For the morning routine, the same as in plenty of other events, hot cereal with almond butter, coffee, water, and a banana about 35-45 minutes before the start of the event. Including a warm-up job of about 1 mile to the start line.

It was so great to see so many friends at the start. Some were about to tackle the full, others the half, and a few the 10k. We chatted for a bit and got ready to start the adventure.

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Miles 1-3

Started with Prasanth feeling good. The temperature at the start already hovering close to 70. I decided to pursue the original plan of running between 9:00 and 9:30 pace. This was based on last year’s event where I was able to hold that pace for about 13-14 miles. This year hoping to take advantage of the somewhat lower temps at the start of the event and knowing that I was going to slow down considerably by mid of the event.

I chatted during the first few miles about the course with Prasant. Also, about a few strategies to tackle the turns using the tangents to minimize adding too much distance to the race. This is very important, especially with events where the route has many turns.

Miles 4-7

It was already feeling warm by mid-mile 4, sugars were on the top high side, and I felt it a bit. Legs were a little bit heavy and burning. Around mile 5, and as I was getting close to tackling one of the hills, I felt like something was not right, I looked at my watch, and the heart rate was running very high, this early in the event. Sometimes I disregard the information from the watch as the HR can be off, and if I still feel good, I will continue. Not this time. I tried to slow down, but I ended up walking some of that hill. Prasanth got close to me and asked me if everything was ok; I told him that my heart rate was a tad high and encouraged him to keep going holding a good effort pace.

After recovering some, I started running again but kept an eye on the HR and also my sugars. Here I started to really think if I should drop to the half at their turnaround. This is too early to have to walk, 20 more miles of this? Holy Tamales what am I going to do? I thought about it for a few minutes and decided to take it one mile at a time. I still needed to get to the Full and Half split and I did not have to make that decision now. It could wait on that for now and just handle what is happening at the moment, the rest does not really matter.

Miles 8-13

During these miles, it was more of holding an on-off pace. At the split, I decided to continue pursuing the full. I am glad I did not make the decision early and waited until this moment. Although not 100%, I knew it was doable to finish, perhaps in under 5 hours.

I was already feeling the temps, I did a minor insulin adjustment to keep my sugars at least steady. Now I think I need to be very careful, I do not want a repeat of the Rock and Roll Marathon a few years back. At that time I ended up sitting on a sidewalk close to mile marker 25 with 4 EMTs treating me for a really dangerous low-sugar state. That was what was right in front of my mind at that moment. I was feeling the same way about high sugars early in the event with similar weather conditions and I did not want to over-correct and find myself in a similar situation.

On another note, my left foot started to hurt a bit. Kind of glad it did, because it took my mind from revisiting the Rock and Roll of 2015. I do not know if it was phantom pain or true pain. I adjusted a little bit but the pain was coming from the outer edge of the foot, not the inner arch like once in a blue moon I will get when I increase the mileage. This time it was different. But I manage to keep it at bay and figure out how to continue without aggravating it too much.

Miles 14-17

These miles were basically flat, which was a relief. But still lots of walking even with the flat segments. Closer to the turnaround, I saw Prasanth going strong on his way back to the finish line. He was about 20 minutes ahead of me at this time. I did another minor bolus adjustment, as the sugars were still high. I also saw a running in trouble being tended by some spectators, in really bad shape. Not a few minutes later, the EMT was heading fast in that direction.

My foot still bothers me a bit, sometimes enough for me to think about it and question whether or not I am modifying my gait and form too much. But I am overthinking it. My adjustments are more about how I am landing on the foot, concentrating on landing in the lower midfoot rather than the midsection of the midfoot. That is doing the trick so I remove that from the list of things going on.

I am glad we are running this section under the cover of trees at the greenway. Even though there is cloud coverage, it is very warm. By this time I have removed my singlet given that there is good shade coverage.

Miles 18-22

Close to the Mile 18 marker, another runner was being tended to by the paramedic, as there was an ambulance trying to help the runner back in ok condition. I do not think this person will be able to finish the marathon.

Here comes the main hill, and finally, the sugars seem to start behaving within an acceptable range. Still, I spend lots of time slowing down, so I do lots of power walking. I decided to practice powering the walks during the uphill. Since I was not going to beat any personal record, I thought to take advantage of a learning practice opportunity. I passed many runners with the power hike, even some of them that were trying to jog the uphill, and that made me happy.

Halfway to the hill, I saw Dave, another long-distance runner friend that was on his bike cheering for the runners. I stopped for a bit, we talked for a few minutes, and then I headed out. That break helped me recover a little bit of the energy.

At the top of the hill, yet another runner sitting in a chair, being helped by other spectators, and soon after that, I saw another runner lying on the ground alone, trying to get up. I stopped and helped him get up slowly. I asked him if he needed water or a gel. I walked with him for a bit to make sure he was ok. I talked to him and asked a few questions. He was coherent and was just very depleted with lots of cramps.

Miles 20- Finish

After the hills, it is mostly a small rolling hills segment. Still very tired, but at the end, I saw Prasant, who had finished his event, and Susan was with Ken, who gave me one last kick of encouragement to run fast one last time to finish with a smile.

Anthony was there at the end after successfully tackling the half marathon today. He was kind enough to stop by for my finish. I am so glad he did, as I needed help getting back to normal and cooling down. He quickly recognized that I needed some extra water and something to eat. He did not have to, but he stayed with me until I felt well enough to walk the mile-long walk to the parking lot. Thank you Anthony for all the help.

Have I mentioned lately how great is the InsaneRunning family is?!!

Highlights:

Course: Lots of runners, but there are very wide roads for the most part until the half and marathon split. The course narrows at the greenways a little bit, but there are no issues as there are only marathoners running this stage of the race. Hill-wise, there are rolling hills that require attention to the effort. Mile 18 hill is challenging, especially in the later part of the event, as it is a long steady hill. Need to take advantage of the tangents at the turns and turnarounds, it could add distance to the route.

Venue: At the finish, it was good, simple, but effective. Some music, water.

Expo: Small Expo – just a couple of vendors.

Weather: Very rough weather the only thing that was working out was the few clouds that kept the sun away. A hot 65º with just very high humidity. By the end, we were hovering close to the 80s.

T1D: Sugars were high for most of the event. I bolus and adjusted a bit to stop letting it keep going higher.

Fueling:

Pre-Race: 1 serving Hot Cereal and Latte. A banana about 45 minutes before the start of the event.

Race: E-Fuel/Tailwind and mostly water at the aid stations. Gu, E-Fuel, 2 Maurten gel, and a couple of Gatorade powder packets.

Post: Protein shake and lots of water.

Learning Points:

• I need to be more realistic about the weather conditions and adjust expectations right from the start
• Learning from Rock and Roll was beneficial. It still played on my mind, but I managed better.
• Taking it one mile at a time was a good approach to prevent an even more disastrous result.
• Make lemonade out of lemons: Quickly switch to what I could use the run after an initial bad performance. Switching to power hikes to practice the hills.

Month/Year	Event	Location	Type	Time
Nov-22	City of Oaks Marathon	NC	Full	5:13:48