All about that pace.

Tacoma City Marathon 2014 Pacer

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Location:

Lakewood,WA,

Member Since:

Dec 19, 2008

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Boston Qualifier

Running Accomplishments:

5k
Resolution Run 5k:
1/1/09 20:46 (6:42)
1/1/10 19:33 (6:18)
1/1/11 19:23 (6:15)
1/1/12 19:33 (6:18)
FSRC Turkey Trot:
11/20/11 18:50 (6:04)
10k
Resolution Run 10k:
1/24/09 42:40 (6:53)
1/23/10 40:48 (6:35)
1/22/11 39:40 (6:24)
15k
Resolution Run 15k:
2/21/09 1:05:59 (7:06)
2/20/10 1:04:15 (6:55)
2/26/11 1:03:46 (6:51)
2/25/12 1:02:26 (6:42)
20k
Resolution Run 20k:
3/21/09 1:27:16 (7:01)
3/20/10 1:26:46 (6:59)
3/26/11 1:24:37 (6:49)
3/24/12 1:25:27 (6:52)
1/2 Marathon
Grand Columbian 1/2 Iron Relay
2007 1:58:29 (8:59)
2010 1:39:07 (7:34)
Marathon
2005 Portland: 3:52:21 (8:52)
2007 Tacoma: 3:47:17 (8:40)
2010 Eugene: 3:16:21 (7:30)
2011 Boston: 3:25:28 (7:51)
2011 Tunnel: 3:06:30 (7:07)
2012 Boston: 3:53:56 (8:56)
2012 Big Sur: 3:23:06 (7:45)
2013 Tacoma: 3:41:25 (8:27)
2013 Tunnel Lite: 3:07:33 (7:09)
2014 Boston: 3:40:35 (8:20)
Ultra Marathon
2013 Defiance 50k: 4:49:12 (9:18)
2013 Steilacoom 50k: 4:44:06 (9:09)
2014 R2R 51.9mi: 9:51:40 (11:24)

Short-Term Running Goals:

Upcoming races: Just pacing and volunteering this year. PRs coming in 2016?

St Paddy's Day 1/2 1:50 Pacer 3/12/16

Whidbey Island 1/2 1:45 Pacer 4/?/16

Tacoma City Marathon 3:55 Pacer 5/1/16

Personal:

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Heb 12:11

Married, 4 kids, 5 grand-kids
Former heavy smoker, been running since May 2003
Network administrator
Bicycle commuter

Favorite Quotes:

"Go out and preach the Gospel, and if you have to, use words." - St. Francis of Assisi

"Life is short; running makes it seem longer." - Baron Hansen

"If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand." HD?

"Rule #1. Cardio - Zombies lead a very active lifestyle, so should you." - Columbus (Zombieland)

"A one that is not cold is scarcely a one at all." - Strongbad

"Running without hills is like motorcycling without corners" -me

Favorite Blog Posts:

Puke and pass

My epic Beatles for Burt blogpost

Vodka at an aid station?

Hot tips for winter running:

Screwshoes
Poor man's cleats. this works a LOT better than you would think! Very quick and easy.

LittleHotties
Are you cheap like me? Put those little hotties in a ziplock bag and use them again tomorrow!

Kickstart your dead Garmin
Hold down the reset/lap button and the mode button together to get your 205/305/310xt to restart if it won't turn on or if it freezes up.

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Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	0.00
Brooks Adrenaline GT13-3 Lifetime Miles:						964.63
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Sun, May 04, 2014

Race: Tacoma City Marathon 2014 Pacer (26.219 Miles) 04:09:24

Total Distance

26.22

4:10:00 Pacer
This was my first race volunteering as a pacer and I had a great group of runners to spend the morning with! Quite a few in my group were pushing their limits a bit because there weren't any other pacers between 4:10 and 5:00. I set out to run steady 9:33s from the beginning since I have always heard this is the best and most efficient way to run a marathon. Ive never actually followed that advice for my own races and I didn't want these folks to blow up at the end like I usually do, so I decided this was a good time to do the right thing. After just a few miles my watch was ticking off miles short of the course markings and between that and the rolling hills I was getting worried about keeping an accurate pace to finish at exactly 4:10. I stuck to the plan, give or take a few seconds per mile trying to make up for the difference between my garmin and the mile markers on the course. Most of the group hung in there about 15 miles before they started thinning out. A few of the ladies stuck with me to the end and turned out some big PR's. It feels pretty good that my slowest marathon yet helped someone else achieve their best, and even earned me a couple hugs at the finish line :)

This pic was on the front page of the local newspaper the day after the race.

Distance Split pace
1.00 9:28
2.00 9:34
3.00 9:34
4.00 9:32
5.00 9:32
6.00 9:23
7.00 9:29
8.00 9:29
9.00 9:34
10.00 9:39
11.00 9:26
12.00 9:36
13.00 9:31
14.00 9:29
15.00 9:25
16.00 9:32
17.00 9:31
18.00 9:23
19.00 9:33
20.00 9:27
21.00 9:21
22.00 9:29
23.00 9:34
24.00 9:20
25.00 9:30
26.00 9:25
26.31 9:21

Comments

From Derunzo on Sun, May 04, 2014 at 15:46:46 from 70.192.18.127

I love the last sentence of your report.

From I Just Run on Sun, May 04, 2014 at 17:10:15 from 12.162.141.2

Wow....great job! I said I'd never run with a pacer again but I would if you were my pacer! :-)

From rAtTLeTrAp on Mon, May 05, 2014 at 08:47:39 from 70.199.135.162

Derunzo - It sounds a little cheesy now when I read it, but I was really pulling for these ladies. It broke my heart when Estrellita fell behind at 23 miles. Her previous PR was 4:34 and she stuck to me like glue up to that point. It was fun to cheer for her at the finish though, she still PR'd by 8 minutes. Shannon fell back at 25 and finished only a couple minutes behind me with a 4 min PR. Karen left me behind in the last half mile and scored a big 10 min PR.

IJR - Thanks. If I'm up to it, I'd love to pace you or Callie at the Tunnel next year.

From DLTheo on Thu, May 08, 2014 at 11:56:12 from 155.130.107.41

Outstanding job Mike! The one time I ran with a pace group (at Tacoma) I loved it. Truth is, I didn't even run with the pacer very much. Just knowing where it was and where I was in relation to it helped me to go at my own pace while staying on pace. I bet there were runners around you doing the same thing, runners you helped without knowing it.

From rAtTLeTrAp on Thu, May 08, 2014 at 14:29:34 from 98.203.229.149

Thanks Scott. My past experience with pacers is just that sinking feeling I get when another one passes me and I can literally SEE my goal slipping farther away :) I did hear a few of those familiar sighs as my group passed other runners, but overall this was the most rewarding race I've participated in.

From Tom Slick on Thu, May 08, 2014 at 16:12:18 from 168.179.157.44

Good on you Bro-Rtrap...

From Tom K on Fri, May 09, 2014 at 07:57:52 from 174.58.4.250

This is really cool, and much harder than it sounds. I know couldn't do it. The 3:05 pacer at LA finished with 3:18! I don't know how you do it. Great that you could help some folks along. What a great reward!

From rAtTLeTrAp on Fri, May 09, 2014 at 14:24:10 from 71.227.240.61

Thanks Tom(s) - Wow, 13 minutes off is a big deal for a pacer. The Race Director for TCM requires pacers to be Marathon Maniac members and that the pace is easy for you. I think it would be pretty hard to encourage the group and keep connected with everybody otherwise.

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