Notes
Race Weekend:
I think my training leading up to this was spot on. The last month or so has felt a bit like a mess leading up to this - with stress, the foot injury, battling sickness, not sleeping a ton, etc etc. My travel getting out her was also pretty awful - flight diverted to allentown on friday night, then getting canceled, having to drive to Newark Saturday before getting a flight, all while not really being sure that I was going to be able to race because I wasn't going to get there in time to pick up my packet. Meanwhile my gut went nuts started around 10am on Saturday. I didn't get settled at Pat's until around 7pm and had the sniffles. I didn't really think about the race in that exciting kind of way until I laid down to go to sleep around 10pm, which was quite different from my typical experience of getting pumped up before a big race.
Day of: I woke up just before 4am and did a slow 10 minute jog. Came back and had a glass of water and plain oatmeal. I laid back down for a bit then had another glass and took the train to the race around 5:30. I got to the park at 6:15 or so. It was awesome to be in that tent with all those amazing runners, some of the best in the country! Saw Jim Akita too. Warmed up for 10 minutes at 6:40, had a half a granola bar and some of the gatorade they had - mostly because I was nervous and bored. By 7:05 they lined us all up to take us to the start. This was kind of stressful because I was pretty far back and they didn't bring us up to front but didn't tell us what was going on. Turns out that we had to wait for a few other groups to start before we could go to the front. Once on the line though it was awesome. I was right next to the elite start, Tera Moody was next to me, Deena Kastor in front of her. Sara Hall was there (saw Ryan Hall out on the course a couple of times).
Race:
The race started out really fast. But I felt super relaxed. 5:10 or so at the first mile. Slowed up a bit and let people pass me. 5:20 for the next mile, then 5:25. Heading north again I was hitting roughly 5:20/mile and just behind the female leaders. They pulled ahead, though my splits stayed even. I hit 6 miles at 32:00 on the button. I eventually caught up with two guys looking to run 2:22, so I drafted off them for a bit, but they ran a 5:30 mile so I passed them. It was more or less a desert for a huge chunk of the race. Coming back through downtown this was a challenge since I couldn't draft off any one. At each water stop I took in gatorade. I felt tired at the half and was starting to settling into a slower pace (I was also having trouble remembering splits). I knew that I wasn't going to be able to hold my pace, but I thought I could hold 5:30s or so.
The second half got really tough pretty quick. I was good through 15 and I was slowly moving my way up towards the lead women. I had passed a few more men too. I passed them just after 15 and held up for another half mile before getting a really bad stomach cramp. I couldn't keep my posture upright and was having trouble breathing. My miles slowed significantly and I got passed by a few people and the women drew ahead quickly. I kept calculating how much I was slowing and whether or not I would still break 2:30. I was having more trouble tracking mile splits and felt like I had slowed to over 6min pace. I got a mile split around 20 and realized I was running 5:45 pace, which was faster than I thought. I recalculated, and was thinking 2:28 finish. I started feeling much better and got to 5:40, then faster. The course stopped going south (into a strong headwind, again no one to draft off) and I was feeling much better, even started catching folks that had just passed me. The last mile and a half were a breeze and I closed apparently at 5:16 pace.
Splits:
5K 0:15:33 16:33 5:20
10K 0:33:11 16:38 5:22
15K 0:50:06 16:55 5:27
20K 1:07:00 16:54 5:27
HALF 1:10:48 3:48 5:34
25K 1:24:00 17:00 5:27
30K 1:42:14 18:14 5:53
35K 1:59:55 17:41 5:42
40K 2:17:20 17:25 5:37
Finish 2:24:31 7:11 5:16
Reflections:
I almost had a catastrophe of a day. I was happy that I pulled it together and salvaged my race. I ran a 1:10:48/1:13:43, which aren't terrible splits. Obviously I would have been much happier to have split closer to 1:11/1:11, but it wasn't the day for that. I think the cramp may have been from too much gatorade too early in the race. I should have stuck with more water early then moved up. The other big challenge for me during the race was alone I was. I started quick, then settled into the pace I wanted while others kept that faster pace. The women's race I tried to avoid drafting off and there was a big gap between me and anybody else. This was totally different from last time where we had a big group that stuck together through 20 or so. I think had I settled in with a group at 5:23 pace or so from the get go I would have been much better served and held on through a much faster finish. The wind had a pretty big impact too. The times today seemed pretty slow - the winners at 2:09 rather than 2:05 as in past years. So maybe on another day my time would have been faster (it was also a bit hot by the end). I was super happy that I dug myself out of the hole and held on mentally through the last 5 miles. My last 2 miles were the best, passing lots of people, feeling engaged. My boost at 18 was spurred by the Gel (caffeinated). I grabbed a strawberry and held this until 22. They helped tremendously - psychologically and physically.
My foot hurt at the end of the race and today (Monday) it is still sore. My legs are pretty shot and I won't be running today or tomorrow. I think next time I would do pretty much everything the same leading up to the race (excluding the nightmare of travel). I liked my relaxed warm-up, no real strides. Maybe I would work some dynamic stretching in. I did go out too fast, but I'm not sure that's what made me suffer later in the race. I think a faster 1st mile is inevitable, it's the 2nd mile that needs to get reigned in. 5:20s felt perfect though. I'm circling around here, because I'm not sure exactly what caused the drop around 15 - obviously it was the cramping that slowed me down, but more importantly is what caused the cramp. Though even when the cramp went away I was still moving rather slow. Maybe I'm not a 2:20 marathoner? Maybe I am and today wasn't my day? I think I am - I just need to hold it together. Overall, an interesting race with a huuuge boost to my confidence. I ran a 2:23:26 six years ago in a totally different race. Just 2 seconds/mi difference. I gave those seconds up in a single 5k yesterday.