Warning, I think this is going to be long (and probably more info than any of you cares about so feel free to skip right to the race portion . Oh, and pictures stolen from other people)…

Well, I finally decided and to sit down and write this thing. Sorry for the delay.

This year’s training:

(All of this is background to me trying to figure out what pace to target for the marathon)

So, going into this year my goal was to be more consistent outside of the marathon cycle and run more. Last year I ran a total of 1215 miles (hit 1000 during the marathon), and I was hoping that I could increase that to average over 30 miles a week in 2013 for near 1600 miles. My biggest problem is not running consistently (especially during the winter) when I don’t have a goal race.  We were planning on visiting my uncle in Knoxville, TN and run the Knoxville HM in April so I thought that would be a good target to keep me motivated over the winter. Of course that motivation got sidetracked around Christmas and for the 10 weeks following I ran a total of 80 miles, until I looked at the calendar and realized that I only had 5 weeks until the HM.

I ran a 5k the next week in 22:45, not too bad, but I couldn’t hold the same 10k pace from 5 months earlier. At that point I decided that targeting 1:50 for the Knoxville HM would be a decent goal. So for the 4 weeks before the half I tried to follow the end of the Hansons plan (which I was planning on using for the Detroit Marathon) with 8:15 as my target HMP and up to 8 mile Thursday HMP runs over hills to be ready for rolling hills of Knoxville. I took extra easy days off and ended up with an average of 35 miles/week for the 4 weeks leading up to the race. In the end the race went better than expected, and I finished in 1:44:55

I was ecstatic with the results, and so I thought, well if I can run a PR like that on essentially 4 weeks of 35 miles/week avg, I can certainly get down to 1:40 for my next HM attempt in 9 weeks if I train harder. I again decided on the last 9 weeks of the Hanson’s plan to get me used to everything for marathon training. My goal HMP pace was 7:33 and the HMP workouts and Strength workouts were tough. I was able to do 8 miles @ HMP on flat routes ok, but when training on hills to mimic the Ann Arbor HM course, I had to cut them all way short I was so worn out. In the end I averaged about 44 miles per week during that stretch and decided I should be more conservative, changing my target to a 1:42: XX goal. When the race came I finished with disappointing 1:46:29.

Of course looking back, that result was due to a combination of poor pacing, hills back loaded to the end of the race, and obviously training harder than my body could handle, leaving me with not much in the way of fitness gains after the 2 months of hard work. The two experiences gave me a better understanding of what my body should feel like when training for a race and when I might be overdoing it in a way that could hurt the goal. At that point I decided that 3:45 should be a good marathon target based on my race times and pace vs. HR analysis. And hell, I assumed that the MP runs at 8:30 would be nothing in comparison to my attempts to run 8 HMP miles at 7:33.

Leading up to race day:

Everything was going really great for the 4 weeks including the peak Hansons Plan week. All of my MP runs and Strength runs (MP -10) seemed easy, even running 5-15 seconds/mile faster than the 8:30 goal MP and 8:20 Strength pace. A few times I decided to throw in an extra MP mile or so because my HR seemed too low. I had transitioned from Asics 2170s (with over 1000 miles on them) to Mizuno Sayonaras about 6 weeks before the marathon and hadn’t had any issues. Of course then 2.5 weeks before the marathon I tweaked some tendon in my L ankle and had to take a couple extra days off that week. It doesn’t seem like that should make much of a difference, but damn, it was difficult getting the legs moving as easily as they were moving before that extra rest. Maybe I actually needed the lowered miles or maybe it really had no effect, but I can’t see any way that that week hurt my performance on race day.

For the final week the paces seemed pretty easy, my only concern was getting sick. I took zinc tablets to help ward off any bugs, but my house seemed pretty infested. Both of my kids had (have) runny noses and coughs, and for part of the week I had a slight headache and my stomach felt off. Who knows if that was just nerves or if I got a touch of something (I lean toward the latter, as I now have some sneezing and congestion), but again, I can’t think that had any negative impact on Sunday’s race. Overall, my body seemed to feel a little better than it did last year the week leading up to the marathon, so I can’t complain.

I paid attention to an increased percentage of carbohydrate consumption for the last few days before the marathon, and was able to get a couple nights of better than normal sleep last week (But still stayed up later than I should have watching the Tigers lose). My diet on Saturday was to eat as many carbs as possible to try to get to 10g per kg of body weight in the 24 hours before race time (based on some articles I have read advocating that carb loading strategy). I kept a pretty good log and just about reached my goal, which was helped by reading the spaghetti package correctly that it was 9 servings per package instead of 2 like I erroneously read last year (and ended up eating 13.5 servings of pasta when I thought it was 3). Saturday night I decided to record the baseball game and go to bed early, but some relatives were over so I didn’t get to bed until about 10:00, and then kept checking my phone for the score. My alarm was set for 3:45AM, but my oldest son woke up from a bad dream which woke me up at 3:00. I tried to go back to sleep, but it was pointless so I got out of bed to get ready.

