Notes
Debut marathon! Mohawk Hudson Marathon from Schenectady Central Park to Albany w/ Jarrett, Pat, and Alison. Been planning on running it since the spring, but it's been quite a ride to get here. Very nice day, cool temps. Had some chicken / rice / veggies for dinner last night. Woke up at 6 (2.5 hours before start), ate a bagel with PB and took a hot shower. Went to the bathroom in Troy and in the park when I arrived, had no GI troubles throughout the race! Found the guys on the line, we looked pretty fly in our matching singlets and shoes.
Really wasn't sure what kind of marathon shape I was in, but goal was to break 2:50 and my basic plan was to start off pretty slow (~7' for the first mile or two) and work down to goal pace over the first couple of miles, then negative split the second half of the race. But things didn't really follow this neat plan, mostly because I felt great and was having fun running with Pat and Jarrett. Had pretty good knowledge of the course having run it all at one point or another. We started at what seemed like a nice and very slow pace, but it still ended up being pretty quick. Settled back a bit on mile 2 at which point we were basically leading a decent sized pack of dudes, a few of which struck up a conversation with us. They were some savvy veterans who had apparently run a bunch of marathons (some of them quick by the sound of it) and were looking to run about the same time we were. We continued to be faster than expected through the early miles (mile 5 had a big downhill), but I was feeling relaxed so I thought it was okay... once we got down to the bike path was hoping to settle back a bit into 6:20s. Didn't really happen though, we continued at a strong pace as we caught up to the second pack and merged into a pretty big and crowded group. Somewhere around here we discovered that a kid running alongside us in a Taylor Swift singlet was carrying his cellphone in his hand and playing pop music out of the external speakers. Jarrett and I were pretty much rolling at the front of the group the whole time. There were water / Gatorade stations every 2 miles, and I tried to take a sip at all of them. I was pretty awful at first, but got better as the race went on. At mile 8 Jarrett grabbed a Gu (I didn't see any!) and then he split it with me around mile 10. As we approached halfway, our two buddies said "See ya!" and dropped back, leaving the OFBOC + TSwift fan tracking down the #1 woman. About 12 miles in the kid's phone started ringing! I jokingly asked if he was going to take it, he said "Yeah, it's my dad." He had a quick convo with his dad in which he updated him on his progress and requested bandaids for his nipples. I took the hill a little slower than Jarrett, but caught up with him just after the HM split. 82:48 at the half! At this point, I was thinking that I could definitely hold pace to the end, and hopefully could rip it once we got to the final 10k. The next few miles were actually pretty tough, I was a little tired from the hill and felt like I was starting to get to the point where if I went too HAM I would push myself over the line. The TSwift kid gapped us, but then a mile later stopped to take a whiz and we caught back up. As we started to get near the end of the bike path I got a second wind and Jarrett and I pushed the pace a little more, leading to my two fastest miles as we left the bike path and went down the hill into Watervliet. Pat and the kid fell back around then (he went on to run his second half in 2:16:39???). Things got real tough once we got to the road... I tried to take a Gu at mile 18 but only got a tiny swallow of it (mouth was too dry or something) and my struggles to open the pouch caused me to fall back from Jrt a bit. It proved to be a gap that I would never make up. It was pretty crazy how quickly things turned bad, basically as soon as I felt back from Jarrett I started to feel like I was in trouble. Had a pretty good sense that I wasn't going to have any big kick the last couple miles but just told myself to stay focused on hold it together. Was doing alright through 20 miles (2:05:31) and thought to myself that if I could just run 6:30 to the end I could run under 2:46. It was a slow burn from there... really rode the struggle bus the last 10k (43:37 / 7' pace). Was expecting a flurry of guys to come by me, but surprisingly only two did, as well as the top woman. I was even closing on someone towards the end. I did pass a lot of half marathoners somehow... But man was the last 5 miles awful. Legs were totally wrecked, quads in a lot of pain and right hamstring even felt tight. Had a side stitch and a stitch-like pain in the top of my stomach. I kept telling myself that I was being a weenie and it wasn't possible that 7' pace was as fast as I could possibly go, but every time I tried to surge to kick myself into gear I got basically no response from my body. I managed a bit of a kick once I finally got towards the end and saw the big crowd of people everywhere that indicated the finish was close (but it was still a lot farther away than I thought!) Once I finished I was actually pretty satisfied that I really couldn't have gone any faster the last stretch, because I was totally spent.
Very pleased with this, as far as first marathons go I don't think I could have asked for any better! It was a ton of fun, the OFBOC was really palling around for most of it. I pretty much amazed myself with how good I felt for the majority of it, even if I died hard at the end. Honestly I had some doubts that I could even average 6:40 pace, but in the end I ran my goal of sub 2:50 AND beat Jesse's PR! Can't even be too devastated about falling apart at the end, as far as implosions go - I was still running faster than I do on the vast majority of my easy days. Obviously the splits were the opposite of what I wanted (82:48/86:20), and I'm sure I would have been physiologically better off with a slower first half. Mentally though I think it was a lot easier running with Pat and Jarrett, and especially for a first marathon I think it was comforting to have good company. The three of us were 1-2-3 in our age group, so we all won hats!
Definitely stuff that could be improved going forwards... I think the fueling could have been better (would have benefited from getting down more Gatorade / Gu probably, need to take it slightly more seriously and practice in advance to decide if it helps me). The biggest thing though would be just better training... needed more long runs / marathon specific stuff I think. Will do a little bit of deeper analysis this week. Probably gonna take some time off next week, maybe some easy running if I feel like it, and then will rebuild my training as I feel ready for it. Will maybe do some more road racing in the fall if I feel like it, at least the Alumni race / Turkey Trot (not really feeling the South Shore Half anymore). Then it's time for indoor track! Will almost certainly return to the marathon for Boston 2017, and I'll think about returning to MHM next fall!
Also, weighed in at 181.2 / 13.3% BF this morning... next time I line up for a 'thon will hopefully be with a much more favorable body composition...
JD says this is equivalent to a 17:39 5k, Purdy says 17:09