Run

It is 11:15pm and along with 15,000 fellow runners I'm waiting for the start of the Sundown Marathon. I'm not feeling the same buzz I normally get at the start of a race; I'm just waiting as I've been waiting all day. The problem with a midnight race is you can't spend the day sightseeing and expect to be able to run. Especially when the race takes place 85 miles from the equator. I'm not sure if the relatively boring day led to my calm at the start line or it was a factor of the race starting so late. Like last year, I was alone because Yang could not make the trip.

When I took 14 months and worked from home a couple of years ago I had started to train for a full marathon. I didn't want to do it just to do it the way the mass population was treating a marathon as a kind of rite of passage. I wanted to be reasonably fast, like 3:30 hours. As I trained that summer I realized 3:30 wasn't very realistic and I upped my goal to anything under four hours. And then, just finish the thing. I got my training runs over 20 miles and then came a US family trip followed by not being admitted into the marathon I was targeting followed by winter. So last summer I set my goal to run a two hour half marathon which felt quite achievable. My first crack was the Sundown marathon last May. Having read the story of the winner of the Beijing Olympic marathon on the flight down I decided to take the same approach he did – go out fast and hang on. At the five mile mark I was on some crazy pace to finish in 1:40 hours. Then came the other eight miles at substantially slower pace. I did not make my two hour goal.

A two hour half marathon means I need to run a 9 minute, 9 second mile pace. In training for the race my five miles times were considerable faster, around 8:40 mile, but my 10 mile time was a bit too high at around 9:20. I was hoping that the adrenaline of the race would propel me to my goal. At 11:30pm the race started and it was fairly bunched up leading to a first mile time of 9:41. Not great, I thought, and not just the time but my body wasn't feeling very spry which was even more worrisome. The people maze became less dense and with some creative zigging and zagging I made the second mile in 8:45 which put me back on track for a two hour finish but I knew I was in trouble since the early part of the race should be easy and it wasn't feeling so easy.

I've been running with my cell phone my left hand and it keeps track of my time and route which is kind of nice. I tried one of those arm straps but the one I have makes it difficult to change songs or switch from music to a podcast so I've just gotten just used to carrying the phone. On this night, the phone was slick with sweat from my hand due to the humidity. By the end of the race my clothes would be soaked all the way through in a way that just doesn't happen even during the humid Beijing summers. Mile three comes and my phone announces a pace of 9:06 and I'm disappointed because I feel like I'm running hard. Mile four comes in at 9:07 and while I'm technically still on track for my two hour finish I know my body cannot keep up. I set a new goal. Finish.

There are those that say its mind over body and that may be true for some. For those that say that, I'd like them to show me. I had underestimated what the humidity would do to my stamina and then there was the mystery of what happened to my early race energy. I plowed my way through the remaining nine miles, each mile slower than the previous mile except for the last when I picked up my pace ever so slightly. Along the way there were sights to see. The runners of course. The volunteers of which there were many and they were stationed every 500 meters or so should someone need help. There was a young man, lying on the ground topless, getting help around mile 10. Exhaustion or heat stroke, I did not stop to check. There were young things in tight dresses at the clubs we ran past and many of them gave a thumbs up and only a few seemed cynical. I noticed the club scene is mostly for the young except for the few trying to hang onto something.

I started stopping at the water stations at about mile nine not because I was all that thirsty but because I had so little energy left. When I felt a bit recovered I would carry on. I crossed finish, grabbed the race goodies bag and walked the 1.5 miles back to the hotel.