Another Update About My Lower Back

Last week, I had an MRI of my lumbar spine, but I didn’t see my doctor again until today.  I had read the MRI report, but it’s written in medical jargon.  Some parts I understood.  For other parts, I needed my doctor to interpret it for me.

I’ve developed two synovial cysts, and they’re impinging on two separate nerve roots.  That’s been the source of my back and leg pain.

I’ve had synovial cysts before.  They can develop overnight, and they can also go away overnight.  They’re fairly innocuous, but if they’re large enough, they can occupy the same space as a nerve root, exerting pressure on the nerve.  That’s what’s happening.

The MRI also showed some degeneration of my lumbar discs.  A few of them have small bulges, and one is protruding.  Also, two of my lumbar discs have small tears in the annulus, which is the thick other wall of the disc.  Neither of these discs is herniated.

The doctor didn’t even mention those degenerative issues until I asked about them.  She said they’re pretty normal for someone my age.  You could see the similar wear and tear in the lumbar discs of people who aren’t experiencing any discomfort.

I resumed running more than a week ago, but I’ve been going slow, and I’ve been trying to land gently.  When I asked if it would be safe to go all-out in a race, the doctor said I have to let pain be my guide.  She said the same thing when I asked about race-walking.  I need to ease into it and see how it feels. 

I'm Having Lower Back Pain and Sciatica Again

For the second time in a week, I’m writing something that isn’t a race report.  This one is an injury report.  After two and a half years of good health, I’m having lower back issues again.

This all started at the Jackal Trail Marathon, which was the first race in a five-day series.  I was on my last lap of a trail loop when I tripped on a root and fell.  I didn’t land on anything hard, but as I rolled, I felt a twinge in my lower back.  I got up and continued running.

For the next few days, I had discomfort on the right side of my lower back.  This was a familiar location.  This is the same place where I felt pain several years ago when I had a disc protrusion in the lumbar region.  It’s also the same side where I’ve sometimes experienced sciatica.

I could still run, but each day I had to start slowly.  I need a few minutes for my back to loosen up before I could settle into a normal rhythm.

Beyond that, bending down low to the ground was uncomfortable.  I especially noticed it putting on socks.  I also had discomfort getting in and out of bed and rolling over in bed.

It got worse last Wednesday, when I was running the Native Jackal Trail Marathon.  This was the last day of the series.  It was another trail marathon, and I was on my first of ten laps.  Near the end of the loop, there was a steep hill.  As I approaching the top of the hill, it wasn’t as steep, so I was able to pick up my pace.

I thought the last part of the hill was just a gentle uphill slope, running over soft pine needles.  I didn’t notice that there were small logs built into the hill to form a series of small steps.  I tripped on one of these logs and lurched forward awkwardly before regaining my balance.  I immediately felt a sharp pain at that same site on the right side of my lower back.  Whatever I had done four days earlier was now worse.

For the next two or three minutes, every step was painful.  The pain gradually subsided and I was able to continue running.  My back discomfort didn’t stop me from running, but bending down was more difficult now.

After the race, I didn’t feel too much different than I had the previous four days.  Certain motions were more uncomfortable than before, but I still felt normal as long as I wasn’t bending or twisting.

I returned home on Thursday.  I felt OK bringing my bags to the car, other than the fact that I got out of breath easily.  That was the lingering symptom of overheating badly during my last race, when I was running in extreme heat and humidity for more than eight hours.

I felt OK driving back to Memphis, and I felt OK walking through the Memphis airport.  Things got worse after I got off the plane in the Minneapolis airport.

I had checked my bags, but I still had a backpack with my laptop and other electronics.  My gate was one of the farthest from the central part of the terminal.  They have trams and moving walkways, but I chose to walk the whole way.  I usually do that, so I can get extra steps.  On this occasion, it was probably a mistake.  By the time I got to baggage claim, I was experiencing a great deal of discomfort in my lower back.  I was also hunched over slightly as I walked.

Every day of the marathon series, I got dehydrated, but I was usually able to rehydrate before the next race.  The last race was much hotter than the others, and I was out in the heat for a longer time.  I drank about 11 pints of fluid during that race, but it wasn’t nearly enough.  On Thursday, I thought I did a good job of rehydrating.  Friday morning, I weighed myself for the first time in a week.  My weight was still down four pounds compared to a week earlier.

I went grocery shopping that morning, and I noticed a new symptom.  Walking through the store and the parking lot, I didn’t just have pain in my lower back.  I also had weird sensations in my right leg. That’s where the sciatic nerve runs.

I’ve had sciatica in my right leg two or three times before.  It can have a few different causes.  Dehydration can make it worse.  It could be a disc protrusion that was pressing on a nerve root.  It could be synovial cyst that was pinching a nerve root.  It could simply be tight muscles in my lower back, made worse by dehydration.  These are all things I’ve had before.  The worst case would be a herniated disc.  That would probably sideline me for a long time.

I made an appointment to see a spinal specialist, so I could find out what I was dealing with.  The earliest appointment I could get was Monday afternoon.  I put off running and other exercise for another day.

On Saturday, I tried to go for a short run.  It did not go well.  I immediately felt more discomfort on the right side of my lower back.  Also, I couldn’t run at a normal pace.  I was shuffling forward slowly with abnormally short steps.  I knew I couldn’t run as far as I normally do, but I still wanted to at least go a mile.

