As many of you know by now, I was unable to run the Marine Corps Marathon as planned.  Long story short, after completing the course of antibiotics, and cough medicines and steroids and two types of inhalers, my lungs continued to feel like they were on fire, even after only a few short minutes of exertion. 

On race day, I awoke, got dressed, put my race number on my shirt and headed outside to test the temperature, still thinking that I would somehow “push through” 26.2 miles.  But after barely jogging up the 400 meter hill to the front of my house, my body made it painfully clear that today would not be my day.  Surprisingly, I found myself calm with the decision to postpone something that I had worked the better part of 6 months to complete.  But upon arriving at the marathon to cheer on friends and fellow runners, my tendencies toward calm were overcome by brief emotions of anger and frustration.  Luckily, my father was in town, which meant drinks were in order and soon enough emotional calm was restored.

I would summarize my marathon experience two-fold

First, NEVER run a marathon!  It is bad for your body, and who knows, the training may actually cause bronchitis.  And second, EVERYBODY should train to run at least one marathon.  I know, 2 completely contradictory statements, but hear me out.  I initially decided to train for a marathon with the goal of proving how damaging marathon training is to the body.  Based on the number of people I know who never even made it to the starting line, I can safely say that marathon training is excessive, and for most people and most body types, also very dangerous to muscles, tendons and joints.

But having said all of that, what else are you living for? 

Marathon training is if nothing, else a study in focus, goal setting and perseverance.  How many people can wake up every day knowing that today is yet another step towards tackling a life goal?  And how many life goals do you really have left ahead of you?  Don’t most of us simply wake up, eat, work, and then go back to sleep just so we can repeat it again tomorrow?  I can recall on numerous occasions mentioning to my wife, how fired up I was 1-2 days before my long runs on Saturday.  It was like I was getting ready for the High School game, and when was the last time I felt like that?

Having gone through the process, I am probably now more of the mindset that marathon running is excessive.  In fact, I would say that Half Marathons and 10 Milers and probably less restrictive, less oppressive and generally better for you.  But just like my sister once told me that you haven’t lived until you have seen the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, I believe I haven’t lived until you have finished a marathon, so it is with that belief that I still have business to finish, and I am certain I will get there soon.

Remember, Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying! 

Blogger Dr. Lorraine Williams interviews Dr. Booker about causes for shin splints and shin splint treatments on her popular blog, Track Mom. Click here to view the interview blog post.

Last Saturday I went out for what I expected would be a pretty comfortable 10 mile run. My usual pattern is to take about 1 to 2 miles to actually get my breath and settle in to the run. But on this run, I found myself having difficulty settling in, well into mile 3 and even into mile 4. In fact, I found myself struggling to breathe at all!

As we were passing through a highly wooded area, I mentioned to my running partners that I was having a hard time getting my wind. One of the guys conveniently mentioned that this was probably a bad time to struggle with breathing, as the tree pollen certainly wouldn’t help.

As we pushed into the 4th, 5th and 6th miles, the breathing difficulties continued. On this day, something wasn’t right!

Mile 7

I told my group I was going to have to drop back, as I felt my stomach and chest tightening up. I tried attributed it to possibly eating the wrong thing the night before. I made an uncomfortable pit stop to the woods (I will spare the gruesome details) and then I labored through the last 3 miles.

On Tuesday, I thought it would be a good idea to take a short 4-5 mile run around Haynes Point. The goal was to get the legs moving a little bit, but to also get acclimated to what many runners consider the most remote point in the marathon.

If I Can’t Breathe, I Can’t Run

For the second run in 2 days, I was having the same breathing difficulties. I was left with no choice but to contact one of my MD buddies and present him with my symptoms…he comes back with a diagnosis of a mild case of Bronchitis!

Perfect!! 10 Days Until The Marathon and I Have Bronchitis!!

My doctor buddy phones in the prescriptions, I pick them up and I do what I HATE doing, I take the required prescriptions. After all, desperate times require desperate measures. I didn’t train through the last 6 months, NOT to run the marathon.

I am currently on a cough syrup, an antibiotic, and an inhaler, all junk that I typically find reprehensible. But I will do whatever is necessary to rush the recovery; drink my fluids, get more and more rest and pull it together just in time to complete this crazy thing.

