A few years ago I saw a flyer for the Lost Dutchman Marathon in Apache Junction AZ, which is held annually in February. It sounded like a fun course, starting out near the mountains east of Phoenix, a place that I hadn't visited before. However, in the next couple of years, I participated in the Ragnar Del Sol relay race, which is held a few days later. But this time around, I didn't find an organized team in time for the early entry fee, so decided to go for plan B. The decision was made easier by the fact that two new friends, Becca & Matt, planned to run the marathon as well. So back in November (2011) I signed up and started ramping up my running.
To recap my previous marathons, in 2010 I tried for the first time, despite never having had run more than a half marathon. I ended up having to walk a lot, six or seven miles. I knew I had to build up strength by training more and also gain confidence through longer runs. I overcame some injuries and did a bit of interval training. I worked up to 17 then 21 mile runs before tapering. In the summer I had another go at a marathon. It didn't go well, muscle cramps started by the halfway point. I tried to run parts of each mile in the second half, but it was extremely painful. So for the Lost Dutchman, I knew that I needed to build up even more muscle (and core) strength. It went well, I did some intense trail runs, an eight mile run uphill on the Mt. Lemmon highway, tried to follow a plan of tempo, progression, and sub-pace runs. My longest run was 21 miles again, but in stark contrast to the prior experience, I felt fine afterwards and recovered very fast. But an attempt a week later to run 90% of a marathon did not go well—muscle pain set in by mile 17. I had to begin tapering and hope for the best.
Unfortunately the third time was not the charm and my marathon followed the same template. Various pains that had me starting to walk by mile 18, and walking all of miles 22-25. At this point I don't know what the next marathon I'll attempt will be, but I do know that the training will have to be even more intense.
