Pushing the Palm Beach Marathon.

Pushing the Palm Beach Marathon. 

Some of my activities run along the lines from what were you thinking; to a point of skating along the cliff of “are you insane”.  Quoting Dr. Sheldon Cooper “no I am not crazy my mother had me tested”.  

Last weekend was the Palm Beach Marathon and for the last 7 years it has been the last big Handcycle race of the season. I have had some of my fastest times at Palm Beach including a few top 5's, and one year winning a 5 Handcycle sprint to the finish where I finished 4^th.

For 2014 I put off some of the early Palm Beach registration price breaks as I put some thought into leaving the Handcycle at home and pack the racer.  The push-rim racer came into my life as I was looking at some cross training options a few years ago.  From a friends suggestion I purchased a used racer on E-bay.  Since that time I have increased my push-rim distance from a few miles to a point of participating in half Marathons.  The next logical step would be a full Marathon; however this would create some problems and push me even closer to the edge of crazy.

"You don't know your limits till you exceed them"

 Because of my limited flexibility I do not have a powerful sitting position in the racer and this means no matter how much I train or loose weight I am never likely to beat 3 ½ hour Marathon time.  The other problem is finding 20 miles of mostly traffic free and flat training roads and the time needed to train for 20+ miles.  Locally my distance training is limited to a somewhat congested 8 mile loop along the Bushkill creek.  To find paved long distance training I need to drive an hour and a half to the New Jersey Marathon winter training series or the Schuylkill river trail at Oaks.

As the summer progressed it was becoming clear that work was limiting my training and at the same time the deterioration of my left hip had accelerated to a point of losing a good deal of range of motion to a point of walking or just sitting in the racer was becoming tougher and more painful. (I am looking at late next fall for my next hip surgery.)  If I had any plan of tackling 26.2 miles it would need to be this year.  As I continued to think towards 26.2 a tougher than normal Bird in Hand half would be a mental setback and I postponed my decision further.  One day after a strong 8 mile loop I quickly registered the push-rim for the full Marathon before I put anymore thought of backing away. 

How did I decide on Palm Beach?  I have raced about 40 marathons in 8 different cities over the last 9 years so I had several choices.  I chose Palm Beach for 5 reasons. Number 1, 2 and 3 is Palm Beach is Flat, Flat and did I mention that Palm Beach is flat.  Number 4 is the way the course is laid out it would give me an easy escape if I found myself struggling I would pass near the start finish line and my car at the 10 mile mark, and number 5 is I am looser and stronger in the heat and south Florida has the best heat.

“A failure to plan is a plan to fail”.

As the fall progressed I did as much training and racing as I could with the racer however I still hadn’t trained past the 13 mile mark.  For the first time I would be attempting a distance I had not completed in training.  I also needed to tackle the math question of endurance. I felt 3 ½ hours was doable however no matter how I worked the numbers my using my best longer distance results I would need a minimum of 4 hours to complete 26.2 miles.  At 59 years 11 months I just couldn’t imagine pushing past the 4 hour mark so I set an automatic abort time if I hadn’t reached the 13 mile mark within 2 hours.

Achilles track club starts are always a bit chaotic however once everyone gets out of the start with a minimum of scraping paint there is excellent support throughout the race. It's not unusual to see Achilles racers lining up with low tires, without helmets, or drafting bars but as Nietzsche said out of “Chaos Becomes Order”.

I always arrive at the start early but on this morning I would hang out in the car because considering the planned 4 hour race time I did not want to spend any more time wedged into the racer than I needed to.  I was surprised when I arrived at the start line just before 6 am that the Achilles South Florida team hadn’t made the grand parade entrance yet.  Also surprised was the reporter for the local TV station who planned to interview the Achilles spokeswomen when they went live at 6 am.  The reporter had a choice of interviewing me or a Handcyclist from the West Indies who mostly spoke French.  I got the TV time.

