What a day. I will write a full report tomorrow. I'll just say right now that I am very pleased with my performance, both placing (the important part) and time. Top 35 was my "top tier" goal, but I was quite happy with a hard-fought 53rd. There is no way I could have run faster, and was really happy with my time on a tough course and windy day. It was a thrill to run and compete in this field, and even more thrilling to pick people off the whole second half and run my race to my utmost. The last 15K was difficult, and I slowed a bit, but managed to fight hard and not hit the Wall. I heard rumors of someone having a heart attack during the race when I was at the finish line, but did not learn the full details until a hour after the race. The whole Trials field is reeling from the death of Ryan Shay, and it hits really hard. A lot of people here knew him really well. I can't imagine what his wife and family are going through, but my own feeling of sorrow is large, and I didn't even know the guy. Let's give our prayers for his wife and family. On to the race report... Logan spent the night in our room and we had a slumber party. The slumber party entailed going to bed at 8:45PM (that 6:45PM Utah time) and getting up at 4:55AM. It took me well over an hour to fall completely asleep, and then I started waking up by 3:30AM because I was so geared up. But it was a restful night, as good as any pre-race sleep. I ate a banana in my room and then grabbed a quick bagel downstairs in the hospitality suite. Then we loaded the bus. I didn't really notice anything about the bus ride, just ate my bagel and drank all my water. We got to Rockefeller Plaza at about 6AM, so had an hour and a half to blow off and get ready. We hung out indoors until 7:05AM. I managed to use the bathroom 5 times, which makes it a 5-star race, a good sign of things to come. Everyone seemed pretty calm, and it was interesting to be in the same pre-race room with EVERYONE. I made it a game-time decision whether or not wear my sleeves (the latest running craze), but when we saw Ritz putting his on, Logan and I decided that it was indeed "cool." We finally moved outside to the start line and had half an hour to warm up (strides, etc.). Ironically, there were three portapots for everyone to share. I couldn't believe it. We were treated like kings for three days, and then get three portapots on race day. Oh well. It ended up working out fine, I just kind of expected a personal portapot for every runner. ;-) It was weird; it was still kind of dark out, but the place was so lit with the TV cameras and city lights. A weird sensation. At about 7:20AM I was totally ready to go. Just start the darn race already. There were a lot of spectators there. Someone called my name as I was stretching out. I looked around, and it was my Coach Priebe from high school!! I could not believe it; I had not seen or talked to him in over 10 years! His son, and my former teammate, Scott was there as well. All that definitely put a smile on face. Finally, the race was ready to start. They started counting down: 2-minutes, 1-minute, boom! The gun actually came a little sooner than I expected, but I lined up in the very back, so had no problems getting out efficiently. Watching the TV footage of the start later in the day, I could easily pick myself out bringing up the rear. Right where I wanted to be. I found Logan pretty quickly, and we ran through Times Square together. This is one of the most memorable parts of the race. This was my first time ever in Times Square, and I happened to be running the biggest race of my life. The lights and visuals were amazing, and I enjoyed the effect while running with the pack. Logan and I and a couple other runners traded some jokes back and forth. The race was still early enough to make jokes. Part of the reason it was easy to make jokes was that we got out incredibly slow. I did not see any mile markers until Mile 3. The clock there said "16:40", and I thought it was 5K at first. "Not a bad pace, 5:20/mile", I thought. Then we went through the 5K clock, and it said something like "17:05". That is very slow, more like 5:30/mile. We were all still very bunched up. Apparently the leaders were running tactical, not too surprising, I guess. At 5K I was still near the back, but not quite sure where. The pack was so big and so fluid. I would pass people where it was efficient to do so (to fill gaps), and people were also passing me on the outside lanes. I felt like I was part of a living river of runners, churning and boiling. I could not see packs formed yet, just the river of runners. It was very much like XC nationals. And after 5K, the rapids started. I actually can't remember a lot of precise details of the race. With doing 5 laps in the park, a lot of things blur together, and I can't remember who I was with, when I was with them, or where I did certain things. I general the west side of the course (which I