Within the first few minutes, I felt a sensation in my right leg that’s hard to describe.  It wasn’t actually painful, but it didn’t feel right.  The outside of my thigh felt weird.  It’s like when a muscle just feels tight, but I knew it wasn’t the muscle.  It was along the line where the sciatic nerve runs.  I’ve felt something similar before.

I couldn’t run the whole way.  I had to take several walking breaks.  I may have done more walking than running.  It was frustrating how long it took to complete a mile, but I eventually got it done.  I haven’t run since.  I’ve kept up some of my strength training, but I’ve had to omit exercises that might be too hard on my lower back.

Day to day activities have sometimes been difficult.  At times, I couldn’t stand up completely straight.  Other times, I could stand and walk normally.  Sleeping has also been more difficult.  It’s tough to find a position that’s comfortable.

My doctor appointment was today.  The big advantage of waiting until today, rather than going to urgent care is that I saw the same doctor who I saw two years ago when I was having similar symptoms.  She knows my full history.  She also knows how many marathons I run.

I’m scheduled to have an MRI tomorrow morning.  Until I get the MRI results, I won’t know for sure how bad this is.  In the meantime, I'm already started my treatment.  If it’s not a herniated disc, I could potentially be training normally within a week or two.  As another doctor once told me, you can do a lot of healing in 10 days.

2023 Year-End Review

Every year, I post a list of goals for the year.  I usually achieve most of my goals, but I sometimes miss a few.  This year my goals were fairly modest, so it’s not too surprising that I nailed them all.

Finish My 4th Circuit of 50 States

At the beginning of 2023, I had already run four or more marathons (or ultras) in 45 states.  To complete my 4th circuit of marathons in every state, I needed to run marathons in Maryland, Oklahoma, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia.

I got off to a rough start.  I was planning to run the Sun Marathon in Utah in January, but I had to skip that one because of a respiratory infection.  The day before I was scheduled to fly to Utah, I tried running for the first time in a week.  I managed to run just over a mile.  Two miles would’ve been too much.  A marathon was out of the question.

I recovered in time to run the George Washington’s Birthday Marathon in February, giving me my Maryland race.  In May, I ran the Maple Leaf Marathon in Vermont.  Then in the summer, I found another Utah race.  I actually ran two of them.  I ran the Deseret News Marathon in July and the Mt. Nebo Marathon in August.

I finished my fourth circuit in November by running the Marshall University Marathon in West Virginia and the Route 66 Marathon in Oklahoma.

I already had my eye on eventually doing a fifth circuit of states, so I also went out of my way to schedule races in a few states where I already had four marathons.  Besides running my fourth marathon in the states listed above, I ran my fifth marathon or ultra in Kentucky, Maine, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Kansas, New Hampshire, and Maryland.  By the time I finished my fourth circuit, I just needed nine more states to finish my fifth circuit.

Run Marathons in Two New Countries

This was a fairly soft goal.  At the start of the year, I didn’t have any international trips scheduled, but I had tentative plans to run marathons in Slovakia and Brazil.  I ended up running both of those races, and I also ran the Antarctica Marathon.  More on that later.

Get Back into Shape

At the start of the year, I was out of shape, and I was carrying a little extra weight.  My training was held back by a high hamstring injury in my left leg and sciatica in my right leg.

To get back in shape, I first had to get healthy enough to train.  To lose the weight, I needed to get more exercise, which also depended on getting healthy enough to train.  I’ve never been able to lose weight through diet alone.

Things got worse before they got better.  In January, I came down with a respiratory infection that was mostly likely RSV.  I was completely sidelined for about a week, and it was two more weeks before I was recovered sufficiently to do any real training.

My hamstring injury was healing nicely, but my sciatica got worse.  It flared up so badly that I couldn’t run without pain.

I had a cortisone injection in February.  The first time I had one of those, I noticed improvement immediately.  This time, I felt no better after two weeks.  Then something surprising happened.  I flew to Argentina to join my tour group for the trip to Antarctica.  After the 10 hour flight from Atlanta to Buenos Aires, I fully expected to be stiff and painful.  My sciatica was usually worst after a long period of sitting.  Instead, I got off the plane with no discomfort.  It hasn’t bothered me since.

It's possible, although unlikely, that it just took that long for the cortisone injection to be effective.  It’s much more likely that something else changed.  One possibility is that I had a synovial cyst putting pressure on the nerve, and then the cyst drained, relieving the pressure.  Those things can come and go unexpectedly.

That trip included a 10-day cruise, so my opportunities to run were limited.  When I got back, however, I started gradually building my mileage.  I was careful not to increase my mileage too quickly, but by mid-July, I was running 50+ miles a week.  I’ve kept that up since.

A goal should be measurable.  I wouldn’t consider myself to be “in shape” until I could run fast enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  In recent years, most of my BQs have been on downhill courses.  My goal for this year was to BQ on a course that didn’t have any net elevation loss.

By the end of April, I was able to run a marathon in four hours.  To qualify for Boston, I needed to shave off 10 more minutes.  In July, I qualified at the Deseret News Marathon, but that course has almost 3,000 feet of net descent.  In August, I qualified on another sharply downhill course.  It wouldn’t be until September that I would have a chance to test myself on a mostly flat course.  By then I was not only getting into getter shape, but I had also lost the excess weight.

