Race weekend 2011 was a different experience from last year!
On Saturday evening I ran the 10k with my daughter. We had a lot of fun, keeping a steady pace and enjoying the experience. A couple of people who saw us said they couldn't believe how relaxed the two of us looked, and asked if the other runners around us got annoyed. Not that I noticed, although it's possible that making a phone call while passing people might have gotten some rude looks. J went hard the last few hundred meters, and I actually had to work to keep up. My right Achilles was sore while running, especially for the 1st 5k, probably because the dog got his tie out behind my ankle and took off running a couple days before the race.
Saturday night I worked extra-hard to make sure I drank enough - water. I didn’t get into bed until near midnight, so 5:45 didn’t seem like enough sleep. My goal was to come in under 1:40, with hopes of breaking my best half time of 1:38:08. I went to get into the starting corral 15 mins before the race, but couldn’t find any entrances. The only entrance I saw was back around the 2:15 pace bunny. I hopped over the fence in the middle of my corral, and then realized there were lots of other people with the same problem. The corrals were jammed, and looking around it seemed like I should be farther forward, but I couldn’t move.
The temperature was ok (around 18C), but it was very humid. At the start it was clear they’d done a lousy job of placing people, there were a huge number of slower runners in front of me. For the first 3 km, I was constantly passing people. Even though I was only a few seconds per km slower than I wanted to be, I was working much harder than I should have been, my heart rate was over 180 (with my max at 190), hitting 185 at one point. I found this really frustrating, but at 3k decided I needed to relax, the crowds had probably only cost me around 20 seconds and I had a long way to go. Good thing, since I was passing people the entire way.
At the 9km mark I missed a water station, I was running past all the gatorade tables waiting for water, and then suddenly no more tables. This was a worry, but nothing to do. After that I stuck to gatorade. I hit 10km in just over 47 mins. One of my favorite race moments: Somewhere around 14k I heard someone I was passing say “Do you think there’s underwear under there?” I looked ahead and saw someone bouncing along in a very short skirt, and as far as I could tell the answer was “no”. Another runner commented that it was getting hard to run, and I decided it was best to keep passing.....
At 16km it started raining, lightly at first, then hard. This was ok, since I was finally getting into a decent groove & the rain cooled me off. The crowds were impressive in the last few km, it was raining hard but people were still cheering hard. My final chip time was 1:37:48, and I actually felt pretty good afterward.
It does seem like race weekend has gotten to the point where the organizers aren't able to deal well with the number of runners, but it is great having the city pay this much attention to running once a year.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Boston Marathon 2011 Race Report
All in all a great weekend, and a positive experience.
Saturday, we went to the expo first thing. The expo was fun, I bought a few things, and my wife & kids decorated the 1 mile to go sign. From there we headed an hour north into New Hampshire, to pick up a new dog. He’s a rescue dog from Tennessee, thought to be around 2 years old and a Samoyed-Siberian mix. He looks like a white wolf with blue eyes. I had a hard time with him at first, he pulls like a sled dog when he’s on a leash. While it was all I could do to control him outside, inside he is incredibly calm and gentle.
My sister dropped four of us in Hopkinton by the starting line at 7:30, and we headed into the building overlooking the start. This was a great location, the office we were in was being used by the motorcycle cops who lead the race, by the TV crew filming the start, and by other security details for surveillance. We were the only runners in the office, and were treated like absolute celebrities. It was great being able to watch all the groups starting from the windows.
For Boston I was wearing Adidas Boston 2’s, and my soft running orthotics.
A bit after 10 we headed to the starting line, and got into our corrals. Joe was with me, Steve was a couple corrals farther up. I was hoping to hit 3:30, but was determined not to destroy myself like I did last year in Ottawa. To do that I wanted to hit the half in 1:44-1:45, ease up on the hills, and then see if I could pick it up the last 5 miles. Joe was aiming for 3:45, Steve for 3:30. Right over the start, Joe took off like a rocket. I held back, and was hitting 8 minute miles right away. A lot of people were passing me.
I hit the 5k mark in 25:09, high 5-ing kids along the way. I saw my whole family just past 5k, high 5’d the kids, kissed my wife, patted the dog. As I started running again, someone shouted “Hey, was that your girlfriend?” No, I said, we’ve been married a long time (as usual I can’t do math while marathoning). “Good he said, since 3 other people did the same thing after you!” I laughed, and told him we’d been married long enough that it was ok. “OK, he said, what about the 10 people who stopped to pet the dog?”