Race Morning:

I followed my pre-race plan, which was to finish my water by 4:00AM so that I had time before the race start at 7 to let it go through my system, and finish coffee and breakfast by 4:30. For breakfast I had the same thing I often do - a banana, some Greek yogurt mixed with granola and strawberries, and juice. My ride was arriving at 5:30 so I had time to make sure I had everything together and use the bathroom a few times. I was a little nervous about the passport thing since they were so adamant at the expo that you had to bring it to the race with you. I assumed that was just overkill, but of course was paranoid that they were checking IDs to get into the corrals. I was going to wear my wife’s running belt to store it in, but she couldn’t find it and so I gave in and decided to put it in a ziplock bag, safety pinned inside the back of my shorts. Hmmm, will it cause chafing problems? I wore Brooks Sherpa shorts with two pockets in the back that would perfectly hold two gels each (much better than pinning them to the inside of my shorts like last year), a new pair of socks, Mizuno Sayonaras with about 220 miles on them before the race, my favorite race shirt from the Corktown St Patrick’s Day 5k, and a Nike running hat to keep any possible sun off the areas of my head that don’t have quite as much (or no) protection as others. I put my HR monitor on with conductive gel and some anti-static spray to try to avoid the loss of HR data that I had last year. I also did not body-glide the HR monitor area this time, since last year the strap slid down to my stomach due to the excess body glide.

My ride was my aunt who drove me to the race last year too. This year she was running the US-only Half that didn’t start until 10:00, which was her first HM in 3 years due to nerve related pain in her leg and back. As I mentioned last year, this was really cool to me because as a kid I have fond memories of going down to Detroit in the early morning to watch her race the marathon (a former 3:08 marathoner who came in 6^th one year) - never expecting the opposite to occur. (And another aside, it is kind of conflicting seeing her go from working to beat 3:00 in a FM to now being happy that she can run a 2:30+ HM without too much pain. As people have mentioned before, you have to ask what your goal is, just to get the next PR? Or do you just enjoy running?)

I only live about 15 minutes away from the start, so we got down there to our reserved parking spot not too far away (another perk of going down with my aunt is that her husband is a retired police officer who now runs security for the parking lots near the Tigers’ stadium). We walked to the starting area to the rather empty corrals just after 6:00, and hung out there for a little while just watching the people fill in. I was near the 4:00 pacer at first trying to see if I could find Dave (DetroitTigerFan) to wish him good luck (but after reading his RR I see that he didn’t get there until after 6:30 and I had already moved on by then). When I didn’t see anyone I recognized, I thought it would be a good time to hit the porta-potties before they got too crowded, and close enough to the start where hopefully I wouldn’t need to go again. I have learned from previous years that the best ones to go to are the ones closest to, or past the starting line. Since of course everyone is lining up behind the starting line, any porta john there will be packed. At, or past the starting line (especially since it is also the finish line and so there were many still on the other side) were essentially deserted. I didn’t have to wait at all as there were more than one that was empty. I went back to the start area and my aunt and I wished each other good luck. I took a deep breath and went to line up near the 3:45 pacer and see if I could find Rebecca (or Reebs… I was going to ask what her preferred real life name was, but forgot), a sub-4 Donut member who was hoping for a 3:45 BQ. I thought it would be nice to run with someone for part of the race, especially the beginning where I would be tempted to go too fast. And, it would be cool if in any way I could help someone toward their time goal. It didn’t seem like she was there yet, and then all of a sudden I heard someone say, “Nick?” We chatted for a few minutes waiting for the race to start, and then all of a sudden the wave of wheel chair/hand cyclists was off and the marathon had officially begun. I never had met anyone from the Donut group in person, so I was a little nervous, “do you act like you have known them for a while, or do you act like you have just met?” But, it was nice to put a moving face to the still profile pictures of FB or the forums. Now I think it would be fun to meet the rest of you at some race in the future if my schedule would ever allow it to work out.

