My 2016 journey to BQ

The first half of 2016 was dedicated to running and swimming.  My final would be Mountains2Beach Marathon on May 26. My success would mean a Boston Qualifying time.

I knew my goal was big. My feet are my nemesis.  I padded them well. I wanted it to come true on my first try but sometimes we don't realize just how much work is required to achieve a goal so big. Sometimes it takes longer to grow into the goal. What I learned was that we achieve many small goals along a journey and not reaching the ultimate goal does not make the journey end in failure.  It means we reflect, we learn our lessons, we dust off, and we carry on.  To be ultimately successful in my BQ journey, I will need to continue my speed drills, and persevere until tools like McMillian's Running Calculator agree that I am ready to try again.

I made some great progress while training with San Diego Track Club. I ran faster in shorter distances and ran further in training for a marathon as well. I averaged about 27 miles a week for 8 months so my running fitness improved.  I will likely try again when I'm closer to meeting the expectations required to be successful.  I have run M2B twice now and I can't say that I enjoyed the new course very much.  It lost a lot of its beauty this time with the course changes. The rollers on the second half made the overall race more difficult.

I must praise my mentor, James Ismailoglu for his patience, motivation and selfless support the entire 26.2 miles.  He sacrificed 4:33 hours for me personally and I am forever grateful for his presence because otherwise I'm not sure I could have finished without him.  We practiced a 14 miler together in training and we shared a common pace band from www.findmymarathon.com which uses the course elevation to calculate the best pace to follow mile by mile.  I learned that I need larger print on these pace bands!  These old eyes can't seem to focus on small print while running!  James would call out our 1 mile pace goal and we would try to follow it.  The course seemed pretty desolate.  There was only a short section along the pretty tree lined bike path this time.  There was a lot of broken concrete roads to follow.  Even though the net loss was 700feet,  the up hill sections were later in the race when you needed the most gravity to help maintain your speed.

James and I did well reaching the first half of the marathon goal 1:57:22 finishing at 1:58:27.  The only problem was I started to struggle breathing deeply by mile 10.  I had to stop for a minute and use my inhaler to expand my lungs.  When the weather is misty and cool, it is ideal for running but the thick air can bring on a tightness in my lungs.  I am grateful I purchased a 2XU tri top with rear pockets to hold my inhaler "just in case" although I have never used it during a run in the past. Planning for the "bad" sometimes pays off!  I struggled to meet the half goal and knew that the 2nd half would be a harder struggle to maintain this pace but I kept reminding myself that I could only give my best and it would be ok if I didn't make the ultimate goal.  I tried to remain positive, reduce the mental pressure, and stay close to James.

The 2nd half of the marathon has more flat sections but I kept feeling an increasing pain in my left foot but it was bearable until mile 15.  This was the hill I expected and it hurt but even worse was the downhill afterwards.  Now the left foot, which has a fused 2nd toe from a prior surgery, was now jamming into my foot bed due to lack of flexibility. My big toe was protected with a gel sock so when it hit the front, it had cushion and flexibility.  Now my "free speed" downhill became searing pain, leaning back, heel braking to brace against the pain, flailing arms, and pounding feet into the pavement.  Eventually the poor technique and extra pronation added more pressure on the outside of my quads and the inside of my knee which caused both to cramp. Even a double dose of ITSTHENERVE meds didn't stop my cramping left leg.  I couldn't stop the poor technique because I was fighting to stop the pain.  My BT headset had stopped by mile 6.5 so I could hear how heavy my feet were hitting the pavement. Mile 15-18 were mentally and physically hell.  James agreed that we had used up our reserves and were not going to make the goal.  He walked with me for about a half a mile and we worked on a walk/jog to push through the long straight sections.  We walked too long at times which turned my quads into cement making the jog/walk much too short to make faster progress.

We made it through the 19-23 mile straight section which was so boring and ugly.  I only made it worse by not eating much because I was so disappointed in my pace.  When we finally made it to Santa Clara street, James was able to keep pushing me from light to light with a jog/walk.  This was a mile or so of slight uphill but it seemed endlessly up although the pain lessened without the toe banging toe, but the quads were cement without much energy left.  It was pretty desolate on this street and I had expected crowds of supporters.  I was super happy to see Crystal at the turn and faked the biggest smiles I could muster because Jeff said to always smile to make things better.

 I faked it well until she asked me how I was doing and the waterworks started.  I was grateful for her encouragement and knew my hell would be over soon.  I just needed to press on.

The finishing mile of concrete has little visibility of the ocean and it winds around so that you never see the finish line arch. It really seemed an indefinite distance for me.  James continued to encourage me and in a few more bends, I finally saw American Flags and the finish arch.  We stopped for a finisher picture by the only race photographer I saw all day. James and I hugged and smiled with our chins up even if my feathers were in disarray!


I got my medal and just stood still while fighting back the ugly cry.  I couldn't believe I did better in 2014 with a 4:27 finish and 5 min run/ 30 sec walk strategy.  I had trained hard for 8 months and did worse than I ever imagined and had no idea why I had such a problem with my foot.  I heard the Boston Gong going off for the qualifiers and just dropped my head.  I had no family at the finish line and that was tough.  I kept looking for some one I knew and sure enough Elwyn Chaix came to me with sorrow in his eyes and let me sob hard into his shoulder.  He knew he didn't need to say a word.  I just needed to let it go and he was a perfect friend for me right then.  He was awesome.

After clearing my eyes, I looked at my phone and saw that Marcus and the kids were not far behind.  They were having a great race and it picked up my spirits.  Less than five minutes and Marcus was there for me and the sobbing started all over again.  My toe had a pulsating heartbeat by then and when I removed all my protective gear,  I saw the bloody blistered toe and realized the source of my pain from my fused toe jamming into my food bed.  The nail bed was completely lifted and filled with fluid.  Only another 10 minutes later and Ryan and Aliyah completed their first marathon too!  Marcus got a great picture of them.  I'm so proud of them all for meeting their goals!  Marcus also qualified for the USA invitational half marathon beating his qualifying goal by 3 minutes!

I tried to think of what I had done to cause this problem.  I had other toes protected with gel sock caps. I had the sides of my bunion scars protected with gel covers too.  My guess is that by changing to elastic laces, I had not had miles of down hill running to show me that over time, there was too much give in my ankle.  My big toe may have hit the front of the shoe but it was protected with a gel sock and it bends so I never felt the pain.  By the time my big toe would bend, the remaining pressure would be on my 2nd toe that was not protected and it could not bend and absorb the shock.  The pressure just jammed through the nail bed and into my foot bed for about 4 hours probably.  I changed my stride and gait to try to eliminate the pain instead of stopping to try to further tighten the laces.  I have no idea why I didn't think of this during the race.  I guess I was so focused on time that I felt I couldn't stop to look at my shoe.  I just kept going which was my biggest mistake.  I will use standard laces the next time I run for hours downhill. 



I will not try Mountains2Beach again but I will continue to improve my speed and strength over the next year or two and see if I can improve my technique and maybe try again at Revel Mt. Charleston in Las Vegas, NV.  Thanks for following my journey.  Stay tuned for the remainder of the year in triathlons .  My scheduled races are: June SDIT Oly, July Solana Beach Sprint, Aug Chula Vista Oly and Santa Barbara Oly, Sept IM Santa Cruz 70.3 and October IM North Carolina 140.6.  It's going to be a fast 20 weeks!