My Insane Weekend Part II (40th Guam Marathon)

Around 11:30AM on Saturday, 26 March I finished the XTERRA Triathlon. A mere 15 hours later I back up and getting ready for my next great challenge of the weekend...the 40th Annual Guam Marathon! Here I am somehow smiling at 3:30 in the morning even though I know what is about to happen, and how much it's going to hurt.

At 4AM 89 of us took off from the University of Guam. I'm somewhere up in the front (though I didn't stay up there for long).

Here I am around Mile 8. I was still going strong and feeling good. Actually, that's not entirely true. It was about this time that I started to feel "twitches" in my legs and I knew that cramps would be coming soon. I knew there wasn't a lot I could do but try to get as much water and Gatorade at the aide stations and take as many GU power gels as I could stomach (that number is about 7 by the way).

At Mile 19 my calves cramped up and I was done running. I tried several times to run again, but every time I would instantly cramp up. With 7 miles to go I had no choice, but to power walk my way to the finish line. Not a "glorious" way to finish, but I was determined to cross the finish line.

4 hours, 11 minutes and 2 seconds after starting the marathon, and about 25 hours after my first race had started I crossed the finish line. The cloud cover (and early start) helped to keep it relatively cool during the race. Thank goodness for that because it was brutal enough, and the heat would have made the race just about unbearable.

Eventually I was able to cool down enough and dry off so that I could change out of my sweaty clothes and sport my new medal.

As for the race, I got it all on my GPS. It was pretty cool to see that I had run from one side of the other (even though it was narrowest point). For the most part, there was very little area that was covered twice with the exception of the "out and back" in the upper left corner. The total distance there was about 5 miles.

Here's a picture of it zoomed out to show you that Guam is small island, but it's not that small. I am a little curious to see how far down the island we would have gone if we hadn't done the "out and back"

Looking back on the race, now that my legs are mostly feeling better, it's pretty crazy to think I did it. If I were to do it again (who's to say what's happening in 2012), I would definitely do some longer runs. With 17 miles being my longest run in preparation for this marathon, I know I need to get my mileage up (a couple of 20 miles runs) if I want to make it the full 26.2. I think I did all I could for hydration and rest (considering Saturday's activities), and the only thing else I could have done was train smarter. Still, my goal was accomplished...I finished. Although there were a few people who did the marathon and a leg of the XTERRA Triathlon, and some people who did the XTERRA Triathlon and a leg of the marathon relay, I am the only person who did both in their entirety. That's pretty cool.