Executive Summary:

3:28:55

BQ by 1:05, PR by 4:35

Background:

7th marathon (lucky #7!); 4th attempt at BQ of 3:30. Previous attempts resulted in late-race fade of varying levels of severity.

Training:

I ran the Tacoma Marathon in 3:33:30 on 5/1, on the Pfitz 18/70 plan. That got me a 7 min PR. Although with a 7:50 first half pace, and 8:28 2nd half. Anyway I was pretty comfortable with the plan, so figured I'd stick with it. But with 5 months before the next one, not really time for the full 18 weeks, considering I wanted to work in some other races, and a couple planned travel-related training interruptions. So went with the 12/70. That's long enough as far as I'm concerned anyway. Training went pretty well, although I felt a lot stronger and more confident going into Tacoma.

The Race:

Victoria was in about the right place on the calendar. Other than that, I look for:

(1) average temps - Victoria is typically pretty cool

(2) course profile -  definitely not flat, but did not look too bad; flat is a very relative term in the PNW.

(3) proximity - about 90 miles as the crow flies. But I'm not a crow, and there's a lot of water in between. There's really no good way to get there without springing for a flight. Ended up with a 30 min drive, 30 min ferry ride , 80 min drive, and another 90 min ferry ride. If you time the ferry schedules right, it's maybe 5 hours; ended up taking about 7. I went with my wife and left the kids at home, which worked out pretty well. It was nice to have the company without the extra hassle.

Race Day:

Friday night I had a terrible night's sleep; up most of the night with allergy problems. So after leaving early Saturday morning, the long trip, walking around town for a bit, and going out to dinner, I was pretty tired. I ended up sleeping about 9 hours, which is amazing for me. About double what I usually get the night before a marathon, and in fact double what I get on a lot of other nights too, because I pretty much suck at sleeping. So woke up refreshed, and with race start not till 8:45 (WTF?), plenty of time to have a sit-down hotel breakfast (pancakes!). The hotel was <0.5 miles from the start/finish, super convenient.

The weather - perfect; 48 and overcast at the start, warming up only slightly to low-mid 50's & becoming partly sunny.

The Race:

I was not feeling supremely confident going in. I stayed pretty dedicated to the training, but just felt sluggish a lot of the time. I ran a tuneup half 4 weeks prior, and sort of underperformed. No question I was going for the BQ, but not too sure about the 3:27ish I knew I needed to get in. To get that I would need to be targeting  close to 7:50 pace, which I could not hold onto 5 months ago. When every marathon finishes with at least a fade, at worst a collapse, it gets into your head. Decided to try to hold steady at about 7:55, for maybe a 3:28. Give myself a little breathing room for the 3:30, and give myself a chance at a miracle to do better.

So off I went. Going purely by Garmin pace, having no idea how it matched up to actual race splits, because: kilometers! Damn metric system. Turned out not to be a huge deal, if I knew I was off I probably wouldn't have adjusted pace anyway. Just little things - trying to space out my gels, usually every 6 miles, trying to time them right before getting water at aid stations every 3 km. Marathon brain does not compute.

Half split: 1:44:15. I was OK with that.

Course was definitely feeling pretty rolly, but nothing too bad. It started to get tough by about 18, which is where the fade usually begins. I was waiting for it to happen. But felt like I could still hold it pretty steady, and did.

I had too many miles at 8:00 so figured there would not be much cushion, but knew the BQ was there if I could keep it together. Managed to stay more or less on pace far longer than I ever have. Until 24. There it goes, I'm thinking, the slide begins, the BQ is slipping away. But I was somehow magically able to reverse the trend. I think being so close to the end and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel made the difference.

With 2k left to go, I was pretty sure I had it, but not sure by how much, because damn kilometers. There were signs counting down from 2k, 1k, 500m, and every 100m to the finish. I think that helped me really pour it on at the end. My BQ bro Baboon posted that at 40k the tracker was projecting a 3:29:30 finish, which must've been nerve wracking for the stalkers. I really made up some time in that last 2k.

2nd half: 1:44:40

Finish: 3:28:55 - BQ!!

OA 155/1093, AG 17/73

Man that felt great. I never imagined getting near BQ when I started running these things, but my goal since my first (epic fail death march) marathon was to run one at even splits. This was pretty damn close. I still don't totally feel like I BQ'd, since in all likelihood I won't make the cutoff. Could I have paced myself a few seconds per mile faster, and given myself a chance to get in? Maybe. But maybe I would've blown up. The fine line we tread every time we toe the line. Anyway, if the running gods choose to smile upon me, I'll have another shot in the spring.

What a well run race!  Congrats on the BQ and those splits.  They a thing of beauty.

Great job, Dave!  'Bout damn time you got that BQ.  The way you are trending, I imagine you'll give yourself even more of a BQ cushion if you run a spring marathon.  You knocked 11 minutes off your PR this year.  That is a large chunk of time.

Those splits look great.  You did an awesome job of not letting marathon happen late in your marathon.

 

If you had BQed by a bigger margin, would you still be thinking of running a spring marathon?  Because so many back to back marathons would have me fried.

That's a good question. So far I have targeted 2 per year, the seasons I skipped were due to injury. I've said I will continue at least till I get one right, then back off & focus more on HM's & 5k's. If this had been a BQ-5, that would've been as perfect as I could've asked for. But there's always the next few minutes to go for. The marathoning thing is kind of a sickness without a lot of logic behind it, so who can say.

Congrats on the BQ and PR!  Well deserved!  Great run!

Knocking 11 minutes off your marathon time in 5 months is really impressive. I think the weather played a big factor and I for one am glad you went through all the hassle of this event for a few cooler degrees in temps than the September one.

I am really happy for you. I think we believed in you more than you did!

Now then, does this mean you're "qualified" to give marathon advice? 

Hey Dave, I've been on this forum for a little while now, and you're pretty much the one with the most consistent higher mileage.

You deserve this my friend. You were hit by the badluck bug last year with the knee(s), and kept at it.

It was a perfectly executed marathon, with even splits (a positive split of what? 10 seconds? doesn't count as a positive split).

I ask myself the same questions about if I could have squeezed a couple of seconds here and there, and I can't answer it because maybe it would have worked, but maybe it would have thrown me over the edge. From what I understand, you came to the same conclusion.

I suggest you change your name to DavePBQ.

Congratulations Dave - that was a really well executed race. Whatever happens, you know you qualified, and that's worth a lot.