2018 Sub-3. No rules. Run. (Read 792 times)

Hey everyone.

Short version:  I ran the marathon of my life.  Caught lightning (Maurten, perhaps) in a bottle.  2:54:22 (1:27:30, 1:26:520.  41:19 for the last 10k.  Passed 5 in the last 8 miles.  No one passed me.  3 min PR.  1st Place Master.  11th overall.

Very long version: 

The original plan was to run the Bucks County Marathon along the Delaware River towpath on the same day. As race day drew closer, I knew that rain in the days before was a distinct possibility. The towpath is mostly dirt and if it rains within 3 day, there's gonna be puddles. So last week I found Harrisburg which I assumed would be hilly. Turns out, it's actually a very flat marathon in central Pa. Weird.

Anyway, I booked a hotel 2 blocks from the finish and registered last week. Something you can't do for a lot of marathons. We drove out yesterday, and to be honest, the city is a dump. We walked the main drag of 2nd St. on Saturday and were shocked by the dearth of people out on a relatively nice Fall weekend. Either way, we were lucky to find a veg place and even got a pizza to share at a wine bar before heading in for the night.

Race morning. I tried to do everything by the book this time. I tapered for 3 weeks. I tapered hard the last week. I kept the quality runs in there to the end. I did strides. When I woke up on race morning I ate. I had about 500 Cal of oatmeal bars and coffee followed by a 500mL Maurten 320 drink. In fear of having a horrendous song stuck in my head for the next 3 hours, I listened to some old Eminem. (Side note here...I don't race with headphones and generally I only listen to podcasts when I run in the mornings, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had a sh*t song stuck running through their brain during a race. During my last half it was "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire. No thanks. 8 Mile it is.) Randi and I walked the 10 minutes from our hotel to the start on City Island where I hit the portapotty and jogged an easy 5 minutes.

It was cold. Probably the first cold day of the year for me. Temps were around 34F at the start with very light breeze out of the WNW. I decided to go with armwarmers and gloves, singlet, short tights, my high compression socks and a throwaway winter hat. The gun went off at 8 on the dot.

The first mile felt like I knew it would. Hard. Even though I knew I was in shape to run sub 6:40s, there is no time when running that pace from basically a dead standstill feels easy. I told myself to just be patient and stay relaxed. The first two miles were done in 13:35. We crossed back into the eastern part of Harrisburg and the race started to pick up. We had a few rollers and a big downhill that brought us to the first part of the river Greenbelt run. This is where my race almost took a tragic end. Right at the 4 mile mark I turned my left ankle between two slabs of sidewalk. I yelled out "F*CK!" and all the volunteers asked "are you okay???" I could tell that my stride wasn't affected and figured if I did something bad, I'd know soon enough. Within a mile, we headed onto a gravel path, over an old railroad bridge and back onto terra firma. There I caught up to 2 guys who had been about 20m ahead of me for the race. We ran most of the next mile together. Around 10k, one of them turned to me and said "You sound pretty congested". WTF??? What type of sh*t is that to say to someone a quarter of the way into a marathon? Immediately I decided I was going to beat this guy and hopefully make him hurt doing so.

During mile 9 we caught up to Chuck Engle and another dude. And then there were 4. This proved to be the best move I made in the race. I hit the 9 mile mark at 59:57. A smidge under 6:40 pace. I didn't feel exactly great, I felt like I had just run 9 miles in the last hour. We crossed back over to City Is. and did a lap before hitting mile 10 on the bridge back to the river Greenbelt. Randi was waiting on the other side of the bridge with a bottle for me. I had never done this before, but I knew that fueling (or, more specifically, lack of) has been what has kept me from nailing my marathon potential. I grabbed the bottle and immediately started swigging my Maurten 320. Look, if it works for Kipchoge, it's gotta work for me.

The race took a little loop-de-loop and headed northward into a slight headwind. There were 4 of us. We were chatting. I tried to keep in the back out of the wind. Around mile 12 I moved into the front and we picked up another guy who was ahead of us.

You spend a good amount of time on that pathway and you can see what you're gonna be running on coming home. It is a bit daunting to be at mile 12 and see the 22 mile mark, but I just kept telling myself that there'd be a tailwind coming back.

Finally during the 14th mile we turned into a residential area (probably just to add mileage?) for a mile before heading north again at the 15 mile mark. At this point we dropped 3 of the group and it was just me and "Congestion Guy". Miles were clicking off. We hit that magical 16 mile mark. 10 to go. I had this. Soon we saw the leader pass us coming back. Then second...and third. They all looked strong. Then we started seeing the others.