Send your prayers!

As many of you are aware, I am participating in the Marine Corp Marathon.  Yes, it has been 5 1/2 months of running more than I have in, well…ever. And yes, I ran track back in my younger days, but I don’t ever recall saying to myself, “Let’s go for a quick little 12 mile run.”

Quick little 12 mile run?  Who says that?

Only a crazy marathoner, of which I have to now consider myself.  In any event, October 25th is the day, and so it is important for me to mention just how eager I am for October 26th, when I can get back to doing what I probably do best, and focusing on the work of providing what I hope is the highest level of chiropractic, physical therapy, pain management and fall prevention available.

October 26th marks another important date…

We will be transitioning from a Marathon Blog, specific to the interests and concerns of distance runners, to a Capitol Rehab of Arlington blog where we will discuss a variety of topics relevant to a broader spectrum.  There will be many themes and several topics, but if I had to put an umbrella over the entire message it would be this:

Get busy living, or get busy dying!

I wrote an introductory article in our January newsletter using this title as my platform. Essentially we can spend alot of time talking about how to prevent low back pain or how to treat plantar fasciitis, and we will.  We can tackle topics that are current and relevant like the swine flu or a recent study revealing that healthy kids who take Ritalin are at a 500 percent greater risk of sudden death, and we will do that too.  But the underlying effort will be to provide information that allows and encourages you to get the most out of your life.

In a world of mixed messages and a society that encourages dependency and passivity, I want you to take a proactive posture and live your fullest life. Can Capitol Rehab of Arlington play a role in that? Perhaps.  But our larger goal is to provide and share information. I have a responsibility to educate on the dangers of complacency. I have a responsibility to do my part and be completely open and honest about the dangers of smoking, obesity and excessive overuse of unnecessary medications.  I also have a responsibility to break down the ingestion of propaganda and mis-information.  If I don’t work to do these things, then I am not fulfilling my responsibility as a health provider.

At times I may step on some toes or hurt some feelings, this is certainly not my intention.  But it is much more important that I work to be right than liked.  So I look forward to chatting with everyone, and I hope to see you participating in the process. Get Busy Living, Or Get Busy Dying!

Dad: “See, Quint, so what happened was this. I decided I would just go out with the really fast people and just rely on my natural God given speed to pass them all at the finish. It went pretty much according to plan, and that’s how your daddy won the race.”

Quint: “Did you win a Gold medal.”

Dad: “I sure did.” (Showing him my finishing medal that every participant receives.)

Quint: So why were all of those people in front of you when you finished.”

Dad: “Ok, see, right…ok, right…see what happened was this, when they start the race, they let all of the really slow people go out first, and THEEEEN they let all of the fast people, like your dad, go out an hour later. So what you saw was your daddy catching up with all of the really slow people, get it.”

Quint: “Dad, you’re the best. High five!”

Dad: “That’s right boy, now go tell your mother and sister. High five!”

Before the Race

A couple of weeks ago, someone asked me when was the last road race that I had run. After thinking long and hard, I remembered that I had won a 5k for my age group…when I was 9! Thus, participating in an actual race before my marathon was important. Through some luck and a couple of good connections, I was able to secure a bib for the Army Ten Miler just days before the actual event. I drove to the DC Armory, found an illegal parking space, ran in, picked up my bib, my shirt, my hat and my information packet. Then I went home to figure it all out.

Later that night, I pinned my number on my shirt, attached the little electronic thingy on my shoe, which is supposed to track my progression through the race, laid out my clothes, packed some food, Gatorade, and…then I remembered…I am only going 10 miles…so I unpacked the food, put away the Gatorade fell fast asleep.

Day of The Race

Let me just say that just going to this race was an education!

Are all of these people really here to run 10 miles? The actual count was 30,000 people making it the largest 10 miler in the country. After taking a little time to get adjusted to all of the folks, I found my place in the starting order, and then I just stood around and waited…for about 40 minutes.

Lesson #1: “GO” doesn’t really mean “GO”!

Finally the voice over the loud speaker is ready to send us on our way.