As we inched closer to the starting line I took a few sips from the 16oz water bottle that I was going to carry in my hand until at least mile 6 (my first water since 4:00AM). At this point I still wasn’t sure what my goal time or pace was going to be. If everything went how I imagined it, my plan was to try to run about 8:30 miles (on the watch, 8:35 on the course) until somewhere around mile 8 when we crossed back into Detroit through the tunnel, probably running with the 3:45 pace group and Rebecca. But, if for some reason the pace group didn’t run at the expected pace, and if Rebecca wanted to hang back, then I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Based on how the training cycle went, I really thought I had the endurance to run a little faster than a 3:45 pace. But then, maybe that was just in my optimistic head, and speeding up would mean I was running 12 min miles at the end like last year. I had re-read the section in the Hansons book on changing your goal pace. They essentially said not to do it. That if that time was going to make you happy at the beginning of your training cycle, then why would it not now? Their quote was, “Run the race you trained for.” The thing is, I really wasn’t sure what race I did train for. In the beginning of the training cycle, I met all of the 3:45 paces without killing myself, but they definitely were not easy. I think maybe running the 5k speed portion a little faster than I should have made the other days harder, but I made it through. But a couple of weeks after the Speed portion was over, everything started to feel real easy. Most of my MP runs were in the 8:15-8:25 range, and the Strength runs (MP-10) were in the 8:05-8:15 range. Looking in the book, my easy runs were closer to the 3:40 paces than the 3:45 paces. I guess that could just mean I was running them too fast, but I didn’t think so. If my training cycle actually prepared me properly, and the training paces were an indication of the race I was training for, then a 3:42 would probably be a good goal. That would be an 8:28/mile course pace or an 8:22-8:23 Garmin pace. Of course the big ‘If” was if how the training paces felt was any indication of whether my endurance was enough to keep that pace for 26.2 miles. Maybe my endurance to speed was really bad, as my 10k PR to last year’s marathon time would tell me, and so it wouldn’t work out? I guess, “trust the training?”

Last year it seemed like I was waiting forever to cross the starting line after the first wave started. This time I was thinking, “It’s time to run already?” All of a sudden with about 2:38 on the clock, we crossed the starting line, I started my watch (which I usually do just past the start so at the finish I can stop it a little past the finish line and not be turning off the watch in any finish photos) and we were running!

(Times shown are course mile times, not GPS pace times)

Miles 1-3, 8:40 / 8:32 / 8:41 –

Well, remember that plan to run with everyone at 3:45 pace for the first 8 miles, yeah, that plan fell apart about a half mile in. There was a little more congestion that I had expected or remembered from last year and although we were following the 3:45 pace group with his big ‘8:35’ sign in the air, looking at my watch I saw we were running at about an 8:50 pace. (bitching about this pacer will become a theme) I never really felt that I was a person that needed a slow warmup, and because I was concerned that the bridge may be even slower with congestion, I wanted to pass the 3:45 group to try to get back on an 8:30 pace. As I looked back to see what Rebecca thought about passing the group, immediately I heard, “Go ahead, don’t worry about me.” So I weaved through the group into the open space beyond, assuming that I was probably alone. I felt pretty selfish at that point, hoping that she would get that BQ in order to let my conscience off the hook, but also thinking that I was probably giving myself too much credit that I would even be able to run consistent splits, and so she might be better off on her own.

Mile 1 was done a little slower than I would have hoped, but I really didn’t have a firm goal in mind, so it didn’t bother me. And I was ahead of the 3:45 pace group so I definitely shouldn’t worry about the lost time if I was going to come in below that. And, “It was damn MILE 1, quit thinking and relax!” Mile 2 uneventfully came and went, right on my expected pace. I started to think about how easy the pace felt in comparison to back during those training miles. It seemed easy, but with the excitement of the beginning of the race, that meant nothing. It is always a struggle to know how your training has prepared you, and I guess I wouldn’t know the answer until the finish came. Mile 3 started as we began to wind up the approach to the bridge. I wanted to stay on the inside to take the most efficient route, but that was also where the slower people were congregating. It still seemed better to have to go around a few people on the inside than take the longer route on the outside, so I stayed there. I said, “Good morning!” to a few border patrol agents, but they didn’t seem in a mood to talk unless it was to tell you to keep your number visible. Just as I was passing one of them, he sprinted into the crowd of racers yelling, “Sir in the green jacket! Where is your number!?” I didn’t want to get tackled so I proudly showed my blue bib to every person in uniform that I saw near the bridge and the tunnel.

Winding up the bridge (obviously later when it was more light out):

I have run over the bridge in this race a few times before (two were HM) and I always thought that crossing over the bridge into Canada with the sun coming up was just an awesome sight and the best part of the race. This year though, it didn’t give me that same feeling. I think that by crossing the bridge about 5 minutes earlier than last year, and with the increased cloud cover, there just wasn’t enough light yet to make that awe-inspiring sunrise. I actually was a little sad at that point because I had been looking forward to that sunrise all week. I just hoped that the people 5 minutes behind me appreciated the view.

