Executive Summary

Finished in 3:31:17, with an excruciating 11 minute positive split. Still managed to snag 1st AG (in a small race) and BQ-4:43.

Background

This was marathon #13 (all different races incidentally), after an 18-month break. The last one was the Seattle Marathon on 12/1/19, where I ran a 3:22:16. I've been targeting sub-3:20 since I ran a 3:23:39 in Oct 2017. However following that were some injuries and a very slow marathon when I wasn't really recovered, a warm day in Boston, a hilly Seattle, then COVID. Early this year, I wasn't really expecting to run a marathon before the fall. But then I got vaccinated March-April, and I saw this race pop up. I registered only about 2 months ago.

Training

I missed racing during COVID, but my running prospered. I ran 3250 miles in 2020, and set all kinds of mileage PBs, too many to list (although of course I'd be happy to if anyone asked). In the first half I kept up the speedwork; I had already started training for the Vancouver Marathon in May before everything shut down, and ended up setting virtual-PRs in 1-mile and 5k time trials. In the second half, I backed off the speed because reasons, but kept up the big miles.

Around the beginning of 2021, I started adding back one speed session of some kind every week. Once I signed up for this race about 2 months ago, I went back to the McMillan custom plan I bought a few years ago. I did not follow it to the letter, but started incorporating those workouts, and kept up the big mileage (on pace for 3400 for the year). I registered for a tuneup half at the beginning of May as my first post-COVID race, but they cancelled it and only had a 5k. I was hoping for sub-20, but ran 20:13. I was a little disappointed but did not make too much of it; I was in heavy training, and maybe out of racing practice. No reason to change my 3:20 goal.

Throughout training, my easy pace was slower than it had been. It was a little concerning, but I was mostly able to hit my workout paces. Although in some cases it felt like they required more effort than they should; which was also a little concerning, but I figured they should feel hard, plus after all this time it's still tough to gauge what the right effort is. All this time off of racing probably did not help.

The Event

I've looked at this one in the past, but never been too tempted, as (1) it's kind of hilly, and (2) early June is risky for warm weather. It's a point-to-point course on the North Olympic Discovery Trail, a (mostly) paved asphalt trail roughly from Sequim to Port Angeles.

Race Weekend

Friday was our anniversary; DW & I took the day off and headed out. We stayed in Port Angeles, which is right near Olympic National Park. We spent some time in & around the park on Saturday, and did a short hike, but it was kind of crappy weather so didn't do a ton. For the best anyway, to avoid too much time on my feet, plus lousy tourist weather = good marathon weather. Spent some more time just sort of moseying around town.

Saturday Food Report

Breakfast: French toast

Lunch: wasabi quinoa burger with side of sweet potato chips

Dinner: smoked salmon chowder, rigatoni with braised lamb shank, Kahlua chocolate mousse

If I didn't race well, it was not going to be for lack of carbs. And everything was very yummy.

Race Morning

I slept like crap on Friday, so thought maybe I would sleep well Saturday, but no. Maybe 5-6 hours, but I've certainly done worse. Woke up around 4:45, before my alarm. We were at the "official host hotel" which was right next to the finish line and a block from the bus pickup. However they did not have an early runner breakfast set up. I was smart enough had been burned enough times to ask about that in advance, so I picked up a "bagel" and a banana at the grocery store on Saturday. I had already brought from home a single-serving packet of almond butter, so had that on my bagel, plus 2 cups from the in-room coffeemaker before heading for the buses around 5:45-6:00. Got to the start about 45 min before the 7:30 start time. Enough time to get in a couple bathroom trips, eat my banana, and drink a bottle of water.

Weather

Could not have asked for anything better, this time of year. Unseasonably cool - about 50 degrees at the start, and only warmed up a few degrees before the end. There were strong gusty winds on Saturday, but they had died down. And there was a break in the rain for the whole morning, but still overcast.

The Race

It's a small race and they usually do a mass start, but for COVID they started in corrals, assigned by predicted finish times you submitted in advance. I was in "A" (based on 3:20 lol), so started right at 7:30 and have no idea how much time they waited in between waves. But probably only 20-30 people with me, so no crowding issues despite a narrow trail.

0-13 

I needed 7:38, so planned to try to target about 7:35. Pace kind of bounced around due to the hills, but on average stayed mostly on track, on average. However it seemed to take a bit more effort to keep it there than it should for the first half of a marathon. Again, a little hard to gauge because of the hills, but I had an inkling that things might get rough. Bizarrely, they did not have a 13.1 marker. By my watch (which was pretty close to the mile markers), I hit the half at 1:39:47 - right on track.

14-17

This is where I started to get concerned. Could not get under 7:40, and at times pushing 7:50. I kind of wrote off the 3:20 somewhere in here. Also this is where the guy who looked about my age, and had been literally right behind me the whole race, passed me up for good.

18-26.2

It pretty much spiraled out of control from there. I had no 3:20 speed left, and pretty soon wrote off my B goal of 3:22 for PR. Not long after that, wrote off my C goal of 3:25 (BQ-10). You can see those little notches in the elevation chart - very steep uphills that are very short, but slow you to virtually a walk and take a lot out of you. And the corresponding short downhills are so steep that they slow you down too. The worst was that "V" in mile 21, where I logged a 9:55, and the downhill in 22 (9:30). After that I knew it was pretty flat the rest of the way. I was actually not feeling like I desperately wanted to stop, as is typical in the final miles of a race like this. Just that I had no speed left, but I was OK to keep plugging away at a 8:30-9:00 easy pace, and still able to pick it up a little in the final mile. I think all my high mileage helped get me through that part.

