Steamtown Race Report (Read 610 times)

I've mostly been a lurker at RA, but have spent a lot of time on these messageboards, reading other people's thoughts and looking for advice on my own questions. I've read a lot of race reports, and am finally posting my own. I've been running for about 2 1/2 years, and always thought a Boston Qualifier would be a long, long time away for me. My first marathon was in 2006, 4:13. I ran a 4:10 in 2007, and this year a 3:28 in February, and a 3:19 in April. So I knew I was getting close (my qualifying time is 3:10). After doing some research, a lot on these messageboards, I decided Steamtown was going to be my first BQ attempt. I know the downhills could be painful, but I do a fair amount of hill training, and figured this course would be a better chance for me than a flat course. Drove to Scranton from Boston on Saturday morning, got some Olive Garden for dinner, and woke up at 5:15am on Sunday to head to the buses. Had some good conversations with people from all over on the bus ride over to the start. My favorite was Lonnie, who sat next to me. From Indianapolis, has finished marathons in all 50 states. He gave me some good advice for the race. Got to the start around 6:30am - got a cup of coffee, stretched for a looooong time, and then 'took care of business' in a bathroom in the high school (was happy to avoid the port-a-potties). At the start, felt great. The weather was perfect, I had a lot of adrenaline, and I felt strong from a good taper. Usually, I don't taper a whole lot - this time I only did a few miles on Monday and Wednesday, and took the rest of the week off. The beginning of Steamtown is very downhill, and I started off with a lot of miles around 6:50, way ahead of the 7:15 pace I needed. I tried finding a balance between taking it easy at the beginning, but also not 'braking' on the downhills. In retrospect, I think I went out a tiny bit too fast, but not too bad. I leveled off around mile 7, and ran 10 consecutive miles right around a 7:10 pace. I felt great, right up until mile 17, where I started to feel the wall coming on. I eased up, and did the next 5 miles at around a 7:20 clip. I still had a few minutes 'banked', so I could slow down off my pace and still make a 3:10. I did the next few miles slower and slower, around a 7:45 clip. I wasn't so much hurting, as I had nothing left in my tank. I had done plenty of 20 mile-plus training runs, at decent paces, and always finished strong, so I was surprised that I was feeling this empty. I think the downhills really beat up my quads. At the 25-mile marker, I only needed to average somewhere around a 7:50 mile pace for the last 1.2 miles to get in under 3:10 (I was too tired to figure out the exact time. It feels like I spent 80% of this race calculating splits, paces, etc). My girlfriend was waiting at the finish line. Over the last 1.2 miles, all I could think was that I wanted her to see me make the qualifier, not miss it...and that I didn't want to have to do the last 25 miles all over again at another qualifier attempt. I cliimbed the last uphill - a few people on the sidelines yelling 'you got it', '5 more blocks', and 'you're looking strong, finish this' gave me a lot more energy (even though I knew I definitely didn't look strong). When I got to the top of the hill, and could see the finish line and the crowds, all of a sudden I felt great again. I came down the hill strong, and raced past my girlfriend, who was jumping up and down. I crossed the finish line at 3:09:43, and nearly ripped the arm off a volunteer who had her hand up for a high-five - I was pretty excited. When I started running, and was doing 5 mile runs at 8:30 paces and feeling beat up afterwards, I never could have imagined qualifying for Boston - I didn't think I'd ever have that sort of stamina. I was a little choked up when I crossed the finish line, and realized that I had actually done it. I feel a tap on my shoulder in the finishing chute, and it's Lonnie from Indianapolis. He smiles, and says 'nice work, Mike'. He knew I was trying to qualify, he said he was around me for the last 4 miles or so. I hadn't seen him on the course. All I could manage to say was "I made it". He flashed a big smile, said congrats, and walked off. After the race, I was funneled to the bag-claim area, and couldn't go back to see my girlfriend. I claimed my bag, and must have walked past her while we were looking for each other. After a minute of looking around, we saw each other, and she sprinted over to me and gave me a giant hug. It was great having someone there, who knew how much a BQ meant to me. She told me later she didn't even realize she was jumping up and down; all she knew was that it was getting really close to 3:10, and she hadn't seen me, so when she finally saw me come down the hill, and knew that I was going to (barely) make it home in time, she got really excited. A link to a picture taken by the local newspaper is here: http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/shared-content/gallery/?galleryid=4&gallery_page=0&album_page=2&albumid=95&mediaid=2011 Overall, it was a great race. The crowd was small, in some places non-existent, which was tough for me, in a marathon I feed over the energy from the crowd. But where there were people, they were always very enthusiastic. The race was very well-organized. I was a little surprised at how small Scranton was. We were planning on staying over Sunday night to celebrate/commiserate, depending on my results. But when we saw how little was going on in the town on Saturday, we decided to drive back after the race instead. But all-in-all, I would definitely recommend this marathon. Oh...and I already registered for Boston 2009!

Great job Mike, you've really come a long way (and run quite a few marathons) in a very short time. Congrats on your BQ! And I love this guy kicking back...good job runners! ZZZZZZZZZZZ...

CONGRATS on your BQ!!!!!! Great job on the race! Very cool that your picture made the newspaper!

What a nice ending to a fast race for you! Congratulations!

I've been running for about 2 1/2 years, and always thought a Boston Qualifier would be a long, long time away for me. My first marathon was in 2006, 4:13. I ran a 4:10 in 2007, and this year a 3:28 in February, and a 3:19 in April. So I knew I was getting close (my qualifying time is 3:10).

Nice progression on your times there. It took you a couple of years from your first marathon to get to that BQ, but your patience and hard work paid off in the end. Nice job!

Dude. 3:09:43. Talk about cutting it close. Nice job!!!

Dude. 3:09:43. Talk about cutting it close. Nice job!!!

Ha, I know - I was on about a 3:07 pace around mile 21, and decided to slow down a bit to avoid crashing. Definitely cut it closer than I wanted to, I really didn't want to go over 3:10 (still qualifying under 3:10:59). But even though I slowed down a bit on purpose, I really don't think I had anything left in the tank at the end to pick it back up if I needed to. But just glad I got under 3:10, it just makes it hard to explain to people if you qualify with the 'extra time': "Did you break 3:10?" "Nope, 3:10:40. But I still qualified" "How?" "Well, they say it's 3:10, but they give you an extra 59 seconds, so I made it" "So the goal is 3:10, and you didn't make 3:10, but you still made it" "Yeah" "Oh" Like someone said somewhere else...3:09 just sounds a lot more sexy.