Last Sunday was the Towpath Marathon, which I had agreed to run with my friend Jason. I was supposed to help pace him along at a steady pace so he could qualify for Boston, which was an ambitious but achievable goal. It would involve both of us running personal best runs, with an average pace of about 7:40/mile (a 3:20:59 or better marathon).

Anyway, I wanted to make sure I was as ready as I could be. I knew that I generally slept poorly the night before a marathon, and this was no exception. I slept fitfully until 3:00 when I got up to use the bathroom, and then I finally got up for real at 4:00. The marathon was at 8:00, and so I figured the four hours would give my body time to digest a little food and get over a nervous bladder. That stratagem did work for me, as it turned out.

Mer got up around 5:30 or so (we had slept in separate bedrooms so she could sleep in), and she got ready. We headed out of the house around 6:40 or so, and got to the starting area around 7:00, which was recommended if we didn’t want to have trouble with traffic or parking. It had occurred to me that Jason and I had not specified a meeting place, but I hoped we would find each other. The main building of the ski resort (where parking was) was open, so I left Mer there and went to use a bathroom. When I got back, Mer had confirmed that Jason was there and was in line for the bathroom.

Jason came out of the building, and we met up. Mer had decided to go set up her spectating camp at Boston Store, where the marathon entered the Towpath, about 1 mile into the race; that same spot would also let her see us at mile sixteen without her having to move. She had brought a folding chair and some grading, and so she was all set. Jason and I walked with the rest of the runners about 3/4 of a mile up the road to the starting line. It was a cool morning (about 55 degrees) and sunny, so we had good weather. We hung out at the starting line for twenty minutes or so, and we started the race.

I’ll spare you the blow-by-blow details. We got to see Mer at Boston Store, and I got a quick kiss from her. Jason had planted some support troops along the way. Our colleague JT and his fiancee were in Peninsula at mile three (and mile fourteen on the way back) to hand us small bottles of Gatorade. There were eighteen support stations along the course with water and some other drinks, but Jason wanted Gatorade, and wanted it in squeeze bottles so we would not have to stop to drink. JT was a game soul to hand them to us.

Jason’s family was near Szalay’s Farm at mile six (and mile eleven) to hand us more Gatorade. Jason’s kids handed us our drinks, which was cute. We were humming along pretty well. I felt we were going fast, but we seemed to be going okay – we were averaging 7:30/mile consistently, so we kept at it. We turned around at the southern turn point, around mile nine, and had some crowded running for about three miles as there were runners in both directions on a path only six feet wide. It was still okay.

Around mile nine or so, my left shoulder started to hurt. This did not surprise me since it had been bothering me, but I had hoped the massage would have helped it out for longer. I also noticed some slight discomfort in my right knee, which was new to me. I did not think too much of it, though – I figured it was the fast pace.

Around mile fourteen, my middle back started to cramp. Again, this was not a huge surprise since it had been bothering me during the last few weeks. My legs were also starting to get tired, but we were still right around 7:30/mile, and we both seemed to be doing okay.

We saw Mer at Boston Store again around mile sixteen, and I waved at her. I could not give her the traditional kiss because she was on the far side of the trail, but I was able to shout that I loved her. Jason and I started chatting a little but about race tactics for the last ten miles, when around mile sixteen-and-a-half, everything suddenly fell apart for me, and all in the space of about two hundred yards. First, my lower back cramped up, which quickly spread to my right hip and top of my right leg, which caused the right knee to hurt more. I told Jason I was hurt and told him to keep going. I was having trouble lifting my right leg. I found a tree and used it to stretch my leg and back, and then I tried running at a slow pace, just to try to finish the last nine miles or so. I had to stop and walk and stretch often. I saw Jason after awhile; he was running back after having turned around at the northern turning point. He was still running well, but looked really tired. I yelled some encouragement to him and tried to keep going myself.

Mer was waiting for me at a trail at mile twenty-one. She was worried because it had taken me almost fifty minutes to run the five miles since she had last seen me. In fact, she was only a minute or two from going back to the car to go back to the finish line at Boston Store in case she had somehow missed me. I made the difficult decision to drop out of the race since I was having a hard time even walking at that point, and so we went back to the car and went back to Boston Store. By the time we got there, we missed Jason finishing, but we found Lisa, his wife, and found out that Jason did qualify for Boston with a time of 3:20:12. He had had a serious cramp in his hamstring at mile twenty-five, but had stopped to stretch it out and was able to finish. I was very happy for him, and was pleased that I had helped Jason with the pace at least through mile sixteen.

I was happy for Jason, but sad that I did not finish, especially because I had wanted to finish to honor my friend and former student Mark, who passed away from cancer last summer. I was wearing his name on my shirt, and it was hard to let him down after all the shouts of “Go, Mark!” that I had heard on the course. I’ll try to let my body heal and see if I can try again for Mark in a month or so.

I slept and rested for most of the rest of Sunday. I did make and deliver some frosted brownies for Jason’s kids. They were good sports in hanging around for three-plus hours to see us run, so I wanted to thank them for that. So, not a perfect 10 kind of race, but happily, it was not a 0 either. Next time will be better.