my makeup may be flaking

Two weeks ago I did a 22+ mile run and ran some 6:20 miles at the end and decided I should do TOU. To be honest, I had absolutely no reason to think that I was in PR shape as I had not done any marathon specific work and my races just didn't seem to be indicating that my base speed was all that great.

The result was this morning I was standing on the start line with Sasha and Glen Tucker ready to go for sub 2:30. I thought that I was probably NOT in 2:30 shape but, hey, I'm probably close.

At the start Paul shot out to a very fast first mile and Sasha and I followed in 5:26.

We were caught by Glen in the 2nd mile and ran 5:35,5:34,5:34. At this point Sasha asked how I was doing and I said that I was kind of "maxed". This was pretty true, I wasn't ready for such a fast pace right from the start and my body was frantically trying to equilibriate.

Sasha and I then backed off the pace slightly and it looked like we might just let Glen (and sub 2:30) go. I wasn't quite ready to give up just yet. And our group stayed together as we ran 5:39,5:42,5:45. For the next 3 miles. These weren't great splits for the effort and I could feel sub 2:30 slipping away.

Right here I shed my gloves and arm warmers (as I was not warmed up) and I suddenly felt new strength enter my body. I decided that I wanted to push the pace to get us back on track and I rattled of splits of 5:32, 5:40. Sasha was repeatedly saying "too fast" and part of me thought he was right. I was probably pressing a little bit too much. Another part of me thought "this is it, do or die". I figured that if I was going to be a hero, I should probably wait another 6 or 7 miles. I let the pace slow once again.

Two miles in 5:50,5:49 brought me back to the front. I felt like my legs had more to give and that I was running kind of lazy. I once again pushed and we ran 5:38 for mile 13. We were then at just under 1:14 at the half. At this point Glen got a little gap and Sasha told me to wait until 17 to try to catch him. At this point I felt like I could easily close the gap if I wished but decided to listen to Sasha. Mile 14 was 5:35, but 15-17 were 5:45,5:50,5:52. I turned to Sasha and indicated that I was not able to push to catch Glen. Just to prove it to myself, I tried to "take off" at mile 18 and only managed 5:52. It was here that I lost sight of Glen and sub 2:30.

With 3rd place pretty much out of the question the wind left my sails a little, at exactly the wrong term it turned out. I knew that mile 19 and 20 were uphill and that I was about to start slowing exponentially. Mile 19 was only 6:20, and Sasha passed me and gapped me. I shortened my stride and increased my turnover and got back up to his shoulder but at this point I felt like I had only one bullet left in the chamber.

Mile 20 was a bit easier and was 6:14. These miles were not so bad but my legs were locking up pretty badly. I would have been a lot happier if there were 3 miles left instead of 6. The clock at mile 20 told me that in order to PR I needed to run around 6 flat pace over the final 6 miles. Well mile 21 was downhill and I was still pushing and just about managed a 6:04. Sorry, there will be no PR today, I thought, as I knew there were more hills coming. my attention was now slowly on Sasha. He seemed to be hanging on just fine but was doing just that "hanging on". It was here that I really layed an egg 6:28 and 6:26 for the next 2 miles. Granted we had a little climb, but that shouldn't have happened. We passed through the aid station at mile 23 and about 30 seconds later there was a cheer for another runner coming behind us. I turned around and saw the familiar figure of Nate Clayson bearing down on us.

"Here comes Nate" I told Sasha and I immediately snapped out of my malaise. We turned a couple of corners and I looked back to see that Nate was not any closer. This was good, I knew I could hold him off! The 24th mile features a nice downhill and here I got the tiniest gap on Sasha. I decided this may as well be the time to bury him. Mile 24 was 6:10 and I turned onto State Street with a solid lead on both Sasha and Nate (in fact, I could no longer see Nate). I whipped up the pace as high as I possibly could running 6:11 for the 25th mile. As soon as I turned off the main road though I could feel myself hitting the wall. This was tough as know I couldn't even get my legs to turn over. Fortunately I only had to stick it out for 1 mile 6:25 and the final 1:16. I ended up 22 seconds ahead of Sasha and 2:15 ahead of Nate who told me he died the last 3 miles.

Very happy with the place today, as good as I could have hoped for. As for the time, it was pretty much exactly what I would have expected. The result highlighted to me a very important concept.

There are two types of endurance:

1-How long can you maintain your high-stepping easy-gliding marathon-pace (so around 5:30-5:50 miles for me depending on terrain.)

2.-How long can you keep running "fast" (as fast as you would run on a typical run.) For me around 6:20-6:30 pace.

I felt like once I defaulted to my 6:20-6:30 pace that I was "safe". It seemed unlikely that anything else was going to happen however I was not able to maintain my faster pace and it seemed like no matter what strategy I employed, I was not going to be able. This, I think, is fixable by actually doing some marathon specific workouts, which I did none of prior to this race. Anyway, I'm probably good for marathons for a while now. Now for some 5ks! (And 1 half.)