The dreaded wall is that point in the race when your body is depleted of glycogen energy/fuel and it is very painful: the source of all suffering in a marathon. The first time I experienced the suffering of the wall was in the 1977 Marine Corps Marathon at about miles 18/19.
I first noticed many people slowing down on their run, or walking and many not running for a several minutes or at all. My legs ached and I felt numb from the waist down. I had just completed that part of a marathon that feels good. I was in flow: my legs felts good, my breathing was even, and my mind was positive.
The wall takes all of that away.
My body was in pain like I had never experienced before, my mind was full of doubt, unbelief and faith and emotionally I was in a dark space. My mental self began to ask WTF questions like why are you doing this and are you crazy? However, at some point, watching the other marathoners walk and not run, I made a decision that no matter what, I will not stop running and quit the race. My thoughts turned to the Little-Choo-Choo and my mantra/inner focus became “I think I can, I think I can.” After a few minutes, my thoughts became a sub-vocalization, then a whisper, and finally a statement/affirmation. I thought I could and I did.
In a marathon, for many people, the race begins at mile 18, at the wall, with perhaps an hour and a half to three more hours to go. It would be very useful to know about when and where the the wall will present itself in HIMNC 70.3. The good news is that with a calculator and the My Fitness Pal app is is possible to to make an educated guess as to when I will hit the wall.
I put in my target time for each event into the exercise section of the MFP app to get an approximation of the calories I will be burn for each event and added the 3 calories (no transition times) for each event. Here are the numbers:
Swim: target time of 42 minutes = 605 calories burned
Bike: target time of 195 minutes = 3370 calories burned
Run: target time of 135 = 1750 calories burned
Total approximate calories burned = 5725
I will begin the race with somewhere between 2000 and 2500 stored calories and, mathematically, I should hit the wall at approximately 2.5 hours into the race. Doing the math, if the race is going well for me, I should be at about mile 30 on the bike when I hit the wall which translates into about 4 hours remain in the race and and about 26 miles left to ride and the run a half marathon. Therefore, mile 30 on the bike is when the race gets real. The math also tells me that i need approximately 3000 more calories to finish the race. This means about 868 calories are needed per hour after I hit the wall.
My goals are to maintain pace, to finish strong, and to finish in6 hours and 20 minutes.
This blog is my journey toward achieving these goals.