On your mark, get set, GO! And now… we’re just walking. I guess when you tell 30,000 people to go at the roughly the same time, “GO” really means WAIT, you will be going soon enough.

Lesson #2: Everyone Isn’t Going to Run the Same Speed

I had been warned that getting around people can be something of a challenge but this was ridiculous! I completely underestimated that there would be groups of people running shoulder to shoulder at about half my pace. Getting around them was like a bad game of Frogger! Just when you start to feel a little bit comfortable, BAM! You have to stop, stutter step or almost go completely across the street to get past people.

Lesson #3: I Think I Hate Everyone

I really do appreciate all of the people coming out to support the runners, but can I ask one simple favor? Don’t say stupid stuff. I mean if you are standing on the 8 mile marker, please don’t tell me “You’ve gone 8 miles, 2 more to go!” I can read. And even worse, if you’re standing next to the 9 Mile marker, don’t tell me that I have 500 yards to go! According to that 9 Mile Marker that you have chosen to rest your Latte on, I have exactly 1 mile to go!

I know… it’s me, I’m probably a little bitter. My apologies.

Lesson #4: Enjoy It While It Lasts

Before I knew it, the race was over. I was heading over the 14th Street Bridge, quick little turn to the right, and I saw The Finish Line. It felt really good. I had already forgotten about the slow runners, the 8th grade band playing Freebird and the dummies at Mile Markers 8 and 9; now I was done!

Lessons learned and now I can really looking forward to running the Marine Corps Marathon in 3 weeks.

As we move closer to the actual marathon, we continue to up the ante on the long runs. What were once 12 mile runs on the weekend, quickly moved to 15, then 17, then 20, then 23, and here we were getting ready to actually run 26 miles!!! Going in, I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t run the full 26. I know myself too well. If I run 26 today then why would I decide to run it again in 4 weeks? That’s crazy talk! I understand the concept, running 26 miles today would give me the confidence to do it again come marathon time.

On the other hand, you wouldn’t ask Jay Z to do a second take after a flawless rip on the first. And yes, me and Jay Z got alot in common!

So I’ve ruled out 26, and coincidentally, my group leader is lobbying for us to do 24. Sounds good to me. But in the back of my mind, there was the OTHER philosophy held by many marathoners, “there is really no need to run over 20-22 miles before your marathon.” So as we lined up, I was certain I would run no less than 20, and certainly no more than 24.

Let me take a moment to digress if I may

For all of you sane people who have absolutely no interest in ever running 20 miles or more, let me answer a common misconception. “Is there REALLY a difference between running 20 miles and 24 miles? It’s ONLY 4 little miles?!?”

Let me answer it this way. Saying “it’s only 4 little miles” is like your surfing instructor telling you, “It’s only a small shark.” What?!? That little shark will still bite and it will hurt alot, just like an additional 4 miles!

Perhaps that didn’t resonate. Let’s look at it this way. 4 miles is roughly equal to 40 MORE minutes of running. 40 minutes of running on a treadmill is a daunting task for most, and that’s not accounting for the 3 1/2 hours of running you will have already clocked as you reach the 20 mile mark.

So YES! There is a considerable difference between 20 and 24 miles.

Back to our very long run

Going in, I was as prepared as I could possibly be:

• I had put in some type of run 4 of the previous 5 days
• I had my sports massage
• Got adjusted by my chiropractor
• Had my physical therapist work on my knees
• Ate right
• Got quality rest
• …and hydrated plenty

So for the first 6 or so miles, I felt great. But coming into the 7-8 mile point, I started to feel a little “tart” in my stomach. “Tart” turned to “heavy” and “heavy” turned to downright uncomfortable. I was baffled as I had no idea what could have caused the considerable pain growing in my belly. I had been eating the same “running food” that I always ate but on this day, it wasn’t sitting so well.

Pushing towards the 10 mile point, my decision was made. I was going to reach the 10 mile point and start heading back. I would rather finish a 20 mile run feeling relatively good than risk attempting to tackle the new miles on a really bad stomach.

