A few weeks ago I started a training program for the Houston Marathon 2009. One day while I was reading my program I found that my first 20 miler was scheduled to November 1^st. I know by experience that I need to be really motivated to complete a 20 miler on training. Then this idea came to my mind, why don’t run my 20 mile training in a marathon event? So I looked for a Marathon for that day and found the Mid-South Marathon in Wynne, Arkansas. It was close to Mississippi (6 hours driving) not expensive ($45 registration day) and a small event (about 500 runners), but most important…it could be my 12 state marathon.

For about 2 weeks I debated in my decision of running or not the marathon, but on Thursday night I made my mind with an specific strategy…I had to run the 20 miles according with the training, its mean 8:50 min / mile, then jog/walk the last 6 miles and drive back home with my medal.

On Friday afternoon I drove to Wynne, AR an small town with about 8,000 population. The event was a big deal on town. I arrived on time for my registration and the pasta dinner, which was delicious. During the night I was a little nervous, I was not sure if I was doing the right thing, so I repeated to my self "Stick with the plan".

I woke up at 6:00 for the Marathoner ritual (I talked before about this) and headed to the start line. The gun went off at 8:00 A.M. sharp, I start running without checking my Garmin until mile 3 where I noticed I was running 8 min pace, I tried to slow down but the weather feels so good that morning that keep me running strong until the half point where I noticed a 8:10 min pace average…I was surprised how my body was responding, I was dinking water every 2 miles and energizing every 4 miles. I was also afraid to crash even before getting the 20 mile point. I obligated my self to slow down and got the 20 miles averaging 8:30 min pace, still feeling strong I decided to run until the mile 22. When checked my Garmin, was surprised having an 8:40 min pace for the whole distance.

At that point I was tempted to keep running for a 3:50 marathon PR, but needed to push my body with the risk of an injury or messing up my training program with a long recovery. I decided to stick with my plan and literally walk and jog the last 4 miles. During that process something happen with my body that I never experienced before, I began to have nausea and my stomach was upset, I couldn’t drink water anymore and felt kind of dizzy. It tried to relax and breathe deep, stretch a bit and enjoys the surroundings…that helped a lot, at the end, I ran the last lap around the stadium feeling happy and finishing in 4:16:40. It was not a PR but my training run went much better that I thought. Today, 3 days later I feel good and strong, ready to continue with my training.