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Indianapolis Monumental Marathon

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Location:

Fort Collins,CO,

Member Since:

May 15, 2003

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

Unaided PR's:
5K: 14:48 (Track - 2001)
10K: 30:45 (Track - 2001)
10K: 31:32 (Bolder Boulder - 2013)
Half Marathon: 1:06:09 (Duluth - 2013)
Marathon: 2:17:54 (Grandma's) - 2014)
Marathon: 2:19:47 (Indianapolis Monumental - 2013)
Marathon: 2:19:49 (Indianapolis Monumental - 2010)

Aided PR's:
10K: 29:38 (Des News - 2011)
Half Marathon: 1:05:30 (TOU Half - 2011)
Marathon: 2:18:09 (St George - 2007)
Marathon: 2:17:35 (Boston - 2011)

Short-Term Running Goals:

Diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis in June of 2008. Started taking Enbrel in March, 2009.

Run as much as I can, and race as well as I can. Make the most of however much time I have left as an able-bodied runner.

Training for the 2018 Colorado Marathon

Long-Term Running Goals:

  Run until I'm old, and then run some more. Stand tall.

Personal:

1 wife, 2 kids. 1 cat. Work as a GIS Specialist/Map Geek

Endure and persist; this pain will turn to your good. - Ovid

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. - Romans 5:1-5

 

 

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Race: Indianapolis Monumental Marathon (26.219 Miles) 02:19:47, Place overall: 3
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
0.8026.200.000.000.0027.00

Short report: took 3rd place overall with 2:19:48. We'll see if they update my official time, but if it holds it is the EXACT same time I ran there 3 years ago, which is pretty crazy. Split it different this time though, as I went through the half in 1:08:40. Started falling off and hurting by mile 16, but hung on to average about 5:30/mile over those last 10 miles, and move up from 4th to 3rd at mile 23. Happy wit the sub-2:20 on a legit course, especially after not racing a marathon in almost 2 years. Still got it.

Full report:

We had a perfect morning to run: low-40s for temp, with almost no wind, probably just 5mph from the west. Can't ask for anything better. Just wore singlet, shorts, and light gloves.

We had a good field to run with today, along with about 4 Kenyans and Jesse Davis (runner-up from last year), we also had an official 2:18 pacesetter in Scott Wietecha. My primary goal was to win the race. The ultimate time goal was sub-2:18 of course, but in reality I knew I'd be pretty happy with sub-2:20. I didn't really have any evidence that sub-2:18 was feasible, based on workouts and recent races, but was confident enough in my ability to "hang on" last in a marathon to give it a try anyway. I wanted to go out right at 1:09 for the half.

The race started, and immediately I found Scott and tucked in behind. The half marathon starts at the same time, so it was hard to tell who was in the half and who was in the full, but I knew Scott was gonig to try to hit my pace. Unfortunately, Scott ran the first 4 miles a bit too fast, although it all felt fine to me. Our pace settled out after that. By several miles in, we had Scott, then me, Jesse Davis, and three Kenyans. First 6 miles were 5:12, 5:07, 5:04, 5:11, 5:23, and 5:13. 32:20 for 10K.

The half marathoners split off just after Mile 7, and it wasn't until then that I was totally sure that we were the lead pack. One of the Kenyans dropped sometime before the half, although I don't remember where. Other than the first 4 or 5 miles, Scott got in a real nice pacing groove for the rest of the race. I felt good and relaxed during the next several miles, up until just after the half. Breathing was nice and easy, and I chatted with Scott a here and there to pass the time. Amazing what sea level can do for the lungs. Miles 7-13 were 5:14, 5:19, 5:14, 5:16, 5:18, 5:15, 5:14. Half marathon split was 1:08:38. A bit fast, but I was still feeling strong and easy.

Still in our pack of 5 after the half, with Scott pacing the way. Miles 14-15 were 10:27, and then 5:17 for Mile 16. Unfortunately, things suddenly started getting very hard during Mile 16. Part of this was because the only real hill was during this mile. But the effect lasted for the rest of race. Breathing went from conversional to labored. My legs and feet were already feeling beat up by this point, but I'm amazed how fast my breathing went south.

Both Jesse Davis and I dropped during Mile 17, and the two Kenyans stuck easily with Scott. I was 5:25 for Mile 17, and then 5:35 for Mile 18. Part of the slowness for Mile 18 was due to taking my last Gu, and having to fumble around with the packet. 1:38:19 at 30K. Mile 19 was 5:19, due to a nice downhill during this mile.

