Lyon Marathon recap

Before & After

This will be a short summary of the marathon debacle which took place almost a month ago. Marathon morning turned out to be warm and sunny and a great day to be had on a beach. I am not usually too bothered by warm weather so I wasn't overly concerned, but just reminded myself to drink water whenever possible and pour the rest on my head. Fortunately this is a fairly simple task to carry out, even with screw-top water bottles that European marathons insist on using.

What's not so simple is actually running 26.2 miles at my goal pace. The starting line was terribly crowded and shockingly disorganized. I don't think anyone had lined up properly based on expected pace so the first couple miles were stressful trying to dodge slower runners.

My legs didn't feel good from the beginning, but I chalked that up to needing a bit more of a warmup and nerves. Then my hamstring started complaining. By kilometer 15 it was becoming more than just an annoying twinge, and although we were close to goal pace, I was beginning to slow. I had to stop to walk a bit before km 16. At km 17 my hamstring was cramping and pretty painful. Meredith walked with me a bit and I knew I had to make a decision whether to continue the marathon or not. I convinced Meredith to continue without me, gave him my watch, stepped off the course, took off my bib, and cried.

Eventually I stretched a bit and realizing that there were no race officials nearby and I had no idea how to get back to the starting line other than walking 15k or so, I decided to try running slowly. I pinned by bib back on (using only two pins, so it wouldn't be as embarrassing the next time I decided to drop out and remove it) and stepped back onto the course.

It shouldn't really be surprising, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that my leg felt much better after stretching. My slower pace probably helped as well. I made it to the aid station at km 20 and decided to continue, though I needed to stop and stretch pretty regularly.

The walking and stretching intervals became more frequent, but I was still moving along without any real pain. There were no clocks on the course and having given up my watch I had no idea of my pace. I decided I really liked that feeling.

Meredith didn't know I'd decided to restart, so I was really happy to see him running the other way on an out and back portion near 35k. He had lost a lot of time walking and stopping with me and ended up chasing my PR of 3:23. He fell just short, finishing in 3:24, though without my hindrance he could have clearly bettered my mark. I finished in 3:39, pretty happy with my effort, though unsatisfied with the time.