Race Report and Recriminations

Saturday last, I went downtown for the Nation's Marathon. This was my second time running the race, and my second marathon (my third, part of the Ironman triathlon, doesn't really count when considering "fresh" marathons) ever. As I expressed before the race, I felt prepared; I had run several 20/21 mile "long runs" and felt pretty good about them, my last training run of 15 miles was good, I pushed hard on the last half and kept a pace of 7:30.

The short of the story is that I did not go 3:30:00; I finished at 3:39:02. What follows is a . . . is my attempt to understand where those nine minutes went, and what I will try to do differently next time.

The morning got off to a good, if somewhat delayed start -- alarm at 4, oatmeal, english muffins with almond butter, coffee. M & J got up and we headed down to the mall, via the BW parkway. First mistake -- construction + race traffic meant we had to bail (at the last possible second) onto 50, and navigate through town. That meant that it was 6:30 before we got to the Armory, where we were stuck in traffic trying to park. M took the wheel, I grabbed my bag from the trunk and trotted over to the starting line -- in good time. But a bit nerve wracking nonetheless, I think getting there an hour earlier would have been worth the trouble.

So, I get into my assigned starting corral, and eventually find the Navy pace team. There are three squads in my area, for 3:30, 3:35, and 3:40. The gun goes off, and the race begins.

I start out feeling like the pace is way too slow. I want to go faster, but I am determined to hang with the pace team, who are chatting and having a good time. I miss the first mile marker, and when I see the second one, I freak out a little bit. Time for 2 miles? 19 minutes. Yes, the pace team ran the first mile at about 10, and the second at 9. Not twenty minutes into the race and we are 3 minutes behind the pace. The navy folks don't look best pleased either. I get the impression that one of them is pacing for the first time, and the other didn't want to be pushy. Maybe there was some rank involved or something? Anyway, they begin to ratchet up the pace. I talk to the more experienced of the two for a bit, and say, hey, if we chew away at this 12 seconds at a time, running 7:48 or thereabouts, we'll make up those three minutes in 15 miles or so. He says yes, that's the plan.

We then proceed to keep picking up the pace. Mile 4, 7:44. Mile five, 7:38. Mile six, 7:37. I missed marker for mile 7, but at Mile 8, 15:41. Mile 9, 7:24.

This is where I say "whoa! Whoa! Whoa! 7:30s are my 1/2 marathon pace, and although I feel pretty good now, I know I can't hold this pace forever. The plan, I thought, was to grind off some of that deficit and then settle into 8 minute miles, but the pace guys show no sign of easing off, and indeed, continue to increase the tempo. Mile 10, 7:21, and I decide I've had enough. I let them go, and try to ease back down to 8s. Mile 11, 7:36, Mile 12, 7:45, Mile 13, 7:54, and my 13.1 mile split is 1:44:12.

Now, 1 hour, 44 mins, 12 seconds is a good split for the half way point. My average pace is 7:57 -- Right bang on target. The Problem is that during miles 5 - 11, I went much faster than I wanted to. The reason being is that its just takes more energy to run 30 second per mile faster; When I did the 1/2 marathon in december, I ran 7:30s the whole way and was absolutely shattered at the finish line. When I did the 10 mile run in January, I ran 7:00 for a couple of miles and it damn near killed me. I KNOW I'm in trouble. But I see M & J cheering for me as the race goes past RFK, and that picks me up a bit. Still, by the time I'm at the other side of the stadium, I've nearly talked myself into walking off the course, and quitting -- it was very tempting. I was pretty damn demoralized.

But I managed to talk myself out of it -- I figure, what the heck. I've gone to all the trouble to train all winter, and I've tapered for two weeks, I might as well do a legitimate long run, go out to mile 20. Maybe I won't fall apart. Only one way to find out.

About this time I catch up with one of the people who was running with the Navy pace team early on - there were about six or seven of us who were doing the full marathon (there was also a 13.1 mile race at the same time) -- I catch his eye and say hey. "Do you think we'll catch them up if we just keep running eights?" He shakes his head. "Yeah, I let them go around 11. I knew I couldn't run 7:20s and finish." He grimaces. "I stayed with them longer, but when they ran mile 12 at 6:45 -" I am aghast. 6:45!?! "Yeah." He says. "They said the plan was to hold that pace and walk through the aid stations." I can only shake my head in disbelief. He is hurting, and can't hang with me. I'm hella glad I let them go when I did, and wish I had the wisdom to let them go sooner.