One of the best things about Boston was the interactions I had with other runners. I spoke to people from Canada, Washington State, Arizona, Oregon, Chicago, Ohio.... I even spoke to someone who is planning to run a race in the Jemez (Jemez marathon?) soon. Also, the crowd support was amazing. I had my name on my shirt in big letters, and all day people were shouting encouragement, chanting, etc...
OK, back to the race. Between 5 &10K I figured out that 3:30 wasn’t likely. I wasn’t running quite as fast as I wanted, but because of the number of runners it was hard to just pick up the pace. I’d planned to drink every 2 miles, but the tailwind was making it feel hotter than it was. I was drinking almost every mile. Wellesley was a riot, I did give kisses to a couple of students (with my wife’s permission), and ran along the row high-5ing everyone. I hit halfway in 1:45:22, just a bit slow.
Then came the Newton hills. The first one seemed long, but right after this I saw the family again at the 17 mile mark, just waving this time. The rest of the hills went pretty well. Heartbreak was challenging, but knowing it was the last big one went a long way, the mile that included heartbreak took 8:26. By this point I was passing lots of people walking. At mile 21 I decided to pick up the pace. I managed about a half mile at the faster pace, but just couldn’t sustain it. My new goal was to make sure I finished without walking, but even this was tough. The thought in my head was that I should be happy, this was as fast as I could manage on this race, on this day.
There was a definite change in the tone of people calling my name now, from the early “You are rocking it” variant to “Don’t give up!”. I was thrilled to see the Citgo sign, and kept plodding on tired legs. Looking back, my pace only slowed to around 8:30 for the last 5 miles, but I felt really lousy. As I turned onto Boylston, I caught up to Steve (he saw me, I was oblivious) and we ran it in together. Steve managed around 3:36, Joe was at 3:46.
My final time: 3:34:46.
In the walk from the medals to family meeting, 7 different medical people walked with me to check and make sure I was ok, when I asked one she explained that I had a “far away look on my face”.
Apart from my quads being very tired/sore for the last 6 miles, nothing else bothered me during the race. My shin and right Achilles were a bit sore after, but this is by far the best shape I’ve been in following a marathon.
Saturday, we went to the expo first thing. The expo was fun, I bought a few things, and my wife & kids decorated the 1 mile to go sign. From there we headed an hour north into New Hampshire, to pick up a new dog. He’s a rescue dog from Tennessee, thought to be around 2 years old and a Samoyed-Siberian mix. He looks like a white wolf with blue eyes. I had a hard time with him at first, he pulls like a sled dog when he’s on a leash. While it was all I could do to control him outside, inside he is incredibly calm and gentle.
My sister dropped four of us in Hopkinton by the starting line at 7:30, and we headed into the building overlooking the start. This was a great location, the office we were in was being used by the motorcycle cops who lead the race, by the TV crew filming the start, and by other security details for surveillance. We were the only runners in the office, and were treated like absolute celebrities. It was great being able to watch all the groups starting from the windows.
For Boston I was wearing Adidas Boston 2’s, and my soft running orthotics.
A bit after 10 we headed to the starting line, and got into our corrals. Joe was with me, Steve was a couple corrals farther up. I was hoping to hit 3:30, but was determined not to destroy myself like I did last year in Ottawa. To do that I wanted to hit the half in 1:44-1:45, ease up on the hills, and then see if I could pick it up the last 5 miles. Joe was aiming for 3:45, Steve for 3:30. Right over the start, Joe took off like a rocket. I held back, and was hitting 8 minute miles right away. A lot of people were passing me.
I hit the 5k mark in 25:09, high 5-ing kids along the way. I saw my whole family just past 5k, high 5’d the kids, kissed my wife, patted the dog. As I started running again, someone shouted “Hey, was that your girlfriend?” No, I said, we’ve been married a long time (as usual I can’t do math while marathoning). “Good he said, since 3 other people did the same thing after you!” I laughed, and told him we’d been married long enough that it was ok. “OK, he said, what about the 10 people who stopped to pet the dog?”
One of the best things about Boston was the interactions I had with other runners. I spoke to people from Canada, Washington State, Arizona, Oregon, Chicago, Ohio.... I even spoke to someone who is planning to run a race in the Jemez (Jemez marathon?) soon. Also, the crowd support was amazing. I had my name on my shirt in big letters, and all day people were shouting encouragement, chanting, etc...