I felt like I was doing ok until I ran into Harold again

Suffice it to say, I believe most people don’t feel very good after running 17 miles. Now if you add to the physical discomfort, an upset stomach…well, let me not get too graphic. Realizing I was coming into the homestretch of my run, I had the misfortune once again of running into Harold, the dwarf who put the serious beat down on me a few weeks earlier.

But instead of bringing additional pain, a strange thing happened.

Harold turned my way, considered dishing out some more abuse, but instead, assessed the situation.

“You look like you’re hurting son,” Harold said.

“Yep,” I replied.

“Looks like you got a sour stomach. Well, it wouldn’t be too much fun to kick you around now, it would be too easy. Kind of like punching a baby in the face, how could I feel good about that?” Harold lectured.

“I’ll probably see you next weekend, but could you do us all a favor, and try to keep it swallowed.”

Don’t let Harold’s moment of civility fool you. I still don’t like him.

Despite stomach issues…

So despite the usual soreness associated with prolonged running, and setting aside the stomach discomfort usually remedied with Pepto Bismol, I felt surprisingly good, all things considered. I still needed to sit in the ice bath, take a hot shower and pass out for about an hour, but this long run felt far better than the last few.

And with exactly 1 month to go, I know that I am going to finish. I just hope to do it as painlessly as possible.

With a little less than 4 weeks to go til I run this year’s Marine Corps Marathon, I can say with complete certainty, I wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for the great work I have received from my chiropractor, physical therapist and massage therapist.

First a little background

People who have read my earlier blog posts understand that one of the reasons for running this marathon was to selflessly sacrifice my body, in the interest of science and the greater good for humanity, to see what a person goes through while training for a marathon.

Understanding the abuse I was signing up for, I then wanted to see if I could use all of the tools at my disposal to hopefully remain injury free. Now maybe this isn’t a discussion for you 20 year olds out there, but if there is one thing marathon training has taught me, it is my own mortality, ever more present now, as I enter the 4th decade of my life.

Runner injuries whittle our team from 12 to 4…

Bottom line, if you train for a marathon, you are going to feel aches and pain, and quite possibly, even get injured. It is hard to quantitatively determine hard percentages, but if my particular pace group is any indicator, we started this journey in May with around 10-12 runners, but as I write this some five months later, we have been whittled down to 3-4 lonesome souls. Obviously, there are a multitude of reasons for this reduction, but injury is certainly at the top of the list. We have suffered pulled muscles, injured joints, stress fractures, you name it.

So how do I feel?

There but for the grace of God, go I. And might I add, the grace of great chiropractic care, physical therapy and massage therapy.

Preparing for yet another long training run, I take account of how I feel. A little tight in the left knee, some cracking in the feet and ankles … and I think I count 2 missing toenails. Overall, I’m good to go! But how did I get here? Am I lucky, blessed or am I the benefactor of all of the time spent with various professionals, getting adjusted, stripping down tight muscles, training weak muscles, and so on and so forth?

I have hesitated in the past on making a strong and definitive statement about chiropractic and physical therapy, but I have to say it now:

If you are training without at least one and possibly all of these professional on your team, the chances of you getting injured are great!

If you are training hard, you are tweaking joints, straining muscles, torquing ligaments and stressing the overall structure of your body. And the results of this stress are all of the injuries runners have become way to familiar with. Plantar Fasciitis, IT Band Syndrome, runners knee, leg pain, back pain, and everything else that makes up the list of runners ailments. I can recall feeling a very sharp pain to the outside of my left knee during my first 8 mile run. “IT Band,” I thought to myself.

The Dr. Beck hook up…

Dr. Beck @ Capitol Rehab (@capitolrehab)

Immediately following the run, I presented this to my very talented chiropractor, Dr. Beck who identified a pelvic imbalance, made the necessary corrections and bam! IT BAND IS GONE FOR GOOD!

On a separate run, I remember dull pain through the front of both of my knees. I quickly visited my physical therapists, Barb and Lyn.

“Tight hamstrings, tight psoas, weak quads and glutes, do some of these, and some of that…” they told me. The results?? Problem solved!

This isn’t hippie voodoo, this is how the human body works.

