can best explain “tapering for happiness” by sharing an email exchange that I had with a woman named Kim who wrote to me recently. Here, in this order, are her original message, my reply, and her thank-you. I hope that it helps you to taper for happiness!

Kim’s Original Message

After seven years of running approximately six miles a day for five days a week, I decided to take on a marathon.

I’ve done the training and put in the miles. I already feel like I’ve accomplished a major goal. Now, I’m wondering what I’ve gotten myself into and am nervous.

When I’ve run races, I’ve been almost overwhelmed by the sensory overload of having so many people around as I am used to the peace of being alone on my runs. Now, twenty thousand people and spectators?

At this point, I am trying to focus on rest and taper. I’m trying to overcome stress and overthinking everything.

I’m looking for any tips to enjoy the experience.

Thank you,
Kimberly

My Reply

Kim,

Thank you for writing. Your wonder and nerves are totally understandable … and typical!

Regarding the sensory overload, I know what you mean. When I would reach somewhere around mile 22 in a marathon, the spectators used to be too noisy for me. It was as if the stress of running / walking that far had hypersensitized me to sound. But now I consider it from the spectators’ perspective. They’re excited for the other racers and me, and they probably have been standing around for hours by that point. So they have a lot of positive energy to share.

The rest-and-taper thing is BIG for first-time marathoners. It seems illogical. But tapering and rest right before an endurance race are proven techniques to have a better race.

Regarding the overthinking thing, here’s what my coaches have taught me. If you’ve put in the miles (or kilometers), then your body is ready. But your mind will keep racing for “things to do” — so GIVE IT something to do. What, exactly? Make a checklist of everything that you want in place for the morning of the race. (I talk about checklists in Mental Tricks for Endurance Runners and Walkers.) And I mean EVERYTHING. Seriously! Keep your mind busy this week making a checklist of the clothes you’ll need, the fact that your GPS wrist unit has to be charged, when you have to leave home to reach the parking area in time, etc.

By the way: If you believe that checklists are for wimps, then consider the fact that airline pilots and surgical teams — whom we trust with our LIVES — use checklists all the time!

Finally, and related to my about-to-be-published new book (Gratitude Power for Runners and Walkers), start making a list of everything for which you feel grateful as a runner. Maybe even share the list with your husband and with your running buddies. Doing this will put you in a state of gratitude that will help you to enjoy the race as well as your time remaining leading up to the race.

Best wishes with your upcoming race!

Health/Love/Happiness,

Kirk

Kim’s Thank-You

Thank you so much for taking the time to e-mail me a response.

I believe in making lists, and training for this marathon has made me a believer in having a plan.

This is excellent advice that I will put into action today. I am looking forward to writing about why I run, already. You are more than welcome to publish my e-mail.

Love,
Kimmie

Do You Taper?

Does this email exchange resonate with you? If you struggle with tapering, then please share your struggle here. Or, if you have mastered tapering, then please share how you mastered it!

Either way, please leave a comment below so that fellow runners and walkers can benefit from your experience!

photo credit: Eneas

“Volunteer for happiness?” Can anyone do this? What does this really mean? And why am I writing about this today?

Let me answer these questions in reverse order.

First, I am writing about volunteering for happiness today, the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the USA, because today is a fitting day to remember all the volunteers who stepped in to help others following those attacks. Some of those volunteers made the ultimate sacrifice — with their lives. And everyone who volunteered made some sort of sacrifice to help their fellow human beings.

Some volunteering is hard. Some volunteering is easy. All volunteering helps — if even just in a small way.

Today I got to do some super-easy volunteering — nothing sacrificial or hard — on behalf of Houston’s second annual 5K race in honor of National Recovery Month here in the United States.

The race was Run for Recovery, and I got to volunteer at a water station. I say “got to” because volunteering at a water station — the first time that I had done this — was a long-time dream. Seriously!

The Value of Volunteering

I wrote in Mental Tricks for Endurance Runners and Walkers about the value of volunteering at foot races to help you with your own races. But now I want to talk to you about another reason to volunteer at foot races:

You should volunteer for happiness!

So what does this really mean? There are at least three words or phrases to take us to the answer:

• Selflessness
• Selfishness
• Owning It

Let’s look at each of these.

Selflessness

Selflessness is about putting others first. When you volunteer, you put others ahead of your own convenience, sleep, or other wants or needs. When you do, you spread happiness. 

Selfishness

Selfishness is a “dirty word” to many people. But what I mean by “selfishness” here is simply looking after yourself. Volunteering can be rewarding — from simply eliciting a smile or laugh to letting someone know that he or she is not alone — and it is this reward that can renew happiness in your own life.

Owning It

My personal trainer likes to remind me that I have to “own” my core exercises, that I have to “own” my hydration, and so on. What she means by this is that I have to make a commitment to myself to completing those exercises, that daily hydration, and so on, and then take responsibility for following through on that commitment. What she also means is that I have to embrace these activities as part of my daily life.

So what I mean by the “it” in “owning it” is happiness. Each of us must own happiness.

• We have to make a commitment to ourselves to be happy.
• We have to take responsibility for following through on that commitment.
• We have to embrace the activities that support this commitment.

In other words…

Each of us must volunteer for happiness.

When it comes to your happiness as an endurance runner or walker, you have to commit to, take responsibility for, and embrace the idea of being happy around and sharing that feeling with your fellow athletes on the road or trail.

You Can Volunteer

If you volunteer for anything, at any time, anywhere, for anyone, then I honor you.

If you are an endurance runner or walker and have not yet volunteered to support a foot race, then I urge you to try it. Look up online a race that interests you. Find the race director’s contact information, and ask about volunteering. And then get involved. The joy that you spread as a volunteer, as well as the joy that volunteering will renew in you, will rejuvenate your enthusiasm for endurance running or walking.

Your Turn

For what event have you volunteered, and how did this affect your happiness and that of others? For what event are you contemplating volunteering, and how do you anticipate that this will spread happiness? I’d like to know, and other runners and walkers could benefit from reading your stories or plans. So please post a comment below…

photo credit: Scott Hudson