Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

Marathon #2 is in the books, and I escaped with a 10-minute PR!

Weather              49F start, 47F finish, wind NE 15-30.  Driving rain.  The night before the race it looked like the rain might actually stay to the south of us.  That did not happen.  The first bolt of lightning made its appearance as we were driving to the race.  The first rain started about 45 minutes before the race as we were walking to the starting line.  Due to lightning, the race was delayed 30 miserable minutes.  I actually even saw lightning while running on the course several times, but thankfully they never called it.  The rain pretty much did not let up the entire time.  I didn’t mind being wet but puddles were unavoidable and my shoes were waterlogged by mile 2.  The wind coming from the NE meant there would be some headwind legs on the back half of the race.  It was tough wind at times, for sure, but I’ve definitely seen worse in Abilene.

My strategy going into the race was to run in the 7:30s for the first 15 or so; once again I got excited and ditched my plan early but this time it ended up being the right move.  Below are the splits from Garmin, along with commentary.

Miles 1-5             7:23, 7:16, 7:19, 7:12, 7:18.   I lined up pretty close to the front.  I was shivering at the starting line (40 degree wind chill, pouring rain) so I knew it was going to be a good day.  The 7:30 pace was the fastest sign they had – not many elites in this race (no prize $$).  So I crossed the starting line maybe 10 seconds after the gun.  In the early miles, I was getting angry with myself for running faster but it honestly felt easy so I didn’t actually make any adjustments unless I saw it below 7:10 which happened a few times.

Miles 6-10           7:15, 7:24, 7:19, 7:38, 7:35.   Kind of a wide variety of splits but it has to do a lot more with wind and hills; the effort was pretty even.  6, 7 and 8 were through neighborhoods and a lot of the headwind was blocked.  I was breathing really hard after 9 and 10 and thought I might have blown my race already but then reminded myself those were uphill + headwind miles (out in the open and fully exposed to wind).

Miles 11-15        7:26, 7:19, 7:21, 7:24, 7:19.  Mile 11 was the last headwind mile (only half of it) until 17.  During this stretch I really caught my breath after fighting wind and hills.  I got super relaxed and started to realize that it would be a pretty good race.  This stretch was also nice and flat, which is what I’m used to.  High spirits here.

Miles 16-20        7:23, 7:29, 7:24, 7:21, 7:13.   Miles 17-19 had a quartering headwind and a driving rain which was quite annoying hitting my face.  I plodded on pretty well though.  Mile 20 is where I started to lose it in Houston.  Today, it was downhill and starting to turn downwind; I actually saw 6:50-something on the watch about halfway through it before I came back to reality.  Having my second-fastest mile come at #20 was the confidence boost I needed for that last 10K.

Miles 21-26        7:21, 7:36, 7:30, 7:43, 7:25, 7:52, 3:12 (0.43 miles).  Starting at mile 21.5 or so, the course starts climbing – nothing dramatic, just a 100 foot climb or so over 2.5 miles; it’s a good steady uphill.  The other thing that happened at around 21.5 was the course joined with the half-marathoners.  That was kind of weird.  I hadn’t thought about it a great deal beforehand but the people-dodging got to be a little much.  Definitely ran some bonus mileage here.  I could not even really see any marathoners, it seemed like it was just me and the walkers for a few miles.  The good news is there was a tailwind, and my times didn’t suffer too bad although I could tell my legs weren’t quite working the same as before.  Around mile 24, there was a lot more separation between the two races and I saw more marathoners that I could focus on.  I could finally feel myself starting to hit the wall around mile 25 but thankfully the race was just about over.  I fought through mile 26 and was determined to bring it below 8:00, legs or no legs, and I did!  The last half-mile or so was at 7:26 pace (downhill); it felt like a dead sprint.  Final time was about 3:15:51.  The results page is down, so nothing official yet.  I’ll update with placing and official splits later.  Danielle said 67th out of 2,494.  Let's go with that.  The two halves ended up being something like 1:36, 1:39.

Post race             After my race ended the conditions actually got worse somehow.  It actually started hailing for a period.  Poor Danielle.  She made it though, she is now a marathoner.  I am not kidding when I say that the most difficult part of the day was waiting in my drenched clothes and shorts for Danielle and then walking almost a mile to the car in some ridiculous wind (gusts around 40 mph) and rain.  We were both shaking pretty violently from the cold.  Seriously, that was more painful than the 26^th mile.

Battle damage is all on my lower right leg - some tendon on the back side of my knee that connects to the top of the calf is the worst.  I also have a tender achilles and maybe a calf strain and some other weird stuff.  Nothing that will keep me out for more than a week, I don’t think.

Next up is a hot summer of base building.  I hope to work my way up to 70 miles a week by September or so.  I don’t think I’ll run another marathon until Houston in January but it’s too early to say for sure.  I hope to be ready for a 3:05 and a BQ at Houston since that is the new time standard (not that I’ll actually get into the race with it).  Thanks for the support FRB’ers, it was a great day!

** update - officially 67/2495 overall, 62/1515 males, and 16/232 in AG.  HM split was 1:36:21 so the 2nd half was 1:39:30.

