Training going into
the race: This was the most serious
I’ve trained for a race in the longest time.
I followed Hal Higdon’s Advanced I training plan and averaged 45-50 mpw
over the last 12 weeks or so. I ran
Yasso’s the last week of August and averaged 3:02 for the 10 repeats and a
1:00:30 15k on labor day. Based on these
indicators I was feeling pretty confident on my goals. I initially debating on
my goal, I was torn between 3:00 and 3:05.
I decided to play it safe and go for 3:05 with even splits (7:03 miles). I wasn’t feeling very confident so I was a little
panicky and worried about hitting this goal.
The night before, the
course and the weather: I got into
Corning at around 2pm on Saturday. I met
up with my sister and her friend who came up for Baltimore for the race. They already picked up my packet so we met at
the hotel and got all checked in. I ran
an easy 2 miles. Afterwards we went to
dinner and carb-loaded at a nice little family diner in Painted Post. We were all pretty beat. We wake up at 6 to a wonderful 43 degree and
steady rain, not really sure what to wear but I finally decide on shorts, a
long-sleeve tech shirt and some cheap throw-away gloves. The point to point course has a net downhill
of about 200 feet (170 feet of up and 350 of down) with no major hills up or
down. It’s pretty fast overall.
The start and the 5k
(22:02 7:06 miles): I get to the
start and find the 3:05 pace group and decide I’m going stick with them for the
first handful of miles to get settles into a good pace. In the rain at the start I was a little cold
and shivering but knew once we got started it would be ok. Race started a
little late while we waited for some stragglers to get to the start. Off we go in the rain in an uneventful start. The first mile was 7:18 which was a little
slow but a lot better than starting fast.
The pace group soon gets on the 7:03 pace. Felt pretty comfortable and easy.
5k though 10 miles
(average pace 7:05 miles): Now I was in the zone in the continuing
steady rain. The pace group was still
going strong (maybe 20 people total) but we were a little back from our goal
(maybe 10-15 seconds slow) but I wasn’t too worried about it. The biggest hill was at mile 6 and we managed
it without problem. I made sure to eat
and drink on schedule to keep from getting dehydrated. I used Shot blocks on 45min intervals and water
at every stop.
Miles 10 through 20 (average pace 6:59 miles): We went through mile 10 and I was feeling
good so I wanted to put a little time on my goal pace because I knew I would
need it later. I picked up the pace by
about 5 seconds per mile and built a little gap on the pace group. Still raining but slightly less and it
warmed up a little. I hit the ½ way mark
at 1:32:30, exactly on pace for a 3:05 and by mile 20 I was maybe 20 seconds
ahead of the pace. Hit mile 20 feeling
very strong, I was actually a little surprised by how well I felt. I had some fatigue in my quads but my breathing
was fine and my form felt good.
Miles 20-22 (average
pace 6:59): Still felt good but I
knew the wall was eminent. My breathing
was picking up and my form got a little shuffle-ly but I knew I had to push and
maintain the pace. I could see the pace
group (now reduced to 3 or 4) was slowly reeling me in.
Mile 23 and 24
(average pace 6:58): The pain was
really starting to set in, every little bump felt like a huge hill and dropped
my pace. I was pushing hard now, my
quads were burning and my left calf was starting to cramp. I can tell how tired I am but how much math I’m
doing to figure out my pace and how much time I have to hit my goal. By this time I was doing A LOT of math. At mile 24 I figured I had 15 seconds over
3:05 if I could maintain the pace, it was going to be close.
Mile 25 and 26
(average pace 7:06): I hit the wall hard
at 25 and it was rough. It was all I
could do to maintain a sub 7:10 pace and I could feel the pace group (now down
to two) bearing down on my. My sole goal
was to keep them behind me no matter what. I was really getting worried about hitting my
goal
Last 0.2 miles (in 75
seconds): I hit the mile 26 mark
with 90 seconds to go and I knew I had it but I had to kick. My sister was in the finish line crowd
screaming and I pushed hard and it hurt but I did it. I hit the finish line at 3:04:41 (41 overall) with the
pace group right on my heels, a Boston Qualifying time!
The finish: I was gassed, I got my medal and some water
and stumbled around for a few minutes.
My sister comes running over in crazy cheer mode and she was carrying a
bottle of wine. Turns out she won the ½ marathon
in the crazy time of 1:25 and wine was the award along with 300$ (yay for
her). We turn around and her friend is
in the finish shoot finishing in 3:07 (a new PR for her). By this time I was pretty sure I wasn’t going
to die was I was quite cold. While it was not raining anymore I was soaking wet
and it was only about 48 out. My calf was completely cramped now so it was a
tender walk to the car. We get changed
into dry clothes and head out back to the hotel to shower and head to our
respective homes. I check the results
later and notice that I got third in my age once the pulled out the overall
winners!!
Comments: Wineglass is a great small marathon (2000
runners in the full). It is very well
organized and crowd support across the whole distance is great. You don’t go more than a handful of miles
without running through a small town with tons of people cheering. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking
to run a great race. The weather sucked
but you can’t really blame anyone for that.
I have not complaints about it.
Once thing I did notice was that our Garmins was running short and was
off by about 0.2 miles overall. This isn’t
a big deal and a common issue but you HAVE to do the math at the actual mile
markers to make sure you are on pace. If
I was just using my watch I would have missed my goal by a minute or so. Luckily doing the math for 7:03 miles isn’t
that hard. It might be better to turn
off autolap and just hit the lap button at each mile. This works especially well if the miles are
accurately marked (typically they are not).
Now I get to be lazy for 2 week while I recover!
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