Last April I decided to undergo an experiment. I wanted to see if a person could prepare for a marathon by water running with DragSox™ as the primary training. I would be the guinea pig, running with DragSox in the pool and only running on land, once a week. I had run 2 marathons before, but I had prepared for them in the traditional way, by logging many miles outside. This time my training would be completely different and I did not know how I would perform. I knew that training with DragSox makes me stronger but could DragSox be used as my main source of preparation for the marathon?

To get an idea of what kind of workouts I did to prepare for San Francisco Marathon, you can read through some of my posts tagged San Francisco Marathon Training.

My goal time was 3:30. The San Francisco Marathon 2011 took place yesterday, July 31st. My experiment of training for it by doing most workouts as water running with DragSox proved to be a success. My marathon time was 3:29 (how about that for meeting a goal!). For the first 22 miles I felt great, better than I had felt in my previous marathons. The last 4 miles were tough, as usual, but mostly it was mental. My brain tried very hard to convince me to stop me by questioning the sanity of my decision to run. However, my legs were ok. I was definitely tired but I felt that all that training with DragSox made my legs very strong. Another thing that is worth mentioning is the quickness of my recovery. Usually, my legs hurt for a couple of days after the marathon. This time I was ok after a couple of hours. Not only was the preparation for the marathon easy on my body, but the punishment of running 26 miles was not as severe as it felt in previous races. It’s been a day now and I feel totally recovered. Now that the marathon is over, I am looking forward to getting back to my regular swimming!