This one is for Coach Bam. Today I ran a strong marathon. I'll write more when I am done with my family time. I didn't walk! Onset of side cramps, but the old evil Gatorade helped me through. I think I may buy stock to show my appreciation. Strong finish: Mile 24=6:19, Mile 25=6:20, Mile 26=6:22, .22=1:14 (5:44 pace). The final miles were slightly rolling and flat. Course was aided, but there were some hill climbs and some of the downhills threw me more than aided me. I wasn't well prepared for those. I think I ran at the right effort even though the last miles were fast. The effort felt right throughout the race and tough from mile 19 or 20 on, but my legs responded (thankfully). This is sort of turning into a report . . . and I have some hot tubbing to do! Thank you to Sasha for continuing to operate this blog. It means a lot to me and my running. It's a good feeling to go from being a 3:09 marathoner to being a 2:52 marathoner in 5 and 1/2 months. Boston 2014!
RACE REPORT
I was fortunate to stay at a ski house of one of the families who used to live on my parents' street. The race route goes by Sugarloaf Mountain, a famous ski resort in Maine and the house was about 6 miles from the start of the race at a campground where I used to go with a friend and his grandparents. Pretty nostalgic warming up on the campground entrance I hadn't seen since middle school.
After reading one of Paul's old race reports I realized I needed to eat more before a marathon (I also learned this from training when I did my 24 miler; I had a veggie wrap for lunch and it was perfect). The night before I ate a meal I brought from Indiana, which I eat the night before every race and most long runs. On the morning of the race I ate a granola bar (couldn't find my standard Cliff bars), a banana, and an orange. I decided to eat one more banana about an hour and a half before the race. I think my pre-race nutrition was helpful and a contributing factor to my success. I took 3 gels in the first 18.5 miles and called it good after that. Do the math on your longest long run calories wise and subtract what you expect in to burn in the marathon. This is what you need for calories. Of course there's more to it, but I'm guessing the simple equation isn't a bad bet.
Keep in mind the race was not closed to traffic completely or partially. Yehaw! I shouted at one car and gave it the not-very-nice form of a wave when it got a bit too close.
Warmed up for about 6 minutes after spending some time trying to get a satellite on my watch (tall, "cathedral" pines didn't help). 31-32 degrees at the start (not sure what the finishing temp was but I doubt it was more than mid-40s). Lined up a bit behind the line as some folks were in a hurry to go out fast. I knew I would catch them, so I relaxed. I double checked my watch. It had gone into power save mode. Tried to find a satellite, but they began the countdown. I heard "10...9...8...then 5...4" and so on and then the gun fired (I couldn't hear most of the countdown). I just hit start and figured I was manually splitting anyway and I know where my effort is supposed to be. At first I feared not having my Garmin crutch, but I quickly focused on running my race. I went out around what I thought was 6:45-6:50 and got an update before the first mile marker from a pack of guys who confirmed our pace. My watch must have found a satellite on the way because it straightened out eventually.
It was a chatty group those first few miles. One guy in particular. Helpful at first but after 3-4 miles I had to drop those guys because he was driving me nuts. I ran with one guy from those miles until mile 17 or 18 I think.
My single-serving running buddy and I ran with the lead woman for miles 6-10 I think. The 2 mile climb at 8-10 ate me up pretty good. I'm not used to hills like that. I was breathing, but I knew I had some downhills to reward me after mile 10. We dropped the lead woman sometime after 10 but before the halfway point. We hit some hammy screamers after the uphills. I was running 5:30 and still breaking (Coach Krong's advice in my head here, but it was very hard to keep my feet under me with those grades. Earlier a gent did compliment me on my cadence. Great race moment). The bike pacer for the lead woman had earlier told me not to trash my quads as we were going into the downhills. Easy for a cyclist to say (who was breathing harder than me on the uphills). Hit the half in the 1:27 range according to plan.
My friend and I decided around 11-13 miles we were going to slowly catch the next group of guys at about mile 16 or so. I said 18 or so that I wouldn't be anxious about passing them and getting passed in the last 10k. We caught them somewhere around 16 or 17 I think. My buddy (whoever he was) took off, and I ran with 3 guys until mile 21 or 22 when one of them took off. I dropped the last 2 or 3 as they stopped at a water station. I was grabbing cups but not stopping and trying not to slow down. I ran pretty much alone after 21-22. I had some side stitches that ruined my race last fall and they were right there to greet me at mile 21-22. I starting grabbing Gatorade. Magic stuff. After about 3 stations I got rid of them. I decided to turn it on once I I reeled in one last guy just before mile 23 (I know this is correct because I have video my mom took as she was driving by at that time). I don't know what he did in the last 5k, but I put 3+ minutes on him between pushing the pace and him struggling. No one passed me all race (as I recall) but I caught at least 4 in the final 10k and numerous along the way.
Those final miles felt as hard as my previous marathons, but my fitness (or something) carried me through. I split long for few of the last miles, which belies the average pace I was running. 24-26 average paces were 6:19, 6:17, 6:11 (1.03 miles! Ouch!). I hit the partial hard and saw the clock ticking 2:52:50 and pushed in at 2:52:54 with my fist pumping (video to follow). I felt pretty much dead but my form was still solid, and I was upright and felt incredible. I actually had run a strong marathon (aside from some egregious tangent running, which was not helped by an open course + inexperience. I'm still learning).
The rich chocolatey goodness:
6:09 (very short, 6:50 pace), 7:34 (long, 6:53 pace), 6:46, 6:37, 6:41, 6:36, 6:33, 6:43, 7:11 (hill!), 6:49 (hill), 6:24, 6:20, 6:35, 6:3, 6:21, 6:20 (I messed up here, 6:05 average. Think this was the steep downhill. Must have been), 6:30, 6:34, 6:36, 6:42, 6:45, 6:34, 6:32, 6:19, 6:20, 6:22, 1:14 for .22 (5:44 pace)
I feel the aided course helped me but not as much as I expected because I didn't realize the early climbs would be so hard. I don't have an official map, but I think the net drop is 1000 feet (not insignificant by any means).
A++ goal and my BQ by 12 minutes. 16 minutes and 19 seconds off the PR board. Garmin Activity We drove back from just before the finish line turn to mile 5 or 6 where we were staying. I was confused about how far we had gone. I thought we were getting close, but we weren't even to Sugarloaf, which is about mile 8. As it turns out, 26.2 miles is a long way to run. I also got to re-experience the course when we went home that afternoon. A long, beautiful beast of road race distance the marathon is.
I'm taking 5-6 days completely off to recover, reflect, and get some academic work done. Thanks everyone.
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