The 1999 Houston Marathon, my first marathon and an example of everything you shouldn't do. 1999 was before the marathon boom, before the plenitude of marathon training groups, and before I had even an inkling of a clue of what to do. I was a junior in college who ran a few times a week for 30 minutes or so and had always had "marathon" in the back of my mind but had no clue what that really meant.
My roommate's girlfriend and I entered a "I'll do it if you do it" pact, so I signed up. I ran, but never exceeded 9 miles in training. I didn't have a training plan or any concept of long runs or nutrition. My roommate's girlfriend actually registered for the race at the expo (further proof of the marathon boom, Houston is now a lottery to get in). We lined up in our respective starting locations and then met up around mile 1. We actually ran almost all of the first 13 miles, but the back half of the course was greeted with a lot of walking. I took in no calories. I ran in a cotton t-shirt. I stopped sweating from dehydration. I SUFFERED a lot. I put myself in danger, but I was completely ignorant to it at the time.
Despite doing everything wrong, I persevered and crossed the finish line in 4:52:xx. I told my sister after the race, "I'll never do this again." I'm glad I was wrong and I'm actually happy that I did everything wrong (but only because no bad came of it), because it adds some validity to my advice when I talk to first-time marathoners. I've done it the wrong way, and you DO NOT want to experience what I did. The experience and suffering also serve as a reminder to train and train properly in order to avoid that anguish, not only during, but after the race. I couldn't walk for over a week.
On January 15, 2012, I will return to Houston and once again run the course. If things go well, I'll finish in almost 2 hours faster than my original time.
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