The Start; just click this link and watch the guy with the flashing light. He ignored the 30 seconds to start and the 5 second count down and decided at the GO command to put on his helmet, then for some unknown reason he decided to turn left into the Handcycle in front of me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhzRSmePvZQ

It was an absolutely perfect pre-dawn morning as the sun was coming up over Palm Beach waterfront on a 70 degree morning.  I stayed within my plan and let most of the pack pass me as I controlled my pace.  As the race progressed I hydrated well I was eventually enveloped by the runners.  As I reached the 2 hour point I was a mile short of my goal but was comfortable loose so I continued on.

The easiest way to describe the remaining 12 miles is racing south along the waterfront do some wacky turns through some of the residential neighborhoods and turn back north for the last 7 or so miles along the waterfront.  During the last 7 miles as I was pushing into a headwind I began to feel fatigue.  I came to two conclusions number one is I had enough in the tank to finish, and two with months of pre planning my math was all wrong.  Four hours wasn’t even close as I was still many miles out as my timer passed the four hour mark. The last miles clicked off agonizingly slow.  At about a half mile out I met a runner who wanted us both to sprint to the finish line together. Ok if my heart was going to explode sprinting to the finish would probably do it.  We both finished strong with our heads held high as the finish line clock was approaching 4 hours and 50 minutes.

I have crossed countless finish lines and always live by the Paul Bear Bryant quote “when you get to the end zone pretend you have been there before”.  I set out to complete a 26.2 mile race and in the end the bigger accomplishment seemed to be that I was racing for 4 hours 50 min.  Ernst VanDyke a racing acquaintance can complete a Push-rim Marathon in less than an hour and a half; tell me what fun is that!

Palm Beach is a much underrated race.  Plenty of official water stops, a few unofficial beer stops.  There is a family that hands out chilled wet towels at about the 16 mile mark and a tent with shower heads to wet down over heated racers.  And what is wrong with a December destination race in sunny south Florida.

Where do I go from here?  I will continue with the racer as long as I can. I expect to be able to compete in the shorter distances as I move towards surgery sometime late next year.  The Handcycle is not a problem and after my last hip replacement I was back on the Handcycle 2 weeks after that surgery.  Getting back on the racer after surgery will be considerably longer length of time.

How did I deal with the boredom of almost 5 hours?  What boredom I enjoyed every mile with lots of scenery and people to talk with.

How do we know you even showed up at the race?  Maybe you just wrote this while relaxing on the beach.  While the numbers of people who believe the moon landings were filmed on earth keeps growing, today you can’t hide from anyone.  I am not sure how my progress was being updated on Facebook but my Facebook page listed my split times, pictures at the start, pictures on course and a video of my finish I am guilty of finishing 26.2 miles

http://results.chronotrack.com/athlete/index/e/11762496 

Why do you keep writing letters?  Well not for the reason you may think.  As I write edit and rewrite I relive the event and parts of the event I may have missed as the 80 degree sun was cooking my brain at mile 25.  I write about and hopefully I can convince some of you to find something as important in your life as I did in mine.  Quoting Chris Kaag and his “I am able” foundation and “Get up and Move”.

Next month I turn 60 but even a bigger life changing event takes place in early February of 2015 as it will be 10 years since my first Handcycle ride.  

 I didn’t do anything that hadn’t been done by others.  I didn’t go out there to be faster than Ernst or do more push-rim Marathons than Holly’s 130.  My accomplishment will not earn me more money or make me more popular.  It was just an abstract plan to reach a goal that was important to me.  Behind me this year as I left the starts of 5 Marathons, one half Marathon a dozen or so races, almost 100,000 other people had their own plans for the race.

Over the summer on acquaintance said to me “I don’t support what you do and think it is stupid. I thought of that person during the race while I was trying to reach a goal I set, he was getting ready to watch 3 football games in a row.  Finish or fail I would be satisfied that at least I gave it a try.  His happiness on Sunday depends on those guys on TV.

When was the last time you tried something new.

Rob Leiser

Race Video   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDSwGR80D7E