As expected, the mile going up the bridge became slower and more congested, but it wasn’t too bad and I knew I would make up some of that time on the downhill. At this point the 3:45 pacer had caught me and tried to pass a couple times. I took that as my cue that I was running too slowly and so I sped up to make sure I was a couple steps ahead of the charging 3:45 sign. This is the first time I decided to take a look at the HR on my watch, wondering how it was doing on the uphill. I like to run with a HR monitor, but try not to look at the HR during a race since everything I have read says that the crowds, excitement, etc. of a race can cause your HR to not behave in the same manner as during your training runs, and therefore using a HR monitor as a guide in a race can be a bad thing. Even so, with all of the MP miles that I have run on the Hansons plan, I knew what I would expect my HR to be at and I wondered how it was faring in the race, especially on the uphill. So when I took a glance (thinking that it would be around 135) and saw 142 at that point, it scared me shitless. I knew I shouldn’t have looked at it, but since I did, and I wanted to average in the upper 120’s for at least the first 10 miles, I decided to not race that 3:45 pace sign anymore up the hill.

On the bridge the wind really picked up. Earlier in the week they were forecasting a, “gusty,” day, but that forecast was tempered by the time Sunday actually came. The winds were supposed to be about 11mph, but over the bridge they were definitely higher that 11mph, as I had to hold my bib and hat on so they wouldn’t blow away. Hopefully this will only be an issue here on the bridge, and we won’t feel anything similar on the ground later in the race.

Miles 4-7, 8:23 / 8:29 / 8:17 / 8:29 –

On the way down the other side of the bridge the crowd sped up and the congestion eased. In fact, at this point it seemed like everyone was passing me. The 3:45 pace group passed me, and that would be the last time I saw them up close until the end of mile 18. Unlike mistakes I have made in the past, I was determined to only speed up slightly on the downhill letting my HR settle down to its normal range. Once I saw the HR back down to 119, I knew that the higher readings on the uphill weren’t going to cause an early demise. Crossing into Canada is always one of my favorite parts, as they always have a local radio personality on the microphone heckling the runners as they pass.

I wasn’t sure what to do at this point, since the idea to stick with the 3:45 pace group wasn’t quite working out as they seemed to be moving at an 8:15 clip. But, since I could see that sign in the distance, it kept pulling me toward it trying to tell me to run faster. It seemed like every time I wasn’t paying attention, I would look down at my watch and see an 8:15. Then I would slow down to try to get to the 8:20’s, but of course that damn pace group would try to suck me in again. Jenny Ward asked how I knew that going faster than my plan during these miles wouldn’t cause me trouble later, and although I really had no idea if I was screwing myself or not, now that I think back, it was noticing that my HR was still in my normal MP run zone even though the Garmin was telling me I was running a couple seconds per mile faster than when I did those MP runs (and although my initial MP goal was 8:30, I did those runs over the last 4 weeks at 8:19, 8:15, 8:18, and 8:24 paces). So I had the balance of my body wanting to speed up to catch the pacer, but my watch telling me to slow down. Then the HR info came in and told me that maybe it was ok if I ran just a little faster than what I had planned. (Or maybe I was interpreting it that way because that was what I wanted to hear?)

Somewhere around this point I could feel my leg muscles getting a little tight. I had some issues over the last couple weeks where my calves or hamstrings or quads would feel kind of tight, but this was different as it seemed that all of the muscles in both of my legs were tight. It worried me some, and there was nothing really I could to other than hope it didn’t cause any problems later in the race.

The Canadian part of the race is always fun because it is now light out, and there is a pretty decent amount of crowd support along the water. A freighter went by while I listened to the guy next to me talk about his days in the shipping business, and then exclaim, “Why in the hell is that 3:45 pacer running so fast?” At this point the race was already 5.5 mile old and so it was time to take my first Clif Shot. I was feeling lazy and thought about putting it off, but decided I should stick to the plan. I had been running with a water bottle to this point so that I could wash down the gel here, rather than waiting almost another mile.

The rest of the Canadian part of the race was pretty uneventful, except for my poor tangent running at a couple points because they changed where the course turned toward the tunnel due to some construction. We hit mile 7 right at the entrance to the tunnel, and headed inside for a GPS free mile.

Miles 8-11, 8:19 / 8:17 / 8:29 / 8:26 –

Running through the tunnel without pace info really makes me realize how dependent I am on that thing. I felt kind of lost, but running on feel with my HR as an indication whether I am going too fast worked out fine. The one thing that does suck is the way the Garmin watch deals with the loss of GPS signals. On my 310XT, it used to just pick up the signal when I exited the tunnel and then just draw a straight line from the last point it knew you were before the signal was lost. Then last year, after a software upgrade on the watch, for some reason that changed and when it loses the GPS signal it just pretends like that mileage didn’t exists and starts counting again once it gets a GPS lock. I was hoping that was some glitch, and running with my wife’s 910XT with updated software would make it behave like the 310XT used to, but no luck. When I exited the tunnel the watch pretended that I hadn’t run that underwater mile. Fortunately I had the watch on manual splits, so when I hit the 8 mile point I knew what my time split was.

