Chuck King: Journey to the Marathon
My name is Chuck King. I am junior at James Island High School, and I am on my way to compete in the most prestigious event in the world: the Marathon.
The marathon is a test of strength, will, endurance, but most of all heart. One runs a marathon not for fame or to fuel the desire to win; but to fulfill an addiction, a passion, and a purpose. Those completing it are not merely runners but the elite; the marathoners.
I want to take you with me on my quest to become one of these elite. In the next month I want you to feel the emotion and the power that I feel as this becomes close enough to grasp.
In less than five weeks I will be competing in the 2006 Myrtle Beach Marathon. I would love to see some of y'all out there on race day to encourage me. I will wear a bright orange singlet and shorts, so come cheer me and the sport on.
I have trained exclusively for this for the last 11 weeks in hopes of breaking four hours, a hopefully modest goal.
When I started training countless coaches and runners told me that I was too young. I could see there concern. So I developed a plan. Having run two half-marathons I thought I could do it but I did not want to ruin my high school running career. I decided I would pick up the mileage and if I started to feel it I would scratch the marathon for another year.
My training took me through very high mileage weeks running a nice slow easy run before school, usually at 5 a.m., and a little more of a work out in the evenings. My average week was about 65 miles.
Hear is a rundown of the training I have done so far:
December 31, 2005
I ran my first 20-miler. Meeting at TrySports in Mount Pleasant at 7:30 in the morning, I was expecting a harmless 18-mile run.
As the run began, the group of about twelve of else dwindled down to a group of three of us together in the front, running a steady 8:50 pace. As we started the new Cooper River Bridge (mile 12) we realized that there was only four of us completing, what we thought was, an 18-mile course. Our pace dropped down a bit and I came in about 3 hours and 15 minutes.
Not far behind were the two other men I had been running with. The fourth was a lady who came in about 3 hours and 35 minutes. Much to our good fortune she was wearing a Garmin Forerunner which marked us as running about 20.5 miles.
After finishing, my legs felt great. I felt that I would have no problem completing 6 more miles. But, my downfall was my feet. My feet hurt very bad. Thinking we were only going to run 18 miles I wore some fairly new shoes. I had only put about 20 miles on them before this run. I hope that this is why my feet hurt, or maybe it was natural, after all I had never run for 3 hours and 15 minutes before. My feet feel better now.
This was not a typical long run for me. Usually, I run a Sunday long run with Dave, a volunteer coach at Stratford High, and sometimes Roy and Tom, two parents of Stratford girls.
We start just over the Cooper River Bridge in Mt. Pleasant and head downtown. Our route, usually an hour and a half, takes us around the park at the battery and back over the bridge. I enjoy it and it gives me some great guys to talk running with.
More recently I decided not to do another 20-miler. I decided that instead I would do a long weekend. Starting on Thursday, Jan. 12, I ran a 16-mile day.
This consisted of my usual six mile morning run, and then a 10 mile evening run. I went out and ran with the Mt. Pleasant Track Club for about five miles and then ran another five miles with their coach, Tammy.
The next day I went out and did an hour of trail running. We averaged about an 8:15 pace for the run. It was nice until the end when it started to drizzle.
Saturday, January 14 I went up to Greenville to run the famous Paris Mountain Road Race. I was real nervous about this. Everyone I talked to said that I would hate it, and I should just focus on finishing. Well, I focused on finishing alright. I ran with Ed (Boehmke) from Eastside High during the race and had a wonderful time. I have never run such an enjoyable race. I finished in 1:41:53, averaging a speedy 8:12 mile, which is more than 10 minutes faster than my equivalent half marathon time. Running the bridge must have helped me tackle the first four miles of steady uphill.
Sunday was another big day. I met Dave for our usual Sunday run but we planned on going two hours. I was feeling great. A friend of Dave's joined us for the bridge and then dropped off. We made it the battery and around Colonial Lake and down Broad Street and back. Other than a terrible stomach ache I had survived the run.
This wrapped up my last big long run week before my marathon. Running a whopping 96 miles I decided to take Martin Luther King Day off. I am back to my regular running schedule and feeling in good shape for my marathon on Feb. 18.