I felt like I made a major breakthrough at the Clarence DeMar Marathon, where I qualified for Boston with more than four minutes to spare.  That course is also downhill, but not by nearly as much.  The first half descends about 600 feet.  The second half is relatively flat, although there’s a tough hill in the last few miles.

Two weeks later, I finally reached my goal of qualifying for Boston on a course that started and finished at the same elevation.  I did that at the Cape Cod Marathon, which is mostly flat.

I followed that up with a BQ at the Baltimore Marathon a week later.  That course is moderately hilly.  Before the year was up, I also had BQs at the Mankato Marathon (moderately hilly), the Marshall University Marathon (flat), and the Route 66 Marathon (moderately hilly).

My final BQ of the year came at the Hawaii Bird Conservation Marathon.  This course descends 3,700 feet, but it’s worth noting that I was 11 minutes faster this year than I was on the same course a year ago.

Of all my goals for 2023, this one was the most important.  It seems like every year I start the year thinking it’s going to be a rebuilding year, but then I end the year about where I started.  This year, I actually rebuilt.  I’m going into 2024 running better than I have in years.  I have a good mileage base, my weight is down, and I’m healthy.

Do My Winter Running Outdoors

Since buying my first treadmill (to train for the Pike’s Peak Marathon), I’ve fallen into the habit of doing all of my winter running on the treadmill.  There’s nothing wrong with training on a treadmill.  It has enabled me to train at a faster pace than I could if I had to run on icy streets.

The problem is that after years of doing half of my training on a treadmill, I developed the bad habit of barely getting my feet off the ground.  On a flat road course, I have an efficient stride.  On a trail course, I don’t pick up my feet enough, and I’m prone to tripping.

In recent years, I’ve started to trip and fall, even in road marathons.  If there’s an uneven spot in the pavement, I’ll catch it with one of my feet.  In the latter half of 2022, I was tripping about once per race.  Sometimes I fell, but even when I didn’t, I would have a few awkward jarring steps.  More than once, I aggravated an existing injury.

To cure myself of that habit, I committed to doing all of my winter running outdoors.  My hope was that running on snow and ice would force me to pick up my feet.

The first big test came in the Antarctica Marathon.  That was a hilly course on a dirt road with lots of rocks.  There were times when I was racing down a hill, knowing that I would have a bad fall if my foot caught one of those rocks.  It scared me, but I got through that race without tripping on anything.

I thought I would make it through the entire year without tripping.  Unfortunately, I tripped on a pothole in the Cape Cod Marathon, and hit the pavement pretty hard.

I’ve continued to use a treadmill for race-walk training, but I haven’t run on a treadmill at all this year.  While I didn’t make it through the whole year without a fall, I improved significantly.  One fall per year is a lot better than one fall per race.

Doing my winter running outdoors had another benefit.  It forced me to reacquaint myself with how to dress for different temperatures.  I didn’t know I would be running in Antarctica, but dressing properly for that race was a lot easier after running in similar temperatures at home.

Place in My Age Group in the National Senior Games

Most of my goals were running goals, but I also had two race-walking goals.  I was competing in two race-walking events at the National Senior Games.  The first was 1,500 meters on a track.  The second was 5,000 meters on a road loop.

Last year, I took fourth place in the 1,500.  There are medals for the top three and ribbons for places five through eight.  I got a late start on my training this year, so my goal was simply to place in the top eight.  My time was one second slower than last year, but I placed higher.  This year, I came in third, which was good for a bronze medal.

In the 5,000, my goal was to place in the top three.  I managed a second place finish, earning me a silver medal.

Move Up Among Minnesota Runners

Since 2015, I’ve been on the Megamarathon List, which lists every runner in the world who has finished at least 300 marathons.  I rank in the top 400 runners in the world and roughly 50th in North America, but as recently as 2021, there were still six runners ahead of me in my home state of Minnesota.

By the end of 2022, I had moved into 5th place among Minnesota runners.  My goal for 2023 was to move into the top four.

To move into 4th place, I needed to run 15 more marathons.  I ran 30 this year, easily moving me into the top four.  The three runners still ahead of me have all run more than 600 marathons.  Only one of them is still active, but it’ll be a long time before I run enough marathons to move into the top three.

The Goal That Wasn’t Even on My List

For the second straight year, my biggest accomplishment of the year was something that wasn’t even on my list of goals.  Last year, it was winning the state championship for men over 60 in a 24-hour race.  This year, it was finishing marathons (or ultras) on every continent.

I had previous run marathons or ultras on five continents.  I was only missing South America and Antarctica.  I had plans to run Maratona do Rio in June, but I wasn’t expecting to run a marathon in Antarctica this year.

I had made a deposit to run the Antarctica Marathon in 2024, but I was also on the waiting list for 2023.  Marathon Tours & Travel was leading two voyages to Antarctica this year, one in early March, and one in late March.  On the outside chance that I might get in off the waiting list, I avoided planning any other races in March.

By the middle of January, I was getting anxious to finish planning my race schedule for March and April.  In particular, I wanted to book a trip to Vienna and Bratislava at the beginning of April.  If I went on the second Antarctica voyage, I wouldn’t get home in time to leave for Vienna.

