After winning the Rock ’n’ Roll San Antonio Marathon in 2:31:19 Sunday morning, Michael Wardian did many of the things you’d expect from someone in that situation: head back to his hotel for a quick shower, put on compression gear, grab a bite to eat at the airport. What you wouldn’t expect is that the marathon victor would board a plane not for home, but to the site of his second marathon of the day.



Wardian, 39, has always taken the unconventional route for someone with a 2:17 marathon PR. He didn’t start running competitively until after college, where he was on the Michigan State University lacrosse team. He races marathons and ultras with the frequency and enthusiasm of someone newly bitten by the distance bug. To cite one of numerous examples, in January 2012, Wardian ran 2:21:50 to place 62nd at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Houston, then ran the Houston Marathon in 2:31:17 the following day.



Still, Sunday’s quest—to try to break 2:30 in two marathons on one day—was new ground for Wardian. And while the first part of the day went as well as could be expected in San Antonio’s heat and humidity, the morning race’s conditions took a toll in the second half of the second marathon, Rock ’n’ Roll Las Vegas, where Wardian placed 10th in 2:57:56.



“My [insides were] a little off from the heat” in San Antonio, Wardian told Runner’s World Newswire on Monday morning, when he was back at work for the international shipping broker Potomac Maritime. In Las Vegas, he started ambitiously, going through 10K at 2:30 marathon pace. But after “about 8 miles my body was too full of water and it just was sloshing in my gut, which is never good, and forced me to stop to relieve it,” Wardian said.



In addition, “my stomach was not right, and I knew I need to keep eating or things would get ugly, and so I forced in PowerGels,” Wardian said. “I love them, but man, my stomach did not.” He made another pit stop at 20 miles, where he estimates he spent 4 minutes in a porta potty. From there, “my pace slowed to 8:00 per mile, and I was just thinking of the way you feel at the end of a hard 100K: just keep moving, just keep moving.”



After finishing San Antonio around 10 a.m. Central/8 a.m. Pacific, Wardian and his brother got a ride to their hotel and the airport from friends Jacqui and Dave Halfaday, who drove three hours from their home in Houston to help Wardian keep to his schedule. Wardian had food with him, but not much of an appetite because of the San Antonio weather; the airport food options didn’t appeal to him.



“If I did it again, I would have more salty food and eat much earlier. I would do some kind of PowerBar post-workout recovery drink next time with electrolytes and protein to help rebuild what I lost,” Wardian, who is sponsored by PowerBar, said. “That was an error, and I paid for it later in the race in Las Vegas.”



The brothers Wardian arrived in Las Vegas around 1 p.m. local time, three and a half hours before the next marathon start.



“We went right to the hotel, checked in, dropped out our bags, got dressed, had a little more food and went to pick up our numbers,” Wardian said. “I probably walked/jogged more that I should have before the race, and I would probably take a cab rather than doing a 2- to 4-mile transit. I could have used those miles later in the race.”



Despite the stomach issues, Wardian felt relatively fresh at first in Las Vegas, and said the first 10 miles were about how he expected them to be. He hit halfway in 1:18:23.



The last 10 miles, of course, were another matter.



“I was suffering, but I knew I would be if I pushed, and that is what I was looking for,” Wardian said. “I got it and then some.”



To the obvious question—what were you thinking?!—Wardian responded, “I think the reason was to see if I could and to experiment. I like to push what is possible and see what happens. I learned a lot about myself during the process, and I think that is what is all about for me—trying to find my limits and hopefully keep expanding them.”



Wardian will have a chance to put those lessons into practice soon enough. On Saturday, he’ll run the JFK 50-miler in Maryland.

Scott Douglas Scott is a veteran running, fitness, and health journalist who has held senior editorial positions at Runner’s World and Running Times.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io