I came to Portland for a two week bussiness trip at the
Intel site that we have in Portland OR. I planned the travel around 1 or 2
months ago. After all the travel arrangements, I ran the Barcelona marathon.
But I withdrew at km 25. I decided then to run the Eugene Marathon that was organized
the last weekend of my travel. This is
the report of my first US marathon!
The summary is: I’m proud and happy that I could run this
big event. I did not do my personal best, but I could make it in 2h38 finishing
in 13 position.
The night before the race we went to a fast food restaurant
to eat something for dinner. Hotels in downtown had no vacancies when we
organized the trip so we had to look for something outside the city (with not
much food options). The waiters were nice and they made me two big plates of
pasta with olive oil. Probably I had to eat more
Day of the marathon: we wake up at 4am.. the race starts at
7am. Thereby, we need to eat something 3 hours before. We have some bread with olive oil and honey
and we ride to Eugene. We get there at 5h30. Streets were empty and the
organizers where preparing everything. We
do a short walk and come back to the car to prepare all the stuff.
6am: I prepare my compressport R2 and the triathlon t-shirt
and go to the start line. People are moving around and I start seeing some of
the athletes that will be my rivals. We do 20 minutes of easy warm-up and we go
to the corral A. The organization reads some lines about the Boston attack,
they sing the national hymn and the race starts. First miles I feel that my
stomach is sort of weird. Usually, In Barcelona, before the race I use to go
several times to the restroom but that was not the case this morning. With such
big time zone different your body cannot adapt your “patterns” in two
weeks. This makes me feel strange and
not 100% comfortable during the first miles.
We do the first 8 miles shared with the half marathon
course. However at mile 9 we split and the half marathon goes following a
different path. At this point I’m almost alone in the trail. I pass the half in
1h15minutes. The first half marathon is not flat, it goes up and down, and goes
thru different small trails which are pretty cool. The atmosphere is awesome:
people cheering, music etc.. for few minutes you forget about the profile of
the race. In any case, at this point I start seeing that I won’t be able to run
in 2h32 minutes. I can maintain my cruise speed of 5’44’’ min per mile. But I’m
not sure if I will be able to keep this for the rest of the second half.
Mile 14: I meet my local supporters Lisa and Dan (glad they
came to the race) and they give my second gel (they provided me the first one
at mile 7). I eat part of it and I start
having some small pain in the stomach.
Ughhh…. “something is going wrong here”.
I also start feeling de-hydrated.
Next time I will ask them to give me also a bottle of water.
One of the problems that I see is that during the marathon
that they give small glasses of water. If you are running at 5’44’’ min/mile
you cannot drink properly. That implies
that during the whole marathon I could not drink more than half a liter. That’s
not good. I’m pretty sure that had a
very bad impact on my legs.
Mile 19: I’ve to stop to the restrooms. I’m not feeling good
and It’s probably one of the last chances to stop. I’m having more pain in the stomach. This
time it’s increasing.
Mile 20: I met for third and last time my friends. Dan gives
me the gel and yield “keep going man!!”.
I try to eat part of the gel but I feel sick so I decide to trash. One of the local women that was cheering
around the same mile tells me that I’m in the 6th position. The first thing that comes to my mind is “you
cannot give up, you have to try pushing hard and hard”.
So there we go, I try as hard as I can to keep my pace
around 6 min per mile. People is cheering around, “go, go”, “you look strong”,
“only 6 miles!”. I have to try. I give
it a try and I can maintain a pace of 5’55’’ mins per mile. It’s difficult and
I’m looking for the finish line. I’ve
pain, but only one thing is clear to me: “I WON’T GIVE UP”
Mile 24: I have to slow down to 6’10’ minutes per mile. My
legs are tired and my stomach is complaining. I’d like to stop and drink 1
liter of water. But I can’t, I’ve to
keep going. I see one group of 6 guys
approaching me. They pass me and I try to catch them. But impossible I cannot
make it.
Mile 25, I have to stop and breath. The stomach pain is too
strong and I can’t keep running. Someone yield me “breath slowly and keep
going!, your are almost there!”. This is the last effort I’ve to do. I walk for
100 meters and I start running again. Only one mile to go! I’ve pain in the
legs, but people are cheering around. You can barely listen anything but people
cheering. I see the stadium! Here is where
the trials are celebrated! You’ve to keep running!
I arrive with 2h38 to the finish line in 13 position. This
is my worst time in a marathon. But I’m happy: I’ve been fighting during all
the race. People are great and the race is great.
I missed a lot all my supporters of Barcelona (family and
friends). They are very important, and
when you have tough times you really miss them. But I’m 1000% thankful to my
great local supporters Lisa and Dan. They are simply great. Especially Dan, he spent the whole night
thinking and thinking about how to get the gels to me. He was even more nervous
than me. He shares with me the passion in athletics. It was great to ride with
him to Eugene and come back we spent most of the time speaking about trials, Olympic
games etc.. It’s been a great weekend.
Congratulations to Ramon for his PB in the half, 1h47! He
did a great job being this his first half.
I also enjoyed a lot the experience of sharing the days before the race
with him. Thanks Ramon, Lisa and Dan!!
Also especial thanks to Activa't Fisoteràpia for all the indiva and fisio treatments that made in hamstrings. The good job they did plus Joan Julbe sessions allowed me to run the marathon without any pain!
Check out their home page
http://www.fisioactivat.es/fisioactivat/idioma
Vaig venir a Porltand (OR) a treballar al site d’intel durant dues setmanes. Feia un més, després de planejar tot el viatge i comprar els vols, vaig córrer la marató de Barcelona fins al km 25 on vaig haver d’abandornar. Vaig decidir llavors aprofitar el meu viatge a PDX per córrer la marató d’Eugene el darrer cap de setmana que estaria aquí. Faig una mica de crònica doncs m’ho vaig passar força bé.