I called Marathon Tours to find out if there was any chance of getting into one of this year’s voyages.  I didn’t think there was any chance.  I just wanted to know for sure, so I could start booking other trips.

I was shocked to find out that both of this year’s Antarctica trips had room.  I chose the first one, so I could also go on the Vienna/Bratislava trip.  At the time, I was sick with RSV, so I took a leap of faith that I could recover in time to be ready for the Antarctica trip.

Antarctica was my sixth continent.  Three months later, I added South America as my seventh continent by running Maratona do Rio.

Race Report: George Washington's Birthday Marathon

On February 19, I ran the George Washington’s Birthday Marathon in Greenbelt, MD.  I signed up for this same race last year, but it was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This race bills itself as the longest-running marathon in the National Capitol area.  It has a long history, but it hasn’t been held every year.  The 2021 and 2022 races were cancelled because of COVID-19, and there have been several other years when the race was cancelled because of winter storms.  Despite the cancellation of last year’s race, I took my chances and signed up again this year.

I was watching the weather forecast, so I was reasonably confident the race wouldn’t be cancelled, but it wasn’t until Thursday afternoon that I got an email saying the race was definitely on.  That’s when they look at the forecast and decide if conditions are safe to hold the race.

Last September, I had a cortisone injection near my L5/S1 joint to relieve sciatic nerve pain in my lower back and right leg.  I was pain-free for about seven weeks, but eventually the pain came back.  At first it was mild and I only felt it intermittently.  In January, it became more persistent.  More recently, it got so bad that running and walking were both increasingly uncomfortable.

On Wednesday, I had another cortisone injection.  By the end of the day, I was already feeling more comfortable.  Over the next few days, I still had occasional discomfort, but it was no longer constant, and it was no longer severe.  Earlier in the week, I couldn’t run without pain.  Now, I could.

The closet major airports to Greenbelt are Baltimore and Washington.  I flew to Baltimore on Saturday and drove from there to Greenbelt.  A few days before the race I learned they were offering an afternoon packet pickup in Arlington for runners coming from Virginia.  That meant the packet pickup in Greenbelt didn’t start until 6:00.  After checking in at my hotel, I went to the fitness center to do some leg and core exercises while I was waiting for packet pickup to start.

At 6:00, I drove to the Greenbelt Youth Center to pick up my race packet.  I got my race bib, but they didn’t have the T-shirts yet.  I wanted to get to dinner, so I asked if I could pick up my T-shirt in the morning.  Then I went to dinner at a pizza place in Hyattsville.

I got to bed early, and I slept reasonably well.  I set an alarm, so I would have time to eat breakfast, but I woke up before the alarm went off.

When I got up, it was 31 degrees, but the race didn’t start until 10:00.  I had to remind myself that it would warm up into the mid-40s by the time the race started, and it would warm up another 10 degrees by the time I finished.

The race started and finished a short distance from the Greenbelt Youth Center.  Parking there was limited, so I got there early to make sure I could get a parking spot.  They had race day packet pickup starting at 8:15.  When packet pickup started, I picked up my T-shirt.

It was more comfortable inside the youth center than it was in my car, so I waited there until it was time to walk to the start.  I saw a few runners I knew, but they were all either too fast or too slow for me to run with them.  There weren’t any pace groups, so I needed to start this race on my own.

In my last marathon, I thought I did well to break 4:30.  I didn’t expect to be any faster in this one.  I just haven’t had enough training lately.  I started at a pace that felt comfortable and didn’t worry too much about my time.

The course was all on roads.  We started with a two mile segment that we wouldn’t see again until the end of the race.

I ran the first mile in 9:46.  That was faster than I planned, but it wasn’t too much of a surprise.  That’s about the same pace that I started in my last race, before I settled down.  The first mile always feels easy.

Ideally, I would’ve slowed down in the second mile, but I was starting to run down a long hill.  Before the race, a friend who has done this race several times told me to save my energy for a big hill near the end of the race.  As I ran down this long hill, I realized I would have to run up the same hill later.

Because so much of the second mile was downhill, I couldn’t help but run it faster than my first mile.  After that, I gradually slowed down.

After roughly two miles, we ran a short out-and-back segment.  We only had to run that once.  When we finished the out-and-back, we started a long loop that we would run three times.

The loop was hilly.  The hills weren’t generally steep, but the terrain was constantly rolling.  Running downhill, I had mild discomfort in my right leg from my sciatic nerve.  The cortisone shot may have helped, but I’m not out of the woods yet.

I actually looked forward to the uphill sections.  That’s when my leg felt the most comfortable.  I was careful not to lift my effort running uphill.  I didn’t worry about my pace.  I tried to keep my effort consistent, so it never felt tiring.

Although we were running a loop, we weren’t always turning in the same direction.  The first two miles of the loop were a bit serpentine.  When I could, I ran the tangents, but the road was open to traffic.  Occasionally, a car would come, and everyone would move to the other side of the road.  Traffic was sparce enough on this section that we never encountered traffic from both directions at once.

There were two spots in each loop that we had to cross a busy road.  There were police stationed at these intersections to hold up traffic when runners were approaching.

About halfway through the loop, we turned onto a road that was much busier.  On the second half of the loop, we sometimes had cars coming from both directions at once.  It was no longer practical to cross the road.  We all kept to the left.  When cars approached in our lane, we moved all the way over to the white line.