We are designed to adjust to stress and do the best we can. Our bodies will sacrifice one part to try and spare another. Sometimes getting on the foam roller, or changing shoes or sitting in an ice bath isn’t enough. Sometimes you have to take the race car in for a pit stop and get things tuned up.

Listen to your body

In some circles, this may be a controversial point, but not in the critical research and more importantly, not in the minds of elite runners; many of which have been incorporating this type of work into their training for years.

If you suffer nagging injuries that continue to show up at the most inopportune times, start listening to your body and find a good chiropractor, physical therapist or massage therapist. Or better yet, try to find a place that can introduce you to all three. Your body deserves it.

running 6 miles has now become “too easy”

When I first started this long distance training thing, the thought of running 6 miles required at least a week of meditation and a blessing from the Gods. Somehow, someway, 6 miles has become a simple stroll through the park, and 10-15 mile runs only mildly challenging. So i guess if you are going to train for a marathon, it is inevitable that you will eventually have to do some REAL long runs. I mean those 18 milers and up!

Since I am actually getting started pretty late on this blog thing, I will quickly summarize my experiences on the 15 and 17 mile runs.

Here it is: They were surprisingly easy.

…OK, lets move on to the topic at hand.

It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Worse Of Times … The 20 Mile Run

I need to first say, “God Bless My Training Group!” (pictures of my group are forthcoming!)

We decided collectively to start our 20 mile run at 5am, beginning at Dangerfield Island, heading 10 miles south along the George Washington Parkway, turning around and returning home.

Besides having to get up at 4am for a 5am start, getting an early start provided several benefits. The obvious benefit being that we finished earlier and that provided all of us with the opportunity to get on with our day. But the BEST benefit is that when you start a run while it is still pitch black outside, your mind does something very funny.

Essentially, the sun comes up around 6:15-6:30, but by then we were basically 9-10 miles down the road. Your mind sees the sun and thinks, “Time to wake up!” and your immediate next thought is, “How did I end up in Mount Vernon? Oh yeah, I’ve been running for an hour and a half.” This is a VERY cool sensation!

Very cool indeed. Even cooler is I remember saying to myself, “This is REALLY EASY! Too easy in fact. Maybe this is that RUNNER’S HIGH I have heard so much about.” And I have to tell you, it felt really good!

Important Side Note

I have to say, the feeling I get from my second Patron Silver with Cointreau Margarita is STILL far better than the RUNNER’S HIGH THING, but the running high was still surprisingly good. In case you care to know, the perfect margarita is made as follows:

• 1 can of Limeade
• 3/4 can of Patron
• 1/3-1/2 can of Cointreau
• Add ice, blend and absolutely SKIP THE SALT

This margarita is actually good enough to bring to your AA Meeting! The support group is certain to give you a pass on this delicious libation! (That’s a joke, people, no nasty emails, please.)

A Dwarf Named Harold

So from mile 5 to mile 17, I am actually asking myself, “Is 26.2 miles even going to be long enough to truly challenge me? If I feel like this for much longer, I might try out for an Olympic Team or something.“

But then it happened! Seconds after I began writing my own success story in my head, a little dwarf named Harold jumped out of the bushes, right there along the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, and began to beat me like I stole something. He beat me like I still owed him money and within 5 strides, I went from feeling like Usain Bolt to looking like Bill Cosby!

Harold jumped off my back, quickly disappeared and left me with about 3 miles to go and absolutely nothing in the tank! The sensation was like nothing I had ever felt. I have been physically fatigued on several occasions in the past but I have always been able to feel it coming on. This happened instantaneously, and the feeling of a dwarf, I’m sorry, little person, on my back is in no way an exaggeration.

You Might As Well Laugh About It

If I walked, I felt fine. If I attempted to run, everything hurt. My knees, my feet, my shoulders, my wrists (yes even my wrists) all hurt like my entire body was on fire.

Left with little in the tank and pain throughout my being, all I could do was smile, laugh about it, and just take my time with the last three miles. Needless to say, I eventually finished but took home 2 important lessons:

1. I need to train a little harder during the week and try to get a few more miles in.
2. Enjoy the runners high when you are lucky enough to experience it, but have respect for Harold and the Wall you might hit along the way.

