Armstrong solid in marathon debut, but .....

[narra]

 

He looked a bit confused at the start Almost wondering where his bike is, where is my team

 

But well done Lance

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/more/11/05/bc.run.nycmarathon.arms.ap/index.html?cnn=yes

 

Different wheels

Armstrong solid in marathon debut, but race takes toll

Posted: Sunday November 5, 2006 2:01PM; Updated: Sunday November 5, 2006 4:46PM

NEW

YORK (AP) -- His face twisted in pain, Lance Armstrong virtually walked

the last couple of steps. He slowed to a halt immediately after the

finish line and bent to the ground, his green shirt soaked with sweat.

No one's more familiar with how painful achieving goals can be.

Still, not even he saw this coming.

Armstrong

barely met his lofty goal of breaking 3 hours in his first marathon,

but it came at a price. No Alpine climb on his bicycle had ever been as

tough as Sunday's New York City Marathon, he said.

"For the

level of condition that I have now, that was without a doubt the

hardest physical thing I have ever done," said Armstrong, who finished

856th. "I never felt a point where I hit the wall, it was really a

gradual progression of fatigue and soreness."

Armstrong's time

was 2 hours, 59 minutes and 36 seconds. Afterward, he shuffled into a

post-race news conference, his right shin heavily taped.

"I

think I bit off more than I could chew, I thought the marathon would be

easier," he said. "(My shins) started to hurt in the second half,

especially the right one. I could barely walk up here, because the

calves are completely knotted up."

Armstrong's build presented a

stark contrast to the elite men's runners who preceded him on the

course. The cycling champion's heavily muscled legs and powerful chest

set him apart from the slender Kenyans who traditionally dominate the

race. Even Armstrong compared the leaders' legs to pencils.

And

while there was little joy among the leaders during the race, Armstrong

smiled and chatted amiably during the first half of the race. He wore a

shirt saying LANCE and displaying the numbers 10/2 -- the date 10 years

ago on which he was diagnosed with cancer, before he began his amazing

Tour de France streak.

He was paced for most of the race by

former marathon champions Alberto Salazar and Joan Benoit Samuelson and

middle-distance running great Hicham El Guerrouj, and said he got a lot

of support from fans packed along the course.

But his body

seemed to tighten and showed signs of pain and fatigue in the final few

miles. He started to fall off the pace required to break 3 hours before

a final push allowed him to meet his personal goal.

"Before the

race that was my goal, I wanted to break 3 hours. But if you told me

with 3 miles to go, `You're going to do 3:05,' I wouldn't have cared,"

he said. "Honestly, at the end I was so tired, I couldn't care. Now I'm

glad I did."

About an hour after the men's and women's champions

had crossed the finish line, the Central Park crowd really started to

buzz as Armstrong approached. Fans seemed much more enthused at seeing

Armstrong than watching a Brazilian man and a Latvian woman win titles

earlier on a crisp autumn afternoon.

"Lance added a lot," said

race director Mary Wittenberg. "He was a delight throughout. Everybody

is so excited about him. He beat a lot of odds and impressed a lot of

people."

So will he be back?

"Now's not the time to ask

that question. The answer now is no, I'll never be back. But I reserve

the right to change my mind," he said. "I don't know how these guys do

it."

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

narra2006-11-06 02:49:47

[Guest Michelle]

Why on earth is he running in baggies?  Aerodynamics Lance!! 

Can you imagine what his time would have been had he run in his TT skinsuit?

[pastapouch]

Ya, his not the first cyclist to go running and get another view of it. I've heard many cyclists thinking ah, if you can ride 80km you can run 20, this weekend again a guy who joined our club ride. Went firtst time running 20k. Had knee pain, sore shins... Running is tough, beware...Lance, and the rest of you.

[Grantc]

still - a sub 3 hour marathon is a good run.

[SwissVan]

Who remembers their first marathon and how in the last 10 km?s anything to do with running becomes an effort and every step becomes more painful.

Hats off to LA, even with his obviously above average athletic ability a good marathon time was never guaranteed, because there?s more to a marathon than just having athletic ability.

Even more amazing is how many people go through this in SA every year because of the Comrades marathon, you get thousands of people running multiple marathons plus an ultra in the relatively short time span (from a recovery point of view) between Dec and June every year.

The obvious effort (if you saw the race on TV, he never looked comfortable) of LA's puts the marathon into perspective for those cyclists who dont know what real pain is......yet.

[Thug]

I've been a runner for a number of years and still try & run between 40 - 60k's per week.

 

Training for a marathon is really a question of a slow but steady build up, but for all the marathons I've done, I've never once gone above 27-28k's in a training run. Comrades however was another story where I did 2 ultra marathons as part of my training.

 

The last 10k's of a marathon can be a real bitch especially if you haven't put in the mileage. In my last marathon were I set a PB, I lost at least 15 minutes over the last 10k's purely because of not having put in the required long distance runs as part of my training.

 

[Gumpole]

32km is halfway in a marathon!

[pastapouch]

32km is halfway in a marathon!

 

ooh, where did you learn maths? The standard marathon is 42.2km , 32 half??? huh. When training for Ironman I also don't do full distance, although its the recommendation, only 32km.

[Gumpole]

Its an expression that I heard when I used to run at RAC.. and its very true. If you run a 10k race at a constant pace and you are feeling good at half way you should be able to finish strongly. Not true in a marathon. Almost all my marathons I have felt perfect at 21.1km but somewhere between 32 and 42 I hit the wall, die, walk or slow down to a crawl.

So 50% (maybe more) of the pain and suffering and hard work in a marathon comes in the last 10ks.

so 32km is halfway in a marathon!

[willpower]

<advert>

 

WP duathlon champs is coming up in two weeks time. Any takers?

 

</advert>

 

[Prince]

Gumpole you are so right. Marathons are all about the last 10km. I personally hate 33km to 38km real no mans land.