I didn’t notice it at first, but the second half of the loop wasn’t as hilly.  It was the easier half of the loop, but I was still slowing down.  By the end of the loop, I wondered if my pace was too lazy.

The last two miles of the loop were into the wind.  It was just strong enough to feel tiring.  It also made my hands cold.  I had taken off my gloves early in the race.

As I started my second loop, I knew what to expect.  The first half of the loop would have less wind and far fewer cars, but it was the hillier half of the loop.  I was quickly reminded of that the first time I ran downhill.  I felt my sciatica again.

I was drinking Gatorade at every aid station.  It was a cool enough day that I probably didn’t need that much fluid.  I passed a pair of port-o-potties, and I was tempted to stop.  I knew I’d need to stop eventually, but I wanted to wait until I was at least half done.  I waited, but I started to regret that decision.  I felt increasingly uncomfortable.

In my second lap, I started putting a little more effort into the hills.  My pace in the last two miles of the first lap was slow, and I wanted to get back to the pace I was running earlier.

Somewhere between 11 and 12 miles, I reached an aid station and saw a port-o-potty.  I was grateful for the opportunity to make a bathroom stop here.  It would’ve been tough to make it to the halfway mark.

When I did reach the halfway mark, I was on pace to finish somewhere between 4:35 and 4:36.  At the time, I didn’t know if the second half would be faster or slower.  On one hand, I felt like I had paced myself conservatively in the first half.   On the other hand, I was noticing my sciatica more and it seemed like the wind was picking up.  I was going to run into that wind two more times, and that might slow me down.

Just past the halfway mark, I turned onto the busier road.  This time, I already knew that this side of the loop was less hilly.  Over the next four miles, I put a little more effort into my pace.

Shortly after I made the turn onto the busier road, I was passed by a faster runner.  I expected the leaders to lap me at some point, but this guy didn’t look like he was going fast enough to be leading the race.  He did, however, quickly pass the next few runners as well.

Within the next few minutes, two other runners passed me.  These guys did look they were running fast enough to be near the front of the race.

I continued to follow the other runners who were still on their second lap.  Then I noticed a runner who seemed much slower.  He had a homemade trekking pole, and all the other runners were passing him.  I wondered if it was possible that he was still on his first lap, and I was already lapping him.  If so, I didn’t like his chances of finishing within the six and a half hour time limit.

My pace improved over the next few miles.  Every so often, I passed someone who was also on their second lap.

Every mile was marked.  Even though I was on my second lap, I could also see signs for the first and third laps.  With about a mile left to go in my second lap, I saw the 23 mile sign for runners who were already in their third lap.

At was at that moment that the lead woman ran by.  She had a powerful stride.  She was probably in 10th place overall, but there was no doubt in my mind that she would pass a few of the men on front of her by the time she finished.

Near the end of my second lap, I started to talk to a runner named Nina.  When I mentioned the lead woman, Nina told me she might have been on a relay team.  I forgot there was also a relay.

Nina asked me if I knew what pace I was on.  I told her I was on pace for about 4:36 at the halfway mark, but I had sped up a little since then.  Nina was really surprised to hear that.  Her goal was to break six hours.  She never expected to be on pace to break five hours, and she wondered if she had been running too fast.

I asked Nina how she felt.  We had already finished 17 miles, and she still felt OK.  I figured she would be fine if she ran conservatively the rest of the way.  I decided to run with Nina and help her get through the last lap.

I had run my 17th mile in 9:54.  That was my fastest mile since mile two.  Before meeting Nina, I was hoping to pick up my effort enough to run negative splits.  Now, I realized I needed to ease up a bit.  I didn’t want to pull Nina along at a pace that wouldn’t be sustainable.

For the rest of the race, I was careful to match my pace to Nina’s and not get ahead of her.  As we ran the hills in the first half of the loop, I still noticed my sciatica running downhill, but it didn’t seem as bad.  Maybe slowing down helped.

For the rest of the race, we talked about running and a few other topics.  I think our conversation made the miles pass more easily for both of us.  We slowed down a little, but it was never much slower than the pace I was running in the second half of my first lap.

We both managed well through the third loop, but we still had to run almost two miles to get to the finish.  With a little over a mile to go, we encountered the long hill I had been expecting.  I let Nina set the pace.  We slowed down, but we got through that mile OK.

The finish line is in a different spot than the starting line.  We eventually left the streets for a narrow path.  We briefly had to run down a hill that was steep enough to be extremely uncomfortable.  I slowed almost to a walk.  Fortunately, that hill was fairly short.  Then we went through a tunnel and saw the 26 mile sign.

As we got within sight of the finish, Nina sped up.  I sped up a little, but I couldn’t match her pace on the final push to the finish.

For the last few miles, I had been telling Nina she would break 4:40.  She did.  I finished several seconds behind her, with a time of 4:39:26.  I didn’t run negative splits, but I was only positive by four minutes.  I was happy with that.

Right after I finished, I was handed a finisher medal.  That surprised me.  Earlier, I had received an email saying that the shipment of medals was delayed by supply chain issues.  I didn’t think they would have them today.  Perhaps I misread the email.

