There is a reason we have back up goals, woohoo, I did it. Struggled from the start, never felt good. First 5miles were right on pace plan, 7min/miles ... but they were supposed to be easy, they were hard, and I knew it was going to be a long day! Marathon is a long distance, but it is really long when you are mentally broken 5 miles into the race. I hung on for a 3:06:23 ... best summarized as a really crappy run, but a good time with a 14minute pr. Not much cell service up here, but as I sit perched on a cliff overlooking a colorful valley, had a chance to check in. Will add more later when I get back home, enjoying a beautiful day for now!
Report Update:
Warning! Sorry, this
is way long … I am still trying to wrap my arms around what went wrong … and
why I should feel positive about this race and not be disappointed!
I had a pretty simple pace plan, which I followed pretty much
to a T the first 9 miles, but this was way harder than it should have been, so
the inevitable happened, my pace plan blew up!
Miles 1-6: These are
at the top of the course, rolling hills, up and down & lot of them. The plan was a 7:00 pace, which I hit, but by
the end of this section I knew my sub 3 was out the window. I was aerobically winded & my legs were
really tight, feeling achy, and not wanting to move fast. So basically, my ‘6 mile warmup’ at a
conservative effort, was taking all I had to maintain … not good! The temp at the start was 32, and I think my
legs were rejecting that & extremely slow to warm-up. I also think the 4,000’ elevation is what was
hurting me aerobically, but I was less concerned about breathing heavy, as I
knew that I would get that under control.
The problem was, my legs were mot loosening up, and I was about to start
8-9 miles of downhill mega-drop … my legs had to be loose going into this, they
were not. I was not born yesterday, I
knew my pace plan was toast at this point, with 20 miles to go.
6:56, 7:04, 6:49, 6:56, 7:00, 7:04
The first 2.4 miles
of the course are identical to my Half marathon in July. In July, I ran that section 34 seconds faster,
and felt great … compared to the way I felt yesterday. On the half, this is where you turned onto the
forest service road, which quickly takes you to the descent … for the full, we
ran 1.6 miles of hills, turned around and rant them the opposite direction,
before rejoining the half course.
Miles 7-14: Steep,
steep downhill! On stiff hurting legs …
uh oh!! Pace plan was 6:15/mile. More or less managed this the first 3, but it
was hard … I did alot of half mile repeats in the low 5’s in training for this
race, 6:15 should have been easy!
7- 6:16, 8 – 6:15, 9 – 6:20
Mile 10 has some uphill, I knew I would not manage a 6:15,
but figured I would run a few faster in my planning … but
that was not in the cards yesterday … I ran 3 of the downhill miles in sub 6 in
July, with a lot less training. The
first 9 miles I had been just behind a group of 5 guys running together all
going for sub 3 … and I think we all basically had the same pace plan as I was
only about 30 yards behind them & running the same pace the first 3
downhill miles. At Mile 10, I was done,
and they disappeared, 4 of the 5 hit their goal. Mile 11 and 12 & 13 were not any
better. Mile 14 I heard footsteps behind
me & figured I had to get back on track, so I really pushed and got back
down to my goal pace for that mile, but it killed me! My legs never felt good, and the downhill was
only making things worse. Running mile 14 as fast as I did the way my
legs felt was probably pretty stupid … but I was making one last attempt at
jump starting my legs.
10 – 7:03, 11 – 6:52, 12 – 6:32, 13 – 7:03, 14 – 6:11
Over the identical
8.2 miles that have 2,000’ of drop, my time in July was 51:13 (6:14 pace),
yesterday it was 53:53 (6:34 pace). To
put this in perspective, I ran a 10k 2 weeks ago at a 6:22 pace, which felt
comfortable … on rolling hills with no net elevation change! WTF, I was 12 seconds per mile slower than
that, on the section of course that was supposed to be screaming fast, and it
was anything but comfortable … when I had done ½ mile downhill intervals at a
5:15 pace that felt comfortable!!
Miles 15-26: Pretty
flat, gradual downhill (500’ drop over 10 miles), with a few small uphill
sections, following a creek the whole way. Pace plan was 7:00, but 7:10’s would have
gotten me sub 3 … had I been on pace at that point, although as previous
mentioned, I followed my plan the first 9 miles, but it had fallen apart the
last 5.
Well, if my spirit was broken at Mile 5 (where I knew I was
not having an ‘On day’ to achieve what I believe was a realistic goal … at Mile
15 my body was broken. The first half of
that mile was a continuation of the downhill, at which point the big downhill
was behind us, and we had to make a left turn and run a half mile upstream,
where we turned around and followed the creek downstream to the finish. As we made the turn to head upstream, I told
the guy who had been on my heels the last mile to pass, and he apologized if he
had been ‘pushing’ me, I told him no worries, that was the pace I was supposed
to be running to get my sub 3, but it was not my day. He said he was going for the same, and I
wished him well. At that intersection, I
had stashed a Gatorade in a mailbox, so I grabbed it and started walking so I
could take a Gel and pour it into my handheld bottle. This process took maybe 30 seconds which was
not that big of a deal, but when I tried to start running again, my legs
revolted. I got passed by several people
in this mile long out and back section, and was really struggling. There was no intense pain, cramping, or major
issues … my legs would just hurt all over & would not turnover fast!
