What does hitting the "Wall" during a marathon feel like

+1. Bonk; Wall; definitions to live by. Run enough marathons and you will come to know the difference.

danm, nice post.

The body burns fat in a carbohydrate flame...

Now for some "remedies" to the problem?!

I'll be running my first 26.2 in 2 months. Rocket City.

Going from 5:15 pace to 10:30 pace.

It happened to me in an early September marathon five years ago. It happened just after the 21-mile point.

It feels as though you are a gasoline-powered car that has just run out of gasoline and kicked over to an auxilliary tank filled with kerosene. You feel as though your horsepower has dropped 35% and there's smoke coming out the back.

Malmo:

I don't believe you answered my question in the Steve Magness butt-lock thread, unless it was deleted. I will rephrase:

Where in your body do you experience fatigue while running all out in a 10000?

How does that differ from your experience of fatigue when hitting the wall in the marathon?

Thanks! I always enjoy your contributions to this site.

Your legs are completely dead. All energy is gone. When I reach that point, I consider walking or stopping-I just don't care how I make it to the finish line. There's only been a couple of races where I crashed with less than 2k to go, but mostly it's been around 21-22 miles, even with proper training, pacing, hydration, etc. Crashing is not if, but when.

NIKE Elite advert wrote:

Going from 5:15 pace to 10:30 pace.

:) Have you tried it?

malmo wrote:

Wonder as I Wander wrote:

What don't you understand about this?

You do not think a marathon is mental?

I think you're mental.

The marathon is an fuel/energy equation.

The brain runs on glycogen, as does the body. When you deplete, both suffer. Thinking becomes cloudy, you lose focus, awareness of pace, etc. Sometimes lose track of elapsed time; extreme lethargy.

I read of Bruce Dern, the actor and accomplished runner, running an ultra, possibly the Superlap around Tahoe, when his wife pulled up in her car and told him he was finished, and to get into the car. He protested that sure, he was bonked, but was really O.K.

"Look at your feet," she replied.

He looked down, and was astonished to see he was standing still, not running.

Father Figure wrote:

[quote]Kenyano wrote:

Just enter and run a marathon and feel it for yourself, then blog it here! Simple!

1st of all, blog is a noun, not a verb.

wrong, welcome to 2011

kudzurunner wrote:

It happened to me in an early September marathon five years ago. It happened just after the 21-mile point.

It feels as though you are a gasoline-powered car that has just run out of gasoline and kicked over to an auxilliary tank filled with kerosene. You feel as though your horsepower has dropped 35% and there's smoke coming out the back.

I should qualify: malmo is right on this one. Your CV system isn't the problem. The problem is that your legs suddenly refuse to function anywhere near optimally. My HR actually dropped when I hit the wall. (I was strapped and had all the data for later.) My legs died to the point where I just couldn't work my heart as hard as I'd been working it.

Malmo is right on his second count, too: I felt as though I'd been holding back for 20 miles, never really pushing/flying as in a half-marathon. Just slowly grinding it out, and grinding myself down.

I ended up finishing, BTW. After resolving to quit for a couple of miles, I hit the 23 mile point and said, WTF, I might as well jog it in. When you hit the wall, the glycogen that powers your brain is gone, too, and you start thinking evil thoughts.

I realize this is a 6 year old thread, but i searched and this thread seemed relevant....

Does everyone hit the wall? I feel prepared, but this thread makes it sound like EVERYONE hits the wall.

Jimmy21 wrote:

I realize this is a 6 year old thread, but i searched and this thread seemed relevant....

Does everyone hit the wall? I feel prepared, but this thread makes it sound like EVERYONE hits the wall.

They don't. I ran 6 marathons. In every one my legs started slight cramping at 18-22 miles and gradually got worse but 26.2 came up before any significant slowdown. I was a 2:2x guy and rarely ran more than 70mpw. Never hit any sudden 'wall'.

Well... I'll show you how you can ASK to hit a wall:

1. 6:35

2. 6:42

...

10. 6:49

11. 6:55

12. 6:47

13 6:49

14 6:39

15 6:40

16 6:30

17 6:42

18 6:00 "oh I feel amazing.. I should finish strong!"

19 5:51

20 6:07

21 5:59

22 6:11

23 6:46

24 7:05

25 8:10 (ouch)

26.2 9:10 (shuffling...)

Sisu juice wrote:

Jimmy21 wrote:

I realize this is a 6 year old thread, but i searched and this thread seemed relevant....

Does everyone hit the wall? I feel prepared, but this thread makes it sound like EVERYONE hits the wall.

They don't. I ran 6 marathons. In every one my legs started slight cramping at 18-22 miles and gradually got worse but 26.2 came up before any significant slowdown. I was a 2:2x guy and rarely ran more than 70mpw. Never hit any sudden 'wall'.

Thats what i kind of assumed. I just raced a 30k in preparation for my first marathon. I felt pretty dead at the end and it felt pretty brutal but i never slowed down. I assumed the marathon would be similar. This thread started scaring me

Boston Marathon 2011. Having the race of my life. Looked like I was going to run under 2:40 if not finish strong to a 2:36 or 2:37. Then with 4 miles to go I hit a wall to the point my body asked me to please stop running. In terms of physical pain it was probably the 2nd worst I have ever felt behind a food poisoning episode I had for over 6 hours. My legs felt like jello, my body was falling apart and it took every ounce of me to not quit. I crossed the finish line at 2:54 and felt light headed and could not walk. The volunteer asked me to keep walking. I told her I needed to sit which she fronded upon. I then said to her I just don't feel right and they took me inside a medical tent. It turned out I was suffering from hypothermia and they stuck an IV in me. They told me if I kept walking I would of fainted. Rough day but that IV helped get me back on my two feet.

Jimmy21 wrote:

I realize this is a 6 year old thread, but i searched and this thread seemed relevant....

Does everyone hit the wall? I feel prepared, but this thread makes it sound like EVERYONE hits the wall....

I just raced a 30k in preparation for my first marathon. I felt pretty dead at the end and it felt pretty brutal but i never slowed down. I assumed the marathon would be similar. This thread started scaring me

Jimmy, thanks for bumping this old thread. Interesting read. Especially with my next marathon just four weeks away.

Over the past 36 years I have run a couple dozen marathons, and I have hit the wall in many of them. Not surprisingly, I think it comes down to two key components: Sufficient training mileage and appropriate pace for the first 18 miles of the marathon.

There was no wall for my first couple marathons, even though back in those days we took only water during the race -- no calories at all. In both cases, my training mileage was only barely adequate, but I ran a very conservative early pace. And finished very strong. Big negative splits. (1:45, 1:30 for the first one, and six weeks later 1:30, 1:22 for the second one).

My third marathon, I started a little more aggressively despite a reduction in overall mileage. Hit the wall at 22 miles. A new and humbling experience.

For the next three marathons, I finally had it figured out, and ran more even splits (1:19, 1:21 for marathon #6). For the next couple decades, I trained minimally and always hit the wall at 20 or so. No surprises, and no pace would have been slow enough to avoid it. Was just keeping a streak going (finishing a marathon every year).

Last year I trained more seriously -- only three days a week, but I got the long runs in. On race day I nailed the correct pace from the start, and ran just slightly negative splits (1:43, 1:42). No wall! But Mile 26 was the slowest -- I didn't leave anything in the tank.

The question for this year: What pace to start? Goal pace is 7:04/mile, but maybe wishful thinking. Dang, this thread is scaring me, too. Especially after yesterday's long run -- fatigued, but doing OK at 20 miles ... walking at 22.5, with an almost overwhelming desire to lie down on the side of the road.