Did I jog?

[Andrew Chandler]

Well, I ran a marathon this weekend. Flying Pig marathon. It was absolutely horrid.
1) I didn't plan it well in terms of pacing the Eden Heights.
2) I ate at a mysterious italian resteraunt the night before and had a case of Montezuma's Revenge.
3) I suffered a stress fracture on my right foot and kept running.

Now I made the halfway in under 2 hours... but ran the second half 2:15. For a total of 4:15. That's well above a 9 minute pace (the benchmark for me for jogging). My question...

Even with feeling sick and not being able to hydrate... even with have a fracture in my foot that was driving me nuts... did I jog it or run it?

I can guaruntee you, I tried my best and in the end... I finish... even if I had two finish lines... the actual line and a line of paramedics.

[Amy Jo]

Hey Andrew,

No, you did not jog. The term "jog" is first off, relative--and can be a consequence, not the original plan. When runners participating in the marathon "wind up" "jogging" (it's all relative with what one considers jogging) it is because they are covering a distance of 26.2 miles. This is not some 3 miler on a nice sunny afternoon with the girlfriend, it's a marathon-- and the journey can be quite unpredictable. You faced some pretty rough conditions on your second marathon (congratulations, by the way!) and you still finished with a better time than your first if I'm correct. Key: you finished. And no, no one at this level wants to hear that finishing was the big 'feat but you have to remember all the reasons you could have dropped out, but continued anyway.

You jogged, sure, according to your definition of jogging which is anything under 9 min pace-- I would have to agree with you on that as I become a more experienced runner and setting higher goals, but you also can't be too hard on yourself. Bad races happen, and unfortunately, they can happen for the biggest ones, the ones you work so hard to to get there.

And like you said, you tried your best, which is the most awesome part about all this, with everything wrong going on. Jogging can happen even if you didn't plan on it. You kept the same pace pretty much and now you're even stronger than you were before the race.

Again, congratulations!

[Amy Jo]

ps. Did you jog the entire race? No, and your effort from beginning to end was true runner style, unlike jogging, half assing it, which is not. :-)

LOVE, LAUGH, & RUN

[Adam]

Dude, in my book, jogging is any pace above walking that does not make you suffer. When you're in pain, when you're focused, when you can't carry on a conversation you are running. You ran your ass off and a good run is more than just having a good finishing time. You can look back on this and say you did it and it took all you had.

[John Clifford Aranas]

You were just slowing down, not jogging. You just had a bad day - it sometimes happens. So don't be too hard on yourself. I admire your grit and guts!!!