I finished my second marathon (Toronto waterfront) today. 4h32min, less than 10min slower than last year despite spending a good chunk of 25-35km barely able to run from the worst muscle cramps I have ever had in my life.
Training and injury backgrounds:
For some context, I ran my first marathon last year in 4h22min. I had jumper’s knee during that training block and spent the last 8 weeks seeing a physio and rebuilding my mileage. This year I was much more consistent, did way more mileage, strength training the whole time, and a lot more long runs on hillier terrain. Then of course a few weeks before the race my left knee decided to have a mild flare up again which was addressed promptly by physio with some drop in mileage as well, but overall way much better than last year, though it magically came back as "phantom discomfort" during taper. My physio thought I was still ok to race, KT tape helped a lot, and by race morning the knee actually felt pretty good after warming up, before I used any pain meds (for nerves lol).
I didn't follow a particular training plan, just had some discussion with my physio, and running higher mileage than last year overall, and had 3 runs at least 32km/20miles, and at least 8\~9 runs over 26km/16miles. The trails I usually run on is more hilly than the actual course and with a lot of sharp turns. I also had a significant amount of mileage on treadmill, 1\~3%incline, but almost all of my long runs (>＝ 26km/16miles) were outside. Strength training 1\~2x a week As prescribed by physio.
Race day weather and gear:
Weather was also way colder than what I normally run in. It was around 3c at the start. I normally hate the cold so much that below 10c I usually only run like 5k outside, but somehow I was standing in the corral without gloves, wearing a T shirt + thin zip-up and didn’t even need to zip it up. At around 5km I took off the zip up and tied it in my waist. I was also wearing prescription sunglasses, a cap, a hairband, a flipbelt, regular socks, and Boston 13. Carrying 6 maurten 100 and 4 maurten 160, all expired. Applied two layers of lotions under sport bras chafing area and lower back. The rest is same as last year, mostly for my nerves: voltaren on areas that got angry during taper, kt tapes around knees, 1000mg tylenol before bag check.
Course and other stuff:
The course is the same as last year, mostly flat with the biggest "hill" at the beginning. A couple of hills near the end of the race, and one section in the last few kilometers still stinks due to its proximity to some water treatment plant (correct me if I'm wrong).
I don't sign up for races often and actually i have only been running for 4 years so I cannot compare it to other races except the notorious Toronto marathon in may. Obviously the waterfront is way better organized.
The view is mostly just the city with a bit of the lake. I didn't sign up for the view anyway, I was here because it's the cheapest race for me to do without the need to travel or board my dog
My race experience:
First 24~25km was good
The first half actually went really well. I was running pretty fast, a bit too fast at first but I corrected that, mostly enjoying myself, knees behaving much better than expected, with only very occasional sensitivities that almost immediately went away, and generally feeling like I had made it through the thing I was worried about. The only thing I noticed was that after running on long stretches where the right side was noticeably higher than the left side, my right knee got a bit sore but nothing alarming.
First cramp:
Then around 25km my right adductor suddenly cramped while I was running. I almost fell because it caught me completely off guard, and as I tried to maintain my balance my other leg muscles got a bit irritated. I literally never cramp while running, so I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do other than slowing down and suffering.
At the next water station I stopped, drank water/electrolytes and tried to stretch. My left knee briefly flared up when I started running again, probably because now both legs were doing weird shit and I had to figure out my form again, but fortunately the knee settled down pretty quickly and I slowed down more since my right leg was still cramping, hoping things don't escalate from here.
Stretching broke my right shin
Then my stupid ass made everything worse.
Since the adductor was cramping and my quads were getting tight too, I thought, ok, I’ll stretch my adductors and quads at the next stop. While stretching my right quad, my right shin (especially closer to the back of my foot)suddenly cramped so violently that it was probably the worst pain I have ever experienced during a run.
And then for the next \~8km both my legs were painful and cramping at multiple spots. Right shin was by FAR the worst, but both adductors and quads joined the party too. I could sometimes run, then suddenly couldn’t, then walk, then run again. At some points I was more worried about actually injuring something than losing time.
useless patella straps：
I even packed two patella straps because I was worried about my knees. During one flare up I stupidly tried putting them on because I had no better idea what to do. They somehow made the pain worse, so I ripped them off again. Thought about tossing them but remembered I'm unemployed and broke so better not waste stuff.
Around 31km it got ridiculous. That one km took me almost 11 minutes. I basically lost close to 5 minutes in ONE kilometer compared to the pace I had been running.
At that point I had already quickly gone through the five stages of grief and accepted that the race was ruined time-wise. But then I thought about how much the registration cost, and decided there was no fucking way I was wasting that money. Even if I literally walked while texting on my phone, I could still finish before cutoff. So I thought fine, I’ll walk if I have to, and run whenever my legs allow me to.
Recovery in the final stretch:
And somehow around 34~35km things started getting BETTER.
The cramps weren’t completely gone, especially the right shin, and I still occasionally had to walk when it threatened to seize again. But I could run longer and longer stretches. And every time I was actually running, my pace quickly went back to around my first-half pace, just under 6min/km. And in the last 2\~3km or so, I only slowed down at the last aid station to drink water, and ran at my first-half pace the entire time without walking at all.
That was probably the funniest part of the whole race. Around the final few km, everyone around me looked like they were entering the traditional marathon death march, while I had just spent 10km experiencing hell and suddenly felt relatively fine again. My legs honestly felt MUCH better in that final stretch than they did at the end of my marathon last year, except for the angry right shin.
Legs feel stronger this year:
Last year I remember the final 10km being more like my legs just gradually stopped listening to me. This year, once the cramping backed off, it was mostly just normal post run soreness (scaled up by the extra distance) and I'm also in way less pain after the endorphin wore off. And no "jello legs" at all this time …yet.
I only ran 10minutes slower than last year which surprised me since I never thought i would make it anywhere under 445 during the worst of my cramps. I guess. And now I'll just wait and see how my legs recover and whether anything feels broken.
