01/15/2012. My 27th marathon. Cool and dry, perfect weather, 40s during the race, maybe 50 by the end but never too hot. Wore the Luna Racer1 again, Paula-Radcliffe-style beige compression socks (hey, why not?), singlet, shorts, & lightweight gloves. Would I have another chance at slipping under 2:40? Couldn’t ask for a more perfect day, but in the end (literally), instead of slipping under, my hopes slipped away as I again involuntarily slowed over the final 3 miles.
On the plus side:
* at least I didn’t miss it by as little as last time
* made it to the starting line healthy, despite a pretty bad cold that hung around for 3+ of the 6 wks between CIM and this, but never kept me from training (lots of DayQuil and NyQuil)
* 2nd best time ever
* no stops during the race, porta potty or otherwise
* left foot felt fine, despite pain it had at CIM; must have tied my shoes just right this time (same shoes); well, I did get a blood blister on my right foot, but it was small and didn’t slow me down
* held it together mentally
* at least I didn’t miss it by as little as last time
* made it to the starting line healthy, despite a pretty bad cold that hung around for 3+ of the 6 wks between CIM and this, but never kept me from training (lots of DayQuil and NyQuil)
* 2nd best time ever
* no stops during the race, porta potty or otherwise
* left foot felt fine, despite pain it had at CIM; must have tied my shoes just right this time (same shoes); well, I did get a blood blister on my right foot, but it was small and didn’t slow me down
* held it together mentally
On the minus side:
* I didn’t miss it by as little as last time
* at least 0:45 slower than goal time
* 7th in age 40-44, with 4 of the 6 guys in front of me in the 2:40:17-2:40:39 range, 3 of them having passed me in the final miles. Only 9th master’s male.
* confidence in my training theory has eroded, meaning I probably should up mileage to 100+ in future marathon buildups
* second half was 102 seconds slower than first half, which is 10 seconds worse than CIM (0:92) despite a slightly more conservative first half split
* 0 for 2 at something I’d given myself a 85% chance of being at least 1 of 2 at
* at least 0:45 slower than goal time
* 7th in age 40-44, with 4 of the 6 guys in front of me in the 2:40:17-2:40:39 range, 3 of them having passed me in the final miles. Only 9th master’s male.
* confidence in my training theory has eroded, meaning I probably should up mileage to 100+ in future marathon buildups
* second half was 102 seconds slower than first half, which is 10 seconds worse than CIM (0:92) despite a slightly more conservative first half split
* 0 for 2 at something I’d given myself a 85% chance of being at least 1 of 2 at
Here’s how it went down:
61 of 7675 finishers
54 of 4856 males
7 of 814 males 40-44
9th overall male masters 40+
Splits: Taken manually at each course mile marker. Missed a couple, so approximated for those based on 2-mile splits. Some erratic splits due to course marker misplacement. No, I didn’t really run a 6:17 for mile 20, a 5:47 for mile 21, or a 6:23 early in the race. My Garmin 305 shows lap paces ranging from 5:56 to 6:09 during the first 23 miles, so overall my miles were really consistent... until they weren’t.
6:07=06:0754 of 4856 males
7 of 814 males 40-44
9th overall male masters 40+
Splits: Taken manually at each course mile marker. Missed a couple, so approximated for those based on 2-mile splits. Some erratic splits due to course marker misplacement. No, I didn’t really run a 6:17 for mile 20, a 5:47 for mile 21, or a 6:23 early in the race. My Garmin 305 shows lap paces ranging from 5:56 to 6:09 during the first 23 miles, so overall my miles were really consistent... until they weren’t.