Jesse Davis got away from me a bit during the next couple miles, which were 5:36 and 5:30. While it was discouraging to be fall off the pace after 16 miles, I was encouraged quite a bit by the fact I could still stick 5:30 miles despite feeling so slow and beat up. At Mile 20, I did some mental math, and figured out that if I could close with a 34:00 10K, I would break 2:20 and come really close to my course best (which I count as my non-aided PR). Uncannily close to my PR, actually. So I figured out even then that I would need a few sub-5:30's in order to avoid hitting the same time twice (nothing worse that that).

I was 5:31 and then 5:25 for Miles 22 and 23. My whole body is hurting now, including a sore groin muscle I had been nursing the last few weeks of training. But Jesse Davis was coming back to me now, and that was encouraging too. Also, I passed Scott in here somewhere, as he had finished his pacing duties at Mile 20 and was now jogging it in (he ended up jogging in for 5th and some prize money).

I passed Jesse right at the Mile 23 marker, and tried to keep pushing once I was past him to avoid and potential pass-backs. 5:28 for Mile 24. By now the marathon route had merged back with the half marathon, so there were lots of people on the course. Fortunately, the race does a great job in partitioning the road, with one side for half runners and the other side for full runners. The half marathoners helped, as we could all cheer for each other, and it motivated me to have folks around. Plus I knew if I could finish pretty strong, I still had an excellent shot at my flat-course PR.

Mile 25 was 5:31. Tried to put everything I had into the last mile, and I could feel my form just falling apart during the last half mile. Still managed a 5:30. As I turned the last corner, and came up on the finish line, I could see the clock and knew it would be very close. Was a little disappointed, but also a little amused, to see the clock click over to 2:19:48 as I ran across the line. What are the odds of running the same time twice?

I would have loved to run even just a few seconds faster, but still have to laugh about it. At age 34 and with 21 marathons under my belt now, I can't expect to be smashing PR's all the time, but I wasn't expecting syndicated re-runs either.

But all in all, I'm pretty happy with this race, as I did achieve my goal of going under 2:20, and it's only the 2nd time I've done it on an unaided course. I was also happy to be 3rd,. The 2 Kenyans ahead of me ran 2:16:41 and 2:18:27, so no shame in losing to that. The finish was worth $600, plus much more in "renewing" my marathon time for a couple years, which will be worth hundreds in entries, accommodations, and travel to future races.

...and...in reality I did end up with a 1-second PR!. All this time I thought I had ran 2:19:48 at the 2010 race, but when I just now looked at my official results from that year, they actually have me down for 2:19:49. So I'll take it: a PR is a PR. I'm glad that 3 years has led to an improvement of 0.038sec/mile. Makes the last 10,000 miles of training worth it. :-) No seriously, I'm just glad I'm not washed up. I was telling Jake and Andrea afterward that I could run 2:19:48 every race for the next 10 years, it would still be pretty fulfilling, and I'm grateful every time just for the health and ability to run a marathon period, and a fast marathon even moreso.

For my next marathon I think I will take it out quite a bit slower, probably 1:09:15 or so. I really need to break 2:19 before I break 2:18, and I think the faster first half hurt me a bit today, although you can never know for sure.

Edit (11/8): Official time is now listed as 2:19:47, so make that a two second PR!

Saucony A5 Flat Miles: 27.00
Comments
From Jason D on Sat, Nov 02, 2013 at 11:32:27 from 166.147.104.166

It was great to see you come in, Paul. I had no idea what your time goal was (I had some estimates), but you got after it today. A bit warmer today than 2010 though! 2:31 from your recent half PR for the first half split. Still got it indeed.

From steve ash on Sat, Nov 02, 2013 at 11:57:42 from 174.52.100.252

Amazing how you stay so consistent year after year. Congratulations Paul.

From Conner Mantz on Sat, Nov 02, 2013 at 12:58:11 from 67.2.147.239

Great race Paul, it's always fun and inspiring hearing about your running.

From jtshad on Sat, Nov 02, 2013 at 14:15:45 from 69.20.183.178

Awesome performance, congrats!

From josse on Sat, Nov 02, 2013 at 16:50:07 from 70.196.197.20

Awesome awesome job!! So happy for you:)

From Yasir on Sat, Nov 02, 2013 at 19:25:15 from 99.20.240.112

congratulation sir what a performance.

From Matt Schreiber on Sat, Nov 02, 2013 at 21:27:50 from 66.17.102.185

Watched for your time this morning on the results page.. Very impressive man. Congrats!

From JamesH on Sat, Nov 02, 2013 at 22:11:24 from 208.117.127.7

Nice job Paul. As always.

From Jake K on Sun, Nov 03, 2013 at 10:13:07 from 67.177.11.154

Still got it for sure! Impressive race. I can't believe you ran the exact same time as 3 years ago.

Great seeing you this weekend. Recovery well and let's go to Houston this winter.

