The Marathon: An Impression

e Marathon Experience Varies Widely

Th From Runner to Runner. Can We Find Any Common Ground?

BY PAUL REESE

O NE OF the fascinations of the marathon is its uncertainty. If you’re racing a mile or 5,000 meters, or even 10K, you entertain few doubts about finishing. But whether or not you’ll finish is the first uncertainty of the marathon. Any number of things—a muscle pull, a stomach cramp, fatigue— can go wrong, any one of which generates a “DNF” alongside your name.

Then there’s the matter of training. In shorter races, the correlation between training and results is somewhat consistent, but what clicked for you in one marathon might well fizzle in another. To a degree, the same is true of diet: what seems to work so well for one marathon is El Floppo for the next. You may start the marathon feeling low and lousy, doubting that you’ll last five miles, convinced that no way will your time approach some of your better marathons. And, lo, what happens? You finish with a very satisfying time and, better yet, with relatively little pain or strain. And you wonder: what the hell is the secret of it all? Your question never gets answered definitively, because the next time—same scenario, different set—and zap! You barely survive, your time is miserable, and you’re stiff and aching.

Then the reverse (or perhaps the “perverse”): you come to the starting line feeling great, smugly satisfied with your condition, buoyant of spirits, confident you’ll rip off a corker. You’re off to a good start and, in the early stages, running effortlessly. You’re cruising. Then into the race awhile, you find yourself on a descending scale. Your time is dropping off, you’re tying up, and you’re exerting lots of effort to maintain mediocre performance. Your confidence is shattered. Your race is a disaster, and your mind is busy groping for answers—answers that never come.

If a marathon is an unpleasant experience, you discover your immediate train of thought to be: I’ll change my strategy (in the form of increased mileage,

28 © MARATHON & BEYOND ~ January/February 2000

Running legend Paul Reese, the only person to run across all 50 states.

some intervals, a change of diet, different shoes, etc.) for the next one and get back in the groove. If a marathon is a rewarding endeavor, you’re thinking: Wow! Can’t wait for thatnext one. Now that I’ve got the combination, I’ll blast to a PR.

Good or bad (can a marathon ever be neutral?), the race is over. You immediately review the elements of your effort, searching for what helped, what didn’t. Did I wear the right shoes? Did I drink enough? Did I go out too fast? What effect did the weather have? Did the course slow or speed my time? Was my training right? Did I have enough long runs, enough time trials? How about my diet?

Mentally, you retrace the course, moaning where you were weak, puzzling over why you were strong. Intrigued by the chemistry of strength and weakness, you wonder about the formula, wishing you could decipher it. As you review, you again realize that the marathon—any and every marathon—is more than a race—it is an adventure. A race is a race is a race: time over distance. Not so the marathon. Recall any of your marathons, and you think of the flashbacks from your 26-mile safari, and in many of which you find yourself identifying with your fellow runners, each struggling in his or her own style to endure or excel.

The marathon over, all finishers are a Company of One: marathoners, an elite fraternity. The race over, energies drained, bodies aching, muscles strained, marathoners find themselves already thinking about the next marathon on the schedule. They vow to up their mileage, wondering, “What if I try… ?”

And somewhere along the line, all in their own way, all marathoners worth their salt thank God for the blessing of a body capable of weathering a marathon.

Secretly, or sometimes openly, they rejoice over their state of health, which can’t be too bad considering the ordeal they’ve just survived. And only a marathoner can understand and appreciate that the ordeal was, yes, fun.

Finish a race and you may have the satisfaction of a good time; finish a marathon, any marathon, and, regardless of time, you’ ll sense the satisfaction of accomplishment. And that’s the consistency of the marathon. Finish: ing something very difficult is always such a damned satisfying feeling.

ELAINE REESE

THE MARATHON: AN IMPRESSION © 29

Paul Reese

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© Volume 1.3—Where Are America’s World-Class Marathoners? Featuring an M&B Special Report: In Search of the Perfect Marathon and Trends in Elite-Level Marathon Performances by David E. Martin.

* Volume 1.4—20 Years at Death Valley. Featuring: Beating the Heat by David E. Martin and Into the Valley of Death by Richard Benyo.

© Volume 1.5—25 Years of Marathon Madness. Feature article by Michael Sandrock and special feature, 25 Who Reinvented the Marathon.

* Volume 1.6—Tribute to Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers. Featuring: Simplifying the Marathon by Frank Horwill and Fire and Ice by Dr. Robert Johnson.

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