After a serious and focused five months of training, I finally ran the Twin Cities marathon on Sunday. I didn't run it as fast as I hoped, but as I crossed the finish line I experienced a satisfaction that I've never felt before in a race.
I flew into Minnesota on Friday and caught a shuttle to the host hotel. The weather was awesome, but after spending all summer in an inferno, 50 degrees felt freezing. I went to the convention and bought some garbage gear I could toss off without too much guilt.
That night I had dinner with teammates. Everyone but me was 55+, and you couldn't find a more interesting crew. Most of them have been running for decades and their outlook was refreshing. While I was eating pasta and drinking water, they ordered burgers and knocked back the beers. I was wound up like a clock.
Saturday morning I woke up and ran with Jason Butler from the blog. This site has been awesome for training perspective and support, and it was very cool to meet up with someone in person. Jason is the real deal- great guy, great runner.
I attended a meeting at noon to give an outline of course protocol and transportation logistics. Being in a room full of elite runners was a combination of inspiring and terrifying. My coach Joe walked in 2 minutes after the meeting started, and couldn't really hear anything that was going on. I translated the relevant points for him.
At some point, I finally relaxed. I fell asleep at 8:30 and slept better than I ever have before a marathon. Not great, with lots of wakeups, but pretty well. At 6am we caught a bus from St. Paul to a hotel in Minneapolis which served as the staging area. We got there around 6:30, and then sat in a large room for the next hour. I was feeling oddly loose, but the tension still dripped off the walls and I couldn't wait to start running. I was ready to face the music.
A whole lot went right in this training cycle, but I made some mistakes in the last couple weeks leading into the race. I want to record more thoughts on that in the next couple days, but in short I ran too hard, too often, and ended up nursing sore calves, hips and hamstrings in the days heading into the race. This is not a course that looks kindly on those kind of misjudments.
I spent the days before I left stretching, rolling and getting a massage. I hoped it was just psychological pain - which is very common during taper. But the plain fact is that I went into this race more beat up than I ever have been, heading into a marathon. I had a lot to balance that against. I knew my training was solid, I had trained in bad conditions, and I wasn't injured- just banged up. At best, I wouldn't feel anything once the gun went off.
I started a couple rows back and tried to settle in. Almost immediately, we crossed under a bridge that knocked out GPS, so the first mile was all by feel. I ran a bit behind Jason and knew the pace was a little quick for me, but I felt mostly comfortable. I saw 5:45 on the clock as we crossed the mile mark, and let the pace go. I was getting passed left and right, which felt bad, but I had no business running that fast at that point.
Mile 2 on the course is uphill. I haven't talked to anyone who really mentions it, but that mile seems just as hard to me as any of the last 6 miles on Summit Ave. It's early though, so you just plow through. I knew it was coming and slowed down quite a bit, so that I passed the 2 mile mark around 12:00. It was a little annoying to be 10 seconds over pace at the end of mile 2, but I planned for it and didn't wig out.
Over the next 10 miles or so, the course drops. There are occaisonal rolls but overall it's a favorable slight decline that gives you plenty of rope to run as fast as you want. In my case, my legs and hips began hurting around mile 5. The soreness I hoped was just psychological came to the front, and I battled it for the rest of the race. At times it moved into the background, and at times I wasn't sure if I could finish. It never got to be acute, so I just kept pushing.
I went through a dark spot from miles 10-12 or so. At the half, I saw a split around 1:17:40, which put wind in my sails. That was right on target, 5:55 pace. At that point, I knew there was no hope of maintaining that pace, but at least I had a chance of running a PR if I could avoid bleeding more than 3 minutes over the next 13 miles.
The second half was not pretty. I slowed down, especially after mile 16. The course was mostly flat at that point, but my legs felt terrible and I was almost fully focused on keeping them moving. I awaited mile 20, when I could get a good read on my overall pace and the start of the climb. I don't remember my exact split, but it was around 2:39:15 at mile 20 - around 2:37 pace. I knew I would be losing time, probably a lot, over the next 10k.
Summit Ave was tough, but since I was limited early on, I never ran outside myself and I felt that it was not as bad as I feared. There were a few climbs that took a big bite out of me, but there was no climb longer than a half mile. I think Twin Cities is a race that would really benefit from multiple runnings. After my first experience, I'd say that going out carefully could really pay off. The last 10k is uphill, but if you have enough in the tank it's not that bad.
For me, I got to mile 25, still struggling with leg cramping and doing the mental math to decide where I was. I figured I needed to run roughly 6:00 pace or better, which shouldn't be impossible, but sounded like it at that point. I waited for the downhill I knew was coming, and it was much shorter than expected. Still, with the race on the line I blasted it, with the last .5 mile around 5:25 pace. I crossed the line at 2:38:46 and the relief I felt was indescribable.
I am my own best critic when I underperform, which can happen. I did not run as fast as I hoped today, but it wasn't laziness or lack of will. Today was a hard fight against my own limitations, and I'm proud to come away with a very small victory. I am already excited to keep pushing that bar, as long as I can.
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