5:56=12:03
6:06=18:09
6:06=24:15
6:03=30:18 (5)
6:05=36:23
6:23=42:46
5:43=48:29
6:06=54:35
6:05=60:40 (10)
6:03=66:43
6:03=72:46
6:04=78:50
6:07=84:57
6:02=90:59 (15)
5:58=96:57
6:13=1:43:10
6:06=1:49:16
6:05=1:55:21
6:17=2:01:38 (20)
5:47=2:07:25
6:12=2:13:37
6:07=2:19:44
6:31=2:26:15
6:34=2:32:49 (25)
6:33=2:39:22
1:22=2:40:44 = 6:07.8 avg pace
(2nd best all-time behind CIM 2011- 2:40:02; 3rd best is now my former PR: Boston 1997- 2:40:45)
Halfs: 79:31 + 81:13
5-mile splits: 30:18, 30:22, 30:19, 30:39, 31:11
Chip Splits:
18:48=18:48 (5k)
18:56=37:44 (10k)
18:48=56:32 (15k)
18:51=75:23 (20k)
18:56=94:19 (25k)
19:07=1:53:26 (30k)
18:36=2:12:02 (35k)
19:51=2:31:53 (40k) OUCH
08:51=2:40:44 (42.2k) OUCH
I’ll try to spare you some of the drama in this report compared to CIM. I really didn’t know what to expect, and had only peaked at 67 miles with a longest run of 18.5 since CIM, but decided to stick with my original plan: if I don’t do it at the first one, give it a go at the second. Was banking on all that other pre-CIM training benefitting me here too. On race day I woke a few hours early, ate plenty of carbs/calories (bagel, several rice cakes, Clif bar, banana, green tea), laid back down for awhile, got up for good around 5:30. Left the Marriott about 6:05 and walked the half-mile over to the convention center. I felt rested and ready. Drank a last-minute dose of DayQuil (I swear that stuff is performance enhancing), dropped my stuff at bagcheck, and headed toward the start with hordes of others. This was a large event with about 8,000 in the full and 9,000 in the half. I accidentally made my way toward the half startline before remembering from the map that the marathon corrals are a block over (probably wouldn’t have mattered, since the chip mats go all the way across, but didn’t want to chance it). By the time I got into that corral, over 20 minutes before the 7:oo am start, it was already super-densely-packed and difficult to weave through to my proper placement. So I moved up a certain amount then decided not to expend the energy and just started further back, somewhere around the 3:10 pace group sign. There might have been over 1000 people in front of me, it certainly looked like 50+ rows compared to the 6-10 rows back I’d planned on. It was 19 seconds after the gun to cross the start line, compared with buddies Dan and Richard, who took just 3 and 11 seconds, and found each other during the first mile. Although I didn’t know it at the time, this gap meant I wouldn’t run with them during the race as we’d talked about. It also meant a certain amount of weaving the first mile, but that was easy enough (apologies to everyone I elbowed), and I still managed about a 6:07. But Woops on starting too far back. Oh, well.
The low-6:00s felt not hard but not easy, exactly the type of tempo I expected, although it maybe felt slightly harder than CIM. Hmm. Running alongside half marathoners kind of messes with you, since their pacing can be so erratic, so I did my best to ignore them and just run tempo. I was happy when they turned off around 9, getting to see who all was really in my race. Dan and Richard maintained a 20-30 second physical lead, and there weren’t many guys between us. But at that pace I never felt inclined to put in the effort it would take to close that gap, so just kept running my own race, figuring they might come back eventually.
A number of mile markers were erratically place, but they seemed to come in sets of 2, so a slow mile would be followed by a fast one or vice versa. Annoying, but whatever. I glanced at my Garmin “lap pace” for a more accurate gauge. But it was great they were consistently reading out the avg. pace as we passed the markers, and I remember hearing 6:04 from about 9 all the way to 22 or 23. Definitely a good thing to hear consistently, considering 6:05 is 2:39:30, and knowing their readouts and the clock times I was seeing were based on gun time, so mine should be even a bit faster.