El resum: Estic moolt content, he disfrutat com feia temps :)..
La nit abans vam de sopar a un lloc de fast food i vaig poder menjar una mica de pasta. Però ni de bon troç la que hauria d'haver menjat ..La gent del restaurant molt amablement em van donar pasta blanca amb oil (encara estan al•lucinant).
Dia de la marató: ens llevem a les 4am! La cursa començava a les 7am i havíem de conduir 30 minuts. Hem menjat una mica de pa amb oli i mel i cap a la cursa! A les 5h30 el Ramón i jo ens plantem a la sortida. Em poso els compressport R2 amb la bandera d’independia i la samarreta de triatló compressport. Donada la temperatura era una molt bona opció doncs et permet estar sec i s’adapta força al temps.
A les 6h50 llegeixen unes paraules per Boston , canten l’imne i donen la sortida! Ja des de bon principi he tingut bastants bastants problemes d'estomac. Normalment a Barcelona acostumo anar força bé al WC. Però aquí el tema intestinal costa molt de regular sobretot amb 9 hores de diferencia horària.
He passat la primera mitja en 1h15 aproximadament. Amb bones sensacions de cames, però ja intuint que anar més ràpid de 3’35 min el km seria impossible. Reconec que tot i que hi havia molta gent animant i cridant el circuit erà molt dur.. eren tot tobogans, pujades i baixades una mica pronunciades i passaves per carrerons estrets. Sobretot quan creuaves els ponts era fora durillo. Perquè havies de pujar força metres en pocs metres de circuit. Però la primera part del recorregut posava els pels de punta: la gent cridant , donant-he ànims ... pell de gallina.. Realment te’n oblidaves del circuit i apretes tot el que pots.
L'altra cosa que era una pel complicada ha sigut que no he pogut veure massa, no crec que en total més d’una ampolla de 300 centilitres.. Això ha sigut una puntilla important i que si torno a córrer als USA ho hauré de millorar. Donaven uns gots petits i al veure et queia un 90% de l'aigua al terra :). O sigui que he pogut beure alguns glopets d'aigua però no massa.
A la milla 13 la Lisa i el Dan (la Lisa i el Dan són dos grans amics de portland) m'han donant un gel (els hi hauria d’haver donat ampolles d’aigua també: ERROR). No m'ha entrat massa bé però me’ls he begut. Sinó menjava res segur que ho passaria molt malament.
Al km 25 anava força bé, però ja no anava per fer 2h32-33 com volia, podria anar a 3’37’’ min/km, però a les pujades dels ponts ja anava patint bastant. A la milla 19 he hagut de fer un pit stop a un lavabo, tenia mal de panxa.. i no sabia quan en tornaria a trobar.... Aquí ja no em trobava massa fi, punxades a la panxa i ja començava a patir de cames. Però la gent cridava, una bogeria, musica per tot arreu, “you look strong”, “go , go go”... Una noia em canta que sóc el 5è i decideixo apretar. Penso “apreta apreta” .. i aconsegueixo manternir a 3’38.
Al km 32 el Dan em dona el darrer gel, ja no m'entrava res, res de res.. n'he pres un glop però res més. M’entraven arcades i ganes de parar al lavabo. A partir d'aqui ha comença tel calvari, el calvari que he disfrutat com feina temps :). He mantingut el ritme a 3'48 com podia. La gent cridant i jo veient les milles com queien.. Veia que anava perdent segons, però m'era totalment igual. Apreta i apreta el que puguis. Cap al km 39 veig que un grup de 6 em caça però el cos ja no em respon, he de parar doncs les punxades a l’estòmec no hem deixen seguir.. i camino 100 metres a veure si marxa.
Sento que em deien "respira fons" , "respira fons" .. i per dins penso: “vinga va a per la última milla”. No tenia ni idea del temps que porto. La última milla espectacular.. m'he reposat una mica i m'he tornat a posar a 4 corrent com podia i amb dolors per tot arreu :D.. era increïble.. La mitja i la marató acabaven en paral•lel però per dues linies diferents. La gent de la mitja em cridava i la gent dels laterals també. He estat durant 800 metres casi quedant-me sord.
Entro a l'estadi on es cel•lebren els trials del USA i veig la meta.. Em queden 200 metres, la gent crida, la gent em somriu. M’adelanta un tio esprintant però m’és igual. Arribo amb la pitjor marca que he fet mai 2h38 i en 13 posició. Això si, més content i orgullós que no he estat en cap de les curses que he fet. He disfrutat molt :)
Amb diferencia lo que més he trobat a faltar és la gent de casa (familia i els amics) .. En totes les maratons he sigut conscient de lo importants que són.. però aquí ho he sigut encara més..
Això si, l'ajuda del Dan i la Lisa ha sigut brutal. Els he trobat en tres llocs de la marató.. i tot i que no els gels no m'han sentat gens bé .. Veure'ls i saber que m'estaven seguint era una ajuda a l'esperit important. Tenir-los ha sigut crucial!!
Espectacular el debut de Ramon! La primera mitja i ja ha fet 1h47. Ha sigut una gran experiencia poder compartir amb ell tots els moments d’abans la cursa i de després. Per no dir le viatge cap a Eugene i totes les hores que hem estat parlant de com organitzar-ho.
Gràcies també a la gent d'activat fisoteràpia! Ells em van ajudar a recuperar els dolors que havia tingut als isquiotivials! Gràcies a les sessions de massatge d'en Joan Julbe i a les seves sessions vaig poder guadir tota la marató sense molèsties!
Podeu localitzar-los a:
http://www.fisioactivat.es/fisioactivat/idioma
Slut!
