A Little Perspective

At the 1964 Summer Olympics, which were held in Tokyo, Kokichi Tsuburaya of Japan won the bronze medal in the Marathon.  After the Tokyo Olympics, Kokichi suffered from lumbago.  On January 9, 1968, he committed suicide by cutting his external carotid artery.  He wrote in his suicide note, “I am too tired to run any more”. 

I will never reach the height of success that Kokichi achieved, so I cannot comprehend the low that he must have felt to have taken such a drastic step.  But I do know what it feels like to be really tired.  After running 23 miles on Saturday and another 11 on Sunday, my legs were dead.  So I rested on Tuesday even though it meant missing the Phidippides workout.  The next morning my resting pulse rate was 40, two beats per minute lower than normal for me.  I ran my usual eight mile High Intensity Interval Training workout ten seconds per mile faster than my fastest time so far this year. 

I have a very full life; responsibilities like a job, family, chores.  For me, running is a diversion, a spice that enhances my persona.  We cycle through the year’s seasons.  Training for and competing in spring and fall marathons gives us a way to mark the changing seasons.  It helps us through the drudgery; makes the winters seem not so long. 

Sunday was the Rocky Mountain Road Runners Spring Marathon Training Series 20 mile race at Twin Lakes Park.  One conclusion can be drawn from the event.  Tim and I are not good for each other’s racing.  We have a destructive relationship with each other when it comes to pace.  What follows is the transcript of our interaction.

[Moments before the start]

Carl:  “Hey Tim, how’re ya doin’?”

Tim:  “Hey Carl, pretty good.  Looky here, what pace you thinkin’ of runnin’ today?”

Carl:  “6:40”

Tim:  “Yeah, that sounds good.”

[Just after the 1 mile mark]

Tim:  “What was that split?”

Carl:  “6:34”

Tim:  “We’d better back it off a little.”

Carl:  “Yeah, sounds good to me.”

[Just after the 2 mile mark]

Carl:  “What was that split?”

Tim:  “6:33”

Carl:  “We should back it off a little.”

Tim:  “Yeah, good idea.”

[Just after the 3 mile mark]

Tim:  “What was that split?”

Carl:  “6:32”

Tim:  “We should back it off a little.”

Carl:  “Yeah, good idea.”

This went on for seven more miles.  We rolled through the 10 mile mark in 1:05:20.  If the race had ended there, we’d have given each other high fives and called it a good day.  But we still had ten miles to run.  Things got ugly towards the end.  I finished the race in 2:12:15, roughly 6:37 / mile pace.  That was almost five minutes faster than I ran the first 20 miler last year and three and a half minutes faster than my personal best for the course.  While it was the pace I thought I could hold, I would have preferred more even splits.

The usual suspects: Mike Q, David R, Scott K, Jeff O, Jay S and Kevin C ran strong today as well.  Scott D was a happy face at the 5/15 mile aid station with water, Gatorade and Sports Beans.

Tim and I are two alpha males who are pushing the mid-century mark; one of us a lot harder than the other.  We have no business trying to run 6:30 / mile pace for that distance.  When we run side-by-side, neither one wants to give in.  As a result, we goad each other.  The best news for each of us is that I am not running Boston and Tim is not running Colfax.