Notes
Breakfast-
2 bananas, yogurt, hard boiled egg, Chocolate milk
Race Recap-
The week leading up to the race i only ran just over 10 miles total. I ran Tues, Wed, Thursday and Friday, but only a few miles each day. Didnt do any marathon pace work. I didnt feel well all week which i guess was due to reduced mileage and anticipation of the race. Actually slept well all week and the night before the race.
Woke up Saturday and felt better than I had felt all week. Only concern was what I would wear for the race since temps were forecast in the mid 40's with rain likely. Once I got what I would wear locked in, my mind felt much better and was ready to give it a go.
Got to AutoZone Park about 40 minutes before start. Was able to get my gear checked with no problems and no wait. The volunteers did a great job helping. It was about 3 minute walk to the start line. Left on a pair throw away sweat pants and hoodie that I would wear up just before the gun fired to keep warm. A friend of mine was planning on running around 3:10 and he met me in corral 2. As we waited for the gun to go, he suggested that we stay behind the 3:10 pace group. I had never had much luck with pace groups and was reluctant to follow. I decided at the last second that I would run with the 3:10 group. At one point, I was going to dial back my finishing time due to the windy conditions, but thought the 3:10 pace group may be good idea for drafting purposes.
As we started I quickly realized that getting in the 3:10 group was a good idea due to the windy conditions. Im guessing the wind was around 10 to 15 mph with gust up 20. So I was comfortable just getting in the middle of the pack and drafting as best that i could to conserve energy. At the beginning we had around 35 people or so in the 3:10 group. I was anxious to see how good my legs felt at the marathon pace in a race setting. As we got into about mile 3 to 4, I was feeling comfortable at my race pace. The pace group had us closer to a 3:09 which I was ok with. I had planned on doing a GU at every 45 minutes, I missed my first GU at the 45 minute mark and had to wait to the next water station to take one, it was around 54 minutes or so. I was a bit concerned because I felt like I may be running out of steam, but once I took the GU, my energy level went right back up and I was fine. I believe this was around mile 6 or 7.
As we got to the half way point, my legs still felt strong and mentally i was on target with no negative thoughts. Our pace group had dwindled down to about 15 people at this stage. Wind was still a factor, but I was doing a good job of staying in the middle of the group and drafting. At around mile 17 I was still feeling strong physically and mentally. Our pace was about 30 seconds fast and I was happy with this as well.
We got to mile 20, my legs were still strong, were a bit stiff and cold, I changed my stride just a bit to try and loosen up a bit and it seemed to help. Our pace group at mile 20 was down to the 3 people and the 2 pace leaders. At this point, I was figuring that I was probably close to an age group award or maybe Grandmasters division. One of the guys left was in his early 30's, he was trying to qualify for Boston and wanted to run a few minutes under 3:10. The other guy appeared to be in his 50's but could not tell for sure. I thought if I could hang on, I could out kick him the last mile. Also, at mile 20, a light rain had started. Not real heavy, but enough to give an extra chill.
Around mile 22, I started to have to work mentally to maintain pace. I took an electrolyte pill to see if that would help. Legs were ok but not great. The younger guy in our pace group had pulled away and it was just me and the other 50'ish year old left with the 2 pacers. He had not said much the whole race, he did tell me his PR was 3:14 and he was from Memphis.
At mile 23, i took a half GU pack, I could tell i was running out of fuel. Legs were fading and i was getting a little light headed. I knew this was not good. The pacers told us we still were 30 seconds or more ahead of pace. This is stage of the race where I started to rationalize that I may not make 3:10, but sub 3:13 was very likely. So that gave me a bit of consolation. I knew from last year that mile 24 was long hill, around .65 miles long...not real steep, but just daunting at that stage of the race. We made the turn and when I saw the hill, the pace I had maintained from the start, was done...I told the pacers i was out...they attempted to cheer me on, but it was to no avail. I tried to dig mentally with everything i had and I could not keep up with pace group. I thought this is not good since the wind was still a factor and that racing the other guy was keeping me going as well. They slowly pulled away, maybe by 200 yards. I thought if i could just stay close up this hill I might could catch them. Once I got to the top of the hill we made a turn back to toward the finish line area- this was just before mile 25 and was bit down hill. I picked my pace back up and was back on the pace we had been running, maybe just a bit faster. It was much harder to maintain since I had no drafting partners. I knew to run a 3:10 my speed needed to avg. 8.3 for the whole race, this would work out to around 3:09:20 or so. My Garmin was showing me at an avg speed at mile 25 at 8.4.
Just past mile 25 there was turn that went right into a strong head wind, with funneling effect, felt like a 25mph wind. Even being less than a mile to go I could not push, when i would try to push, i would get dizzy, so i had to back out. As i got to the last .2 of the race, I did find a little bit more in the tank and gave it as hard of a finish as I could. When I first got a glance of the finishing clock, I noticed that I was real close to a 3:10 since corral 2 was 3 minutes behind the first one. I crossed the line and clocked my watch. The 3:10 pacers had just finished and were waiting for me. They came up to me and told me to clock my watch, advised that I did. They asked me what my time showed, I checked my watch and it showed 3:10. I wasnt sure how close I was to 3:10. The pacers i had asked me during the race what my PR was and I told them 3:13. They encouraged me and said you got a PR...great race.
When I got back to the gear check, I got my watch and I saw some text from friends, one was congrats on the 3:09. I thought, chip time may have been a few seconds faster than my watch due to placement of the timing mats and when I clocked my watch. Once I realized my time was 3:09:59, I was extremely pleased.
Turns out the other guy in our group was in the Grandmasters division. They finished at 3:09:01. I did get second in the Grandmasters which was very rewarding.
As i thought about what I could do different in training to make sure I didnt fade at the end like i did, I then realized that the wind probably was what caused me not to have a stronger finish. I am convinced that this training method is much better that doing all those multiple 20's.
My next marathon cycle for Boston, I plan on doing the same plan but may tweak with an increase in weekly mileage; will try to do more runs at marathon goal pace. Will continue to do as many races as I can.