If you would like more info about my training schedule, just want to talk running, or are going to come support me in my run, you can e-mail me at staff@scrunners.com.
The marathon is a test of strength, will, endurance, but most of all heart. One runs a marathon not for fame or to fuel the desire to win; but to fulfill an addiction, a passion, and a purpose. Those completing it are not merely runners but the elite; the marathoners.
I want to take you with me on my quest to become one of these elite. In the next month I want you to feel the emotion and the power that I feel as this becomes close enough to grasp.
In less than five weeks I will be competing in the 2006 Myrtle Beach Marathon. I would love to see some of y'all out there on race day to encourage me. I will wear a bright orange singlet and shorts, so come cheer me and the sport on.
I have trained exclusively for this for the last 11 weeks in hopes of breaking four hours, a hopefully modest goal.
When I started training countless coaches and runners told me that I was too young. I could see there concern. So I developed a plan. Having run two half-marathons I thought I could do it but I did not want to ruin my high school running career. I decided I would pick up the mileage and if I started to feel it I would scratch the marathon for another year.
My training took me through very high mileage weeks running a nice slow easy run before school, usually at 5 a.m., and a little more of a work out in the evenings. My average week was about 65 miles.
Hear is a rundown of the training I have done so far:
December 31, 2005
I ran my first 20-miler. Meeting at TrySports in Mount Pleasant at 7:30 in the morning, I was expecting a harmless 18-mile run.
As the run began, the group of about twelve of else dwindled down to a group of three of us together in the front, running a steady 8:50 pace. As we started the new Cooper River Bridge (mile 12) we realized that there was only four of us completing, what we thought was, an 18-mile course. Our pace dropped down a bit and I came in about 3 hours and 15 minutes.
Not far behind were the two other men I had been running with. The fourth was a lady who came in about 3 hours and 35 minutes. Much to our good fortune she was wearing a Garmin Forerunner which marked us as running about 20.5 miles.
After finishing, my legs felt great. I felt that I would have no problem completing 6 more miles. But, my downfall was my feet. My feet hurt very bad. Thinking we were only going to run 18 miles I wore some fairly new shoes. I had only put about 20 miles on them before this run. I hope that this is why my feet hurt, or maybe it was natural, after all I had never run for 3 hours and 15 minutes before. My feet feel better now.
This was not a typical long run for me. Usually, I run a Sunday long run with Dave, a volunteer coach at Stratford High, and sometimes Roy and Tom, two parents of Stratford girls.
We start just over the Cooper River Bridge in Mt. Pleasant and head downtown. Our route, usually an hour and a half, takes us around the park at the battery and back over the bridge. I enjoy it and it gives me some great guys to talk running with.
More recently I decided not to do another 20-miler. I decided that instead I would do a long weekend. Starting on Thursday, Jan. 12, I ran a 16-mile day.
This consisted of my usual six mile morning run, and then a 10 mile evening run. I went out and ran with the Mt. Pleasant Track Club for about five miles and then ran another five miles with their coach, Tammy.
The next day I went out and did an hour of trail running. We averaged about an 8:15 pace for the run. It was nice until the end when it started to drizzle.
Saturday, January 14 I went up to Greenville to run the famous Paris Mountain Road Race. I was real nervous about this. Everyone I talked to said that I would hate it, and I should just focus on finishing. Well, I focused on finishing alright. I ran with Ed (Boehmke) from Eastside High during the race and had a wonderful time. I have never run such an enjoyable race. I finished in 1:41:53, averaging a speedy 8:12 mile, which is more than 10 minutes faster than my equivalent half marathon time. Running the bridge must have helped me tackle the first four miles of steady uphill.
Sunday was another big day. I met Dave for our usual Sunday run but we planned on going two hours. I was feeling great. A friend of Dave's joined us for the bridge and then dropped off. We made it the battery and around Colonial Lake and down Broad Street and back. Other than a terrible stomach ache I had survived the run.
This wrapped up my last big long run week before my marathon. Running a whopping 96 miles I decided to take Martin Luther King Day off. I am back to my regular running schedule and feeling in good shape for my marathon on Feb. 18.
If you would like more info about my training schedule, just want to talk running, or are going to come support me in my run, you can e-mail me at staff@scrunners.com.