This was a pretty wet, cold and windy race but overall I hit my goal of a Boston Qualifying time. Going into this race I was targeting a 3:25 and really though I could do that and even better but I believe I made a rookie mistake that cost me lots of time in the race and created a lot of undue pain!
Because the weather was forcasted to be so nasty with lots of rain, I decided at the last minute to run in my racing shoes that are very light weight and do not absorb any water. Well, I didn't think about the fact that the shoes are much differenet than my training Altras I've been running in since I had my foot operation. I believe the difference in shoe profile created stress on my calves that they were not used to causing the quick and severe calf pain.
I have never had any calf tightness in a race before, it is usually my quads that give me problems. In this race both calves started to tighten up around mile 7 and continued to get tighter throughout the race. Around mile 15, where I planned to make my move and increase the pace I started to get some major cramping, I realized I had better just maintain and see if I could finish. From this point on in the race it was a concentrated effort to just keep moving and try to avoid a complete lock up.
So here's the lesson learned AGAIN .... DO NOT CHANGE YOUR GEAR BEFORE A RACE...!!!!
Regarding the race, I was impressed with the course and race setup and activities. The course seemed very flay with only a few small hills (over bridges and under underpasses). If the weather was better I would have really enjoyed this race as it ran through downtown, by the Alamo and around a very nice park area. It also had a section where the course doubled back on itself, which I like, as you can see and talk to the runners coming your was, seeing the leaders and many of the other participants along that portion of the course.
Because it was cold and rainy, I sat in my car as long as I could before going to the starting line of the race. It was about a mile walk to the start and I actually got to the corrals later than I should have and could not get into the proper corral so I started way...way back with the 5:00 marathoners. Because of this I did start out a little slower than I planned but it probably didn't hurt based on my overall race.
Below are my splits:
| San Antonio Rock & Roll Marathon |
| 12/7/2014 |
| Mile |
Time |
HR |
HR % |
|
| 1 |
8:25:00 |
154 |
81% |
|
| 2 |
8:07:00 |
160 |
85% |
|
| 3 |
8:03:00 |
160 |
85% |
|
| 4 |
8:17:00 |
160 |
85% |
|
| 5 |
7:42:00 |
160 |
85% |
8:06:48 |
| 6 |
7:52:00 |
160 |
85% |
|
| 7 |
7:54:00 |
158 |
84% |
|
| 8 |
7:59:00 |
158 |
84% |
|
| 9 |
7:52:00 |
157 |
83% |
|
| 10 |
7:43:00 |
159 |
84% |
7:52:00 |
| 11 |
8:02:00 |
160 |
85% |
|
| 12 |
8:01:00 |
159 |
84% |
|
| 13 |
7:55:00 |
157 |
83% |
|
| 14 |
8:01:00 |
159 |
84% |
|
| 15 |
7:53:00 |
160 |
85% |
7:58:24 |
| 16 |
7:54:00 |
160 |
85% |
|
| 17 |
8:00:00 |
160 |
85% |
|
| 18 |
8:08:00 |
160 |
85% |
|
| 19 |
7:51:00 |
164 |
87% |
|
| 20 |
7:59:00 |
165 |
87% |
7:58:24 |
| 21 |
8:16:00 |
166 |
88% |
|
| 22 |
8:30:00 |
164 |
87% |
|
| 23 |
8:34:00 |
165 |
87% |
|
| 24 |
8:35:00 |
166 |
88% |
|
| 25 |
8:46:00 |
166 |
88% |
8:32:12 |
| 26 |
8:49:00 |
165 |
87% |
103:52:00 |
| 26.2 |
2:01:00 |
176 |
94% |
107:16:00 |
| Total |
3:33:09 |
161 |
85% |
|
| Pace |
8:08:08 |
|
|
|
| 