There's nothing like looking at someone's eyes who's almost a mile ahead of you and knowing that you're gonna get them. We hit the turnaround at 17.8 or so and immediately picked off another guy.

We now had a tailwind but also a wicked sunglare. Even with my shades it was rough. I kept sipping my bottle every few minutes. We hit mile 19 and "Congestion Guy" said "6:18!! What are we doing???". I said, "okay...let's ease up". I relaxed for the next mile but still started to pull away. At the 20 mark, I hit the lap button on my Garmin. This is where the race begins. 2:13:01.

I tossed my bottle as we turned back away from the river. I remembered seeing the 21 mile mark was on a big downhill. Hitting that I knew I had about 5 to go. Or the same distance as from the end of Breezy Point to my house. A run I've done hundreds of times. During mile 22 I picked off 3 more guys.

The race then turned back onto Front Street running parallel to the Greenbelt that we'd run on heading out. As I passed the next water stop (with no runners in sight ahead of me) I heard one of them say "whoa...he looks strong". I kept checking my lap pace to see that I had in fact picked it up. The tailwind stayed and the road dipped down a bit. I could start to see someone up the road. Just past mile 24, we dropped down again to the water. I knew in the last mile we'd have to go back up to the road from the river. I continued to close on what was 11th place. When we hit the hairpin that brought us up he basically walked. I passed him at the top and realized the next guy was just ahead. WTF??? These guys must have absolutely died in the late miles. With a kilometer to go you get back onto the streets and zigzag into town to the finish. I was closing on the next guy. I looked at the time and knew sub 2:54 wasn't happening but maybe I could catch this last dude. I gave everything I had left that final 150m stretch to the finish. I was gonna get him. He was practically walking. As I got closer the crowd was going apesh*t. He had headphones on. My hamstrings, my calves all started to lock up. My form went to sh*t. As I pulled within a step of him, he realized what was happening and sprinted to the finish a step ahead of me. Damn.

I hit the half in 1:27:30. I ran the back half in 1:26:52. I didn't know that I won the Masters until I got a text from my dad at the hotel. I couldn't be happier. I would have liked to get under 2:54. Somehow I feel like 2:53:XX looks a lot faster than 2:54:XX, but I'll take it. I honestly don't know how much faster I can get at this distance. Everything went right today and the course was great. The temps peaked at about 44F for the race and to be honest, that's about as warm as I want. Maybe I'll try Philly one more time. Maybe just keep running NYC. Boston for fun in two years. Who knows.

Hiring a coach made all the difference this year. I ran fewer miles than any other marathon prep but I blew away my old PR. And I'm 5 years older. Hard to argue with that.

steve - wow. Big congrats!!!  For me, it's cool to see someone breakthrough to a new level when they've been training for many years.

Give your coach a raise!

Steve that was a very enjoyable race report and well executed race. So congestion guy got you huh 

Maddison fantastic race and time so soon after your last marathon. You must be made of steel.

Sling wow that was so close. Probably one shoe lace tying effort from sub 3. Sounds rough at the finish. You may forget and come back for another 

BGS you did a great job considering your stomach issues.

I ran a 10k on saturday but re pulled my calf 1km in. I carried onto 5.5kms but was getting very sore and altering my gait. This is the 3rd week in a row I have just got it back to feeling ok on runs and then I do something stupid and over exert it.

BGS - 10 minutes positive split is no fun. But you finished the race and I am pretty sure learned something from it and from the training cycle. I think the cycle was not too good, too many non-desired "events" happened. Just try to get a good uneventful cycle and you should get there.

madison - great time, great report, congrats on 3rd OA. Though I was under impression you wanted to capitalize on your fitness and go for another PR? At the same time, per your description the course was pretty tough, seems like more difficult than the one you ran your PR on. Did you run this course before?

slingrunner - 10 seconds off... that's tough. Still - congrats on great time! I enjoyed reading your report - though I am not sure I agree with some of your conclusions there - but hey, we all live our own lives   Two things I would mention though - totally based on your report: 1) double knot - very easy and eliminates laces issue 100%; 2) it seems like you had a perfect pacer for your service and didn't use him - the guy definitely knew what is coming at the end of the race and he ran 2:59 pace - which is exactly what you need to come under 3 hours. Other than that - seems you gave it all. I would say one more cycle and you will have it. If you have a good Boston cycle and Boston gives you a good weather (it's about time I think), it's totally realistic to run sub 3 Boston - it's a great course and not slow by all means.

weatherboy - that's a great week, I would probably be able run the mileage but not with the workouts you had! What is the target race and when?

swim - that is one sick week!

