Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Mill Race Marathon Week - The Marathon That Wasn't

Week 17. This was Mill Race Marathon Week.

Sunday 9/17 - Zero miles.

Monday 9/18 - 10 miles. Went back to the fitness center for the first time since they renovated the place and ran on the hamster track. Legs felt good and it was a nice run.

Tuesday 9/19 - 5 miles. Another indoor workout. Went to the fitness center and did a mile warm up on the track, then 3 miles on the treadmill, averaging 8:35/mile, then a mile cool down. Another nice workout. Didn't go to Run Club because I had to work in the evening.

Wednesday 9/20 - Zero miles. Got home from work close to 4 am and slept all day before going back to work.

Thursday 9/21 - 1 mile. So... the hot weather hit. Hit the Monon at 5 pm with the intent of doing a 3 mile easy run. It was pushing 90 degrees and I was sweating just walking out to the trail. Ran a mile in something like 11:00 and decided to walk a mile back. Hopefully it will be cooler on marathon morning.

Friday 9/22 - Zero miles. Drove to Columbus first thing in the morning to pick up my race packet at the Expo cause I had a laundry list of things to do and I wanted to get that out of the way. Later in the afternoon when I had a moment I started going through the packet. Really not much in there. My bib, race shirt, an info book, a pen, can of beet juice, some kind of sleep aid sample and some kind of laxative/cleanse sample. Seriously. What happened to the days when we got good goodies like Clif bars and such?

Sat down to page through the info book, mainly because I wanted to look at the map and plan out my water and fuel strategy, then looked at the parking information. THEN read that I needed to have a parking pass to park in any of the free garages near the start/finish line if I wanted to get in before 7:30 am. Well, since the race started at 7:30 am I pretty much needed a parking pass and F#%*!!! there was no parking pass in my race packet. Apparently you were suppose to know to pick up a parking pass at the Expo. Would have been nice if someone had told me that when they handed the race packet over to me at the Expo. I had to get G up to Carmel as soon as she got out of school because she was performing in Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre's season opener in the evening. Dropped her off there at 4:30 pm then had to deal with 5 pm traffic on I-465 and I-65 driving all the way back down to Columbus to pick up a piece of paper before the Expo closed down at 8 pm.

Finally got the required parking pass and headed back home. By then I was starving. I had a pre-race dinner all planned out at home but it required cooking it once I got home and I was beyond that at this point. Ended up placing an order into Pizza Hut from the car and got cheesy breadsticks for dinner.

Saturday 9/23 - Race day. Up at 4:15 am. Had my oatmeal and coffee, then out the door a little after 5 am. Had a banana and water in the car. Got in my desired parking garage by 6:15 am and found a primo spot overlooking the start/finish line. Then it was like 5 trips to the port-a-potty and going over the map and my water/fuel strategy until the race started.

Temps were in the mid-to-high 60's at the start. We had all received flyers at the Expo with a hot weather advisory. Basically said that if you thought it was going to take over 4 hours to run the marathon it was advised you switch to the half marathon and said that if the "wet globe bulb temperature" (which is some calculation involving the actual temperature, humidity, shade, etc.) reached 82 the race would be black flagged with all timing and scoring stopped at that point. The marathoners had the option to switch to the half marathon at the 12 mile mark which was where the half and the full split.

Quite honestly the temperature at the start was MUCH better than what I expected and the first part of the race was run in the shade of the downtown buildings. I decided I'd just run at whatever pace felt good to me and see how far I could get before it got too hot and make a judgement call at mile 12.

Got into my corral and spotted Trena... standing there with the 3:55 pacer sign! Trena was 6th overall in the women's race last year and I thought she was racing this morning so I was really surprised to see her standing there with the pacer sign. OMG! This was perfect. She would be there to sweep me in if I got in trouble. I thought she was an angel sent from heaven standing there with the 3:55 pacer sign. I made sure she crossed the start line in front of me but soon caught up and passed her in the first mile.

Mile 1 - 8:24.5
Mile 2 - 8:35.7
Mile 3 - 8:36.8

I realized pretty quick that I was running much faster than I intended to, however I also felt very comfortable running this pace so I settled in and decided I was fine as long as I didn't go faster than 8:30.

Somewhere between miles 2 and 3 a young man also started running next to me and chatted me up. He wanted to know what race I was running, how long I'd been running, what my times were, etc. Then he shared that he was a high school runner. He had run a mile in 4:47 but this was his first half marathon and he had never run this far before. His goal was to break 2:00 and hopefully finish in the 1:50's. I noticed he was running without a watch. He wanted to know how we were doing. I told him we were way under 2:00 pace and that I was running around 8:30's. Also told him 9:00 pace would get him under 2:00. While we were talking I noticed we were speeding up. My watch said we were now going 8:18 so I backed off. He ran on ahead...