This was my fourth marathon in Maryland.  I’ve now run four or more marathons in 46 states.  To complete my fourth circuit of marathons or ultras in every state, I just need to run marathons in Vermont, Utah, West Virginia, and Oklahoma.  I expect to do that by the end of the year.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  4:39:26

Average Pace: 10:39 

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  476

Maryland Marathons:  4

Race Report: 2023 Surf City Marathon

On February 5, I ran the Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach, CA.  I run this race almost every year.  It’s one of the few places in the continental U.S. where I can run a winter marathon and know it won’t be freezing.  I also know quite a few runners in southern California, and this race is a chance to see them.

This was my first race in three weeks.  When I got home from the Houston Marathon, I started to develop a cough.  Within a few days, I was coughing constantly, and I also had a low grade fever.  Then I developed nasal congestion.  It took three negative tests to convince me it wasn’t covid.  Then I saw a doctor, who told me it was probably RSV.  I’ve never had RSV before.  It knocked me on my butt for two weeks.

During that time, I didn’t do much training.  I did my best to get exercise by walking on a treadmill, but I had to slow the pace down to keeping from having coughing fits.  Even then, I sometimes had to stop after only two miles.

I was scheduled to run the Sun Marathon last weekend, but I had to cancel.  I didn’t want to get on an airplane if I was still contagious.  I also had serious doubts about being able to finish a marathon.  Two days before that race, I tried a short run.  It was about five times as tiring as usual, and I was having coughing fits every half block.  I had to stop after slightly more than a mile.

In the last week, I’ve recovered.  I’m no longer coughing, but I didn’t know if I had my stamina back.  I was pretty sure I could finish the race, but I wasn’t going to try to go fast.  I just wanted to finish.

In the past, I’ve often flown into LAX, but it’s a pain picking up a rental car at that airport, and it’s a long drive with unpredictable traffic.  It’s much more convenient to fly into the Orange County airport.

Delta has non-stop flights from Minneapolis to Orange County, but they only have morning flights on weekdays.  If I flew in on Saturday, I’d have to take a later flight, and I wouldn’t be able to get to the expo before they close.  I flew in on Friday, even though it meant an extra hotel night.

I arrived in time for lunch, so I went straight to lunch from the airport.  After lunch, I went to my hotel to check in.  I stayed at the Doubletree Club in Santa Ana.  I’ve stayed at this same hotel several times.  They have a race package that includes free parking plus transportation to and from the race.  In my experience, they always treat the runners like VIPs.

In the afternoon I went for a run.  There are probably lots of good places to run in Orange County, but I wanted to stick to a route that was familiar.  I also wanted to avoid traffic.  I drove to a beach that’s just north of the Huntington Beach Pier.  There are paved bike and pedestrian paths next to this beach that are part of the marathon route.  I parked my car and ran a little over six miles.  Interestingly enough, nothing looked that familiar, even though my route overlapped with the marathon course.  I guess that’s the difference between running a race and running on your own.  Everything looks different on race day.

This was my longest run since the Houston Marathon, by far.  It felt even longer.  I’ve recovered from my recent illness, but I feel like it had a lasting effect on my aerobic capacity.  I wasn’t going very fast to begin with, but after three miles, I started to slow down.  It was a struggle to finish the last miles to get back to where I parked.  I didn’t know how I was going to run a marathon two days later.

After getting back from my run, I had some mild pain in my right leg from my sciatic nerve.  I usually feel better after running or walking, but it can bother me pretty badly if I get dehydrated.  I didn’t drink anything during my run.  I drank a bottle of water afterward, but that wasn’t enough to rehydrate.  For the rest of the weekend, I was more careful to drink enough.

When I travel to the west coast for a race, I usually try to avoid adjusting too much to the local time zone.  If I can eat an early dinner and get to bed early, it’s easier to get up early on race day.  This year, I didn’t do a good job of that.  I ate such a big lunch that I didn’t feel like having an early dinner.  I waited until it was dinner time in the local time zone, and even then, I only had enough room for an appetizer.  Because I had a later dinner, I also got to bed later.

On Saturday, I had the luxury of sleeping in.  I initially woke up at 4:30, but I was still tired, so I went back to sleep and didn’t get up until 6:15.  That might not sound like sleeping in, but in my own time zone it would’ve been 8:15.  I never sleep that late.

I spent the morning at the hotel.  I had a big breakfast, relaxed for a couple hours, and then did a workout in the hotel’s fitness room.  After my workout, I drove to the expo to pick up my race packet.

Packet pickup was inside a tent in a parking lot next to where the race starts and finishes.  After picking up my race packet, I took the time to visit the booths of various vendors.  At one, I had a chance to sample the beverage that would be available at the aid stations.  I was disappointed to learned that it contains electrolytes, but no sugar.  I’ve seen that at a few other races, and it’s an alarming trend.  The whole reason I drink a sports drink at the aid stations is to replace some of the sugar I’m burning, so I won’t “hit the wall” later in the race.

While I was at the expo, I bumped into Natalie and Robert who both do this race every year.

Finally, I got to see some of the VW buses that were on display in the parking lot.

The Doubletree has an outdoor pool and a hot tub.  When I got back to the hotel, I spent part of the afternoon relaxing in the hot tub.

The hotel provided transportation to the race, but you had to sign up for it.  Later in the afternoon, I went down to the lobby to register for the marathon bus and get the wristband I would need to board the bus.