JTReeves - slow and steady, no need to hurry

the steve - one of the most entertaining report I've read lately! Congrats on a great time and PR! It must be a great feeling  to break your 5 years PR!

finbad - take care of that darn plantar!

piwi - not sure what you could do about pulled calf but you should be definitely cut it short and stop running at that point.

ace - welcome! It's a nice progress in two years from 3:29 to 2:57. It took me about the same (18 months and 5 marathons) to get from 3:31 to 2:58. Not sure what you meant by saying you are slow comparing to other people here - of course you are not - just look  at Mikkey's or my training and you will see you are blazing fast!

My week:

Mon - 10.2 @8:58

Tue - 13.5 @8:29

Wed - 11.3 @8:32

Thu - 12.5 @7:44

Fri - 11.3 @8:50

Sat - 4.3 @8:13

Sun - 6.7 @9:18

Total: 70.1 miles

Planned to run an HM on Sunday to estimate fitness for upcoming marathon, but the race was cancelled on Saturday - Northern California (unfortunately Southern part has similar issue too ) has some devastating fires and Air Quality Index is just abysmal - the recommendation is to stay inside and limit any outside physical activity. My wife was freaking out thinking I was going to run that HM. Anyway - like many of us having some issues with training, I now have mine too - had to run TM for the second day in a row - I do not like running TM much but the main reason is that running it feels totally different from outside running. I checked everything - the calibration is perfect but the effort is different - like I feel the same way running 9:30 on TM and 8:30 outside. So, I was thinking about running TT HM on my TM, but not sure it it gives me any information about my fitness.

Madison & Steve congrats on great races!  Sounds like you both nailed it.  Nice job!

Sling that has to sting to come so close.  It seems like you had a great race on a less than ideal course.  Maybe take another shot at it on an easier course?

Cal & Mikkey yes I am definitely cognizant of the fact that I did not really enjoy this cycle and definitely did not enjoy this race.  I very well may be done with marathons temporarily or permanently but am not in any rush to make that decision.  Marathon training is a big time commitment for something I didn't love doing this time and for which I fell short of my goal, so we'll see.  To be determined.

Hey all, I'm new to this forum, but have been on RA for a little while. Spend most of my time in the 3:20 group! (and will continue to do so, dwave)

 

TRAITOR!  SHAME!

Also delurking to congrat Steve/Squirrel - dunno if you remember me, but I was a very new runner during the time you were most active on RWOL.  Good to see you back here!

Thanks everyone.  Nice to see so many names I recognize from the RWOL days.

Kiwi, maybe I wasn't specific, but I dropped "Congestion Guy" at 20 and beat him by 40 seconds or so.

Mikkey, I'll start posting them or at least my big workouts.  And yeah, my outlook on life has changed a bit over the past few years.

Sling, sorry about your race.  I know the 3 hour pacer.  If you look at the race results, you'll see he lists his hometown the same as mine even though he doesn't live here.  If you were running with him in the first few miles you may have noticed him yelling to me at mile 1 that we were too close and that "I better have a big second half planned".  He's a bit...um...peculiar. When I saw his result on Strava boasting that he ran 1:29:30-1:29:30 I found it odd that no one finished with him.  Isn't your job as a pacer to help more important than to hit a time UNDER your advertised time?  I would think that if he passed you so close to the end and you were so close to 3:00 he should have stayed with you to try to get you under.  Either way, like I said, he's a bit of an odd guy.  And yeah, that hairpin at the end was brutal.

It's very interesting to read the RR of someone from the same race who had a markedly different experience.  Hopefully you heal up well and get back out there.

I have a phone conference with my coach this week to discuss next steps.  I have a hilly Central Park Half in January but not sure what else.  No Boston this year and probably not another marathon until maybe NYC in the fall.  At this point I don't think I want to run marathons unless I know the possibility of great weather and a PR is real.  Perhaps I'll take a year and focus on shorter stuff.  Like Mikkey alluded to, my 5k-15k PRs from 2014 were thought to be too big to fail in my mind.  But now I don't know.