California International Marathon
Marathon #16
12/07/08 (1st half 2:11:42, negative split difference of ~4:33!)
Weather Mid to high 40s? and foggy :D Bit of a head wind at times
Fuel: 4 Accelgels, Cytomax at 2/3 of the stations, water at others, skipped the last aid station.
Executive summary: I am delighted with my race! Time of 4:18 & change was one minute off my PR, but I am thrilled to have achieved my two primary goals: having a happy, positive experience and running a negative split race. It is my 2nd fastest marathon, but the very best ever in terms of endurance, mood, smart pacing, and strong finish. I learned a lot and had a great day.
This race report is mostly about my thoughts, observations and strategies rather than a detailed course description, which you can see at www.runcim.org. The elevation chart is there as well, which is relevant to my mile splits (below). The chip time and half time came from the official results; the mile splits are from my Garmin (which thinks I ran 26.34).
1-5 10:08 - 9:58 - 9:44 - 9:56 - 9:55
6-10 9:55 - 9:35 - 9:58 - 9:48 - 9:27
11-15 10:13 - 9:37 - 9:30 - 10:11 - 9:43
16-20 10:06 - 9:38 - 9:49 - 9:30 - 9:48
21-26.2 9:46 - 9:55 - 10:24 - 9:46 - 9:45 - 9:42 - (last .2) 9:02
****Actual running paces included scheduled walk breaks through the aid stations.
We never know what might happen on race day. As one of my primary goals was to have a fun experience, I felt very much at the mercy of fate for certain aspects of the race. Each time one of these aspects turned favorably my way, my expectations for a fine day increased: first there was the fog. So much fog. I adore fog. It made me so happy to have that load of cool, gray air around me. Another detail of my imagined happiness was to meet a nice person to chat with on the bus, to take my mind off the seemingly endless ride (it always seems longer by bus -- do they go the long way round on purpose?). And there she was; we fell into conversation in the hotel lobby while waiting for the bus, as naturally as if we'd been friends all our lives. We were about the same age, had similar goals, and she even lives near me (about 30 minutes).
We arrived at the start to find more porta-potties than I have ever seen at a race (thank you CIM!). I took advantage of them 3 times, and only had to wait in line once. At 15 minutes before gun time, I stripped off my layers and got into the roiling sea of bodies to reach the sweat bus. Remembering my last CIM pre-race chills (ran it 2 yrs. ago), I had brought hand warmer packets, which I used to rub down my legs and keep the chill at bay as I waited.
Mile 1: stayed relaxed and tried not to look at my watch at all. "You want a negative split, and you want a happy race. No pushing yet." Though I was taking it easy, the first mile is mostly downhill, so the warm up didn't seem to cost me much time. For my future BQ attempt, I will have to remember this when planning; I would be foolish to sacrifice that warm up period. I believe that easy first mile may have been the greatest foundation for my good race.
Miles 1-5: As the hills appeared I tried to stay relaxed, and not panic as people surged ahead of me. The early hills at Portland in October were part of my undoing, I believe, so I consciously held back and kept the pace moderate, going by effort level rather than the actual pace. This part of the course is very pretty, what I call "California Rural." There are very large fields by each house, wooded areas, horses in pastures, but not the stretches of uninhabited land that one finds in less densely populated places.
I attended a sports psychology clinic at the expo in which the speaker talked about the benefit of mantras, or "power words" during a race. I've always liked the idea but haven't used it systematically before this race. I had some prepared words, and added to them when I found myself needing more encouragement. During the first few miles I kept thinking this phrase: "Trust your training."
Miles 5-13: By mile 5 I felt really great and the pace became delightfully comfortable. I lost about 30-40 seconds somewhere in this section when I needed to remove one more layer and get it tied around my waist comfortably. (Now I see why people choose to wear Thrift Store finds and just leave them by the road.) Though CIM is a net downhill course, it is FULL of hills, especially in the first half. My first CIM 2 years ago was a real shocker because it's billed as such a fast course. They call them "rollers." I was pleased with my pace through the hills. These are the magic miles, when you are all warmed up but not yet exhausted. When my flat-terrain pace crept up to 9:15, I knew enough to pull back and say, "no faster, girl -- save it for later." A few times I consciously switched to a bit different gait, one which I've been trying out in some training runs for the past month: I let my feet contact the ground for just a bit longer and let the hip move backward slightly. It may be unorthodox, but with the terrain changing all the time I think it was good to mix running styles and let some muscle groups have a rest. The course support at CIM is fantastic, with great aid stations and people calling splits at frequent intervals throughout the whole course. At mile eight we had Santa and the Grinch calling splits, just one of many delightful details on the course. It was during this part of the race that I had to swerve to avoid the first of 4 road kills: 3 squirrels and what might have been a rat, mostly unrecognizable. My power words during this segment: "Nice and easy," and then "Tower of strength." I had a couple of miles where I was inexplicably dizzy. Fortunately this passed.
