How Cool Hand Luke Helped Me Through a Shitty Half Marathon Performance

Last week I ran the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon.

This is the only race I have done every year since I started running, and this year it took the role of my tune up race for my Philadelphia Marathon training.

The night before the race my wife and I were flipping through the channels looking for something to watch, and we stopped on Cool Hand Luke. It was a few minutes into the movie already, but I had seen it a few times and never mind watching it.

The thing that gets me the most about the movie is the way Luke takes a beating. Through the whole movie he is getting beat down both physically and mentally, and no matter how many times he takes a hit he doesn’t break. He always pushes through and keeps a smile on his face. So much so that when he finally does appear to break the other prisoners are disappointed in him.

So, here I am the next morning at the start line. My plan was to go out calm and controlled and ease into a good pace. A personal best time floated in the back of my head, but my main goal was just to run 1:55 and see how I felt at the finish line.

I settled into the corral. I always like to start at the middle or even the back of the corral and let the initial congestion control my pace for the first few miles so I don’t go out too fast. But when the corral ahead of us starts and the volunteers line up our corral, I am somehow right in the front row.

They countdown, and I’m off.

I went through the 5K mark slower than I needed for a 1:55, but at a pretty good pace. Especially considering the heat.

By the 10K mark I had slowed down just a couple seconds per mile, but I knew at this point 1:55 was out of the question. I did think, however, that I could still break 2 hours.

Should be no big deal, right?

At 10 miles there was no way I would break 2 hours.

The heat and the humidity were punching me in the face. They were shoving eggs in my mouth. I was being stuffed into a box to suffocate and be tortured. I wanted to chalk this race up as a loss and slow down. Walk it in and go home.

But then I thought,

What would Paul Newman do?

I thought about his boxing match with Dragline. Dragline was bigger than him and stronger than him. He was the alpha in this prison. He outmatched Luke in a big way, and blow after blow he slowly beat Luke down.

But Luke wouldn’t stay down.

Even when he knew he could no longer fight, even when every one else was yelling at him to stay down and let the fight be over, he still got up. And he got up swinging.

He kept swinging until Dragline refused to continue the fight and walked away.

So why should I stay down?

I shouldn’t.

Instead of punching I kept stepping. Left and right. I knew the pace was slower than it should have been, but my focus now was the finish line. Forget the clock and just run. Practice not quitting. Embrace the discomfort and practice running through it. Use this opportunity to visualize.

I finished the race in 2:04:40

I was disappointed in my performance, but aware that the time was respectable and the heat was unexpected. It did make me reevaluate some of my goals for the marathon, but it did not knock me out. And it sure as hell did not convince me to stay down.

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