This morning I heard the theme of JAWS when I was swimming in the deep end of the pool …..
I remember when that movie first came out I was so little, it absolutely terrorized me. I was sitting on my mothers waterbed with my older sister and when that theme song came on she would rock that bed and make waves like crazy and I’d scream my head off! I seriously think that is one of the reasons why I can’t swim well in the ocean, always thinking that there is something MASSIVE under the water just peeking up ready to pounce.
When I DNF’d out of the water at the Penticton triathlon ages ago it wasn’t just because I got smacked in the head by accident, there was a MASSIVE sturgeon underneath me, that fish must have been 3ft long and I screamed my head off then saw a diver in the distance and that was it, I was done. Swam to the shore faster than anyone was swimming in the race. Took off my goggles, wetsuit and kicked the sand. I’d like to see if I could do that race again someday, just to overcome that experience.
I only did sprint triathlons before and that was going to be my first regular distance race, I was so pumped however the fish, the diver and the smack distracted me. Next time I’m going to take a bite out of that fish, throw that diver the horns and swim faster to avoid any smackings.
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I’ve always been a big time open ocean/water lover. The way I see it with regards to sharks is that, they’re just fish, and 99.99% of the time they are scared of me, and they’re not hunting for me, just as 99.99% of the time humans aren’t hunting for them. I must say that it would be a little freaky to see a giant sturgeon.
I think DNF’ing is a very personal and thus subjective thing.I also think that a possible DNF type of situation is an opportunity to find out just how badly we want something and how far we are willing to go to get it. As a caveat, I do not in any way believe that getting a DNF is a sign of weakness in any way, shape or form.
This past March 22 (2009) was my first ever attempt at a marathon. I had initially made it my goal to run the New York City Marathon in November of 2008, but as fate would have it, that June I was not selected through the lottery system that NYC uses for general registration (they use this because there are far more applicants than there are spots). So, the first thing did upon hearing this was to register for the Richmond Marathon in Richmond, VA, which was only about two weeks after New York. About four days before that race, my wife’s great uncle passed away and the funeral would be in upstate New York on the day before the race. This would have forced an all night drive followed by no sleep and showing up at the marathon start dead on my feet.
At this point, I was having one of those, “Am I ever going to do this?” moments. So that I wouldn’t lose my drive, the first thing I did was to register for the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach, VA on March 22, 2009. During the build up period of my training I began to have serious Iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS). If you have never had this, good, you don’t ever want it. Suffice it to say, it’s a pain in you hip or knee (mine was in my left knee) that is impossible to run through. It is something that feels like your leg is about to break in half when, in essence, there is nothing that time won’t heal to 100%.
As the race grew closer, I actually had to take two weeks away from running altogether to give my leg time to heal. It was at about that time that I began running with better technique and form due to my new Newton running shoes.
When race day came, I felt good. I was confident, but not overly so. My plan was to stay with or just in front of the four hour pace group. For the first thirteen miles I felt great, actually getting about five minutes ahead of the four hour pacer. Just after the halfway point (13.1 miles) I stopped to use the bathroom. After finishing in the restroom, and being stopped for a total of maybe one minute, I exited and began the first steps of the second half of my race. Immediately pain tore through my left leg and sent my crumbling to the pavement.My IT band had locked up as tight as a drum.
I had a choice to make; I could stop there and deal with the pain, followed by registering for yet another “first” marathon. Or, I could get up and move. Since the start of my website (brandonsmarathon.com), my motto has been, “One foot in front of the other”. This is what was going through my head at that moment. Any delusions of grandeur quickly left my mind and my race became one of survival and pushing through.
As I began to run, or hobble really, I began to compensate for the injury in my left leg by putting the majority of my weight on my healthy, right leg. After about two miles the muscles of my right leg were screaming in pain. There was no way I could have continued that way. I made the decision to ease some of the responsibility back to my left leg. While my speed did not improve, this certainly made for better locomotion. As the race went on and the miles fell by the wayside, I learned that I could just dig, and find all the best wishes and prayers from my friends, readers and listeners sitting right there, waiting for that moment to push me. It wasn’t a sense of responsibility to anyone but myself, but I just felt the joy and optimism that others had been sending me lifting me up and helping me move.
After four hours and thirty one minutes, I had finished my first marathon. I have said before that for me to DNF, there would have to be a viable, medical reason. I still maintain that, but we all have things that are our tipping point, those things we want to overcome but we’re not sure that we can. I think it’s in times like those that we have to take an objective step back from whatever dire straits we are in and assess whats going on. It’s then that we reach to find what moves us, what pushes us. At the end of the day, the rewards are far greater than what may or may not be a sacrifice. People say to me all the time, I could never do that and I always ask, “Why not?”.
Great to see you are confident to go back into the water after that.Save some of that mean fish bitting for the race:)
“42K Shorts” look like something Forrest Gump wore while running across the USA 10X’s
42,000K Shorts*
Ha! Silly cel..posted this comment in wrong thread.DOH!
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