As I remember, the warmth going through the tunnel is welcome at first, but by the end it is a little warmer than ideal. Exiting the tunnel was a little of a shock as the air seemed to instantly turn to a 40deg breeze.

Now back outside in Detroit, I was hoping to find my aunt waving to me like she did during last year’s race, but it turned out that she went back to the car to rest before her race started. I did see a guy I work with on the side of the road cheering for his wife, and as I looked around it was pretty cool to see this stretch of the course completely packed with spectators. I felt pretty good the next few miles, except that tight leg feeling hadn’t gone away and maybe was a little worse. Again, it hadn’t slowed me down so there was nothing to do but just hope it was nothing. This portion of the race route was a little disappointing because again they had to make some road construction related changes. Instead of some of the nicer neighborhoods of Corktown with people having parties on their lawns, or at least using the race as a reason to drink beer at 9:00 on a Sunday morning by themselves on their front porch, the race took us along nondescript main roads. And even more disappointing, the mariachi band in Mexican Town that was my favorite musical attraction in years past was replaced with a generic cover band.

I still hadn’t caught the 3:45 pacer, but at one point after the 3:45 pace group ran by I heard a spectator say, “Ok, those people are running at a 8:35 pace, Joe should be by soon.” I yelled to them, “That guy is running way faster than 8:35.” After I said that, about ten other people around me started complaining too. I guess at least the bad pacer will help me make some friends!

As I crossed the 10 mile mat, I wondered what the Donuts, glued to the tracking website on their computers (of course), would think of the progress so far.

Miles 12-15, 8:23 / 8:27 / 8:30 / 8:21 - Had my second Cliff Shot at the 11.2 mile aid station, and was still feeling pretty good as the crowds started getting a little thicker since we were nearing the end for all of the half marathoners. As the HM runners peeled off to head toward their finish, I heard a guy yell, “OK, we dropped the kids off, now lets run!” It made me want to pick up the pace for a moment, but then I thought that would not be the smartest thing.

I crossed the 13.1 point at 1:50:45 (the tracking website says 1:51:25 for some reason, but that is definitely wrong). I was excited that I was almost two minutes under the pace for 3:45, but I also was worried that my excitement now would go away when I was dying in the end of the race. I seemed to remember a very similar feeling last year at the same point. The only thing I had on my side was that I felt my training cycle was much better this year as I put in more miles and was more consistent without the small injuries I had the previous year. And, again, I had the HR monitor that still told me that my HR was in a decent range for that point.

To tell you the truth though, I wasn’t feeling as good as I remembered feeling the year before. I wasn’t feeling bad, but with the legs continuing to feel tight, I definitely wasn’t feeling great.

I started talking to a guy around the 14-15 mile mark for a while who was running his first marathon. We had talked earlier in the race about, of course what that pacer was thinking, and that was the first topic again as we ran east. I remember discussing how my legs were still tighter than I would like them to be, and how both of us were running a little faster than we had planned, but if we blew up at the end that we could just blame it on the pacer running too fast. I wish I remembered his number to look up how he did. At that point I was thinking he would probably finish stronger than me.

Miles 16-19, 8:24 / 8:27 / 8:29 / 8:27 –

On the way to mile marker 16, a guy ran out into the road in front of me to help get a long sleeve shirt that a woman didn’t need any longer, and I realized it was the guy I work with, Tom, that I had seen exiting the tunnel. He was helping his wife who was running her first marathon and trying to BQ at 3:55 (since she would be 45 by the 2015 race). I yelled to him and he cheered me on. I thought it would be fun to run with his wife for a little while to tell her embarrassing work related stories about Tom that he probably had not shared with her, but she slowed down to finish her outfit change and I passed them. I talked to him later and he said that she made it with a 3:47, but he felt a little bittersweet about it since he has tried 10 times to BQ and hasn’t made it yet while she got it on her first shot. I did find out that his 5k time is 19:00, so it looks like I know who my target is for that sub 19 goal!

Just passed Mile Marker 16:

I took my 3rd Cliff Shot at the 16.2 mark just before we made a left turn north into Indian Village. The “first marathon guy” was still near me, and as we continued to run, we realized that we were gaining a little ground on the 3:45 pace team ahead. Hmm..., we thought, “If we catch him, do we pass him and ruin our ‘running too fast’ excuse?”