Legs are still pretty trashed 2 days later.  They are feeling worse than they did after my first marathon in Houston, probably due to the hills and the additional miles I was able to maintain pace.  I'm guessing no run tomorrow, but maybe Thursday.

Some more random race stuff since it's still on my brain...

• My first 10k (44:52) and half (1:36:21) were both technically PR's.
• I was top 3% overall, top 4% of men, and top 7% of AG
• In the last 10K, I passed 12 people and was passed by 4

I also looked more at the splits vs. elevation and wind and am convinced I ran a really even-paced race until the very end, so I don't think I could have done any better, strategically.

And finally, a couple of pictures.  I'm really not as miserable as I look, that's just my running face apparently.  Ok, maybe a little worse than usual, it was a marathon.

Somewhere between miles 21 and 24, going around the wall of half-marathoners.

not sure exactly where this was

3 @ 8:48 avg.  I'd say recovery is lagging about a day behind my first marathon.  Legs still had a lot of marathon stink on them.  Nice to be running again though.

54F today...right now I don't see anymore 50s on the 10-day forecast; hopfully that wasn't the last.  I ran 5 at an 8:27 avg.  Dead legs, but not really sore anymore.

69F, SSW 16-26 mph.  The high is 100 today, thank God for mornings.  8:14 AP on legs that finally didn't feel completely dead.

74F, S 10-15 mph, sunny.  hot.  8:17 AP.  If there is some kind of conditioning process your body goes through for running in the heat, I have not gone through it yet this year...that was kind of brutal.

72F, S 17-27 mph.  8:16 AP.  About the same pace as Sunday but it felt really easy today since I got an earlier start and was never really in direct sun.

In other running-related news, I am signed up for Houston in January next year.  They opened some early registration spots (available to sub 4-hr marathoners) so Danielle grabbed one for me and now I guess we wait for them to verify the time.  Feels good, a lot better than going through the lotto!  Now I can plan out the Fall season a little better, race-wise.

71F, cloudy, S 14 mph.  8:10 AP.  I had to be at work unreasonable early today, so I got in this run at lunch.  Fortunately it's a cool day today.

I also forgot my Garmin (left it at home) so I mapped it after the fact and I got pretty darn close to my planned 6, although I had an idea of how far to go beforehand since I've run this route before.  I always see people talk about how liberating it is to run without the Garmin, but I hate it.  Hate it.

64F, low wind, maybe 8-10 mph.  7:55 AP.  I'm doing a 5K on Saturday, so I ran easy with 6 x 1-minute at 5K pace spinkled in randomly.  As hard as those 1-minute intervals felt, I'm not real optimistic of a PR on Saturday.  I've just felt really sluggish and slow-pokey since the marathon.  Maybe the 5K will wake me up a little.

58F, low north wind.  5 @ 8:16 AP.  Just a short run in the hopes that I can eke out a decent time in the 5K tomorrow morning.  The weather should be nice, not windy like my PR a couple months ago.  I wish I was feeling faster though; my PR was 6:17/mile (per Garmin) which felt like an all-out sprint yesterday.  We'll see, who knows....

I'm dealing with a bit of metatarsalgia right now which is a bit of pain on the ball of my left foot, near the base of the middle toe.  It's not a show stopper at this point but it's making me re-think wearing flats for the race, which would probably take PR out of the picture.  Smart money says I'll wear the flats anyway.

52F, north wind 10-15.  Close to perfect running weather, just a little breezy.

Well, I won my first race.  It was an ok turnout, a bit over 100 people maybe.  Looking around at the starting line I didn't see any of the usual suspects that win these local events so I made sure to listen to the directions just in case.  Fortunately they did a great job of marking the course and had people out there directing.  They definitely needed that, as they had to cram 5000 meters of race into a pretty small area around the zoo.

I started out in 1st right away and just built a lead, maybe won by a minute or two.  Abilene isn't exactly a runner town, obviously, if I can win.  Also, I think maybe a fourth of the participants were running with dogs.  It really all just depends on who decides to show up to these things and no one did today.  It kinda sucked the last mile, because I could've used someone to push me a bit.  Don't get me wrong, I was winded but there was probably some coasting.  My last .05 miles was the same pace as the rest of the race.

I'm a little conflicted as to whether I call it a PR.  My splits on Garmin were 6:20, 6:20, 6:27, 0:17 for 3.05 miles, so it measured short.  My AP was 6:22 today per Garmin but 6:17 per Garmin on my PR in March.  However, the course had a ton of tight curves and hairpin turns that could've easily caused the Garmin to shortchange the distance, and the runner's club (that puts on the races) usually gets it right.  Here's what I'm talking about...

I'll stick with my old 19:41 as a PR as I just don't feel like Garmin would've been that far off, even with all the crazy turns.  The cool part about it all was winning anyway - I got a $25 gift card to Academy, a free 1-hour massage and a mug.  Fun morning, and I think it woke up my legs, finally.

54F, low wind.  The clouds were even blocking the sun today, perfect...

