Phoenix Marathon in 2:42:07. PR despite big headwind and rain.
I was really well tapered, more than usual, as I wanted to make sure that my hip wouldn't be at all irritated going in. Training was optimal before that last easy 2 weeks, with 14 big weeks of training with all but one week in the 70s or 80s, and 38 days of skiing as hip strengthening/cross training. In terms of race nutrition 2 hours before the race, I had a breakfast of 2 medium sized bananas, 4 95 calorie granola bars (lactose free), and 32 oz of powerade, so nearly 1000 calories. During the race, I had Powerbar Gels (110 calories a piece, lots of sodium) at 6, 11, 15, and 21. I was originally going to do 6, 11, 15, 19, and 22, but my stomach was a little bothered by the 3rd one and I could sense that I was completely fine energetically, so I decided to just do one more intsead of 2 more (it took me about a mile of very small sips to get the 4th one down). I had about 1oz of water after each gel, and that was really all that I needed since it wasn't hot. My stomach is normally quite sensitive, but this has worked well in several races straight, so this is going to be what I continue to do in the future.
Race-wise, we started out right after the rain really started to pick up. It was coming down hard, but the wind was a cross-wind for the first 2 miles (2% downhill grade), so I ran 5:44 and 5:52 very comfortably for miles 1 and 2. The 3rd mile turned directly into the wind, so while 3 and 4 were equally downhill, they were 5:59 and 5:55. Miles 5 and 6 were both uphill, but a bit more shielded from wind, with the rain dying down a little bit (average of about 2% uphill, but 6 had more climb than 5), in 6:15 and 6:27. 7,8,9, and 10 got most of the rest of the downhill out of the way in 5:57, 5:54, 6:04, and 5:55, and was relatively shielded from wind. 10 mile split on the garmin was 60:02, but at this point, I was already about a tenth of a mile off from what the the markers showed. Somehow, after this point, it didn't get much worse, with the total only coming in at .12 long (compared to .19 long last year). I think the turns weren't overly long almost ever in the 2nd half this year, whereas a few of the turns in the first half were way longer than the best road tangents.
Anyway, around 10 miles in, shortly after 2 guys came up and started running with me, we turned into a direct headwind, akin to miles 3 and 4, but without downhill, and lost all shielding until mile 22-ish. 13 to 15 was a crosswind, but otherwise, we were looking at full on 12mph headwind for 10 of the next 12 miles. At this point, the course was very nearly flat, so in a good race without wind, 10 to 26 should be pretty even splits. Mine were: 6:03 (pushed a little hard into the wind for 11), 6:10, 6:08, 6:11, and 6:08 for splits 11 to 15 (dropping the 2 guys again around 13 or so). I started feeling a little soreness in my quads around 13, hitting the official half in 1:19:33 (13.22 on my watch), but nothing major. Around 15, I was starting to get confident on running a massive PR, but started to realize that that I couldn't fade whatsoever if I wanted a sub-2:40. The first half of this race should about a minute faster under ideal conditions, so I was literally within a few seconds of right on what I needed for 2:39:59 at the half. I realized that I needed to average about 6:10s through to the finish to just go under 2:40, but this was becoming tough with the wind, and when I turned back into the wind fully on the 16th mile, I hit one more mile right at 6:10, but started slipping just slightly. 17-20 were 6:14, 6:15, 6:19, 6:17, with some pain creeping in more fully.
By about 18, I realized that I could probably hammer out a few more 6:10s without too much consequence, but if I tried to push that against the wind the whole way in, I'd almost certainly blow up, so I just decided to let effort dictate the pace and just hit whatever I could rather than gunning for 2:39:59 and blowing up to a much slower time. At this point, the most helpful thing I could think of was a comment Andrea had previously made to Jake when he was shooting for 2:19... If the goal time starts to slip, it is JUST AS IMPORTANT to hit a time 1 minute slower. If that seems impossible, it is JUST AS IMPORTANT to hit a time 2 minutes slower, etc. The most important thing is to always keep pushing at 100%. This really kept me pushing as hard as possible over the last 7 miles or so.
21 and 22 were hard, but not quite full-on suicide mode: 6:19, 6:18. At this point, I wanted to focus on keeping everything under 6:20 to the finish, but after 22, I just started to enter a whole new world of hurt. At this point, the course was extremely crowded with half marathoners and I was losing rhythm a bit everytime they got in my way (all the time). 23-25 were pretty ugly in 6:26, 6:34, 6:26. At 25 miles, I was hurting so badly that I would've almost just been content to keep it under 7:00 pace and get in under 2:43 (calculating for a little over a tenth of extra distance), but knew that I would be unhappy with myself if I didn't give it everything at that point. 26 was back into the 6-teens with a 6:18, and the last .32 was 5:42 pace. That last 1.32 was pure torture, but I gritted my teeth (quite literally, and I'm sure I looked full on Kawauchi at this point) and got it done to come in at 2:42:07 (6:10 average pace).
My quads/calves/feet were all sore, but I felt like I maintained my form pretty well through to the finish, and a photo by blogger Ericka at ~mile 26 indicates that I was in fact hanging on pretty well.
I felt like I was going to die over the last 3-4 miles. My splits don't quite indicate that, but I had to dig VERY deep for this one. The main reason that I didn't fade more was that I had put all of my eggs in one basket with this race and was entirely unwilling to accept anything besides my best possible effort, no matter how agonizing it became. Somewhat surprisingly, within 5 minutes of finishing, I was feeling pretty OK. I did a 1 mile shake out about 90 minutes after finishing, and my legs were tired, but not all that sore, in very direct contrast to how I felt after last year's race. I'm not sure why I hurt so much less afterwards despite feeling equally thrashed over the last few miles, but I think it was a combination of not being sick this year, more consistent training, having been back in the saddle for longer, and my pretty extreme taper.
As a whole, I think that going slightly more conservatively in the first 14 or 15 miles might have netted a time as much as 1 minute faster overall, but I'm not disappointed in my choice to go after it. I wanted 2:39:59 or faster, and while that wasn't quite possible in this weather, I'm proud of myself for not shying away of my goals in the face of inclement weather. The rain itself probably wasn't a factor at all, but I didn't expect it to be. I do think I could've finished somewhere in the 2:39s or possibly even 2:38s without the headwind, but not quite getting there will motivate me to train hard again next time around.
Next up: rest until I'm sufficiently recovered and this marathon is completely out of my legs, and then hit sub-2:40 at Utah Valley in early Summer, with a half marathon (hopefully a one minute+ PR) and a trail race along the way as tune-ups.
Finally, thanks everyone for running with me and encouraging me the last few months! I was 2:08 off what I wanted, but given the weather, I'm confident that I had the fitness to hit my goal under ideal conditions. It was really nice to see how well consistency worked. I'd never really lined up at a marathon with a long string of consistent mileage and workouts like this before, so I finally understand the following now:
-Consistency is almost certainly most important thing in marathon training.
-Being well rested for workouts is important, so going easy on easy days really does matter.
-I don't need to kill myself in every workout. The goal is to perform well in the race, not the workout. It's OK to push a couple of them to nearly race effort in the training cycle, but doing this too often isn't necessary or good. That's probably part of what got me injured last year.
-Doing crazy things in training isn't necessary. Sticking to a reasonable plan is.
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