Now is where the race begins to feel real. Last year this is the stretch where I started to have doubts and when I started to realize that I was running too fast. Around mile 17, the course goes only very slightly uphill. The type of incline that you don’t really notice at all except if you are getting tired (or pushing a double jogging stroller). Well, last year that is when it started to feel tougher than it should have been at that point. This year, I was expecting that maybe I was running too fast, and something similar would happen. I kept waiting, and the pace still felt fine, we made a couple rights and started heading South toward the water, and I knew that I was going to last longer than I had last year before I died. Definitely a confidence boost there.

As I came up on Mile 18, I finally caught the 3:45 pace group, and looking at the pace leader’s splits, it looked like they had slowed down a little during this stretch. I thought for a moment about just staying with them, but my legs kept moving at the same speed I was going and the next thing I know I had passed them. Right before mile 19 last year is when I thought I had better slow down to keep the 4:00 possibility, this time, even though it coincided with the first stretch that was heading west into the wind, I didn’t feel compelled to slow down.

Miles 20-23, 8:16 / 8:24 / 8:27 / 8:23 –

We crossed the bridge to Belle Isle, and could feel some cross wind, but not too bad. Off of the bridge we made a left turn and wow, all of a sudden everything just felt super easy as we approached the 20 mile marker. I had stopped worrying about my legs since I didn’t notice the tightness any more, and I had paid less attention to the HR on my watch as it continued to increase after the halfway point. At this point I was in uncharted territory of course since the MP miles in training only went up to 10 miles (I guess I did 11 once). Now I was just looking to make sure the HR was not at my Max HR or something and thinking that if it was creeping into half marathon range then that was probably just fine since I only had a 10k to go. When we crossed the 20 mile mat I had a smile on my face and was thinking about what the Donuts were going to going to be thinking with that time, “He is doing great, if he can keep that pace up and not die in the end.” I think the guy standing there with the timing equipment was wondering what in the hell I was smiling about.

Just as I was thinking that I had gotten my second wind, well we made a gradual 180 to go back around the island and I realized that yeah, it was the wind all right that made going the other way so easy, but unfortunately now we were headed into that wind. I thought back to the weather forecast that I kept looking at leading up to the race, and how it talked about 11-13mph winds. Well, this sure seemed stronger than that! (After the race, I looked at the actual weather data and saw that the wind on Belle Isle, during the time I was there which was somewhere around 9:50, was up to about 20mph sustained, 27mph wind gusts!) I kept moving and asked some of the guys at the next aid station if they wanted to run with me to block the wind. They declined, so I kept on by myself. A couple times I tried to hide behind some other runners to block the wind for me, but they were either taking bad course tangents, or just going too slow, so I just sucked it up and had to ignore the wind as best I could.

Actual Belle Isle Wind during the race:

This is the point last year where it really started to get hard and I knew I wasn’t going to reach my goal. Every step I took to the finish this year remembering how I felt last year was just another huge confidence booster. I had kept thinking in the back of my mind that if I felt good after mile 20, that maybe I would pick up the pace if I could. I wanted to, but I knew that with the wind in my face for much of the last 10k, I probably should just aim for keeping the same pace unless I felt really good the last couple miles. We did get a reprieve from the wind for a short while as we rounded the island back to the bridge, but I knew as soon as we made a left turn off of the bridge it would be back, but hopefully not as bad as being open and exposed on the island.

I took my last Cliff Shot before the 21.6 aid station and think I smeared less on my face than I did last year, so another positive stop in the right direction! And then started up the bridge incline to leave the island. I was in a good mood, but when I heard some spectator say, “Last hill of the day!” I wanted to slap her and tell her to shut up. I know that there was a real short hill up to the 25 mile marker still waiting that normally didn’t seem like much, but at almost 25 miles, I had been thinking about how I would feel on that hill all day long. We made a left off of the bridge, and here comes the wind again…

Miles 24-26.2, 8:12 / 8:40 / 8:24 / 8:22  -

It is awesome just thinking back to this stretch and comparing it to how I felt last year. I think that I only got passed by one guy in the last 6 miles, and was just flying by a lot of people. For the people that looked like they were having a real tough time, I felt really bad, but I had been there before and instead tried to think about myself feeling good instead of how bad they must feel. I wanted to say, “Keep working,” or something like that, but I know although some people like the encouragement, others would want to hit me, so I just shut up and ran.

Just after the 23 mile mark, I saw Tom from work again who was waiting to run some of the last three miles with his wife. He yelled, “Go Nick!, You’re doing awesome! Only a 5k left, that’s nothing!” That really pumped me up and along with his words of encouragement we happen to take a left turn out of the direct wind path and down a slight decline toward the water. I looked down at my watch and saw I was running at a 7:45 pace, thinking, “Wow, I really feel good now, I might have a 7 minute something mile in here, WTF! Anyway I could keep this up for the rest of the race? A 5k really is nothing, right?”
Of course after the slight downhill was over and we turned partially back into the wind, I realized that I wasn’t going to finish that mile as fast as I had fantasized, and again, just hanging on to my pace was going to be tough work by itself. I did end up with my fastest mile of the day for Mile 24, but maybe I should have saved some of that energy for sprinting to the finish.