Miles 13-20: Remembering there was a stretch of extremely ugly scenery at around mile 13, I had planned to sing some favorite xmas songs in my head through that mile, but thanks to the lovely fog it was hardly necessary and we were soon out of it. During this second part of the course, the hills decrease and the scenery changes to suburban, with gorgeous fall colors and nice gardens. As we moved through these miles, I really began passing a lot of runners. While passing people towards the end of a race is invigorating to me, I was psychologically pulled down by it at this point. I hate the plodding sounds of heavy feet, or sloshing fanny packs, or labored breathing. These sounds and the sight of people walking in exhaustion (not the obviously planned walk breaks of run/walkers who are on target) -- all seemed to speak to my least confident Self. "You are blowing it. Pretty soon it will be you." Isn't that ridiculous? I think it might be an insecurity from childhood or some kind of malfunctioning consequence of birth order. So I added to my power words to get past them, "Horse among cattle, horse among cattle." It's not very nice, but it worked. My other phrases during this section were "Strong and smooth," and "I am Deena." lol My biggest challenge in these miles is psychological. I focused as much as I could during these miles on my Happiness goal, smiling as much as I could, enjoying the fog (have I mentioned I love fog?), thanking volunteers, and occasionally waving at spectators. I got lots of cheers and "nice smile!" comments. Several times I had to extricate myself from conversations so I could concentrate and save all my oxygen for running. Nice people who could be running faster, imo.
Miles 20-finish: Right after mile 20, there is a huge crowd at an inflatable "brick wall," and two people dressed as Grim Reapers. This was a fun high point for me. I cannot remember ever reaching mile 20 and still being able to maintain my planned pace in a marathon. It was wavering for sure, and I was experiencing some bad moments when my form would fall apart a little, but I was still moving forward and having fun. I wanted to shout out to strangers, "I'm still on my pace!!" After the party atmosphere at the "wall," the course became very quiet and I had my worst crisis of confidence. I was in Terra Incognita, running so close to planned pace this late in the race. My legs and feet were starting to hurt a bit, and I was tired. The negative thought of "you cannot maintain this" crept into my head. I know that saying, "whether you think you can or can't, you are right." But not all physical achievement is the product of will -- otherwise we wouldn't need to train at all! I still do not know if my voice of doubt was correct, but it was strong. Those splits at miles 21-24 are not slower due to hills, just doubt. I wish it was like a gas tank on a car, with a clearly visible gauge telling me what's left. I believe this kind of doubt can really only be conquered by layering success upon success over time, and taking incremental leaps of faith. After about mile 23 I took that little leap and decided to try to run faster, and found that I could. Maybe it was that I knew it wasn't that far anymore, or that I had taken a "rest" by slowing down for a while, or that I was suddenly feeling like a bullet compared to the carnage around me (groaning, walking, barely jogging, weird postures), or that I went to my last power word, the one I always use at the end: "Courage, courage, courage." I cannot begin to describe what a happy feeling it is to pass runner after runner: big guys, young men, women half my age. The final mile was a mixture of pain and pure joy -- where else but in distance running can those go together? OK, maybe childbirth.
My only CIM course complaints: 1. Mostly horrible music on the course, thankfully very little of it. 2. The finish area was chaotic and disorganized, I was handed a bottle of water, but I never did find the refreshments (no post race food until I returned to my hotel - a first for me) because they buried them outside of the runners-only area, where I could scarcely make it through the crowds and gave up to find my family. 3. Although our roads were closed to traffic throughout the race (yay), there was no crowd control in the final mile, where two walls of bodies closed us down to less than one lane. Here I had the strength to push my pace that last mile and couldn't get around the slower runners.
Why this is a better race than my PR: If I do a few somewhat dishonest mental tricks by factoring in the hills and the extra time for clothing issues, I can take off about a minute and find a number that is lower than my PR from Portland 2007. But I don't really have to do that to feel better about this race than my PR race, or any other in my life. First of all, I achieved my two main goals: happiness and negative split. The negative split is something I have never done before. My PR of 2007 was a positive split by a long shot -- a brilliant 18 miles followed by an 8 mile death march. Furthermore, I had a great time! And though I walked through the aid stations as planned, I did not add ANY walking throughout the whole race (also a first). I learned what it feels like to run on or close to my intended pace in the later miles, an experience I will surely draw on for confidence in the future. I also learned what it takes to stick to a goal while racing. More than once during my race, both of my goals required me to deny the temptation to go after a faster time.
What is next: Obviously I will be picking my next race for the spring. For training, I would like to add a bit more speed work, and just continue the workouts I have been doing. Although I like my weight in general, I may try to take off ~5 pounds to support my BQ goal. I'd like to continue my hill work, and stay strong in the winter months, which may be a challenge. I need to find an extra 13 minutes to get my BQ. That seems like a lot. On the other hand, I did not have "run fast," or even "run a PR" as one of my goals for this race. I may be wrong, but I don't think I'm quite as sore today as usual; could I have run faster? Maybe so. But I do not think I could have run any smarter -- this was a truly wonderful marathon experience.
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