Fitness Files: Bring on the Carlsbad Marathon

The next time I write about this marathon, I will have finished it.

Looking ahead to Sunday’s Carlsbad Marathon (26.2 miles), I feel neutral — neither excited nor anxious.

Besides the start and congeniality of teaming up with Evie and her daughter-in-law, Cristina, racing is not really fun. I mean “fun” in the sense that playful moments are fun — such as laughing with grandkids.

Racing is challenging work. I like work. I’m attracted to testing the limits of endurance. My husband just left for a full day of golf. He is attracted to challenges of skill and technical exactitude. The idea of selecting which club matches distance and grass conditions in order to hit a tiny ball to a point I cannot see is beyond my limits of myopia and cerebral capacity.

Demanding that every cell and synapse fire, well after their natural fuel system is used up, is what I seek. However, I don’t want to think too much about pressing forward through the state of exhaustion guaranteed during miles 20 to 26.2. It’s bad policy to rehearse torture.

Casting off thoughts of torture at marathon’s end, I offer the flip side of running many miles — a cure to my painful back and knee, described in my Dec. 10 blog entry on lazyracer@blogspot.

In mid-December, my marathon training stopped cold when I spent five days with my granddaughter. My son-in-law was out of town, and my daughter had to work long hours. Back pain, unusual for me, and knee pain, chronic, started before I left and joined me for the five days. It only got worse as I hoisted up a chunky 2-year-old.

I had plenty of joyful moments with Jules but arrived home hurting, and the following morning I went out to run, grumpy and in pain. Before I left for my daughter’s, I had been adding one mile a week to my long runs. I had started six weeks earlier at 14 miles and finally achieved 20 miles the week before I left. To get back into training, I ran 21 miles the day I returned.

A few hours after the 21-mile run, I realized I was pain-free. Back and knee haven’t hurt since. An odd but happy mystery.

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I did something new this morning. I Googled “marathon strategies.”

Start slowly. Don’t surge past slow runners at the start because you’ll waste energy. Tuck in behind other runners for slight wind advantage. Take in energy drinks early in the race while digestion still works.

In the past, I’ve always run like hell with the excitement of the start and dragged in at the end, ignoring tablefuls of vile energy drinks. Strategy? Intuition’s been my strategy.

I’ve already bored myself writing about my slowing pace. Recently, I ran a final pre-marathon run with a relaxed, talkative Evie. I ran at top speed but was chagrined all over again when I looked down at my pace watch: 12-minute mile.

Baking soda has a shelf-life. It pours faster when the tin’s new. I still use the soda when it’s a clump, stuck in the tin. It still works in baked goods. Runners have a shelf-life.

At 72 years old, my feet stick to the ground a few seconds longer with each stride. But I’ll still get the job done. Five and a half-hour marathon? Demoralizing but done.

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The Carlsbad Marathon, with about 1,500 participants, is one of the smallest marathons I’ve run.

I hope I see lots of port-a-potties. I’ve never had to stop during a race but always felt pity for runners taking race time to stand in line for the john. Maybe I’ll need a potty stop this time. Better not be a line!

Switch off those cellphone videos if I skip the queue and squat behind the privy.

Turns out potty talk is the extent of my pre-race planning.

Newport Beach resident CARRIE LUGER SLAYBACK is a retired teacher who, since turning 70, has run the Los Angeles Marathon, placing first in her age group twice.