Finish

3:31:17, BQ-4:43

25/197 OA

1/12 M55-59 AG (I found that old guy who passed me around 17 - he was 54!)

AG awards are a pretty cool-looking hand-carved wooden plaque, but they are mailing them out.

Post-Race

I sucked down a bottle of Gatorade and a carton of chocolate milk. Did not hang around too long; took a shower and figured every restaurant in town would be packed, so just headed out. I'm never too hungry right after a marathon anyway. Ended up stopping at a grocery store for deli sandwiches. I figure I ate well enough on Saturday.

Post-Mortem

OK, I was pretty hard on myself in my immediate post-race posts. But I am always grateful to be finishing another one of these things, because someday sooner rather than later I might not be able to. BQ is still a standard of success, and an AG win is always nice even in a small group. Still, it was a major disappointment, and I need to try to figure it out. Things I think it was not:

- Weather

- Hills - cost me some time, but I don't think that much

- Fuel/hydration - I did what I always do: Gu every ~6 miles, a cup of water from an aid station every ~2 miles. I might have gotten myself a little dehydrated - I peed around 7 AM before the race, and then didn't again till 4 PM.

So unless there's something major I'm missing, it comes down to the simple basics of either:

- Inadequate training

- I am slower than I was a year ago.

I think more the second than the first, but IDK.

For the fall, I am tentatively targeting CIM in December. But I probably need to decide where I'm at and what I'm going to do about it long before then. Thanks for reading, and I do truly appreciate all the support from my imaginary internet friends.

Here's me looking like I felt, somewhere in the 20s:

Congrats, first of all! I am surprised you want to do another marathon with hills after this one. You might think they don't affect you but they can tear you down little by little through the race no matter how well you trained for them.

+1 on the congratulations and the comment on the hills.  An AG win and a BQ are certainly something to be proud of.  I mostly run halves, but agree with the above that even small hills can wear you down - sometimes frequent up/down/up/down is worse than longer hills as you have to keep shifting gears.  Still, a job well done!

Congrats on the AG win & BQ.

I think the non-road courses can be deceptively hard. The hills are typically steeper and ones near me are rarely flat or straight. Might not seem like much early on, but it adds up. If the surface isn't great, that also will add to the fatigure.

As far as the nutrition, your dinner seems sort of dairy heavy (soup & mouse). Do you think that played a role in anything?

I'll throw this out there about training/performance/etc. Hudson's book recommends that "older" runners train efficiently and focus on "big bang for the buck" workouts and to minimize filler workouts. He claims high volume running can accelerate age related decline in elasticity of muscle &connective tissues. Now, that said, he also mentions a lot of age group records are held by runners who started relatively late in life, so they have less wear and tear. He recommends a cross training approach--3 or 4 runs per week (most or all hard workouts), non-impact cardio for cross training, mobility training & strength training. Not saying this is right or wrong, just a point to consider.

 

Interesting. I'll have to reread his book since I run almost every day, have been running for 53 years, and do no cross training.

It's in chapter 11, Adaptive Running for Youth and Master's Runners. It's not a whole lot of detail--it's really only about a page. I wish he expanded on it more.

 

It's in chapter 11, Adaptive Running for Youth and Master's Runners. It's not a whole lot of detail--it's really only about a page. I wish he expanded on it more.

That's too bad.  Without citing any studies or other results, it sounds more like an opinion or the type of "common knowledge" that often doesn't bear up under scientific rigor.  No disrespect to Hudson intended - it may well be great advice, just hard to judge.

 

That's too bad.  Without citing any studies or other results, it sounds more like an opinion or the type of "common knowledge" that often doesn't bear up under scientific rigor.  No disrespect to Hudson intended - it may well be great advice, just hard to judge.

There is muscle loss associated with aging, it actually starts relatively early. You get a lot of conflicting opinions about what role (if any) running plays in this. My best guess is that at high mileage, it's really hard to actually build muscle. If you are also losing muscle slowly due to aging, I can see where it catches up to you at some point. There's also probably a tipping point with the running (and any exercise). This is a case where more isn't always better.

 

There is muscle loss associated with aging, it actually starts relatively early. You get a lot of conflicting opinions about what role (if any) running plays in this. My best guess is that at high mileage, it's really hard to actually build muscle. If you are also losing muscle slowly due to aging, I can see where it catches up to you at some point. There's also probably a tipping point with the running (and any exercise). This is a case where more isn't always better.

I started running relatively late in life.  I keep waiting for the upward curve of training benefits to intersect with the downward curve of getting older.  I've read in multiple places that the training curve tends to start flattening out after 5 years with improvements coming more slowly after that, so I've probably reached that point already.  Now I just wonder when I'll hit my peak speed before age kicks in, at which point age grading will be even more important to me.   I do know it gets harder to add muscle at my age, so I'm happy just to keep up with weight lifting.

I guess this thread is morphing from a discussion of Dave's race into something a bit different....

A pretty good day for a tough day at the office.  AG win and a BQ at the tail end of the pandemic is a pretty big win any way you look at it.  Nice job battling to the end.

It's cool that you have done 13 different marathons.  I've done 14 marathons but only 8 unique (not counting the three Ironman runs).