I have nearly recovered from the Country Music Marathon. It is time to start thinking about training again. I definitely want to go for a comfortable finish in less than 5 hours in my next Marathon. I'm looking at either the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon or the Rocket City Marathon.

It is Tuesday after the marathon. I'm feeling quite a bit better. Now I've noticed I have a good case of athelete's foot from having soaked feet for more than 7 hours. I'm starting to look forward to my next marathon. I'll probably run the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon again. I really liked that one. It was much more laid back and it wasn't crowded at all.

The Country Music Marathon was hard, but a lot of fun. The bands were great. It was fun talking to all the people. The crowds were incredible. The cheerleaders along the way really helped. I had a lot of fun slapping high fives to little kids along the way. For once I was in a race where they didn't run out of water and gatorade before I finished (it only happened at one station).

I really hate it in a marathon when you are running along in a tight crowd and the dufus in front of you has a watch that goes off and tells them that its time to walk and they suddenly drop from a 9:30 pace to a 20:00 pace. That happened to me countless times in the country music marathon. Along with guys running at a 7:00 pace threading through the crowd and tripping people along the way.

I just finished the Country Music Marathon 2004 yesterday. I feel pretty good, considering. My wife and I walked 2 miles in the rain to get to the start. We got there about an hour early. They announced severe weather was coming in and they marched us to a nearby parking garage. Just before the race they let us out. I got to my starting coral (number 13) and then they made us stand in the rain for 30 minutes while we waited for all the important people and politicians to give their speeches or something. I really couldn't hear any of it. There were over 10,000 people in the race and coral 13 might have been 13,000 people back from the start.

Finally the race started. Of course we just stood there for about 5 minutes waiting for the giant army of runners to get moving. It was wild watching everybody cheer about getting underway. It was amazing watching all the rain gear get tossed to the sidelines. It was like watching the wave in a stadium, only it was clothes flying in the air. I crossed the start line about 10 minutes after the starting gun, which, by the way, failed to go off.

The rain stopped just as the race got underway. By that time, I was completely soaked. My shoes were very heavy with water. By the end of the race, they were like blister covered prunes. The race started at about 60 degrees and ended at about 75. Too hot for me. My stomach was too nervous to eat before the race. I only had 4 power gels during the race. Two of those were given out at aid stations. It saved me from digging them out of my pack.

There were so many people. I just couldn't believe it. Immediately after the start of the race, the 5:00 pace team started threading in and out of the crowd to maintain pace. I think there were a lot of people that made false claims to get into a faster starting coral. It took a whole lot of energy to work my way through all those people. I had many people bump me and trip me, but I know they couldn't help it because of all the people. It was bumper to bumper traffic up to mile 10. I finally decided that if I was going to make my 5:00 finish, I would have to move up to the 4:45 pace team, which I did. To keep up with them through all the traffic, I moved in front of them from time to time and then waited for them to pass. At mile 10, I was with the 2:30 half marathon pace team.

I got to see the Kenyans at mile 7 or so. It was great to see the race leaders. They were really moving. We all cheered for them. The winner was Luke Kibet at 2:14:11.

I took a camera and took pictures along the route. I can't wait to see what the pictures look like.

I exchanged places many times with a guy who was almost as tall as me (I'm 6 foot 8) but he was walking. He ended up finishing ahead of me. I think he must have maintained the 5:00 pace throughout. I wish I would have asked his name. I tried walking with him for a bit. I could do it, but it wasn't what I had trained at, so I went back to running.

I saw a lot of Team In Training ladies and a few men along the way. I guess it gives them more purpose for their running, but it seems like they could have come up with a better name considering it was mostly women.

There were bands at every mile. I enjoyed having them there, but I would be long past them before they could finish one song. One of the bands had a guy blasting on a tenor sax. I enjoyed that one and wish I could have stayed for a while.

About mile 21, a friend caught up to me. There was a group of us running the marathon and half marathon that work for the same company, Cubic Transportation Systems, who, by the way, paid our entrance fee. Anyway, the lady from Cubic that he was running with had to drop because of nausea. He was the picking up the pace to 7 minute miles. By that time I could tell that I was fading fast. He passed me and moved on to finish sub 5.

I maintained pace until about mile 22. I was right with the 5:00 pace team, but I had to let them slip away. I faded really fast from a combination of lack of eating, dehydration, nausea, heat, humidity, a rubbing shirt, and very blistered feet.

Somewhere between mile 21 and 23 I saw another friend from work. He was several miles ahead on an out-and-back. He looked to be running strong. I tried to smile and shout a few words of encouragement, but I feel like it probably looked like a grimace and sounded like a mumble.

I drank at every water and gatorade station along the way, but I still got very dehydrated by the end of the race. By mile 22, my legs turned to rubber and I was very dizzy and weak feeling. I was very dehydrated by the end, and slowed down to keep from passing out. In the last miles I passed a couple of people lying on the side of the road. They had people attending them, so I moved on. An ambulance passed about mile 23 and asked if I had seen somebody passed out back there. I saw several people throwing up around mile 24. I walked quite a bit between mile 22 and 26. Then I ran it in. I had saved about all I had to do it. The walk back to the hotel was pretty tough. All together I probably traveled over 30 miles on foot. I could almost count this marathon as an ultra.

I finished the race with 6 power gels and 2 Cliff bars in my butt pack. I hate to think that I carried all that the whole race.

I finished in 5:28. My other marathon was Chickamauga 2003 and I did 5:07 officially (I thought it was 5:17). I figure I did well considering. I really feel like I can break 5:00 next time. I just have to be more intelligent about my racing.

When I got back to the hotel, I was so glad it was over. I was so dehydrated that I had camel pee, if you know what I mean. It took about 3 hours to get my fluid levels back. I had a couple of incidents of very tight leg cramps during that time. They would just come on huge and sudden. It was hard to overcome. I basically had to get up and put my weight on them to pull the cramp out.

Lesson's learned: Eat before the race. Maybe even gatorade a couple of hours before to load up. Don't walk so far to the start of the race. Take some antacids or something to quench the stomach acid. Force the power gels, even if it feels bad. Don't waste so much energy at the start of the race weaving through the crowds. Go ahead and wear moleskin on the nips. The little patches showing through the shirt are better than the alternative.