Between the Lines: 

Ray Charbonneau goes

"One Step Beyond"

In our current Jan/Feb issue, Ray Charbonneau recommends that marathoners looking for an extra edge take their long runs "One Step Beyond." Ray thinks the simplest way most runners can improve their marathon time is by extending some of their long runs beyond 26.2 miles. He realized this while training for the Vermont 100.

Ray's upcoming book, Overthinking the Marathon, is like having Ray as your partner for a season of training, 17 weeks that culminate in the 2012 Cape Cod Marathon. Some days Ray talks about the nitty-gritty details; other days, it's about the things that make running interesting and fun, especially when it hurts. Marathon training is important to Ray, but he leavens his obsessiveness with a dry humor that acknowledges that one mid-packer's race isn't going to change the world. Overthinking the Marathon is due out in March 2013. In this excerpt, Ray practices what he preaches, with a little bonus:  

Well, that's over with. Today was my last marathon-plus training run before Cape Cod. From here on in, it's just hills and speed and nice short 20-mile jogs.  

My plan was to run the 32-mile route through Carlisle and Concord that I scouted on my bike a few weeks ago. At about 7:30 a.m., it was around 70° outside, not as cool as I'd like, but much less humid than it's been lately. I thought I was ready, so I headed out the door.

The bonus miles started early. I was in Arlington Center, a half-mile into the run, when I realized I had forgotten to take my Celebrex (an anti-inflammatory for my back). I turned back and went home. That added a mile to the run before I really got going.

I also managed to forget my phone and my Road ID, but I didn't realize that until I had started again and was almost in Lexington, much too far along to turn back. I decided I'd just have to be even more careful than usual to avoid becoming road pizza so they wouldn't be needed.

I took the bike path to Lexington. When I got there, I couldn't find the landmarks I was looking for. I wandered back and forth, temporarily befuddled and adding more bonus miles, before I remembered that the landmarks I was looking for were actually in Bedford. Sometimes I wonder if I should be allowed to go off on long runs by myself.

Shortly after I got back on track, I heard a car horn. When I looked, I saw Steve Pepe, another SRR member, waving as he drove in the other direction. It was nice to see a friendly face among all the commuters.

I settled back into my routine, running five minutes and then walking for a minute, over and over and over. I took an energy gel every 5 miles, and it was getting warmer so I made sure to drink out of my Camelbak regularly.

When I'm running for a timed interval, one nice thing is that even though I'm on a very long run, I worry less about how far I have left to go. The main thing on my mind is how long to the next walking break, and that's never very far away. The miles pass by without too much mental effort.

I was somewhere around 15 miles into my run when I reached the Kimball Farm ice cream stand in Carlisle. I still had a good amount of fluid left, but I wasn't sure if there would be any place where I could get a refill before Concord. Besides, all the ice in my Camelbak had melted and the Heed inside was getting warm. So I stopped at the ice cream stand, and the guy there was nice enough to give me a cup full of ice. I dumped the ice into my Camelbak and topped it off with water from the outdoor fountain. I was tempted by the idea of a quick dish of ice cream, but I didn't have much money so I got back on the road instead.

After a few miles, I left the road and turned onto the trail through the Minuteman National Park. I got some of the shade back, but only by adding on more bonus miles. My bike ride had gone on the main road straight through the park, but the trail twisted and turned, which added more distance to my run.

By the time I reached the end of the trail, I was really feeling the heat and the miles. The temperature had climbed into the upper 80s, and I had to go back out into the open to cross Rt. 128 into Lexington. What little fluid I had left was warm, so drinking didn't help much. If Steve Pepe had driven by at that point, I probably would've flagged him down to get a ride home.

But a little past the highway, at mile 28, I reached a gas station with a lovely air-conditioned convenience store and a Dunkin' Donuts. I got a big glass of ice from Dunkin' Donuts and two 32-oz. bottles of cold Gatorade from the store. I washed down two Tylenol with half a quart of Gatorade and dumped the remaining Gatorade and the ice in my Camelbak to tide me over for the rest of the trip.

After my chill break, I headed onward, slow and sore, but steadier. I knew my route was going to be well over 32 miles, but I wasn't sure exactly how much more. By this point, knowing how far I had to go was very important to me.

I was at 31 miles when I made it back to Mass Ave, the main road from Lexington to Arlington. From there, I knew I had at least three or four more miles to go. If running on the road in the sun was the only way to get back home, I probably would have trotted to the bus station at the Arlington border to make my 32 miles and then ridden the bus back. But I knew my last few miles could be on the gentle downhill grade of the Minuteman bike path where there would be plenty of shade (blessed shade). So I decided to suck it up and run all the way home.

I finished at about 1:45 in the afternoon, sweaty and crusted with salt. After my mistakes and the extra twists and turns I added to my original route, I ended up running 35 miles on that day. I showered, and then I weighed myself. I was at 149 pounds when I got up this morning, but I was down to 144.5 after my run. Yay, miles.

I was tired (duh). My Garmin GPS watch was drained to only 23 percent of a full charge, and that's how I felt too. A nap would have been nice, but the caffeine from six energy gels (three with double caffeine) made that idea a non-starter. I was almost too tired to eat, but I had to have something, so I ordered a pizza.

Other than being tired, I felt fine. The recent changes to my shoe inserts might have helped some. At worst, they hadn't hurt me any, and after a 35-mile test, that was very encouraging. I had a blister in the usual spot on the inside edge of the ball of my right foot, but it hadn't bothered me much while I was running. And again, after 35 miles, one medium blister wasn't bad. So I expect I'll recover from the run with no problems. However, I do think I'll take it easy in the race on Sunday.  

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