Notes
Lakefront Marathon 2023
New route (starts at the Baird Center downtime and finished by the Summerfest grounds). Includes running up and down the Hoan bridge (I-794 along the lake) twice.
Weather was good though a bit hot (no wind, 60s to start warming into the 70s by the end of the race, hit mid to high 80s in the afternoon - Twin Cities was held the same day and was cancelled due to heat with what looked like similar conditions). I was dumping water on my head at every aid station, and did take 5 electrolyte pills as well.
On Friday around 2:30 I had some pretty severe pain in my right ankle - felt like falling asleep/pins and needles and pain when I flexed it. If it felt like that on Saturday I wasn't even going to pick up my packet. This must have been a pinched or compressed nerve. It felt a bit better by Friday evening and was close to normal on Saturday. I did feel a little pain Sunday morning when rotating my ankle around but it didn't affect me.
Prep:
Pizza dinner around 5pm on Saturday night. On Sunday I woke at 4 and immediately started to drink Trader Joe's Power Red juice (first ingredient beet, tasted spicy so I only drank half of it). I left for the race around 4:45, and I had Maurten bicarb at 5:30, caff pill at 6:30, caff gel at 6:55. I carried a half-liter of Maurten with one scoop endurolytes powder, which lasted to about 25k. After that I drank a little Gatorade at the aid stations.
My plan was to run what felt like marathon pace, around 3:40/k. I figured I was in 2:36xx shape (3:40/k would be 2:35xx but I assumed I would run some extra distance). I thought I had an outside shot at a PR but was not going to be pressing early in the race to hit splits.
Course was quite hilly.
0-7k rolling, mostly uphill heading North
7k - steep downhill (hill at the end of the old Lakefront course along the lake)
7-13k flat, heading South to the Hoan
13-14k steep uphill up the Hoan
14-17k slightly less steep downhill down the Hoan
17-25.5k rolling, mostly uphill
25.5-32k rolling, overall flat (includes the turn where you switch from going South on residential streets to going North on a windy, crack-filled bike path)
32-35.5k rolling, mostly downhill
35.5-38k flat
38-41k uphill up the Hoan
41-end steep downhill down the Hoan then a flat 0.5k or so to the finish
Going up the hills I tried to just go at a steady pace (and not try to hit a split) and downhill I tried to not brake.
The half and the full started together and followed the same course for about the first 15k. After the split I was told I was in 6th and I could see 4 and 5 a bit ahead of me. Just past halfway the guy in 4th stopped and stretched for a few seconds, I passed him around 30k as he was peeing in the bushes. I passed the other guy slightly afterwards and shortly after that was told by a spectator I was in 3rd (I never saw the guy in 3rd, but looking at results later he faded pretty bad). First and second were quite a ways ahead (2:24 and 2:28).
Had I known the course better I would have pushed going up the Hoan the second time - I wasn't aware that it was an extremely steep downhill to the finish once you crested it. I was hurting at this time but could have pushed harder.
Official Splits:
10k - 36:41 (5:55 pace for this segment)
10M/16k - 59:27 (6:01 pace for this segment)
Half/21.1k - 1:17:55 (5:58 pace for this segment)
17.1M/27.5k - 1:42:03 (6:03 pace for this segment)
23M/37k - 2:17:09 (5:57 pace for this segment)
Finish - 2:36:48 (6:09 pace for this segment)
Second half in 1:18:53 (positive split by 58s)
2nd fastest marathon!
Right when I finished the race director handed me a jacket as a prize for being top 3. For 3rd place I'll win $500 and I was top master as well ($250, if I can get both). Masters runners went 3-5. And I got a trophy.
Overall, very pleased with this. This was certainly not a prep cycle that went perfectly. I was going to do a 12 week cycle for Madison - then realized my customer's upgrade is Saturday morning of the Madison marathon weekend, and I figured getting up 1:30AM two nights before a goal race wasn't the best idea, so instead of a 12 week cycle I had a 6 week cycle (with 3 base weeks before). Double thresholds work - that was my training and I got in racing shape fast. The final week was a struggle though. My UC had flared a few weeks ago and was still not under control. There were 3 separate times during the race where the urge to dig a hole was strong but they were brief. After finishing I made a rather large deposit. I was sick the previous weekend, and I hadn't been able to sleep Wednesday or Thursday night. Friday night I actually took Nyquil to make sure I could sleep. Then Saturday was busy with family pictures in the morning (up at 6:30), then doing the carpool driving for WYSO, then the drive to pick up the packet, then the drive to stay in Slinger.
Course was tougher than the previous course, and though I handled the weather well most didn't based on the people I talked to afterwards and looking at splits on the leaderboard.
I'll need to figure out what is next, but faster is possible.