Notes
Rockford Marathon 2010
May 16, 2010 – 7:00 AM
Start: 48 degrees NE wind 8 mph
Finish: 65 degrees NE wind 12 mph
Back in February I made the commitment to do a marathon this spring, at that time all I wanted to do was keep my streak going with one marathon a year and to run another marathon with my brothers. Eventually, my competitive spirit began to kick in and I started training until a knee problem sidelined my training for 4 weeks. I had completed a 17 mile long run in the middle of March and didn’t do another long run until middle of April. At this point all I wanted to do was finish the marathon. With only a few weeks until race day I mustered up 1 - 20 and 1 – 22 mile runs and that is what I considered my training.
Race day was finally here and I had in my mind that I would go as hard as I could until the wheels fell off, great strategy, huh? I knew I could run a sub-3 hour marathon (6.52 pace) if everything went well but realistically I would be in the 3:10 range (~7.15 pace). I really wanted to make sure I stayed well hydrated throughout the race so I planned to take water or power-aid every 1.5-3 miles as they had aid stations every 1.5 miles. I was carrying a granola bar with me and wasn’t sure I would eat it but it was nice to know it was there for me to have. The race field was made up with ~700 half and ~400 marathon runners.
The race started off and I was really feeling good, the first few miles went by without thought. Since the race started out going towards the north I tried to draft off of as many people as possible even with the light wind. I went through the first mile in 6.47 and was pleasantly surprised that I wasn’t way too fast; the early miles can go really quick with just adrenaline alone.
1 - 6.47
2 - 7.04
3 - 6.4
4 - 6.32
Mile 4 kind of surprised me and I knew I couldn’t handle that pace for too long so I consciously slowed up going into the next few miles. I had a couple people to run with going through mile 8 but it seemed like anyone I would try to run with would start slowing and speeding up a lot so I typically ran with someone for a ½ mile and would leave them.
5 - 6.41
6 - 6.45
7 - 6.46
8 - 6.45
Mile 8 I hit right at 54 minutes and I started thinking I should be able to figure out my pace and with a little thought I came up with 6.45… I was really happy with that. Miles 9-13 I really didn’t remember much, except for a stupid blister that formed in my right foot arch. It really surprised me because my shoes were certainly not new with 200 miles on them so I shouldn’t have formed a blister but… anything can happen on race day.
Overall, I was still feeling really good, we ran through a park that I had in the past and I was basically running alone all throughout that section. I tried to take down some of the granola bar at mile 12 but it didn’t seem to agree with my stomach much so I left it alone after that.
9 - 6.43
10 - 6.4
11 - 6.37
12 - 6.5
13 - 6.47
I hit the half at 1.28.22. Shortly after the half marathon runners split from the marathon we went up this short but very steep 100 meter hill, I was really hoping this wasn’t a view of what was to come. By mile 15 I was really starting to feel the burn of my early faster miles. I tried to keep my mind focused and remain positive. I found a couple guys to run with but I could tell they were slowing up quickly. My mile 14 split was still ok 6.46 but mile 15 was significantly slower 7.18. So I left those two guys behind and charged for mile 16. These miles went by fairly quickly as we were running in neighborhoods that I hadn’t ever ran in. It was pretty fun looking at the houses (as I didn’t have anyone else to pass the time with).
14 - 6.46
15 - 7.18
16 - 7
17 - 7.03
18 - 7.04
By mile 18 I started really focusing in on the finish, my legs were pretty beaten up but I wanted to keep my mind in the game. Mile 20 came and went and the goofy blister that formed in my right foot popped. A guy was nearby me when I let out my war cry (or baby cry) when it popped! I really felt the pain from that for the remainder of the marathon but I tried to forget about it. At the mile 21 aid station I walked through it to make sure I could get in a full glass of power-aid and water, that really helped keep my energy up. I was doing everything I could to try to remain focused and possibly keep my overall time under 3.10, I knew 3 hours was out of the question as my legs didn’t have any more lower 7’s left in them and I knew some 8’s were in my future. With 4.2 miles left to go I was at 2.34.35, I knew if I could keep my times around 8 minutes a mile I would be safely under 3.10 so I set that as my goal.
19 - 7.19
20 - 7.42
21 - 8.07
22 - 8.27
Unfortunately, they had some of the mile markers off in the last 4 miles so some of my times were not accurate. I hit the mile 23 and 26 under 7 but my other miles were well in the 8’s and one in the 9’s… without me changing pace (so a little off). At least I still had enough consciousness to realize it wasn’t me and I just needed to finish the race and not worry about the mile times.
23 - 8.02
24 - 8.31
25 - 8.32
I hit mile 26 ~8 minutes with a large hill in front of me, I charged up the hill and back down towards the finish line. There were a few people ahead of me but I just let them go. My legs were beaten up enough that I didn’t want to risk injury doing something stupid in the end. I was comfortably under 3.10 for the finish, 3.09.18 (7.14 pace) – another Boston Marathon qualifying time. This ranks as my 4th best time in a marathon… not bad for not really training J
26 - 8.00
26.2 - 1.38
3.09.18
I got a warm welcome from my brother David who ran the half in 1:50:24 and we waited for Brian to finish the marathon in 3:55:03. Overall, it was a really good day; the course was much better than what it was 2 years ago with ~6 miles in parks and paved trails. They changed the entire second half of the marathon which I was very pleased with! I ended up 16th overall and 3rd in my age group.