In the end, just keep smiling … you will eventually get there.

In my blog post about foam rollers, Jackie asks the following question:

“How do you use the foam rollers?”

Jackie, thanks for asking such a great question.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words so I in order to provide you with a very descriptive response, I went to the ever-trusty video sharing web site YouTube™ and found a pretty good video demonstrating the use of a foam roller.

The video I found, which you can see below, demonstrates the four key areas that need to be targeted:

• Hamstrings
• Calf and Soleus
• Quadriceps
• Lower Back

The techniques demonstrated in this demonstrate are right on and should be copied exactly to form.

Foam Roller Exercise Video

Key points not mentioned in the video

Although the above video is quite good, here are some key points about the use of a foam roller that are NOT mentioned:

• Differences between a tight and overactive muscle
  Always remember, there is a difference between a TIGHT muscle and an OVERACTIVE muscle. I will go into much greater detail about this key point in a future blog post, but for now, all I want people to remember is if a muscle is TIGHT, you stretch it. If a muscle is OVERACTIVE you have to relax or release it.

Without getting into medical jargon, the major point I am trying to make is that a foam roller releases an overactive muscle. The person in the video even mentions the term myofascial release which a foam roller is. They slightly confuse the point by repeatedly calling it a stretch. In any event, just remember this modality is a release and not a stretch.

• The take away lesson
  The take away lesson is that YOU CAN RELEASE A MUSCLE TOO MUCH! And if you release a muscle too much, it will actually rebound and become OVEREXCITED all over again, and this spells trouble for the athlete.

Therefore, utilizing the forms demonstrated in the video, the recommended use of a foam roller is 3-4 times a week, allowing a day off between uses.

Enjoy the video and thanks again Jackie for reading this blog and participating!

In my first introductory post on this blog, Kelli left the following comment/question for me:

“Hey Bill! Great website! I too am training for the Columbus Marathon however my training has stalled and I am thinking I am probably just going to walk. What do you suggest? The longest run I’ve had thus far has been 9 miles about a month ago and only small intermittent runs in between. Should I start my training for running or should I just focus on walking. Again, great site!”

I really want to thank Kelli for inspiring this blog post!

So, to Kelli’s questions and concerns … should she start training for running or just focus on walking?

This million dollar question can be answered by simply saying, you should do BOTH! This is why I am a huge fan of the Galloway Running Program. Galloway has been teaching the run/walk method successfully for years. It is the program that I participate in and I couldn’t imagine doing my first marathon any other way.

Keep in mind …

You have to remember, although I was in pretty darn good shape at the start of this process, the idea of running more than 4-5 miles was intimidating. The energy systems I have developed doing interval training and hill sprints, is completely different than the energy system you tap into during loooonnnnggggg, sustained runs. My training group runs for 4 minutes and then walks for a minute. The faster groups might run for 7 or 8 minutes and then walk for a minute and some of the slower groups may incorporate a few more walk breaks. The end result are much fresher legs, which pays big dividends towards the end of those longer runs.

A little Bit About the Jeff Galloway Program

This program is designed specifically to teach just about anyone, that they can run a marathon. The program incorporates a low-milage, three-day a week training schedule that Jeff reports at a 98% success. I haven’t seen any official numbers but based solely on the group I train with, I believe it.

As a participant, I have seen several benefits to this style of training:

• I don’t think I have it in me to run for 1 hour, then 2 hours, then over 3 hours without the support of a group running with me. The group support is an enormous component! When I can look around and see that I am with other people pushing towards such a giant goal, it keeps me going.
• The run/walk allows you to break up the monotony of long runs. You will find yourself focusing more on your watch, and less on the miles that lie ahead of you.
• Run/walk helps to improves recovery.
• Run/Walk allows you to store energy, which is critical, particularly at the end of runs.

As a doctor, I see these benefits, and several more:

• Allows your “running” muscles to recover, throughout the run, while your “walking” muscles share the work.
• You use different muscle AND different energy systems throughout the run.
• Most importantly, run/walk REDUCES REPETITIVE STRESS INJURIES!!!

You can visit the Galloway website at www.JeffGalloway.com to get more information.