Notes
A very fun, positive first marathon experience, but more importantly, an awesome trip with Liam and Collin. So fun to travel down to Indy with those guys and even more fun that they both ran so well. Also had a surprise appearance from Jay, which resulted in almost all of my favorite humans being together at a single bar table. That was the best part of the weekend.
At the elite athlete meeting that Collin and I attended the night before, the race directors had literally put together a power point presentation about how horrible the weather was going to be, and how "good things can still happen on bad days." It was wild how many people were defeated by the weather before the race even started. The weather was actually pretty shitty, with 20 mph head wind for the second half with (supposedly) 45mph gusts and rain, but that just turned it into a race instead of a time trial, which I was fine with.
Collin and I had access to the elite athlete warm up area and indoor hospitality room, which was actually pretty clutch especially since we were able to warm up together. We did a little jogging and some strides around 7:30. In retrospect, strides probably weren't the best idea because they kinda shred glycogen, but ya live and learn. I saw Luis Orta, an Olympian from Venezuela warming up when Collin and I were doing dynamics which got me stoked. He ended up getting second and I had a nice talk with him after the race.
I got out with Austin and Jason a lot slower than the pace I was hoping to run, intentionally trying to get the build started early. We were absolutely buried...Tons of half-marathoners and over-aggressive marathoners were up there grinding, which was awesome. I was getting dropped by packs of elite women, while I was absolutely chilling, nose breathing, and having conversations. I ended up leaving Jason and Austin around mile 3 to start picking some people off. At one point, on a straight section, I could see the whole race ahead of me and it seemingly went on forever which kinda scared me, but I realized it was probably mostly half marathoners up there.
Once the half-marathoners turned off around mile 6, the road was pretty open ahead of me. At that point I started a 20 mile long grind of seeing a group ahead of me and working to catch them, only to realize once I caught them that they were dying and I needed to pass them and start working on the next group. I say grind, but that shit was actually so fun. I had no clue at that point where I was place wise, and there were quite a bit of turns so it was tough to see anyone besides the next person ahead of me that I was trying to catch.
At mile 8 we had our first elite bottle pick up, which went fine as far as the actual pick up. When I went to drink it, though, the top of the bottle kept closing back up so I couldn't get anything to come out. It was weird, and has never happened to me before. Something about the cold was creating a suction on the bottle or something that was causing it to close. I accidently ripped off the little top that pops up on the bottle trying to get it to open, and my dumb ass tried to put it back on, which resulted in me dropping the bottle and having to turn around and grab it. For my other two bottles I just intentionally ripped the top off right away because that made it way easier to drink anyway.
Around mile 10 someone told me I was in 25th place, which was really nice to know. That was a really nice section of the course with a straight road through some neighborhoods with a long downhill that I was able to use to get pretty close to a pack ahead of me that I had been working on for a while. Unfortunately, some of the people in the pack used the hill to also make their own moves and the pack disintegrated right as I was catching them.
The second half of the race was pretty lonely for me. I was still catching 1-2 people per mile, which was good, but there really weren't many spectators and we were heading into the wind which made it tough to be alone. I started incentivizing people to run with me by telling them I'd block the wind for them for a while, but they kept falling off anyway. Most everyone was absolutely dead inside by about mile 16. People ahead of me were stopping to walk as I passed them. I think people were dropping out, too, because all of a sudden around mile 20 someone told me that I was in 9th. I was feeling pretty good until about mile 21. I was definitely battling the wind, and my pace slowed after mile 13, but I still felt strong, smooth, and confident. Around mile 21, though, I started to feel like my glycogen was low...kinda lightheaded and a bit confused. I had one gel left that I was planning on taking at mile 23, but I ended up taking it right away when I started feeling that way.
With about 5k to go, the course meets back up with the half marathoners and heads towards the finish on this 3 ish mile long, straight, stretch directly into the wind. It was pretty brutal. I passed a few people on that stretch, including Blake, but I was hurting quite a bit and could no longer see anyone ahead of me. I made the decision to save some gears in case anyone passed me back, hence the 5:50 mile. With a mile to go, this guy names Fuentes that I had passed around mile 10 passed me back. I latched on and dusted him the last 400 meters. Found out after the race that he was a pro for hoka, so that was pretty cool. Ended up 6th place.
Super fun race. Time wasn't there, but the place was. Pretty sure I can run a lot faster than this. Can't wait to run another one. Looking at maybe Grandma's in June, but we'll see. I'm jotting down my fueling plan for this race below for reference, since I will need to change that a bit next time.
P.S. Thanks to Coach Spitz for the thoughtful training leading up to this race.
Start (0 miles, 0 min) - 40g, 8oz Maurten drink (50 mg caf)
4 miles, 21 min - 20g, Gu Roctane gel + water@ mi 22 (35 mg caf)
8 miles, 42 min - 40g, 8oz Maurten drink
14 miles, 1:14 - 40g, 8oz Maurten drink (50 mg caf)
20 miles, 1:45 - 40g, 8oz Maurten drink
23 miles, 2:00 - 20g, Gu Roctane gel + water@ mi 23.2 (35 mg caf)