blood pooling in feet

The race went ok, other than the pain. I loved the weather. It was too warm for a lot of people. It was a bit humid at the start and misty, but not cold. It got a little warm towards the final third. I had other issues going on that were preventing me from going as fast as I could have, so I didn’t notice if the temp was a hindrance or not. Perhaps it contributed to the issues I was having. I’m still reading about that so I am not sure. It’s possible but I don’t think so because I have had these issues before as well, in cooler temps.

I wasn’t able to push my heart and lungs to max effort, or even close, because my legs were hammered by mile 15, quads mostly, and my feet felt like there was blood pooling in them, which hurts so much. I had to walk numerous times and do high knees while walking, which seems to alleviate it a bit and get a little bit of the blood out of there. This was a problem in my first few marathons as well, I remember, but even then I don’t remember it starting so early in the race. However, I was also racing shorter races way more frequently then. I also had blood pooling in my feet at the 10 miler in mid-November, so I kinda expected it to happen today. I was hoping it wouldn’t be as bad as it was, but whatever. I survived.

I’m pretty sure that the solution to this is to race more. I need that powerful blood-pumping flow on the venous side to get the blood out of my feet and endurance alone doesn’t make it happen. My heart and lungs had plenty left to give. I threw down at the very last stretch, so I could squeak in at 4:30, and I was barely winded from the final push compared to what I know happens to me from max effort, but I was in a lot of pain.

I just finished lying on the floor with my feet up the wall for about 20 minutes. That helps.

Anyway, I finished in basically the exact time I thought I was going to finish in, barely. But I know for a fact I had way more in me. I need my venous return to get strong again. T

This is an excellent article, especially by following through the links. It is lacking in practical solutions for me, but very interesting regardless.

https://www.cvphysiology.com/Cardiac%20Function/CF016

the marathon why

I have to answer the why, and to do that I have to remember when I first started running marathons, before I had any finish times that I felt like I could be proud of. The why now has to be the why that I had then. I wasn’t any good at it then but I still wanted to do it. Why?

I know I’m not going to P.R. tomorrow; I won’t even come close. It’s going to be difficult. It’s going to hurt. It’s 3 loops and that is going to probably get boring. There won’t be streets lined with people cheering. It’s going to be hilly. So, why? Why do it? Why bother?

Kerry said to me on the phone that when I’m super old it will be all about the fact that I finished however many marathons it will have been by then. When I’m 90 I will wish that I had done it if I don’t do it. Everything then will be about the experiences that I’ve had in life.

It’s hard to get your ego out of it once you get your ego in it. I have to back up a bit and realize that the fact that I want to have this little pep talk with myself is probably why enough. Now I have to just remember this at mile whatever out there.

I’m going to finish my 17th full marathon and I will be glad that I did.

That’s why, and it looks like the weather has shaped up nicely for it.

Happy to be living in Running City USA

Enneagram and Self-Perception

I just did an Enneagram test. I had to look up the results on a different site than I did the test on (the link is from the look up site), but I imagine that the types are consistent. I was a 98% match to type 4, The Individualist. All of the other matches were a considerably lower percentage, with the highest next percentage coming in at at 84% match, where The Investigator (type 5) and The Skeptic (type 6) are tied in rank.

A lot of it really feels very accurate. But them some of it doesn’t. I wonder if my perception of who I am is accurate. I’ve been telling myself the same story about myself for a while. Is it still true? I don’t know.

the space between the notes

I’ve lived so many lives. I really, really have. So many different ones. Some that I am not proud of. But, when I think back and am tempted to have regrets, I realize that I *lived* those lives, for better or for worse, and somehow this is what, or who, I now am. I can’t even define myself by my past lives at this point, because they all seem so discrete and so distinctly different from the present me, whoever that is; I’m not sure. I feel like I’m not really living any particular life now. I realize that I am in a transition.

I’m in the in between. Theoretically, this is where the music lives, in “the space between the notes” (as French Composer Claude Debussy has been quoted to say.) I just have to listen to my song.