It was a decently deep field but pretty strung out, about every 1-2 miles I’d pass someone or vice versa, but never ran with a large pack like at CIM. Some guy passed me around 17 and I went with him for a mile or so. The crowd cheered for him as “Ryan”. My bib read “Billy Bob” which I figured was fitting for racing in the south. By 30k I was tired, but surprisingly slightly less so than CIM, and thought “Ok, this is it, the 2nd half starts here. Pretend I’m just starting a 12k. Quick steps. 45 minutes to go. Do or die.” I had this track “Spirit of ‘76” by The Alarm in my head: “For every one who survives, there are many who fall”… “I will never give in, until the day that I die”, etc. So I tried to “crank” it and chased after Ryan, Dan & Richard (who had ever-so-gradually gotten just a bit closer, but still had maybe 15 seconds). Chip splits show my 30 to 35k split at 18:36, my fastest 5k segment of the race. I passed Richard (2:44:45) around 21, but never caught Dan (2:40:12) or Ryan (2:39:19 with negative splits- close to 80:00 at the half- really wish I could have gone with him).
However, by 21 I knew I couldn’t hold the low-6:00s for 5 more miles, and after about 6:09 pace for the next 2, that was it, I was cooked. Right around 23, I thought “Oh, no, it’s happening again.” My body just tied up and generally wouldn't cooperate, quads got super-sore, and that smooth tempo became a painful struggle. Guys started passing; it looked like they were running sub-6 pace, but I knew they weren’t. Still, I couldn’t go with anyone. I stayed focused mentally and tried to push, but the tank was empty, despite the carbo loading, no run Sat (just watched the trials and walked), a good raceday breakfast, plenty of water and sports drink, and 4 gels- early and often- including one before the start and at miles 7, 14, 21 (as expected, that 4th one didn’t do a damn thing for me). I felt I'd done everything right, made it slightly further than CIM at goal pace, but then crumbled worse than CIM. Had those final 3 miles each been even in 6:15-6:20 instead of 6:30+, I’d have been real close to 2:40-flat again, if not under. But I… could… not… do… it. Crap. As I passed 26, I was gaining on a female and thought about having watched Ritz in person come past there charging hard after Abdi the day before, with about the same gap to close. I tried to kick it in around the last corner and down the straight-away, but still finished about 5 seconds back of her, knowing all along I’d almost certainly get her on chip time (I did, but in my heart still do not like “chipping” people).
WHAT NOW?
I made a real attempt to carbo load for 3 days before the race. I even did a minor carb depletion for a couple days before that, the kind they say can force the body to store more glycogen later. I wanted to have my fuel stores topped off as much as possible considering I was pretty depleted the final 40 minutes at CIM. On Thursday I cooked & ate a 16 oz box of pasta split between a late lunch and dinner (this is some serious eating, folks). More pasta, bread & bland carbs on Friday. Felt pretty bloated like they say you should. French toast, bagel, sandwich, soup, pasta, bread on Saturday. Plenty of calories several hours before the race Sunday AM. Seemed perfect. I know the Paleo people might say this is the wrong approach, but I read some of this Paleo for Athletes book and it seemed to be saying: “Paleo is a great day-to-day diet, but if you’re a serious endurance athlete, man, you better eat some serious carbs too, especially before competition.” So I don’t really get it. I guess everyone wants to sell a book these days.After all these years, I finally understand that just running a lot of marathons does not make you a marathoner. And that great performances are not achieved on race day (well, of course physically they are), but moreso through training. Training that is consistent, long-term, and includes the right mix of volume and intensity. I’ll admit that the marathon is not my best distance and is unlikely to ever be, whatever the reasons. However, I’ve decided not to give up quite yet. Running 3320 miles in 2011 (previous best 2646), lots of races, changes in diet, and marathon-specific training resulted in both a marathon PR and my two fastest times in 27 attempts. I can’t help but think there’s gotta be more where that came from, and am already thinking about a debut at Chicago in 2012 (registration opens Feb. 1). Although the prospect of increasing from my peak weeks of 85/90 to 100+ (and a few 28-mi long runs) does not sound real appealing at the moment, I can’t think of anything else (legal) that might get me through those final miles at goal pace. It may require another 300 hours on my feet to achieve just those final 40 minutes at the right pace. This is truly a crazy “sport”.
