Pain Management in Races--or at Least How to Annoy the Competition...

[Lybi]

I recently had a great thread on my blog about weird race situations.  I enjoyed it so much, I thought I would share it.  Please share your stories, if you have any.  (I understand some of you have the dubious excuse of never even having anyone close enough to you to hear because you're so darn fast!  But still...chime in if you can!)

Here are some of the posts:

I said: "A funny thing about running that tempo mile...I reminded myself of this guy at the race on Saturday.  He was breathing REALLY hard and letting his air out with a loud "CHoooooo  CHoooooo" like a train or something.  I had a really hard time not turning around and telling him to Be Quiet!  ...tryin' to concentrate here.  But I guessed that if he was pushing that hard, he was going to drop behind soon, and he did.   But today I probably could've woke up the neighbors with my breathing...but at least I wasn't chewing on the air and sending spit flying everywhere with each breath."

Then Tom said: "Regarding the Choo Choo and various sounds that runners make.....while running various marathons over the years it's been interesting, especially during the last few miles, to hear/see the variety of strange things runners do when they're struggling to try to overcome the 'bonk' factor. I've seen runners running with their eyes closed (OK so I've done this myself on occasion), heard them muttering all kinds of bizarre mantras (i.e. "I am fast, I am strong, I am wonderful..." or in one case I was with a guy who was mostly quiet but every so often would shout "ONE!!" and then go back to quiet for another 20 seconds or so). Some people will count ("1,2,3..." - I've actually tried this on a few occasions of pain, it maybe even helped for about a minute). One guy I was with for a while distracted himself by singing at the top of his lungs. He was NOT a good singer and I was pretty dang happy (is that cruel of me?) when he finally crashed and burned and started walking and I could leave him and his voice behind. Then there are people that stick with good ol'fashioned moaning and groaning and other various sounds of agony. Some of the sounds are down right scary if not borderline obscene. I guess to each their own. I confess there have been times when I've hit the wall where I would have tried ANYTHING to make the pain go away."

Lulu:"My story: At mile 23+ of a marathon I heard someone near me singing all kinds of stupid songs. After tolerating several (that I don't remember) and slowing down and speeding up to get away from them, I took a good hard look at the person singing the Oscar Meyer Weiner song (over and over). They had no number and looked awefully fresh! I realized they were a bandit "running someone in." I thought, this is MY marathon so... When they started the next song, the Toy's R Us song, I said "Will you please shut up?!?!?" I really meant to ask them to be quiet, but it came out another as shut up. At least I said please...Yeah, and they shut up immediately.

[Dallen]

I don't mind the noisy runners next to me. It reminds me that they are feeling just a bad as I am.

[Sasha Pachev]

Top guys are running races that are marathon length or shorter fairly close to, at, or above their anaerobic threshold,  so they do not have a lot of breathing room for making much noise. You might hear an occasional grunt, short scream, or a swear word if running with a sailor-mouthed guy but no more than that. On a number of occasions I went into the mid pack in a race as short as a 5 K to pace somebody, I tell them to go faster, and they reply to me saying something like "I can go. I am in pain". I tell them that something is wrong if you can say that much during a 5 K. Way too many consonants in such a short period of time. I suppose with proper training you are able to race at speeds that push the limits of your breathing more.

[Paul Petersen]

Top guys are running races that are marathon length or shorter fairly close to, at, or above their anaerobic threshold,  so they do not have a lot of breathing room for making much noise.

I have no trouble making a lot of noise late in a race. Most of it is unintelligible, but quite noisy nonetheless. Usually I like to give a yell when I double-fist slam dunk my aid station cups into trash cans. Some of the volunteers near the end of St. George seemed rather frightened of me.

[Sean Sundwall]

One interesting thing I learned from a fellow runner here in Seattle is how to get rid of those "stiches" you sometimes get underneath the rib cage...the ones that will bring you to a screeching halt if not fixed? Land hard on the foot opposite the pain (pain on right side go hard on left foot) and exhale hard at the same time. I do this 5-10 times and the pain is gone.

[Jon Allen]

At the same time you land hard on opposite foot and exhale hard, I sometimes tighten my abs and lean forward a bit.  Works well.

[Lybi]

Wow!  Great advice about getting rid of the cramp!  I'd never heard anything like that before.  It is also illuminating to me that elite runners still get side stitches. 

Also great advice about pushing the pace in a 5K from Sasha.  I definitely was NOT pushing hard enough in my last 5K by these standards.  I want to try again.  I better use music, though, because I don't like listening to my own gasping sounds...he he he.

And Paul, you are awesome!  Fast and frightening...what a great combination.

[Sean Sundwall]

I assure you that everything that happens to the average runner happens to "elite" runners.