Mile 16 was 8:06, (some walking to refuel) but this cannot
be happening on a flat section of course with 10 miles to go! I cannot even begin to describe the thoughts
going through my head at this point, but I can say I was questioning if I could
even pull out a 3:10, which was my backup, backup goal. I will say I briefly considered throwing in
the towel on my finishing time altogether, thinking it would be quite nice to
enjoy an easy 10 mile jog along a beautiful scenic river. After a mile of this nonsense, I snapped out
of it at the 17 mile marker … with some quick math I calculated that if I could
hold an 8:00 pace I would finish in 3:11 & surely I could shave a minute
somewhere & get under 3:10 … my race was not over yet. It was hard, but I made my legs turn over
faster.
15-6:44, 16 – 8:06, 17 – 7:46, 18 – 7:27, 19 – 7:18, 20 –
7:37, 21 – 8:05
Other than passing a guy at Mile 18 who had ‘blown up’,
miles 17 to 21 I was all alone, and I was getting passed in Mile 16. While I had recovered some, I was struggling
averaging about a 7:30 pace, and started falling apart again in Mile 21 … I slowed at a water stop to take another GU
and refill my handheld. One of the
volunteers said I was doing great & in 18th place … little did
he know I felt like burnt toast.
Typically, I never look behind me in a race, but I was really lonely (this
in the middle of national forest, there are no fans & the only runner I had
seen in 5 miles had blown up!) and hurting, so I glanced over my shoulder as I
had slowed to take my gel. About a 100
yards back & gaining fast were two runners, the eventual second overall
female, and a guy I know who is 48 (my age group) & had won the Masters at
the half in July with a 1:22 & run this course in 3:02 last year. There is no question he is a stronger runner
than me, but I also knew he had done a tough trail marathon the week before, he
is one of those crazy nuts that has done like 140 marathons … so probably not a
big deal to him … but I knew he would not have his ‘A’ game. He had casually told me at the start line he
just wanted to beat 3:10, but also knew he was not going to show his cards to
me … we are casual friends … and when it comes to competing for an age group
award if I was in his sights, I was a
target. With 5 miles to go, I was
a sitting duck in my current state. I
tried to pick up the pace, but it just was not happening. By Mile 22, the girl passed me, and although
I could not hear Bobby’s footsteps, I knew he was close behind her.
This was my saving grace!
When you are feeling miserable and you get passed by a beautiful woman, how can you do anything other than try
to latch on! I dug deep and did
everything I could to match her stride for stride, and refused to let myself
fall back by more than 3 strides. I think she was trying to bury me, because
the pace kept gradually getting faster, but I stayed with her stride for stride. While it was not easy, for the first time in
the race I felt like I was starting to hit my stride. Imagine that, Mile 24 being the first mile
where you finally feel like your legs are getting warmed up. A lot of this had to be mental, where 4 miles
earlier I was questioning if I could hang on and hit 3:10, and now I was
thinking 3:05 might be possible, although a stretch of my imagination. At Mile 24 I passed her, and honestly I kept
hoping she would pass me back, but I could smell the finish at this point and just
tried to maintain my new found pace. I
still had no idea where Bobby was, but I guessed he would be right behind me, figuring
he could pick me off in the last mile … so I kicked it up another notch.
22 – 7:55, 23 – 7:24, 24 – 7:08, 25 – 7:09, 26 – 6:53
The last quarter mile was a loop in a cabin resort area
that hosted the finish. As I entered the
grounds, 2 things became clear to me … I was not going to get 3:05 … and I had
built enough a cushion that I was going to hang onto 18th place
overall, so I slowed down a little and just tried to enjoy the fact and I had
made it to the finish and salvaged a good day/performance … no need to collapse
to shave a little time. In hindsight, I
should have dug deep, a 6:20 pace the last ¼ mile would have gotten me a
3:05:59 … but does that really make a difference? There was a 4 mile stretch at the end of the
race where I was happy with the way I ran, and that made it a good day.
0.34 – 2:33 (7:28 pace)
Bobby finished 10 seconds behind me, and the gal that saved
me was another 12 behind him. The person
in front of me beat me by almost three minutes … and the 3 males that finished
behind me were all in my age group … with 5th place in AG finishing
in 3:08:01 … so my last 4 miles saved the day … I would have been really bitter if I would
have dropped from 2nd to 5th in the last few miles!
It was a tough day, but I hung in there and ran 85% of the
race the best I could. I think that the
bad miles at 16 & 17 and 21 & 22 can in part be attributed to mental
weakness, but those ‘recovery miles’ (which I will call them), probably allowed
me to finish strong. Mile 10-13 were
really poor performance on the downhill , but that was all my legs would give
me, it was not because I was not mentally in the game.
There is one last
thing that played a role in the huge difference between this run & my half
on the course in July. In July, it had
rained the night before the race and there was some light rain during the
race. This made the packed gravel roads
very forgiving and easy to run hard on.
Also, you could run in tire tracks that had pushed all the loose gravel
down into the bed surface. With the dry
conditions we have had, the packed gravel road surface felt like running on
concrete … with loose gravel scattered across the surface … throw in the
hardened ruts & bumps … and this was nothing short of a miserable running
surface. It was like night & day
from July, and when my legs hit this surface at Mile 6, all they wanted to do
was cry … but they just laughed at me when I asked them to run fast. On to Boston ... surely a couple easy recovery weeks ... but soon I will have to put my game face back on and try again. It is easier when you are already registered for the biggest race of your life ... otherwise I would surely be questioning why I have an addiction to this sport!
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