I crank out some 8 minute miles from 14 - 19. Down on the waterfront was where my knee started hurting me last year, and lo, it begins to give me the same kind of signals again. This year I am ready -- I have ibuprofen in my belt pouch, and I pop two. The knees don't bug me again. However, other problems await.

One complaint I have about this marathon is that the aid stations are run by volunteers who don't always get the proper training. So, the aid stations are very uneven - -some are great, some not so much. I got a bad cup of powerade at about mile 5 -- not enough water in the mix -- and I didn't think about it, but I had been avoiding the powerade at the aid stations since then. My right calf starts to cramp up on me, and I think, duh. Maybe its because you are sweating out your electrolytes, dummy! I start pounding the powerade at every aid station, and walking through them, in the hopes of fighting off full-on cramping in the legs. My twenty mile split is 2:41:54 -- now my average pace is 8:06 -- if I can hang on, I can salvage the day and maybe finish sub- 3:40.

Through the tunnel to Anacostia, one of the nicest stretches of the run, and the one where I really fell apart last year. Now, the calves are both in rebellion, and I take 40 seconds to stop and stretch -- 20 seconds each, then back to the grind. That mile is 8:50, and I think, ok, as long as it has an 8 in front of it, we're going to call it a win. the next mile the same thing happens -- cramping, I stop and stretch for .40, and then walk the aid station -- 9:15. I decide that's enough of that, and stop worrying about stretching. There's a turnaround out here, and I see that I am halfway between the 3:35 and the 3:40 pace group, and I grimace and decide to try to catch the 3:35s. I don't think the calves cramping will prevent me from moving forward, and indeed, they don't. But I'm no longer running 8 flat -- more like 8:30, and I can't pick up the pace. But I'm not slowing down, either.

Mile 24 was where I planned to make my move -- now, I am just grinding it out to the finish. I've been dancing with a group of three runners, two of whom are in good shape, just running easy with their buddy who is clearly hurting. They are running about 9 flat, and every time I walk an aid station, they go past me, and then I run them down a 1/4 mile out. I finally drop them. A group of three women is doing the same thing, but the two who are in good shape are actually putting their hands in the back of their friend and pushing her up the hill. I wonder if they would mind giving me a push, because going up hills is killing my calves, but I manage to drop them as well. I pass another runner who was with the Navy pace team early on -- he's clearly hurting but not walking. I come up to the last hill to RFK, and I just haven't got any kick in me -- I am usually good for a sprint to the finish, but I have spent the last 15 minutes using every ounce of focus I posses to keep my quads from cramping, repeating my mantra of "Light. Easy. Smooth. Relaxed. Relaxed. Relaxed." Trying to get my calves to stop seizing up. I come across the tape with the race clock at 3:43:ish, by my watch 3:38:40, and the timing machine says my final time from tape to tape was 3:39:07.

So, I beat last years time by 13:46, running better than 30 seconds per mile faster on average -- 8:22. But, again, my 20 mile split last year was 2:43:22 -- only two minutes slower than this year. The difference this year was that I didn't completely fall apart in the back 6 miles.

As much as I want to beat myself up for not running the 3:30 I was training for, I am forced to admit that there is a lot of win here. If I have a strength in racing it is the ability to know when I am pushing too hard, and back off so that I can keep it together to finish. I am not crazy about this strength, but there you are. Should I have stayed with the Navy team and either gutted it out for a 3:30 finish or cracked hard and had to walk, with a finishing time of 4 hours plus? I don't know. There's nothing on the line here for me -- I mean, even if I was trying to qualify for Boston, I would have had to go 3:20, and that wasn't going to happen, so its only pride and meeting goals. But coupled with my troubles on the job front, this hit me pretty hard for a couple of days.

Having worked through that, I am finding some up sides. I now believe that the secret for me to getting below 3:30 is to work on running faster at shorter distances. I think my body is adapting to the distance work, steadily, and if I can get my short-course time down to 7 minute miles, or even sub-seven for 5k distances, then I should be able to get the marathon pace to an easy 3:30. Baltimore marathon is in the fall, and if we're still in the area I will probably aim for that and possibly Chesapeakman, an Iron-distance Tri.

I've got lots of other stuff I want to write about, but lets keep this focused on the race. It was a beautiful day for a run, I finished with a much better time than last year, and I feel good about the next steps I need to take to continue improving. Many thanks to my Coach B who got me to this point, and for teaching me that going out too fast was a mistake. It turns out going out too slow is a mistake too! :)

520 59/229 (10k) 50:55 8:12 / (13.1) 1:44:12 7:57 / (20 mi)
2:41:54 8:06 / 3:41:54 3:39:07 8:22