After having a big breakfast, I skipped lunch in favor pf having an early dinner.  Saturday was mostly a rest day, but I walked to and from dinner, so I could get some exercise.  Then I made a point of getting to bed early.

The hotel provided a continental breakfast for the runners.  It started at 4:30, so I got up a little earlier so I would have time for breakfast.  I didn’t want to have too much food in my stomach, but it was important to eat something, knowing I wouldn’t be taking in calories during the race.

The temperature was in the mid-50s.  Normally, I would consider that warm enough to wear shorts, but I didn’t know if I could run the whole race, or if I would need to take walking breaks.  I wore tights so I wouldn’t get cold if I started walking.  I also wore a Tyvek jacket to stay warm until the race started.

Ideally, I would’ve had my phone with me, so I would have the option of taking pictures during the race.  When I went running on Friday, I had my phone in my fanny pack, and I really felt the extra weight.  I felt like I had a brick in my fanny pack.  I was already expecting to tire quickly, so I left my phone at the hotel.  I didn’t want to carry any extra weight.

The bus for the marathon left at 5:30.  It took about half an hour to get to the race.  When we were almost there, I noticed rain hitting the windshield.  I wasn’t expecting rain, so I was glad I chose to dress on the warm side.

In the past, they always dropped us off in front of the Hyatt Regency.  This year, they dropped us off in front of the Waterfront Beach Resort, which is in the next block.

I was hoping to meet some friends for a pre-race picture in front of the pedestrian bridge that leads from the beach parking lot to the Hyatt.  I only had five minutes to get there, and I needed to make a bathroom stop.  I walked over to the Hyatt as quickly as I could, went downstairs to use the bathroom, then went upstairs to get to the corridor leading to the pedestrian bridge.  I got there just in time for the picture.

I wasn’t sure how fast I would run.  I thought the best case – if I could run the whole way – was about 4:30.  If I needed to take walking breaks, I might be closer to five hours.  I optimistically lined up near the 4:30 pace group.

While I was in the start area, I noticed the rain had stopped.  A few minutes before the race started, I took off my jacket and tied it around my waist.

I started at a pace that felt easy.  I didn’t want to feel like I was working to maintain the pace.  As it turns out, my first two miles were about 10 minutes each, which put me just in front of the 4:30 group.  I was never too far in front of them.  I could always hear them talking.

I used to wear a plain stopwatch and check my time at the mile markers.  More recently, I’ve been using a GPS watch.  I’m glad I did that today, as some of the mile markers were badly misplaced.  When I reached the mile 2 sign, my watch was already reading 2.3 miles.

My sciatica rarely bothers me when I’m running.  When it does, the discomfort always goes away by the end of the first mile.  Not today.  I was still noticing mild discomfort in my right leg in the third mile.

As we were nearing the end of the 4th mile, we went up a gradual hill, and I fell behind the 4:30 group.  I wasn’t committed to any particular pace.  I continued running at a pace that felt easy enough that I might be able to sustain it for the whole race.

In the next mile, we ran down the biggest hill on the course.  Running downhill aggravated my sciatic nerve.  I not only had mild pain in my right leg, but I also felt soreness on the right side of my lower back.  Fortunately, it went away when the road leveled out again.

Running down the hill, I sped up a bit.  Without really trying, I caught up to the 4:30 group again.

Next, we entered the first of two small parks.  I started talking with one of the other runners who was following the 4:30 group.  Somehow, carrying on a conversation made the next few miles easier.  I easily kept up with the 4:30 group.

After eight miles, we started running up the same hill that we had run down earlier.  I didn’t want to risk tiring myself out on this hill, so I eased up and fell behind the pace group.  At the top of the hill, there was an aid station.  The pacers often slowed down going through aid stations, so I caught up to the group again.

As we reached the nine mile sign, we started seeing the fastest runners in the half marathon going the other way.  They started an hour and 15 minutes after we did, and they were just starting a section of the course that we were about to finish.  For the next mile, I moved toward the center of the street, so I could look for runners I know.  I didn’t see any.  We only saw the faster runners before turning onto the Pacific Coast Highway to begin the first of two long out-and-back sections.

For the next few miles, I ran with the 4:30 group.  It took more effort now, but with 10 miles already behind me, I had more confidence that I could maintain my effort.

Most of the aid stations just had water and a sugar-free electrolyte beverage.  Near the 12 mile mark, there was an aid station that also had Chargel, which is a gel drink.  It tasted like mashed up strawberries.  If took time to get the cap off and squeeze it all into my mouth, but it was my first opportunity to drink something with calories.  I washed it down with some water.  I was afraid I would fall behind the group, but the pace leaders also took extra time at the aid station.  When we reached the turnaround, I was still right behind the group.

After the turn, I noticed the sun was out.  For the first time in the race, I started to feel hot.  Thankfully, it clouded up again later.  Otherwise, I would’ve regretted my clothing choices.

We reached the halfway mark almost two minutes ahead of schedule.  The pace group was staying on the right hand side of the road, but I moved to the left to get as close to the median as I could.  I started looking to see if I recognized any of the runners who were still going the other direction on the other side of the highway.  I knew several runners who were doing the half marathon, as well as a couple runners near the back of the pack in the marathon.