7:29 AP.  My calves were a little tight from racing in the flats, but I wasn't going to waste one of the last nice days we'll have, so I picked up the pace early today.  Splits were 8:02, 7:39, 7:46, 7:40, 7:36, 7:35, 7:28, 7:32, 7:21, 7:15, 7:16, 7:12, 7:16, 7:06.

58F, SE 15-25 mph.  Last morning of our little cold snap, back to warm temps tomorrow.

AP 7:37 for this run.  For the workout I did 8 easy, followed by 4 fast miles.  Averaged about 8:01/mile for the first 8, then 6:51/mile for the last 4 (6:50, 6:51, 6:56, 6:47).  It was harder than I thought it should've been, but I didn't really set myself up for success as I left myself a quartering headwind for the last 2.5 or so (the wind direction on the computer led me to believe it would be crosswind).  I could tell it wasn't a direct crosswind because every time it died down for a second I felt like I got a kick in the pants and a burst of speed.  Anyway, my hope is that I will be able to repeat this run in August when it's 75 degrees; then I'll know I've improved over the summer.

69F, S 16-24 mph.  8:40 AP.

Well, I think I decided that 242 more days is a really long time to wait until my next marathon.  I might still end up waiting anyway, but I am looking for one in September or early October, preferably within 1-day driving distance, that isn't too hot.  There's one in Tyler, TX on October 9th (close to Danielle's hometown) but that one will be hot and hilly.  I'm probably asking the impossible, but if anyone has any ideas let me know.

73F, S 19-28 mph.  8:29 AP.  I did not enjoy that.  Last mile was almost 9:00...is it October yet?

Ok, on to my fall marathon.  Totally nerded out and created this yesterday:

Those are the top 6, thanks for the help on some of those ideas.  I've got a while to decide but there is no clear-cut favorite here.  I think Odessa and Frankenthon are probably at the bottom of the list but the other 4 all have appeal for various reasons.  Hmmmmmm....

Thunderstorms this morning, so I did a quick 3 on the TM on base in the morning.  Maybe more later.  Maybe not.

PM - I got off work nice and early, so I decided to do the other 3 in the neighborhood.  Temp was in the mid 80-s and I ran at a near-suicidal 8:25 AP.

No running this weekend, we caught the kids' stomach virus.  It was....ugly.  Feeling better now on Sunday afternoon so I will probably go for a few tomorrow.

74F, SSE 17 mph.  Made it through the run ok, just had a bunch of nasty stomach acid burps the first few miles.  Hamburger-flavored stomach acid...mmmmm.  8:45 AP.

73F, SSE 12 mph.  8:33 AP.  I started out really slow today and was able to last through 12 miles.  The last one was a sub-8!  Not sure why I'm celebrating being able to do a single mile at MP + 30 sec....I suck.  Anyway, I felt a little less beat down today so maybe I'm a step closer to acclimating a bit.  My stomach is still hanging on to everything for a long time, so maybe that's a small factor too - it's hard to hydrate.

We're off to San Antonio today to visit Shamu and friends on Wednesday.  We thought we'd be clever and go early this year when it's not so hot, but the high is 100 on Wednesday anyway.  Guessing I won't run tomorrow, but maybe a few from the hotel on Thursday morning before we head back.

76F, 10 mph winds.  Ran from the hotel in San Antonio.  8:10 AP this morning.  I think it's starting to get a little easier.  Maybe being outside all day yesterday helped.  We got to Sea World before it opened and left when it closed, 7+ hours, and the kids had no major tantrums and minimal whining -- pretty amazing.  It just keeps getting a little easier each year.  Sure enough, the car was indicating 100F on the nose as we left.

Oh yeah, and normally I think central TX is only a few degrees warmer than Abilene.  This morning Abilene was in the mid-50s.  Just twist that knife in my back, Abilene.  We're back in Abilene now, and we should beat our record high for the day tomorrow.  Record is 103, high is forecasted at 106.

73F, S 20-30 mph.  Running in Abilene again if you couldn't tell by the wind.  I headed up to CR 100, my best E/W road, and ran with a nice lean (in crosswinds) for 60% of the run.

AP 7:55 today, with a sizeable negative split, and a solid effort.  I think I have gotten as acclimated to heat running as I will get.  Even in July/August it won't be a great deal warmer than this (I hope).  My guess is the same effort would've been worth about 20 sec/mile faster in cooler temps, so it's affecting me but not nearly as bad as a week ago.

80F, SSW 16-26 mph.  This was the low!  I guess with the temp hitting 107 yesterday and forecasted for 109 today, there wasn't much hope for a cool morning.  I was planning on recovery miles anyway so it worked out.  8:29 AP.

75F, S 22-31 mph.  Getting a little tired of the wind.  I have to go at least 2.5 miles north or south to get to an eastbound road out of town but once I get eastbound the wind isn't so bad.  I just have to decide when I want to suffer through the headwind part each morning.

8:04 AP today, with 5 x 0.1 mile pickups on the way home.  I will slowly start working in more through the summer (probably with plenty of rest like today) to try and build some speed and strength.  Then transition to more LT stuff and tempos when it starts to get cooler.

75F, S 16-24 mph.  7:58 AP.  Pretty good effort out there today with a headwind the last few miles.