Notes
First off, I know I have a better marathon in me and no matter the explanation for the time it all feels like an excuse. The weather and the time of day (or night) were a factor for me but I think the time is more reflective of my in experience than anything else. Leading up to this race I had the disappointment of last year’s training and the terrible result at SmuttyNose hanging over me and I needed to get that bad taste out of my mouth. After surgery to remove the cysts in my foot in January, I knew that a Spring Marathon didn’t make sense because of the recovery time but I also wanted to have a reason for training. ATL become the purpose. After getting the green light to run again in mid February I’m not sure I’ve ever been happier to run. After a few months of running and improving, I worked with L Train to put a training schedule together in order to put some structure in my life and that helped a lot. The day of the race I worked but I was very nervous. The outcome was obviously very important to me but I was surprised at how anxious I was. Doug came to the house around 5pm on Friday and we headed down to the Motherland. The traffic was much lighter for a Friday night than I had expected but we got to the course before 6:30. The scene was lot like Ghost Train and it had the Ultra Race feel. Tents, people playing frisbee, and a much more laid back vibe including the behavior of the staff. Very cool. Doug and I hang out for about 90 minutes, scope out the scene, and generally just chill. My cousin Ben (see 3:22 1st time marathoner when I ran Maine in 2012) swung by to wish me good luck, and then I ran into my cousin Amanda’s (She ran Smutty with me in 2013 and is Ben’s sister) ex boyfriend David who was running his first marathon. E & Gwen show up, then Tom and Vangie. E, Doug, and I make our way down to the starting line and the next thing I know we’e off. Doug and I had talked strategy but I told him I was staying at 8 for as long as I could but that sounded good to him. Once we start Doug is about 20 feet in front of me for the first half mile but I stay disciplined and continue to move the pace back as I running between 730 and 745. I don’t want to blow my race in the first mile so I continue to pull back. By the end of the first mile he continues to pull ahead before I finally lose touch with him. Early on it’s not cool but it doesn’t seem to bad weather wise. I just start ticking off 8s. It all feels pretty easy. At Mile 10 it seems that I can’t get anywhere near 8 and run a 8:40 or so. No worries. I probably went out to fast and I know the heat is starting to get to me. I’ll just run 8:30s for a while and maybe gain some energy. Mile 11 no better and just barely rub sub 9. Ok. I’ll just run 9 flat, i can do this. Mile 12, jus about 9. 14, 15, 16, I can’t hold on but still not super concerned. 3:30 is out of the picture unless I can some kind of energy. Throughout the entire race I feel sloshy from hydrating throughout the day and they week. It never effects my running at all but I don’t like. 18-20 gets a little ugly. High 9s and 10s. Great. I hit 20 just under 3 hours and now trying to just break my shitty PR. Soon I realize I don’t have the juice for that either. On my 7th lap I hear Egad’s voice. He looks good and it looks like he has a PR and is finishing up his last lap. He seems happy and looks strong. On my last lap I am just trying to hang on to get under 4. That wouldn’t be great but I’ve only done it once. The first mile seems fast but it’s only 9:35 and the calves are starting to cramp. A slow 25th mile and then I really start paying attention to the watch and doing the best I can to stay ahead of the 4 hour barrier. The last 5 laps are not real fun but it’s not nearly the death march that SmuttyNose was. the last part of the race I try to push it in a bit to get the sub 4 hour. While my result wasn’t great I’m glad I got under 4 if that is any consolation of silver lining. It was awesome to have Tom, Vangie, and Gwen on the course and it was boost to see them every lap. I always heard Gwen’s voice first yelling my name as I came by the finish line on each lap and that was a great shot in the arm for me. Gadman would either give me a high 5 or come over for every lap and that was pretty awesome too. I did a couple of things differently this time around I don’t what impact this had my day. I was much more focused about carbo loading then in previous. While I don’t think this had a huge impact it certainly wasn’t a negative. I also took ibuprofen at miles 10 and 20, and salt tablets at about the same time. Again, no negative effects. Lastly, I only took my energy shots 2x during the race because I felt so full from the water, gatorade, Nuun, etc. No negatives here either. A couple things stick for me during this race. First, Around the Lake is kind of a boring, shitty course. No real scenery and the the roads were busier than expected with car traffic and people walking. Often, walker would be in the way and you’d have to run around them. I didn’t like that. Two, I distinctly remember coming through after my 2nd lap and Gadman saying “Come on Scorps, only 19 to go” and thinking WTF. How I am going to run another 19 miles. third, although I was sloshy throughout I felt like I was always thirsty. I didn’t want to drink anything because I was full but I was definitely thirsty. I actually feel like this now at 10:48 am the next day. Lastly, somewhere around 18 or so I just got really really hot. I started to poor water over my head but the relief was short lived. I actually took my shirt off for the last lap and dumped water over my body again. I had set up my camp chairs along the race course and put some water, gatorade, and energy shots on the chairs, and at one point grabbed my Nuun drink, took a sip, and then dumped it over my head. I just couldn’t cool down. After I finished I wonder over to the car and Doug followed. He had stopped around 13.5 or so and helped me with Gatorade, poured me a beer, and told me about his day. I ended up lying on the ground for a few minutes and tried to get comfortable as I was tight and a little lightheaded. Tom, Vangie, Eric, and Gwen came over a few minutes later and hung out for a bit. I couldn’t really eat and barely touched my beer. It was awesome to have those guys with us and at this point it’s about 1:30 or so. Everyone went their separate ways, then Doug and I collected the chairs on the course and took off. While I wish I ran better, I’m realizing that many times these things don’t end with the result you want. In my case, my inexperience with the heat and pacing came back to bite me in the ass. But this is the same reason I wanted to run this race and learn from the experience regardless of the outcome. I’m also realizing that I like to run Marathon because of the process of training, the total race experience (before/during/after), and the fact that you get to hang out with a bunch of lunatics who enjoy the same dumbassery that you do. This was actually a lot of fun. Thanks to Vangie, Tom, and Gwen for cheering us on and to Egad and Doug for running this stupid thing with me. Time to start thinking about Bay State.