As a side note, when I race I set my watch to time the current mile pace - so it's the pace for the mile I'm in, NOT the "at the moment" pace. I think my times are more predictable this way.

Mile 4 - 8:33.2
Mile 5 - 8:29.9
Mile 6 - 8:32.8

Shortly after mile 6 the course takes a turn and you run directly east for about 1.5 miles - straight into the morning sun after enjoying the downtown shade for the first part of the run. As soon as we made the turn I had the sense that the entire field around me slowed. I tend to want to run the same speed as the people around me but this was a noticeable slow down. I reasoned with myself these were all the half-marathoners slowing down because, well, lots of half-marathoners slow down when they hit their half-way point. Told myself to continue on MY pace... then became conscious of the fact that I was blowing by people.

Mile 7 - 8:31.0
Mile 8 - 8:33.6

I saw the kid from earlier in the race up ahead. He was slowing. I was going to start giving him some words of encouragement when I caught up to him when I came up on the water stop which was a couple blocks earlier than I anticipated. I fumbled around to get a gel out and down in time, got my water, started looking around for the kid again, when suddenly my friend Ben showed up next to me. Where the heck did HE come from? He had a bib on so he didn't just pop in from the side of the road but I couldn't figure out why he was back here with me. He said he was doing this as a training run and figured he'd run with me for awhile to keep me on pace. I was over joyed. So now, not only did I have Trena to potentially sweep me in, I had Ben to run with until the marathon split. Life was perfect.

Mile 9 - 8:43.2
Mile 10 - 8:39.9

Somewhere around mile 10 was an aid station where I had planned to get water. I ran through the whole station asking for water and no one had any. I don't know if they got behind or if this station just didn't have water. I finally stopped to get a cup of PowerAde from the last kid standing there with a cup. Really really strong PowerAde at that. I sprinted out of the aid station. Ben told me to slow down and that I was running 7:30 pace. I looked a my watch and it said I was running 8:43 pace. We pondered the difference and I felt like mine was more accurate as it was for the whole mile.

Anyhoos... shortly after that I noticed I was breathing hard. Like WAY harder than I should be breathing 10 miles into a marathon. Plus I realized how HOT I felt...

In retrospect, I think I may have had an anxiety attack. I have never had cardio be an issue in a long race like a half or full marathon. It was always my legs going flat and tiring that slowed me down. I've never had an issue where I got out of breath in a long race. But now I was breathing like I was in mile 3 or mile 5 of a 5K or 10K. WAY WAY harder than I should be breathing. I think I freaked out.

I told Ben I was bailing out of the marathon.

The second half of the course is out by the airport. I've run many races out there. It's flat and wide open. Not a scrap of shade anywhere. It's open and lonely. The race had started under a green flag, then gone to yellow, and now red. I think it was more the anticipation of what was to come that made me want to stop running than anything else. All I knew was that in that moment I just wanted to be done. Had I not had the option to run a shorter race I may have recovered. Now I get to wonder about the might-have-beens until my next race.

Mile 11 - 8:53.0
Mile 12 - 8:56.7
Mile 13 - 9:08.3

Official finish time - 1:54:13

I felt stupid the moment I stopped running. I was perfectly fine. My times had been ridiculously fast. To put things into perspective...

- My Boston qualifying time is 4:00. That's 9:09 pace.
- My goal pace for this marathon had been 9:00. That gives me a 3:55:58 marathon. 4:02 under BQ is a pretty safe cushion so that had been my goal.
- My marathon PR is 3:51:47. That's 8:50 pace.
- At 10 miles, my average pace was 8:34. That's almost 5 MINUTES ahead of 9:00 pace for that point in the race.

I could easily have slowed my pace for a couple miles to recover my breathing and still been OK time wise... or could I have? Would  I have recovered? Did I go out too fast? I honestly don't think so. I felt perfectly fine and then suddenly I was out of breath. Usually if I go out too fast my legs start failing... Did I not have enough miles in and my cardio went? I really don't think so either. I think I plain had an anxiety attack at mile 10 in anticipation of what might have been and chickened out because I didn't want to potentially suffer for another 16 miles.

Now I get to wonder until Monumental Marathon in November about how fast I can run. Interestingly, I feel weirdly confident.


I had brought my marathon shirt to trade in for a smaller size at the post-race street party anyway so I traded it for a half-marathon shirt. Note to self - I am a youth large. This race only has shirts in men's sizes and the men's small is too big for me.

29 miles for Week 17... of Monumental Marathon Training.


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