I pretty much knew my training wouldn't support a BQ attempt today, but I felt obliged to make the effort. With the help of Mike Holmes, I stayed on track for 11 miles. Then he just motored off and I couldn't do a thing about it. Not that he sped up; he just kept the 8:00 pace. I couldn't maintain. Most of the second half of the race was struggling to get under 10:00 pace, as a 23-minute positive split suggests.
More to come.
Back home now and taking stock. There were absolutely no excuses. Race was very well run, course was great, weather was darn near perfect. I hydrated and fueled according to plan. Traffic was not a major issue. I just wasn't prepared to run fast, and I knew it.
Mike and I got together in the corral and talked to Lee, the pace bunny. We decided we didn't absolutely have to hang right with him, just hang close. And we did. Mike would make a heckuva pace bunny. He was just ripping off 8:00s, one after another. I'd drop back 20-30 feet, then catch up, over and over, but through 10 miles I felt pretty good. Miles 8 and 9 were a little slow due to hills, but we were just barely over 8:00 pace. Mike would be able to make that up (and did). Me? Not so much.
Mile 10 and 11 were back under 8:00 pace, and I'm still doing the lag/catch up routine. Then we get to mile 12, and I'm not catching up any more. The hamstrings are not cooperating. Mile 13, considerably slower. I'm less than 1:00 over goal pace at the half, but the trend is not good. And now I have a new issue: The left knee. I'm pretty sure the meniscus is a bit frayed and every once in a while, it seems to flip up and gets caught, and hurts. It will work loose eventually, but until it does, it slows me down. I walked for a minute or so, bent the left knee to about 90 degrees a couple of times to try to free it, and it worked. I was able to resume running, but at about 9:00 pace.
Couple of miles after that, the hamstrings just kept tightening. In retrospect, I probably should have tried a surge here, to try to counteract the slide, but I didn't, and the walk monster jumped in. And I'm struggling. Even when not walking, I'm not going very fast. Miles 20-23 were all above 10:00 pace, and 21 was above 11 (I suspect there was a little extra walking there). Got passed by the 3:35 pace team, then 3:40; I'm sure 3:45 did too, but I don't remember seeing them, and 3:55 amazingly never caught me.
I get into Sacramento, and the flats on L Street and then J Street, and I'm able to pick up the pace, at least get under 10:00. There was one brief walk spell, maybe 20 seconds, in mile 25; I think it was around Sutter Health's construction zone. But then I picked it back up and maintained sub-10 to the finish; even sucked it up for a mini-sprint. How much earlier could I have sucked it up? Who knows?
Crossed the line in 3:55 even, so I beat my time in Utah (which was inflated by potty breaks; no portapotties needed this time). I guess it's good that even on my really sucky days, I can break 4 hours, but it's still disappointing, because I know I can do better. But I have to train better. Eleven weeks between marathons isn't enough, I guess. Only one 20-miler. Not enough MP work. Tempo work was inadequate, and often I didn't hit my goals for those workouts. Just a bad training cycle. But I gave what I had on Sunday, and despite plenty of temptation to do so, I didn't bail out.
Oh, one more little detail -- discovered that I had a case of the dreaded purple nurple after the finish. Usually that little issue becomes obvious well before the finish, but not this time. Only realized it when I saw a little blood on the top corner of my bib. Obviously the NewSkin paint job was not effective.
Pretty sure, like 99.9%, I won't do another marathon until Stockholm. I think I need some base building over the winter. I heard Greg McMillan talk at the expo Saturday afternoon, and I may apply some of his ideas to that process. Maybe do a half in March or April to get a handle on where I am. No idea at this point if I'll decide to actually race Stockholm or just cruise it. I do know that I'll plan to race Indy in early November. Maybe a flat course is what I need; I've done three straight downhill races and didn't do very well at any of them (although Boston was just a tactical screwup on my part; if I'd targeted a 3:30 instead of 3:25, I think I'd have hit my goal and I'd be starting training for Boston 2012 soon). | 