Friday, May 07, 1999
Hitting the wall
Until you've done it, you can't understand it
BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Your legs suddenly feel like they are 100 pounds each. Your mouth is dry. Your mind starts playing little tricks on you.
You're are at Kellogg near Eastern — Mile 20 — in the first Flying Pig Marathon and you've run smack dab into The Wall. The Wall isn't made of bricks and mortar. The Wall is a psychological/physiological barrier that makes the marathon what it is.
“You start to think maybe they put the mile markers too far apart,” said T.J. Lentz, who has run 24 marathons.
“I don't think any words can describe how it feels,” said John Sence, one of the city's top marathoners.
But you'll know it when you feel it, he might have added.
Karen Cosgrove has run 51 marathons and trained hundreds as part of the Team in Training. She warns her runners about The Wall.
“Some hit it, some don't,” she said. “It's hard to predict. It's all in the day, the type of weather, your biorhythms.”
The Wall can come at the 16-, 18- or 20-mile mark, or beyond. If you've trained properly for the Flying Pig, you've run a couple of longs runs, but beyond 20 miles is unknown territory. That's most likely where you'll hit it.
Some runners run right through The Wall without noticing it. Some are stopped dead by it and forced to drop out.
Lentz has run marathons as fast as 2:19 and as slow as 3:17.
“I've probably got more experience with hitting the wall than running good marathons,” he said.
Lentz says you'll know it when you hit The Wall.
“The first part of race you hit the pace you're shooting for,” he said. “Then as you become my dehydrated, you're muscles locked up. You start calculating the splits in your head. You start settling for slower and slower splits. You think it's never going to end.”
By then, it's too late.
But thanks to a little planning, a lot of Gatorade — they'll have it at every mile marker during the race — and a couple packets of sports gel (more on that later), you can avoid The Wall, or at least run through it relatively painlessly.
“If a person takes fluid before and along the way and periodically takes in some source of carbohydrates, you can resist hitting the wall,” said local running expert Bob Roncker.
Lesson in physiology
The Wall is not a figment of the runner's imagination. It's rooted in the body's chemistry. You hit the wall when you run out of gas, physiologically speaking.
“What happens physiologically is you run out of glycogen, which is carbohydrates,” said Randy Cox, an exercise physiologist and former Xavier cross country coach. “That's why carbo loading is so important. In a long race like the marathon, you're actually burning mostly fat. But when you run out of glycogen, you can't even burn fat.
“What they say is "fat is burned in a carbohydrate oven.'”
Carbo-loading meals is eating plenty of carbohydrates — pasta, potatoes and the like — in two or three days before the race.
“Your liver and muscles become hyper-stored with carbohydrates,” Cox said.
Said Cosgrove: “The couple times I did hit The Wall, I learned later it was my diet. I didn't provide myself with the fuel I needed for Mile 21 and 22.”
The other physiological part of hitting The Wall is dehydration. When your body runs out of fluids, all sorts of bad things happen. And once you notice you're thirsty, it's too late.
“You've got to drink before the race,” Sence said. “You can't take in enough during the race to stay hydrated.”
The plan, the pace
Sence has run four marathons. The first was the easiest. He ran Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minn., in 1996. His goal was to qualify for the '96 Olympic Trials. He needed to run sub-2:22, which was well within his means.
So he stuck to that pace and breezed through the 26 miles, 385 yards in relative ease.
At the Chicago Marathon last fall, Sence was shooting for a personal record, somewhere in the 2:12 range. Because of the way the field broke down, he had to run a pace of around 4:58 a mile, rather than 5:05 pace he planned, or run alone.
He stayed with the pack and he would pay for it dearly at Mile 22.
“The miles seemed never-ending,” he said. “It seemed like the heat 100 degrees.”
Sence finished in 2:15.
“The fact that I was running at 4:58 pace, instead of a 5:03 to 5:05 probably played a large part in my failure to run my goal time,” he said.
Sence, of course, is not like the average runner. He trains over 100 miles a week. His body is used to being pushed to extremes. But there's a lesson to be learned from his experience.