From Superfly on Sun, Nov 03, 2013 at 11:51:36 from 74.211.21.81

Still got it... and then some. Crazy that you ran straight up the same time as before. Your string of sub 2:20's is mind blowing. I love it! Truly talented! Hope to see you keep it up. Maybe come back to STG one day... win it as a master.

From Jake K on Sun, Nov 03, 2013 at 13:44:51 from 67.177.11.154

Hey it ended up being a PR after all. They are not easy to come by once you get to a certain level, so I'm glad you got it, even if it was just a few milliseconds.

From Fritz on Sun, Nov 03, 2013 at 14:57:46 from 50.198.178.113

Great race Paul. 1 second is an improvement, nonetheless, and 3rd place in that field is impressive. Way hang on for another sub 2:20.

From Jon on Sun, Nov 03, 2013 at 19:00:33 from 107.203.52.135

Paul, we always knew you weren't washed up and were good for .038 sec/mile. Nice work. Next time, aim high and improve .047 sec/mile ;)

From Dave S on Mon, Nov 04, 2013 at 09:15:21 from 63.248.20.148

Nice! Great to see you still running those sub 2:20s. Always love reading your race reports.

From RileyCook on Mon, Nov 04, 2013 at 09:54:40 from 208.54.5.242

Thanks for the great read Paul. Sounds like quite an impressive effort. Great job hanging on and just sneaking in that PR (although I certainly wouldn't think less of you for calling Boston your PR, it is trials eligible).

From Paul on Mon, Nov 04, 2013 at 10:00:47 from 65.114.209.66

Thanks everyone.

Riley, if you read my blog long enough, you'll realize that I can find some sort of PR in just about every race. ie - high-altitude road 5K PR, dirt road 10K PR, etc. :-) So Boston is indeed a PR: wind-aided, gravity-aided sea-level marathon PR.

From Brandon on Mon, Nov 04, 2013 at 10:01:22 from 67.214.231.170

Congratulations Paul! Your brilliant approach to training and racing is very inspiring. Awesome to see your hard work continue to pay off.

From Sasha Pachev on Thu, Nov 07, 2013 at 13:19:27 from 69.28.149.129

Paul:

Congratulations on another sub-2:20, a true unaided PR, and prize money finish! The chances of running the exact same time are actually not that small. We can estimate by assuming that given the same level of fitness we have a probability distribution that is more or less uniform over 3 minute range with anything out of that range being statistically negligible for the purpose of a rough estimate. In that case, with the help of rounding the time to seconds the probability will be 1/180.

However, I think the reality is a little different and makes the probability even higher because the distribution is not uniform. It will be heavily concentrated over about a minute range, going into the faster times it thins out fast, while going into slower times it thins out as well, but much slower. So the probability of running the exact same time will be something between 1/100 and 1/50. If we assume that the earlier time came from a good race, and the current time was also achieved in a good race, this would drive it to something between 1/30 and 1/20 - a really good race can only be so good, while anything that is worse than really good does not have a hard lower bound.

From Sasha Pachev on Thu, Nov 07, 2013 at 13:40:41 from 69.28.149.129

And some more thoughts. You might be able to squeeze some extra performance by improving your heart. I do recall that you have no problem hitting something like 195 bpm and keeping it there. Which means, basically, that your legs would be able to do more if the heart could support it.

The good news is that the heart responds to conditioning much better than the muscles and the nervous system. The basic idea is that you figure out a way to up the aerobic stimulus safely (the good news is that you do not have to run all of it, since it is the heart, cross-training should be sufficient for this purpose) while eating the diet and living the regimen of a heart patient. You will know you are on the right track if you see a drop in HR and a decrease in breathing effort at race pace.

This heart improvement thing may be something worth-while to do regardless of the possible performance benefits. Here is why. What makes the elite runner elite is not so much his cardio as his neuromuscular abilities. That has a dangerous health trap - you can drive the heart at top capacity, and you get used it to it. You are not suspecting any problems because you are still performing well. Over the years micro-tears develop. Sometimes they deteriorate into some kind of pathology later on in life in some cases leading to early death. There has been a number of cases of former elite runners dying early from some form of a heart problem. Perhaps if they had done something to specifically to strengthen the heart they would have made it more resilient and would still be alive today.

From josse on Thu, Nov 07, 2013 at 15:28:52 from 70.208.2.121

Just curious if your going to try a repeat at Boston?

From Paul on Thu, Nov 07, 2013 at 15:32:30 from 65.114.209.66

Sasha - I will try to strengthen my heart to avoid premature death.

Josse - don't know my next marathon. Right now I'm considering either Boston, Green Bay, or Grandma's, but leaning toward one of the latter two.

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