OK, back to the race. Between 5 &10K I figured out that 3:30 wasn’t likely. I wasn’t running quite as fast as I wanted, but because of the number of runners it was hard to just pick up the pace. I’d planned to drink every 2 miles, but the tailwind was making it feel hotter than it was. I was drinking almost every mile. Wellesley was a riot, I did give kisses to a couple of students (with my wife’s permission), and ran along the row high-5ing everyone. I hit halfway in 1:45:22, just a bit slow.
Then came the Newton hills. The first one seemed long, but right after this I saw the family again at the 17 mile mark, just waving this time. The rest of the hills went pretty well. Heartbreak was challenging, but knowing it was the last big one went a long way, the mile that included heartbreak took 8:26. By this point I was passing lots of people walking. At mile 21 I decided to pick up the pace. I managed about a half mile at the faster pace, but just couldn’t sustain it. My new goal was to make sure I finished without walking, but even this was tough. The thought in my head was that I should be happy, this was as fast as I could manage on this race, on this day.
There was a definite change in the tone of people calling my name now, from the early “You are rocking it” variant to “Don’t give up!”. I was thrilled to see the Citgo sign, and kept plodding on tired legs. Looking back, my pace only slowed to around 8:30 for the last 5 miles, but I felt really lousy. As I turned onto Boylston, I caught up to Steve (he saw me, I was oblivious) and we ran it in together. Steve managed around 3:36, Joe was at 3:46.
My final time: 3:34:46.
In the walk from the medals to family meeting, 7 different medical people walked with me to check and make sure I was ok, when I asked one she explained that I had a “far away look on my face”.
Apart from my quads being very tired/sore for the last 6 miles, nothing else bothered me during the race. My shin and right Achilles were a bit sore after, but this is by far the best shape I’ve been in following a marathon.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
9 Run Run
Note: I didn't keep this up to date during last year's training cycle, and regret it. I had some nasty injury issues, and the original reason I started writing this was to track those, and (hopefully) how I resolved them. I'm hoping to keep this more up to date as I train for Boston.
9 Run Run Race Summary
We’d been looking at a forecast of mixed rain and snow, and temps close to freezing. The night before the race, they forecast got updated: cold and sunny. Perfect. I didn’t have a solid goal. I’ve only run one half marathon before, and that was 3 years ago. So my PR was around 1:43:45 at the halfway point of a full. My plan was simply to try to knock at least a couple minutes off that. I’ve been in PT on my Achilles for a couple months, but my PT cleared me to run hard.
The temp at the start was right around freezing, rising a few degrees during the race. It was very cold waiting to start, but I figured that meant I’d dressed right (shorts and my thinnest long sleeve tech shirt).
I felt great at the start, and even though I was running a bit faster than planned, my heart rate looked reasonable so I decided to just hold the pace as long as my HR wasn’t going too high.
The wife & kids were by the side of the road about 3.5 km in, cheering loudly. As we approached, another runner came up next to me and asked if he could hang out there and pretend they were cheering for him. We had a good laugh about that, and started running together chatting a bit. He was aiming for around 1:40. We ran together for around 15 min, but then he fell back. At this point I knew the pace was solid, and my HR was around 90% of max.
The km’s were just clicking away, going really smoothly. Around 11 km I came up behind someone I’ll just refer to as ‘mucus boy’. He was going a bit too fast to pass, a bit too slow to fall back from. And he was spewing mucus from multiple orifices about every 15 seconds. THIS was hugely annoying. After a couple km’s of this show, I decided I needed to get past mucus boy, and then ease up in a position where he’d have to work to get around me.
Once I was past mucus boy I wanted to make sure to put a bit of distance between us (HR: 92%). The last 7 km were on the trans Canada trail. I was concerned about water in this stretch, so I went out last night with the family and we marked some trees & a signpost with duct tape. My awesome wife then went this morning and put water bottles under the trees. I only needed one bottle, but I figure I should have a few options. In my mind, I’d just swoop through, grab the bottle, and run on.
Reality doesn’t always match our plans. As I went for the bottle, I realized it was very uneven by the tree. Plus I was going full speed, while losing my footing and bending down, at a large metal pole. But did I slow down? Nope. I tried to hold pace and grab the bottle. Of course, I lost my footing on a rock, tried to get back onto the trail, and wiped out. As I went down I had just enough time to think that my race might be done. Then I hit the ground on one hand and one knee. Thankfully, I had gloves on. Thankfully nobody stepped on me. I managed to get up again, and keep going, with several people checking to make sure I was ok (HR: 95%).