After I passed the 24 mile marker, my legs started to finally start to give out on me. For the last 4 miles I had been thinking that maybe it would never get real hard to keep this pace going and maybe I would be able to throw a couple real fast miles in there at the end. At this point I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I though back to last year again, and thought that this is about how I felt at mile 21 there and I really slowed down at that point. But, here, instead of 5 miles left where I was demoralized because my goal wasn’t going to be reached, I knew I only had about 2 miles to go and I should be able to gut it out without losing too much speed. And besides, I didn’t want to look bad to the folks watching back home. As the effort became more difficult, I felt I had to be losing some on my previous pace, but as we turned up that final hill to mile 25 that I had been thinking about earlier, I realized that I was going slower but still passing people – and half of the people seemed to be walking up that hill. I passed that 25 mile marker seeing a 8:40 split, encouraged that I didn’t lose as much time as I expected. At that point I knew I had enough to just finish without slowing even if there wouldn’t be any sprinting going on.

Finally I could see the finish, and although I knew there wasn’t going to be anyone I knew cheering for me this year, It still was nice to see the mass of people there to watch the end. I crossed the finish line and said aloud, “I am glad the finish came when it did, I don’t think I had anything left.” A woman finishing next to me turned and gave me a high five saying, “We did it!” I thought  to myself, “Yeah, we actually did.” Really, until that point I didn’t know what was going to happen. Final time: 3:41:02, a 28 second negative split and 27 minute PR.

After that I wanted to go watch the finish to see how Dave (DTF) and Rebecca finished, but I knew I wasn’t going to make it out of the finishing area in time. It was also frustrating that I didn’t have my phone on me and couldn’t even do any results stalking. So, I got some bananas, carrots, water, and granola bars, had my finisher picture taken since the line was pretty short, and walked to the car to change my shirt and grab my phone and money for a post-race beer. The beer tasted good (and went down better than last year’s), and then I watched my aunt finish her half marathon. I met her at the bag check area, and although she really didn’t want to talk about her time, she was absolutely ecstatic about mine. As we walked back to the car she asked me, “So what time do you want to shoot for next year?” I responded with, “Not going to do one next year,” but my brain was thinking, “Hmmmm…..”

(6078 entries, 4292 finishers)

Overall: 498/4292, Males: 402/2424, 35-39AG: 64/388

Summary:

The bottom line is that I really don’t know how I could have run a better race. I keep thinking that maybe I could have sucked it up a little more at the end and finished a little quicker, or maybe if I was more consistent in my splits I might have been more efficient. But really, if anything, we are talking about maybe 10-20 seconds and there are plenty more things that I could have done worse to lose more time than that. I know I have heard that a marathon is not a place you expect to see your Max HR, but after about mile 11, my HR increased almost linearly until I crossed the finish line right at my Max HR of 169. Every time I think I should have sprinted at the end, I look at that and think, “How?”

HR Graph:

I am curious what I would have done if I was running that race by myself with no influence from the 3:45 pacer. Would I have gone slower at the beginning? Or would I have pretty much ran the same race that I did anyway? Considering that when I did pass him and lose my excuse for why I was running a little faster than I had planned, I still kept running at about the same pace so maybe it would have turned out the same anyway. Or maybe, I would have run a couple seconds per mile slower and had a little more energy to pick it up in the end? If so, it might not have really mattered and I would have ended up at about the same time anyway. I guess in any scenario, I don’t think I would have started any faster than what I did, and that would have been the one thing that would have really hurt me.

Hansons vs Pfitz:

I really don’t know. I can tell you that this year’s training was much more enjoyable than last year. That was partly because I was better prepared, which was a big reason why this year for the most part, I didn’t have the small injuries that slowed down my training last year. I hit 1500 miles for the year during the marathon this year, while last year I hit 1000 miles during the race. So obviously, not only was this my second marathon training cycle, but I ran 50% more in the year than I did the previous time. So for just those reasons I should

have had a better race.

