It was 8:30 a.m. in San Francisco, and while most of the city was just waking up, Charlie Koch ’13 had already put in a full day’s work.
Less than an hour before, he’d already run about 20 miles with a pack led by a 3:10 pacer in the San Francisco marathon. But with only six miles to go, he decided that the pacer was running too slowly. Breaking off from the group, Koch realized that although he wasn’t hitting “the proverbial wall,” his muscles were starting to cramp. He had done practice runs of around 22 miles, but had never run a full marathon — and wasn’t sure how long it would take. But with the end in sight, and the 3:00 pacer’s yellow t-shirt visible only a couple hundred yards ahead, Koch had a goal — he wanted to complete the marathon in under three hours.
So with the finish line finally in sight, Koch pushed forward, gradually speeding up to catch and pass the three-hour pacer.
“Getting under three hours is nice aesthetically; it would have been kind of frustrating to come in at three hours, one minute or something,” Koch said.
Koch’s final time: 2:59:41. He finished 63rd of 6,000 to 7,000 and qualified for the Boston Marathon next April.
Although the bay area’s hilly streets add difficulty in themselves to the San Francisco Marathon one the Wall Street Journal calls “The Race Even Marathoners Fear” Koch saw the 5:30 AM start time as the more challenging aspect of the race (runners needed to start early in order to have the Golden Gate Bridge blocked off).
But if Koch had been running the Adidas Sunrise Marathon in Singapore, like Avery Shawler ’13, he would have been finishing, not starting, the race at sunrise. The marathon challenges participants to “beat the sunrise,” a feat they can attempt only if they begin in the middle of the night. Midnight, in fact. Although Shawler’s family surprised her by appearing along the course, the 90 percent humidity due to Singapore’s equatorial location, the lack of distracting scenery, and the silence of no spectators made the Sunrise Marathon a race fairly unlikely to elicit one’s best running especially after training in Vermont’s cool spring weather. Additionally, most runners didn’t go to bed that night, making the finishing the marathon both physically and mentally exhausting.
“I guess it’s a good first place to do my first marathon because I can only get faster,” Shawler said.
For both Shawler and Koch, the most challenging aspect of their marathon experience was training. With respective May 29 and July 25 dates, it was necessary to begin training for both marathons during the school year. Towards the end of training, this meant daily runs for upwards of one hour.
“You have to make a pretty sizeable commitment of your time for quite a while,” Koch said. “Sticking with it and keeping motivated is the most difficult part. The race itself, while difficult, sort of pales in comparison to the amount of work you have to put in to get there.”
Shawler did lots of 14- and 16-mile runs, mapping out her routes around Middlebury on Google Maps and writing the directions on her arm before setting out. Freshman hall mates remember a sign that appeared on Shawler’s door the afternoon she did a 20-mile practice run containing a map of her route and a only half-joking note at the top, “If I’m not back by 6:00, come look for me along this route.” She was afraid of getting lost.
Koch ran frequently throughout the school year and trained specifically for the marathon for 10 weeks, while Shawler started training four months in advance. But not all students who competed in events submitted themselves to grueling training regimens.
For Melissa Mittleman ‘13, who participated in the Pan Massachusetts Challenge (PMC) this August 6 and 7, training wasn’t as intense.
“I got on my bike three and a half weeks beforehand and hadn’t ridden since I was about eight,” Mittleman said. “It was definitely a busy three weeks and I was pretty sore.”
The PMC is a charity bike ride for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute with multiple alternative routes, but Mittleman’s particular cycling team rode about 170 miles over two days, spending the overnight on a friend’s boat. Mittleman’s laid-back training for the race made her even more surprised when she averaged 5 miles per hour faster during the race than she had in training rides. She suspects, though, that the crowds of people lining the route cheering her on boosted her speed.
“It’s a really fun interactive ride. Not only are you riding for yourself, but you’re riding for all the other riders [on your team] and all the people who are cheering you on,” Mittleman said. “It seems to have such a bigger purpose.”
Like Mittleman, Christine Shozer ’13 adopted a relaxed training program in preparation for her own summer fitness challenge. An alpine ski team member, she decided to compete in the Queens Half Marathon in order to benefit her skiing through improving her cardiovascular base. Shozer had never raced more than six miles before competing in the Queens Half Marathon in New York, and trained for only a month beforehand with longer runs and bike rides.
As in Shawler’s Sunrise Marathon, Shozer had to contend with stifling heat and humidity. Although she did come in second in her age group, New York City’s record heat this summer did nothing to boost her time.
“Had it not been so hot I probably could have broken the two-hour mark, but on miles 10, 11, and 12 the heat was pounding and I definitely slowed down,” Shozer said.
Koch, Shawler, Mittleman, too, were first-timers in their respective races. Although Koch and Shawler had run track and cross-country in high school and Koch had done the San Francisco Half Marathon the year before, neither had raced this kind of distance before. For Shawler, seeing graduates of her high school’s cross country team compete in the Adidas Sunrise Marathon their first year in college provided the impetus. Her parents, too, had competed in fitness events.
“My parents had done marathons when they were younger, so I thought, if my parents have done it, then I can do it, too,” Shawler said.
Similarly, Shozer’s parents had always been active, competing in multiple full and half marathons. In fact, Shozer ran the first eight miles of the Queens Half Marathon with both her parents before speeding up.
For Mittleman, the PMC was also a family affair. Both she, her parents and her two older siblings rode as part of the same 22-person team of family friends. As a child, Mittleman had watched the ride from behind a roadside lemonade stand, and as a high schooler, she volunteered at the event. Mittleman only started thinking seriously about riding the PMC this August towards the end of June.
“It’s been a long tradition in our family,” Mittleman said. “But this is the first year that my whole family did it together.”
Although Koch had run the half marathon with his father last year, running the full marathon this year was less motivated by family tradition than the lure of finally putting his fitness to the test.
“For me it was that I was interested in seeing what I could do because … the last year so I was running without any finite, concrete goals I that was trying to achieve,” Koch said. “Deciding I was going to do a marathon gave me something to work towards.”
So, the verdict? Although Koch warns that without proper training, running a marathon, “can be one of the most painful experiences of your life,” no one found their fitness experiences incredibly taxing.
Shozer saw that her training made the marathon, “easier than expected,” and wants to do a full marathon sometime when she’s not ski racing. Shawler and Mittleman want to compete again, too. For Koch, the decision as to whether or not to race in the Boston Marathon next April depends on how confident he is in his ability to keep motivated to train on a treadmill during the Vermont winter, as the Marathon would require three to four months of preparation. He’s also interested in competing in an “ultra marathon,” which is defined as any marathon longer than the typical 26.2 miles.
Maybe the most positive indication that Shawler, Mittleman, Shozer and Koch will continue in their fitness pursuits is the fact that they have all been lifetime athletes, competing in sports all through high school. After all, active people stay fit because they enjoy it, and nothing can replace pure satisfaction at physical activity.
“I wouldn’t be able to do this if I didn’t enjoy on some level the simple act of running,” Koch said. “I can’t really force myself to do something I hate.”
Heating It Up: Students brave summer heat to take part in fitness challenges
Comments