I didn’t look at my knee. I didn’t want to know. It didn’t hurt much, but I had no doubt it was bleeding. Surprisingly, I got back into my pace almost immediately, and passed the 4 or 5 people who passed me when I was down. Shortly after this, the guy I’d been with earlier came up to me, chatted for a minute, then passed. I ran behind him, for a few minutes and then came up alongside. He told me that he’d been about 50 feet back for the previous 10 km. He said that when I went ahead he decided that he had to keep me in sight, and this got him through. And then he asked if I was ok, since man, that was one impressive fall.
Staying with him definitely kept me on pace for the rest of the race, I was determined to finish with him - he was too. I crossed the line in 1:38:08. As expected, I had a fair amount of dried blood from my knee down my shin.
One day later, I'm feeling pretty good. My left quad is a bit sure, and the shinsplints that I've had also in the left leg is there too. I'm a bit sore above my left Achilles, but that's typical since it is a bit short since being repaired. My right Achilles feels perfect.
9 Run Run Race Summary
We’d been looking at a forecast of mixed rain and snow, and temps close to freezing. The night before the race, they forecast got updated: cold and sunny. Perfect. I didn’t have a solid goal. I’ve only run one half marathon before, and that was 3 years ago. So my PR was around 1:43:45 at the halfway point of a full. My plan was simply to try to knock at least a couple minutes off that. I’ve been in PT on my Achilles for a couple months, but my PT cleared me to run hard.
The temp at the start was right around freezing, rising a few degrees during the race. It was very cold waiting to start, but I figured that meant I’d dressed right (shorts and my thinnest long sleeve tech shirt).
I felt great at the start, and even though I was running a bit faster than planned, my heart rate looked reasonable so I decided to just hold the pace as long as my HR wasn’t going too high.
The wife & kids were by the side of the road about 3.5 km in, cheering loudly. As we approached, another runner came up next to me and asked if he could hang out there and pretend they were cheering for him. We had a good laugh about that, and started running together chatting a bit. He was aiming for around 1:40. We ran together for around 15 min, but then he fell back. At this point I knew the pace was solid, and my HR was around 90% of max.
The km’s were just clicking away, going really smoothly. Around 11 km I came up behind someone I’ll just refer to as ‘mucus boy’. He was going a bit too fast to pass, a bit too slow to fall back from. And he was spewing mucus from multiple orifices about every 15 seconds. THIS was hugely annoying. After a couple km’s of this show, I decided I needed to get past mucus boy, and then ease up in a position where he’d have to work to get around me.
Once I was past mucus boy I wanted to make sure to put a bit of distance between us (HR: 92%). The last 7 km were on the trans Canada trail. I was concerned about water in this stretch, so I went out last night with the family and we marked some trees & a signpost with duct tape. My awesome wife then went this morning and put water bottles under the trees. I only needed one bottle, but I figure I should have a few options. In my mind, I’d just swoop through, grab the bottle, and run on.
Reality doesn’t always match our plans. As I went for the bottle, I realized it was very uneven by the tree. Plus I was going full speed, while losing my footing and bending down, at a large metal pole. But did I slow down? Nope. I tried to hold pace and grab the bottle. Of course, I lost my footing on a rock, tried to get back onto the trail, and wiped out. As I went down I had just enough time to think that my race might be done. Then I hit the ground on one hand and one knee. Thankfully, I had gloves on. Thankfully nobody stepped on me. I managed to get up again, and keep going, with several people checking to make sure I was ok (HR: 95%).
I didn’t look at my knee. I didn’t want to know. It didn’t hurt much, but I had no doubt it was bleeding. Surprisingly, I got back into my pace almost immediately, and passed the 4 or 5 people who passed me when I was down. Shortly after this, the guy I’d been with earlier came up to me, chatted for a minute, then passed. I ran behind him, for a few minutes and then came up alongside. He told me that he’d been about 50 feet back for the previous 10 km. He said that when I went ahead he decided that he had to keep me in sight, and this got him through. And then he asked if I was ok, since man, that was one impressive fall.
Staying with him definitely kept me on pace for the rest of the race, I was determined to finish with him - he was too. I crossed the line in 1:38:08. As expected, I had a fair amount of dried blood from my knee down my shin.
