How to manage the crash at the end of a long race
Speaking from lots of recent experience
I have recently run 3 marathons 35 days, while injured. My challenge was not how to race. My challenge was how to survive. Especially challenging was how to survive the last 6-8 miles of these races.
I know what you’re going to say. “Why don’t you just run them slower?” Well, duh, yeah, of course I’m running them slower. But there are still a few challenges for me. First I haven’t got the training in that I should have to run a full marathon. At some point it doesn’t matter how slow you go it’s still 26 miles and if you’re not fit it’s going to be a struggle.
“But couldn’t you walk-run it?” You ask, because you’re a smarty pants when it comes to this running stuff. And I rejoin, “Well, duh. Of course I’m walk-running it.” But as I said before, it’s still 26 miles and I haven’t trained well for it. It also means I haven’t trained to walk-run it either. So, yeah, I can walk run, but I haven’t trained for that either.
Even if you go out slow and throw in walk breaks you can still crash. That’s what I want to talk about today. How do you manage that crash?
The first thing you learn to do, as a veteran distance runner, whether you are racing or just trying to finish is to monitor your systems. You can work through almost anything and finish the race but you have to pay attention to your body.
In the first 10 miles you have to pay attention to your breathing and your effort level. If you’re trying to pace an ‘easy’ race you never want your effort level to climb above zone 2.
In general that’s effort level of 2 on a scale of 0 to 5. If you’ve got a Heart rate monitor you can watch it directly and even set up an alert to warn you when you start to work too hard. If you don’t have the heart rate monitor just watch your breathing.
If you are trying to run ‘easy’ you should be able to hold a conversation with the runners around you without any problem. Your talking should be like you’re sitting in a chair in your living room having the same conversation. If you’re having to breathe or gulp air between breaths or sentences you’re working too hard.
You want to be particularly careful on up hills and down hills early in the race. Try to not attack the ups. Even walk the steep hills to keep your heart rate down. Try not to fight the downs. Relax into the down hills and keep good, balanced form. If you’re just trying to survive a hilly course, how you manage the hills early in the race will determine how badly you suffer on the hills late in the race. (As anyone who has tangle with the Boston course will tell you!)
When you start getting close to the ½ marathon point start to closely monitor your vitals. How do your legs feel? How’s your heating and cooling? Do you have salt crusted on your face? Are you soaking wet with sweat? How’s your stomach feel? Are you nauseous? Are you hungry?
I’ll assume you went into the race with some sort of nutrition and fluid replacement strategy. As you get into the second half you have an opportunity to adjust that based on how your body feels. Now’s the time to take some extra fuel or some electrolytes, because if you wait until mile 18, it’s too late. The decisions and adjustments you make at mile 13 will impact how you feel at mile 20.
As you start to get into the higher miles things will start to hurt. You may get some fairly sharp pains and if you want to finish you have to deal with them. The trick is to fix your pains by adjusting on the move without letting them end your race.
First, don’t panic. Let me say that again; DON’T PANIC!
People beat themselves mentally by losing control at this point. They start this insane internal chatter that goes like; “Oh my god! It’s only mile 15 and I have a foot cramp! What am I going to do?! I’ll never finish! 20 weeks of training down the drain! My family will hate me! I’m a failure! I’m going to lay down now. I’m such a loser…”
Anyone one who has run more than 10 races knows that shit happens. It isn’t the end of the world. It just is. It’s Mile 15 and you have a foot cramp. That is neither good nor bad, it just is. Don’t panic. I’ve had these things happen more than once where you get a phantom pain and then it just goes away in another quarter mile. By panicking you are ensuring your own defeat.
Many times pain is ok. It is just part of the process. When the pain comes instead of panic your back off a bit and analyze the source. What’s it feel like? Does it get better when you slow down? Does it go away when you walk?
Make sure your mechanics are still good. Make a conscious effort to relax. Breathe. Smile. Fix your form. Don’t fight the pain or the fatigue, work with it. Don’t change your stride or your mechanics in response to the pain. That will only make it worse. Fix your form.
Straighten up and run tall. Shoulders back. Hands high and loose. Hips forward. Rapid foot turnover with a light foot strike. Run Lightly. Many times by focusing on your form instead of panicking the pain will go away. A good mantra in this part of the race is “Run Lightly”. Repeat that to yourself. “Run Lightly” Visualize yourself running lightly.
Even if you are an experienced marathon runner and a Jedi Master at mental control, if you are not fit enough those last 6-8 miles of the race are going to hurt. You are going to struggle.
When you get into this state, which can come with a sense of hopelessness and typically is worst at miles 22 and 23, you have to manage the crash.
The number one thing you need to manage is your mind. You need to state emphatically that you are going to finish. Like it has already been decided and you really don’t have a choice. You will finish. It’s not an option. You now have to figure out how to finish.
Once you have decide to finish you can stop thinking about finishing and return your focus to where it is needed; the here and now. Shorten your horizon. Focus on the next landmark, the next water stop or some other intermediate goal that will move you closer to the finish. When you get there set another intermediate goal and work towards that. Before you know it you will feel the pull of the finish line and hear the crowds.
When you are struggling to finish a race you will want to walk and you may even want to stop altogether. Your tired brain may think it’s a great idea to sit down and stretch. Don’t do it. Keep moving. It is mentally and physically hard to keep going once you stop your forward progress. Don’t stop moving forward. Don’t stop at the side of the trail to stretch.
If you are forced to walk and your walk breaks keep getting longer and slower then come up with a way to control them. Here’s an example from my last marathon where my leg muscles were spasm-ing from the fatigue in the high miles and preventing me from running more than a couple hundred feet at a time.
Now I could have just pushed through the spasms but this may have left me lying by the side of the trail writhing in agony with legs that wouldn’t functions. That’s not where I wanted to be. I wanted to finish. I had to find a balance that would get me to the finish line without just walking the last 6 miles.
I picked a number of steps I could run before the spasms became too much. It seemed to be about 50. I started running 50 steps, then walking 50 steps. This gave my mind a rational process to focus on. Sure, I was miles away from the finish line and my legs had basically stopped working, but I was in control of the situation. Probably most importantly, at the end of the 50 steps of walking a mental timer went off that said, ‘OK buddy-boy, time to run again!’ and that kept me from giving up.
This sort of proscribed process moves your mental state back into the big brain and out of the dinosaur brain. It puts you back in control. After a while the 50 steps of running seemed too easy and I was able to stretch it out.
You should train well enough for your events that you don’t have to manage a crash. But, when you get there, as all of us do, you should be able to squeeze out a rational response and finish.
Cheers,
Chris,