I went into the race hoping to finish in under 4 hours, but told myself that I would be happy just to PR. Well, I did both and PR'd by over 10 minutes. I couldn't have been happier.
The wonderful weekend started off on Friday, when my race buddy (and daughter) Brittany and I went to the expo. We love Expos and spent over 3 hours going to every booth, checking out the merchandise and trying all the samples. Unfortunately, our favorite vendor, Dirty Red Gear, wasn't there so I wasn't able to buy Brittany anything from her, but we did see some other cool stuff like this.
Which is something I say, but wouldn't wear. And, this
Which is something we both say, in fact it was printed on Brittany's bib for the race. She didn't end up getting any clothes but we did get new race belts from Hippie Runner and they worked great. They were lightweight and didn't bounce during the race. Yeah, we really do love the expos!
Leaving the expo, we had someone take a picture of us at the entrance and as we were going back to my truck, I looked into my window and caught this.
The inside of my truck was dark but the reflection in the side view mirror was glowing. It was phenomenal! Even better than what I captured, as when I finally got the door open and lined up the shot, the sun had set a little more and it was glowing a little less intense than it was a minute earlier. Nevertheless, it was a magical moment and a precursor of the weekend to come.
My start time for the full was at 6:30 and Brittany's was 8:10 for the half. With almost a full 2 hours between our start times, I wasn't sure if Brittany wanted to go that early with me, but she said that she wouldn't want to sleep in on race morning anyway, so my Dad was kind enough to drive us both down to the race to avoid parking issues and we got to enjoy a perfect morning together.
We got there so early, it was dark and there was hardly anyone there yet.
A few minutes before the start.
I was very nervous for the race. I trained right on my paces and managed to stay injury free, so I put a lot of pressure on myself to achieve my goal. In the past, I know now, that I had trained too slow. I had had injuries and started doing low heart rate training. Well, too much of that makes you... slow! So, I really stuck to my prescribed paces for a 4 hour marathon and this time would have no excuses.
I also decided that instead of going out at a 9:09 pace and trying to maintain that throughout the race (putting a lot of pressure on myself in those last 5 or 6 miles to not slow down) I would do what I know is not recommended and go out a little faster and bank a little time. I was pretty confident I could do this since I did my last 22 mile run at 9:11 pace and that was a training run and felt fine at the end.
Here are my splits with heart rate.
Mile 1 8:41 167
Mile 2 8:25 179
Mile 3 8:25 179
Mile 4 8:38 181
Mile 5 8:19 179
Mile 6 8:25 180
Mile 7 8:16 183
Mile 8 8:21 182
Mile 9 8:35 180
Mile 10 8:10 178
Mile 11 8:27 177
Mile 12 8:33 177
Mile 13 8:23 178
Mile 14 8:17 180
Mile 15 8:33 181
Mile 16 8:30 180
Mile 17 9:03 178
Mile 18 9:30 175
Mile 19 9:25 174
Mile 20 9:56 173
Mile 21 9:49 174
Mile 22 9:23 175
Mile 23 10:10 173
Mile 24 10:33 173
Mile 25 10:31 174
Mile 26 10:13 175
Finish 9:27 179
My overall average heart rate was 177, compared to previous marathons, this was 2-3 bpm lower, so I definitely don't feel like I went out too fast. I slowed at the end mainly due to fatigue in my legs, not overall fatigue and when I finished, I felt great everywhere except my legs. I felt much better than I had in any prior marathon. I had figured that if I could get to mile 20 by about 2:50 minutes, I would have an hour and ten minutes to do the final 6.2 miles. I got to the 20 mile mark at 2:53 and felt comfortable with that. I kept doing math in my head and knew what pace I had to maintain to come in under 4 hours. My legs were feeling heavy and I walked the water stations the last few miles and did a gel and some shot bloks that were provided by the race. By 3:30 I only had 2 1/2 miles left and was pretty sure I was going to make it. I did get a slight cramp in my left calf that luckily didn't turn into a full cramp, then about 5 minutes later, got one in my right calf. I thought, that might be the only thing that might actually stop me from my goal. Luckily it didn't.
Running all of those "marathons" across the country really helped me mentally in the race. It has erased the stigma of 26.2 miles in my head. Yes, there are all the physical things that happen when running 26.2 at this faster pace, but I have run more miles so many times that I could tell myself that it was "no big deal". It worked enough to keep me going and not slow too badly. I only had one pace group pass me and that was the 3:55 pace group. I have had pace groups pass me in past races and it is so demoralizing. Watching your dream go past you literally sucks! But with a 1/2 mile left to go at 3 hours and 50 minutes, I was sure the 4:00 pace group wouldn't pass me this time. It was the best half mile of my life. I enjoyed knowing that I was finally going to break 4 hours and let myself smile and enjoy the crowd. I opted to not listen to any music this race as well. I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it, but I sure did not miss it. I felt more present and was able to be in my head more, mostly in a good way.
My Father came out and cheered us on at the finish. Brittany finished the half in 2:28:33 and her goal was 2:30. Mission accomplished for her as well! We met up with my Dad and went to the beer garden and met some friends, then, met a coworker of Brittany's who organizes the cycling volunteers and had a great conversation with them over some Stone IPA. Wow! what an epic day!
Now that I have finally ran a sub 4 marathon, I need to come up with another goal. I would need to shave 26 minutes off of that time to qualify for Boston. Somehow, that seems a little less out of reach now!
Paul
2 comments:
Great job Paul. It's always great to achieve your goals.
Thank you!! I did feel really good!
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