One day later, I'm feeling pretty good. My left quad is a bit sure, and the shinsplints that I've had also in the left leg is there too. I'm a bit sore above my left Achilles, but that's typical since it is a bit short since being repaired. My right Achilles feels perfect.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Ottawa Marathon, 2011
Background: I ruptured my left Achilles in 2002. I tried running again, but developed tendinitis in my right Achilles, and was advised by my doctor in 2004not to run anymore. When my daughter wanted to run a 5k in 2007, I went to a sports doctor, who cleared me to run, as long as I took it slowly. I had a great time with my daughter, and continued running. After my 1st half marathon in 2008, I decided to try to run a marathon - a goal that I assumed was dead after my Achilles rupture. I did my 1st marathon in May 2009 with a goal of hitting 4:10-4:15. I finished in 3:56, enjoyed the whole thing, and the last 2 km were the fastest I ran. Right after the race I started thinking about trying to qualify for Boston, needing to hit 3:30:59. My thought was that this was at the outside boundary of possible.
I trained using my own plan, hitting four 50 mile weeks at the peak of training compared to one 40 mile week in 2009. The right Achilles has been a problem all the way through training though, and was bugging me the days before the race.
We were in a panic here all week about the forecast : Mid to high 80's F, unbroken sun. Then there was a last minute improvement in the forecast, but nothing like what we got. We wound up with a completely cloudy day, starting temp around 60 at 7AM, rising to 65 at 11 - perfect.
I wound up doing the same thing as last year before the start: Having to hurry to bag check, then into the corral as the national anthem was playing. I found the 3:30 pacer, and went up to chat with him. I explained I hoped to qualify for Boston with 3:30, and would try to follow him for as long as possible. He told me that he's in about 3:10 shape, so this was a pace that he uses for a lot of his workouts. He told me that he's run Boston 13 straight years, and absolutely loves it. Then the gun went, and it took us about a minute to get to the starting line. My plan was to break the race into 10 km sections, aiming for around 49:40 for each. I assumed that at that point I could hold my pace to the finish, which would get just under 3:30. The goal was BQ, and even though 3:30:59 would do it, I didn't want to mess with that, and hoped to come in under 3:30.
The first 10km is a loop through Gatineau Quebec, and has a few rolling hills - not enough to cause problems, but people always comment that it is hillier there than they expect the 1st time they run the full or half here. It didn't take long to be cruising along at pace, but the 1st 3 kms were very crowded. I eased back a touch and found that about 30 meters behind the pacer was much more spread out. So I just kept following him from that distance. One thing that was clear early though was that the pacer was fast. I hear so many people say their goal pace feels easy in the 1st 10 km, and it occurred to me about 5km in that this was not happening. Now a lot of the people around me sounded & looked like they were working harder than I was, but the pace still wasn't easy. I could feel my right Achilles, but it was clear to me that it wasn't an issue. Also it was fast, not hugely so, but enough to notice. But, I stayed in my position a ways behind the pacer. First 10 km split, 48:50 - Too fast.
At the 11 km mark, I decided I needed to run my own race and let the pace group go. I never saw the pacer again. So, I eased up to my target pace, and enjoyed this stretch. Around 13 km I passed a flower shop, where I resolved to buy flowers for my wife next week if I BQ'd. The route this year added a fairly sustained hill at the 18 km mark, I was ready for this, and slowed to around a 5 m/km pace (8/mile). Split for the 2nd 10 km section was 49:33 - perfect. I hit the halfway point in 1:43:47. Feeling good, with a bit of margin.
The third 10 km started fine, and I was holding a steady pace. I saw the wife & kids at the 24 km mark, high fived the kids then stopped to give my wife a quick kiss. Wife was floored that I stopped (I figured it would be good luck). At 26 km I realized the party was over. My left quad started to hurt, and I got a minor side stitch. Focusing on breathing dealt with the stitch fairly well, but the quad was more of a worry. I ruptured this quad 20 years ago, and it does hurt during longer races, but this was early to be feeling it. I was still right on pace, but started to slow a bit. I told myself I just needed to push through, I've done plenty of runs longer than 26k, and hopefully this would pass. So, I set a goal of getting to 30 km to re-evaluate. I finished the 3rd 10km section in 50:15 - too slow, and I realized I was using my margin.