I can tell you though, that for the most part, I loved the amount of MP miles in the Hansons plan. Especially for someone like me where I expected to improve a lot, but after that really didn’t know how fast I should run, the feedback of all of the MP work was awesome. Of course, that was all assuming that the plan would really work and that because I felt good during those MP miles it would translate into being able to run that pace during the race. I mean, how could I argue considering my effort to review my training log paces, to tell me that I probably could do 3:42 in the race and then finish within a minute of that at 3:41? That is the biggest thing that I felt was really missing from the Pfitz plan for a new marathoner like me not really sure of what I could do. Of course there was some MP work in that plan, and the tune up races are there to try to tell you what type of shape you are in, but if you hadn’t done many (or any) marathon cycles in the past then what do you compare those time to? And how do you really know that your shorter race times to marathon ratio will be consistent from year to year? Also, a lot of the Pfitz plan had pretty wide possible pace ranges, and so it was hard to tell if I was going to be able to hit my target or not. I am sure that for someone who has run more marathons and has a good idea of the time they are looking to meet, or has run more training cycles, that would be fine, but for me the MP stuff and the confidence it gave me was great. In fact, I didn’t want the training cycle to end because I was afraid that the confidence was false confidence and when the race came, if I failed, then I would have to live with that frustrating feeling for a long time.

And wow, the recovery compared to last year has been great too, I assumed having to do with the increased miles. I haven’t run yet but pretty much after Wednesday I had no soreness left. The first couple days I was still sore and run down, but after that I felt good quickly. I assume that has to do a lot with the increased mileage, but maybe also to do with your body getting used to MP? I knew it was a good thing when I ran my peak week with 3 days running longer than half marathon distance within a 5 day period with a large portion on the miles around marathon pace (Tues 14 miles avg near 8:35, Thurs 16 miles with 10 at 8:15, and Sun 18 miles with the last 13.1 at 8:26) and only needing about a day each time of recovery to feel fine again.

I can say that the one thing that I missed from the Pfitz plan was the tune-up races. I really enjoy the race atmosphere with all of the people, etc., and so going most of the training cycle without doing any races left me feeling like something was missing. I know that the tune up races do result in a higher probability of injury, but still, I missed them.

What’s Next:

Well, who knows. 19:00 5k? I would really like to break 1:40 in the HM, but I think it is going to be at least 2015 before I do another marathon. I have a bunch of things that I put on the back burner this last summer (home improvements, etc.) due to the marathon training time, and I don’t want to do that again next year. I also promised my wife that I would run less and spend some of that time biking with her. I still though would like to increase my overall mileage next year in comparison to this year despite not going through a marathon training cycle. This year I will probably end up somewhere between 1700-1800 miles, 500-600 more than last year. Next year I think 2000 total would be a good goal, but in order to get close to that I need to not be lazy this winter like I seem to be every year.

Oh, and in case anyone is interested in what the pace was for that 3:45 pace guy, he finished in 3:44:06, but this isn’t exactly what I would call a model pacing strategy:

Nick - great race review and congratulations again !! My thoughts

- lol at the pacer - I hear you - last year I heard the 4 hr pacer slowed up to help someone in the group.  Next thing you know, this gal pacer is just booking off the belle isle bridge to catch up. She flew by me last year and I was crushed, but then I heard she was catching up

- Hansons - your thoughts on topping out with only a 16 mile long run ? are you a believer in this?

- Sorry I missed you too ! I hung out by the restrooms near coral H on Ft Street just in case, then went into D at 6:30 - I  forgot reebs was there ! I hope she did well too !

- The customs thing was a worry, but many runners don't bring them. I mean - I doubt the first place guy had one. I guess as long as their bib is visible - to add to that, I heard folks asking at the expo if they are allowed water bottles and were being told "no" by the volunteers - i'm like are you kidding me? I know they also said no backpacks but they also in bold say "its up to each runner"  Nice - nothing like a mixed message

- LOL at the mariachi band - I was wondering where they were too !!!  ps - did you see the crushed m&m's on the ground?

- LOL at the heart rate monitor that tends to slide down to the stomach - I had that happen once and its so annoying. I didn't bring mine for races - I mentally feel I run faster - lol

- great idea to go manual mode in the tunnel - at least I could see what my time was in the middle and adjust - I ran it slow

- so did you only use clif shots? how many total did you use (I think I counted only 3?) what fluids did you use too on course?

- LOL at the mile 25 mini hill and wanting to smack the person !!! who put that hill there ???!!!

- did you see the all USA clothing dude pre-race? - looks like Rex from Napoleon Dynamite - I think hes a royal oak guy - I've seen him at 10k's before

- Belle Isle - ugggh that wind !!!!

- which Hanson's plan did you use - beg/adv ?

PS - do you mind if I use some of your generic on course shots for my race review on my blog?.  I usually publish my running blog/diary into a hard cover book. It's a nice souvenir and fun to read all the stories from training this year. Loved the Belle Isle wind pic !!!

Nice job Nick - again, congrats on the huge PR - make sure to rest up and also celebrate !!!!

Awesome and very thorough race report, Nick.  Congrats again!  You did a great job pacing.  I loved all the pics.

I am seriously considering giving Hansons a shot for my next round.

Wow Nick! That is awesome. Glad I came back and read your report. Amazing race!