Andrew's Marathon Debrief
Andrew's Marathon Debrief
On October 17th I ran the Des Plaines River Marathon. This journey was at times depressing and others exhilarating. After running 22 half marathons in 22 weeks during the summer of 2020 I was sidelined with a hamstring strain that kept me out of commission for six weeks. After finishing my time at physical therapy, I was back to half marathon fitness—in an infinitely more sustainable way—after just five weeks. In February of 2021 I was back in PT having strained my lower back and torqued my IT band. Full recovery from that injury took until July, but in March I set my sights on running a marathon in the fall. Most training programs are 16 weeks, and I wanted to be ahead of schedule before I got there. That meant that I needed to be able to run a minimum of 26 miles per week before the first of July and at least 6 miles at a time with no pain in order to make this feat achievable.
In this entry Andrew breaks down his journey from injury to sustainable marathon fitness, balancing his training with his personal life and graduate school, what his training and nutrition looked like, how he made this sustainable, and what he has learned about himself as a result of this adventure.