If you push the pace early, you're going to pay for it later. In Sence's case that means running 4:58 miles instead of 5:05. To the John Q. and Jane Q. Runner that might mean running 8:58, instead of 9:15.
“There's virtually no margin for error,” Sence said.
Lentz says the key is being truthful with yourself.
“You've got to be realistic,” Lentz said. “It's easy to miscalculate.”
The weather factor
For Cosgrove, one marathon stands out as her all-time worst Wall Hitter: The New York Marathon in 1992. It was one of her last competitive marathons.
She was shooting to run a 2:32.
“It was a hot day,” she said. “I did everything I tell my runners not to do. I went out too fast. I had a specific time in my mind and I was going to run at that pace.”
At Mile 18, Cosgrove was on pace and sixth among women.
Then she crashed into The Wall.
“It was awful,” she said.
One by one female runners began passing her.
“There was prize money on the line,” she said. “When someone would pass me, I'd think, "That's OK, I'm still in the money.' About Mile 20, I had to start walking. I didn't care who passed me, I just wanted to get to the finish line.”
Cosgrove went from sixth to 23rd. She finished in 2:43 after running the first 18 miles at a 2:32 pace.
The lesson: Because the weather was hot, she should have gone out slower.
“You have to assess the day,” she said. “If it's hot or cold or raining, you have to react to that.”
Cosgrove emphasizes the mental approach with her Team in Training runners.
“You have to be mentally tough,” she said. “But you also have to relax.”
Thanks to modern science you can keep your glycogen tank filled during the race.
There are two ways: a) a sports drink (the Flying Pig will provide Gatorade and water at each aid station at each mile mark); b) a sports gel or goo.
The advantage of Gatorade over water is Gatorade has 3.5 grams of carbohydrates per 5 ounces. (The Flying Pig will have 10 to 14 tables with 7-ounce cups filled with 5 ounces of Gatorade at each fluid station).
“I recommend 8 ounces every 15 minutes,” Cox said.
The advantage of sports gel, which comes in small plastic containers about half the size of a candy bar, is it has 20 to 25 grams of carbohydrates per packet.
Roncker tells a story to illustrate how well it works. Two years ago, he was trying to qualify for the 100th Boston Marathon.
“I had worked up to a three-hour run,” he said. “One Saturday, I forgot my gel. I'd run 11/2 hours and turned around and come back. I really struggled on the way back. I had to walk toward the end.
“The next week, I brought the gel. I had no difficulty. I finished with my knees high. It was the same course. One week later. The only difference was the gel.”
Cosgrove says some of her runners swear by the gel.
“It really helps,” she said, “Particularly for runners with a high metabolism.”
Just another brick in the wall
The Wall could come early for runners in the Flying Pig because of the early hills. Both Sence and Lentz have run most of the course. They both say the first nine or 10 miles are the most difficult.
“On this course especially, you want to go out conservatively,” Lentz said. “The first 9.3, 10 miles are hardest with going over the bridges and back, then climb up Gilbert in Eden Park. That's a good time to enjoy the course. They'll be a lot fans out there. If you get through that OK, the rest of race will be more enjoyable.”
“But definitely, err on the side of caution,” Sence said.
Cox said don't go by pace alone on the hills.
“There's very few races where it's a good idea to attack the hills,” he said. “You should go by "perceived exertion.' That might mean running a 9-minute pace on the hills for an 8-minute runner.”
Cox also said beware the downhills.
“They beat up your quads,” he said. “That's what happens in Boston. The first half is downhill. By the time, they get to Heartbreak Hill, they're quads are fried.”
Can be a fun run
If you get the pace right, if you keep your body's glycogen tank filled and if you avoided dehydration, the Flying Pig can be a fun run. Well, maybe not a fun run, but not a torture test.
Lentz knows. His last marathon in Las Vegas in January was his fastest but one of his easiest.
“I got stronger as the race went on,” he said. “That's a much more pleasant way to run a marathon.”
Flying Pig Marathon Guide