call the "homestretch") was harder than the east side (the "backstretch"). I think there was more uphill on the homestretch, plus the 20+ mph winds were coming out of the north, so we got general headwind on the homestretch and tailwind (plus the "easier" hills) on the backstretch. I did not think the hills were that bad at any point, but definitely preferred the backstretch. No hill was that long or that high, there were just a ton of them, and they were relentless. But that is why I trained on my Millville Hill Loop all summer. Nothing is as bad as that loop. Back to the race. Things heated up after 5K. A pack finally formed (probably the 3rd "chase" pack at this point, although all we were chasing was the 2nd pack), and I stayed in the back of the pack so that I got draft, run efficiently, and hit tangents. There were many twists and turns, so tangents and elbow-space were both very important. As gaps formed, I would move up, but tried to stay in the same general position, close to the runners immediately in front me. Even though the wind speed at the start was 22 mph. I did not feel it at all while running in packs. Plus I think the trees of Central Park helped diffuse it a ton. The wind during the race was nothing even remote close to the winds we faced this year at the Great Salt Lake Half or a couple years ago at the Canyonlands Half Marathon. It surely made an impact to those running solo, but was sporadic rather than steady, and only affect the homestretch, so runners did not have to deal with it non-stop. I keep getting off track. Back to the actual race (again). My pack hit the 10K in 33:25, so the last 5K split was 16:16. Our overall pace had increased from over 5:30/mile to under 5:25/mile. This is more like it. I felt comfortable and stayed put. The crowds were amazing, by the way. The bleacher section was deafening and the jumbo-trons were really cool. I could look up and see the leaders on the jumbo-tron, cool stuff, ha ha. The back stretch had a ton of spectators too, and lots of people were running back and forth for 10+ viewings. I heard lots of "Go Petersen!", thanks to having my name on my singlet. I though it was cool that many of the spectators were cheering for all runners, and it was encouraging to hear my name called by total strangers who were out there enjoying the race and supporting the runners. 15K split was 49:55, so 16:30 for the last 5K. Doing the mental math, I figured this was just under 16:40/5K average, so right around 5:20 average pace now. In some ways this was a little fast for me, but I was with the pack I needed to be with, and was feeling very very comfortable, conversation-pace even, although no one wanted to talk to me. I could definitely feel the loss of elevation in my breathing. This was my first sea level race in over 6 years, so was not sure what to expect in that regard, but so far so good. 20K split in 1:06:25, so another 16:30 5K split. I thought at the time, "20K, now that's kind of a cool distance." Maybe I will find a good 20K to run next year. There is a good one in New Haven, Conn. Soon after the 20K clock, came the Half Marathon. The clock said "1:09:59" when I passed the mat, but my official splits (I had emailed to me) say "1:10:01". Splitting hairs here, but I'll take the sub-1:10! In reality, it took me a few seconds to cross the start line, so I lost a little time there at the beginning of the race. In any case, I was averaging exactly 5:20/mile here, and on pace for a 2:20. This seemed kind of fast, but again, I felt really good and that I could keep sustaining this pace longer. After the Half Marathon, things got to be even more of a blur. The 3rd chase pack I was with had been steadily closing on the 2nd chase pack, and it was cool to see them slowly coming back to us. However, after the Half mark, I dropped a little bit from the rear of our pack, but also both packs appeared to string out and disintegrate. Now it was every man for himself. This also meant that I had to deal with the wind on my own, but like I said above, it was not nearly as bad as it cool have been. At no time during the race did I think negative thoughts about the wind. I'm not going to say it was a non-factor, because it was there...but it was a non-factor. :-) They had timing clocks all over the course, but after the Half, the times became meaningless to me. I don't know what 25K, 30K, etc. means in the context of a marathon, and I did not put forth the effort to do mental math at that point. Fortunately for the sake of this entry, I can refer back to my official