Running well to the left of the pace group, I accidentally got ahead of them.  For the next few miles, I was running on my own.

At 16 miles, we made a U-turn onto a bike path alongside the beach.  No sooner did I make the turn than the pace group caught up to me again.

Shortly after we started running on the bike path, one of the pace leaders told us he planned to get to the last turnaround a little ahead of schedule.  We was expecting a headwind in the last five miles, so we wanted us to have some extra time in the bank before we got there.

He also told us that this was a good time to ask ourselves how we were feeling.  If it was a struggle to keep up with the group, we might want to slow down.

It was at this point, that I found myself falling behind the group.  To keep up with them, I would need to work much harder.  I still had 10 miles to go, and I didn’t want to burn myself out.

Over the next few miles, I slowed down by 15-20 seconds per mile.  It seemed like I was falling farther behind the pace group than I should be.  Before long, I couldn’t even see them anymore.  I knew I was doing the right thing by slowing down, but it was discouraging how quickly I fell behind.

Over the next few miles, I realized why my surroundings didn’t seem familiar during the training run I did on Friday.  When I was on my own, I stayed on the pedestrian path, and I was careful to avoid running on the bike path.  During the race, we used the bike path.  The two paths sometimes diverged, with the pedestrian path being farther from the road.

There was another reason.  When I was doing my training run, I didn’t go as far before turning around.  As we got farther north, the surroundings looked much more familiar.

The path was mostly flat, but occasionally it would dip down and back up.  On each of these dips, I briefly felt discomfort in my right leg from my sciatic nerve.  I’ve never had that problem this far into a race.

In the past, there used to be an unofficial aid station called the “beer & bacon station.”  Last year, it wasn’t there.  This year, I learned why.  The race used to be on the same day as the Super Bowl.  When the NFL added an extra week to the regular season, it pushed the Super Bowl back a week.  The guys who did the beer & bacon station where there for a pre-race tailgate party.  No Super Bowl on race day = no beer & bacon station.  I also noticed there were far fewer spectators on this part of the course.  That was probably for the same reason.

As I was running north along the bike path, I saw faster runners coming back.  I spotted a couple runners I know, and I also noticed all the faster pace groups.  As I got close to the turnaround, I saw the 4:30 group on their way back.

I looked at my watch as they passed me.  I checked it again when I reached the turnaround.  A minute and 16 seconds elapsed since they passed me.  Doubling that, I was about two and a half minutes behind them.

After the turn, I had just over five miles to go.  I picked up my pace as much as I could.  I knew I couldn’t catch up to the 4:30 group.  I could never make up two and a half minutes over the last five miles.  My hope was that I could get back to my previous pace, so I wouldn’t fall any farther behind.

A 4:45 pace leader caught up to me.  I knew he shouldn’t be this close to the 4:30 group, so I asked him if he was ahead of schedule.  He said he was, and he explained why.  Most of the 4:45 group were with another pacer who was several minutes behind us.  This pacer only had one runner with him, and he was helping him to run the best race he could.  Over the next four miles, my splits ranged from 10:11 to 10:17, yet I fell behind the 4:45 pacer.

During this stretch, I finally had an opportunity to see runners I knew who were still on their way out.  There were other out-and-back sections, but I always finished them before the friends I was looking for got there.

By the time I reached the 24 mile sign, I could see the Huntington Beach Pier in the distance.  I knew it was farther away than it looked.  I also knew that the finish line was several blocks past the pier.  Still, it was something I could run toward that I knew was close to the finish.

At 25 miles, I looked at my watch and realized I was going to break 4:30.  The 4:30 group was way ahead of me, but they were two or three minutes ahead of schedule.

I had to get past the 26 mile sign before I could finally see the finish line.  I ran as hard as I could, and I finished in 4:28:52.  That greatly exceeded my expectations.  It’s slower than most of my recent times, but I felt much stronger today than I did on Friday.  On Friday, my average pace was a few seconds slower, yet I struggled just to finish six miles.  Today, there was never any question that I could run the whole race.  I started with no time goal, but I fought my way to finish in less than 4:30.

This race always has cool finisher medals with a surfboard theme.

In addition to the medal, we also got a towel.

After finishing, I saw my friend, Karen.  Karen was waiting for Robert, who was just a couple minutes behind me.

I walked through the finish area quickly, skipping most of the post-race food.  All I had was a snack bar and a bottle of water.  I also skipped the beer garden and walked straight to the pickup point for the bus back to my hotel.  There were only two buses, and I finished in time to get on the first one.  If I missed that bus, I would have to wait another hour and a half for the next one.

When we got back to the hotel, we were greeted with a standing ovation from the hotel staff.  The kitchen staff were banging pots and pans.  Then they gave us each a water bottle and a warm Doubletree cookie.  They do this every year, and it never gets old.

After getting cleaned up, I went to the SoBeCa district for lunch.  There’s a place called The Lab that has several restaurants and shops.  One of them was a pizza place I had never tried before.

I always used to watch the Super Bowl in the hotel lounge after the race.  I can’t do that anymore, but this year the Grammy Awards were on the same day as the race.  I don’t know if that will be the case every year, but I may be starting a new tradition of watching the Grammy Awards after the race.  It’s the only awards show that I actually enjoy watching.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  4:28:52

Average Pace:  10:15

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  475