The Marathon Is Over

No, not the election. The New York City Marathon. And as some of you know, Lance Armstrong ran his first marathon in that event. He ran just under three hours, a perfectly respectable time. But the interesting thing was what he said afterward:

For the level of shape I'm in now, that was, without a doubt, the hardest physical thing I've ever done. Even the worst days in the [Tour de France] . . . nothing left me feeling the way I do now, in terms of sheer aches and soreness.

I've never ridden the Tour de France, not even a century ride. But it doesn't surprise me that even the great Lance Armstrong found the marathon a whole different kettle of fish. The thing about the marathon isn't the cardio part. If you get yourself into relatively good shape, you could, in theory, run forever. There are two problems with this: (1) your body can't store that much energy; really, it can only store about 20 miles of energy, without having to start burning fat, which is much less efficient; and (2) your joints and soft tissues--feet, ankles, knees, hips--take a real pounding in running 26.2 miles. In terms of (2), each mile is progressively harder, more painful. Even as challenging as cycling is, there is no pounding. And you can take in calories (refuel) in a way that a marathoner really can't.