splits, but at the time I did not pay them much attention.Rather, all my focus went into catching people and keeping my own pace strong. Indeed, people were finally starting to fall back, one-by-one. 25K split was 1:22:56, so another 16:30-ish 5K. 30K split was 1:40:20, so 17:24 for 5K. Not sure what happened here. I managed to form some mini-packs with one or two other people, as I had the chance. Often, I would catch someone, hang with them for a minute or two to regroup, and then move up and on. I felt very comfortable at times, but at other times I could feel the fatigue starting in my calves. Breathing was still very easy though, thanks to ample oxygen found at sea level. I wanted to wait until about 18 miles (or 30K) before I started making a strong move, if possible. I knew the alternative was that I would feel bad and just try to hang on for dear life. The reality was somewhere in the middle. I was definitely feeling weaker at that point, but did not think I would hit the wall. I could tell I was slowing, but didn't worry about and kept trying to reel people in. I was moving slower, but there were plenty of people at this point who were moving much slower than me! Ducks in a row... Also, people were starting to drop out. I saw Hobie walking on the backstretch, just after Mile 18. Other people were walking here and there too. I passed a few people with very high bib numbers, practically crawling. Looking at the results later, I think a lot of those people ended up dropping out. There were 26 total DNF's. 35K split was 1:57:37, so 17:17 for the last 5K. Again, I had no perception of this during the race, I am only calculating these splits now, after the fact. All I knew at the time was that I hurt, but had less than 5 miles to go. I knew I had a good race going, place-wise, and even a decent time, which would be icing on the cake. Someone shouted to me and the guy right ahead of me "62 and 63!" This was the first and only report of placing I heard the entire race, and it came well after Mile 20. People were coming back faster and faster over the last 7K, and I probably caught another 6 people the last lap. Mostly at this point I was just thinking about finishing as hard as a could and making myself hurt. In other words, "leave it on the 'track'", to borrow a track and field expression. 40K in 2:15:07, so 17:30 for the last 5K.
Just over a mile to go now, and there are several people in front of me to pass. Passed a sign that said "1 mile to go". Then another sign that said "800m to go". Then another signed that said "400m to go". I passed a guy right in here, and began kicking hard to discourage him from trying to stay with me. "200m to go". I was loving the signs. It was an uphill finish, and I looked ugly on the last 200m (or at least felt ugly), but it did the trick. Final time was 2:22:34. From my glances at the clocks late in the race, I knew that I could get close to the "B" standard, and was happy to run this time on a tough course. So icing on the cake. I like to run negative splits, but this was not to be that kind of race for me today. I put myself in position where I needed to be the first half, got some fatigue the second half, but managed to grind out a solid second half and pass probably 20 people or so, despite not "flying". A guy who did "fly" the second half was James Lander (St. George winner from last year). I passed him before the Half, but then he came roaring past me with about 8K left, and ended up in 40th place. I think he may have negative-splitted. The only other guy to pass me during the last Half of the race was some Hansons runner, a little bit after Lander went by. Other than that, no one, so I was happy with that. I don't like getting passed. I did not find out my place until a hour later, when I talked to Dave Nelson on the phone while I was sitting on the bus. I was happy with 53rd. It is the upper 40th percentile, and gives me a lot of confidence for the future. I know this is once again a very long report, but this blog is as much a journal to help retain my own memories as it is a "public thing". It was definitely a memorable weekend, and a great racing experience. It looks like my next race will be the Houston Half Marathon, on Jan 13. I have the chance to participate in the USATF Developmental Thingy, so will get comps and financial support to go out and run the USATF Half Marathon Championships. This is where Ryan Hall broke the American Record last year, so I know it is a fast course! I don't know a goal yet, maybe 1:06:00 or so? I'm sure Sasha will tell me within 15 seconds what I will run, so I will just do whatever he says. ;-) Oh, regarding the Sasha-science type analysis, I haven't completely thought it over, but I imagine the Trials course is about 3 minutes slower than a Chicago or London or Berlin, especially with the wind factored in. Maybe up to 4 minutes, but 3 sounds reasonable. We had perfect temperatures, and the road surface itself was quite fast, but there is no disputing the hills. Hall had an absolutely amazing performance, and I think he is capable of 2:05-ish on a fast course. Winning by 2 minutes in this field says it all. Looking at my time, I do feel that it exceeds my St. George performance, and is the best marathon I have run.
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