Marathon drinks...

I was watching the men's Olympic Marathon last night, always an entertaining race!

Ever since I started marathon running, I became fascinated with the issue of fuel, how best to prepare, what to drink while running, etc.

The sport has come a long way since the days of pre-science, when it was actually forbidden to take fluids (legally) while the race was in-progress, imagine that!

Very early in my career, I knew intuitively that many of the sports drinks offered were not exactly ideal, so I started to experiment, typical me, always the scientist. I was fortunate to be in both Boston and New York in my first year running, and I soaked up the atmosphere at these Race Expos, probably visiting every day while there.

I read about the American Frank Shorter, who won gold in the 1972 Munich Olympic Marathon, then silver in 1976 (Montreal). Long before Gatorade was available, athletes were their own scientists. Frank used flat coke to get their sugar on course, being young and impressionable, I tried the same strategy!

(good thing he didn't use Cow Piss or Chicken droppings...)

I was going after my first sub-3:00 hr marathon in the Okanagan region (Kelowna, BC), and every trick in the book was needed. I was in the province for business anyway, so I chose a scenic marathon that sounded ideal for a P.B.

As luck would have it, Canada's Olympic Marathoner, Peter Fonseca, was also using this race as a tune-up before the Atlanta OLympic Marathon, just two months away. Peter and I knew each other briefly, so we swapped room sharing - he stayed Friday evening in my hotel in Vancouver, while I stayed with him in Kelowna. He was flown in by the Running Room, to give a talk at the Pasta Dinner, and run the 1/2 the next morning.

By association, they thought I was fast too! so, I was able to give my "water bottles" to their race crew volunteers and they attempted to put them on course for me while I ran.

very funny....

Me, a newbie to the marathon (this was #4, in twelve months mind you), getting the Royal Treatment as it were....

I even had my own coach at the time, Peter Pimm, still one of the best around, who was referred to me by a clinic instructor at the Running Room (Mike Burke, a Canadian track star of all things) - I was showing fast speed in a "get faster" clinic and the workouts I was given weren't exactly in-tune for my needs.

I remember being given tough speed workouts on Saturday mornings, and then long, grueling runs Sunday morning! My girlfriend at the time wondered why I was always so tired Sunday nite...

Coach Pimm set me on a better course, BUT, I then suffered from many injuries, all minor ones, enough distraction to prevent me from really moving forward in my training. I ran a 3:01 marathon in my debut in May 1995, and so after a failed attempt to break the elusive 3:00 barrier in New York that fall (injuries), I used Boston in the spring of 1996 (the 100th anniversary) to do my last long run before Kelowna the next month. This of course went against the experienced coach's plans..

"You won't break 3:00 hrs, but if yu insist on running two marathons one month apart, I can't stop you".

I also had a 1-week holiday in St. Maarten that got in the way of training, after Boston (it was part of a fundraiser I did for raising $$$ for the M/S society)...not too many running there, but plenty of all-night partying...when I shuffled home at 5:00 I saw the runners heading out...

So...

Here I am in B.C.. hanging with Canada's top marathoner, ready to break thru with a big P.B., and I have the added advantage of getting "my special drinks" at the water stations - flat coke of course! I don't recall much that weekend, alot of resting and watching tv in my hotel room. I do recall shaking two large, 1.5 L bottles of coke, trying to get the "fizz" out. Peter Fonseca looked at me and laughed of course, he was so fast it wouldn't matter what he ate or drank...

Race Day was awesome, cool and no wind to start, the course was relatively fast, and there were a good number of decent runners aiming for a sub 3:00hrs, so I had a pack to run with.

There were NO km markers however, it was another typical Running Room disaster of a race (organization wise), I am certain that some runners got lost near the end, and there was NO WATER at the finish line until the 4hr mark! Luckily things have improved in many of these races....

Amazingly for me, 3/4 "water bottles" that I left with the water-station staff were on tables when I went by. I used old plastic 500ml water bottles, covered them in paper, and wrote my name and bib number on them, just like the Olympians! As if someone else was going to drink this mysterious brown liquid...

So, in the end, I had a GREAT race, one of the best I can recall, even though I had no idea how I was doing. Maybe THAT was the secret. I vaguely recall the 10km mark, where there was a decent-sized crowd and we flew by at about the correct time, from then on it was like being in no-man's land.

I just kept pacing myself along, and slowly but surely the pack thinned out as the hot and humid weather soared. I recall a young kid on the side of the road, we had to be near the end I thought, he called out "you're in 22nd place", which sounded pretty cool I suppose...

I kept looking at my watch of course, nervously wondering if my sub-3:00 hr was going to happen, I felt great, never hit the dreaded wall, and only started to cramp up in the last K.M., but with the finish area in site, I felt awesome during the home stretch. It was one-lap around a dirt track, and when I realized that I would actually break 2:55, I was stunned.

I must have negativge split that day. 2:54 and change...now that was a fun, ball-busting call to the coach that afternoon!

Maybe it was the coke?

Thanks Frank!

(:

PD

peter@mynextrace.com