30-40km sucked. No way to sugarcoat it. I knew if I could just hold that 5 m/k pace till the finish I'd make it, but if felt like I was working WAY harder than 5 min pace. At 30km I told myself only 1 hour if I hold that pace, and I pretty much counted down ever km marker like that. At 32 km I resolved never never never to do this to myself again. I also decided that I was probably finishing this race on the ground, the only question was which side of the finish line I'd be on. During this stretch my other quad started to hurt, and one foot felt like it wanted to cramp (or something, really weird feeling in the foot). Right Achilles hurt. Left (repaired) Achilles however felt great! With 5km left to go in the race I was getting dizzy, and my arms were tingly. It was all I could do to hold something resembling a reasonable pace, but coming out of each water station I was having a hard time getting my pace back up. I finished the 4th 10 km section in 50:33.
At this point I realized I was in trouble. 2.2 km to go, under 1.5 miles. I was very lightheaded. My quads & achilles were in a lot of pain. The crowd was huge but I couldn't even turn to look at them for fear of falling if I turned my head. The last 20 km had chewed up my margin. And if I missed a BQ by 2 seconds after stopping to kiss my wife she was going to feel hugely guilty (no matter how many times I explained that it was 100% ok, and totally my fault). But I couldn't get my pace up, or do the math to figure out if I even had a shot. There's a sign at 750m to go, and when I checked my watch I was convinced I couldn't get there. The next sign at 500m took forever to arrive, and it still seemed too far. I couldn't even look to try to find my family. At 200 m to go I heard my daughter screaming, I was breathing as fast as I could, pumping my arms, and I STILL couldn't get my pace under 5 min/km. With 200m to go my watch said 3:29:30, and I botched the math and convinced myself that it would take me 2 minutes. I was gutted, but made myself push as hard as I could As I approached the line, I looked at my watch, and realized I'd made it. Final time: 3:30:36 (I had 3:30:42 on my garmin). Several people that I know saw me in the home stretch, and say my form was still good, but that I was breathing really hard, and clearly incredibly focused.
I wobbled as soon I got over the line, two medical people got my arms and helped me into a wheelchair. I stayed there for about 5 min, then with some help got up, and started towards the recovery area. I definitely was in pretty much the worst shape of anyone in the recovery area, but what this said to me was that I'd left it all on the roads.
So, I'm putting Boston 2011 on my calendar, but planning to set a goal of somewhere between 3:50 & 4 hours and enjoy the experience. My guess is that will be my last marathon, and I'm good with that.
Update: The 3:30 pacer finished in 4:09. Apparently his calf cramped at the 25 km mark, and he took some ibuprofen, iced it, and limped to the finish. I actually passed someone at around that point hollering to a medical station to ask if they had ibuprofen, but didn't realize it was the pacer.
I trained using my own plan, hitting four 50 mile weeks at the peak of training compared to one 40 mile week in 2009. The right Achilles has been a problem all the way through training though, and was bugging me the days before the race.
We were in a panic here all week about the forecast : Mid to high 80's F, unbroken sun. Then there was a last minute improvement in the forecast, but nothing like what we got. We wound up with a completely cloudy day, starting temp around 60 at 7AM, rising to 65 at 11 - perfect.
I wound up doing the same thing as last year before the start: Having to hurry to bag check, then into the corral as the national anthem was playing. I found the 3:30 pacer, and went up to chat with him. I explained I hoped to qualify for Boston with 3:30, and would try to follow him for as long as possible. He told me that he's in about 3:10 shape, so this was a pace that he uses for a lot of his workouts. He told me that he's run Boston 13 straight years, and absolutely loves it. Then the gun went, and it took us about a minute to get to the starting line. My plan was to break the race into 10 km sections, aiming for around 49:40 for each. I assumed that at that point I could hold my pace to the finish, which would get just under 3:30. The goal was BQ, and even though 3:30:59 would do it, I didn't want to mess with that, and hoped to come in under 3:30.
The first 10km is a loop through Gatineau Quebec, and has a few rolling hills - not enough to cause problems, but people always comment that it is hillier there than they expect the 1st time they run the full or half here. It didn't take long to be cruising along at pace, but the 1st 3 kms were very crowded. I eased back a touch and found that about 30 meters behind the pacer was much more spread out. So I just kept following him from that distance. One thing that was clear early though was that the pacer was fast. I hear so many people say their goal pace feels easy in the 1st 10 km, and it occurred to me about 5km in that this was not happening. Now a lot of the people around me sounded & looked like they were working harder than I was, but the pace still wasn't easy. I could feel my right Achilles, but it was clear to me that it wasn't an issue. Also it was fast, not hugely so, but enough to notice. But, I stayed in my position a ways behind the pacer. First 10 km split, 48:50 - Too fast.
At the 11 km mark, I decided I needed to run my own race and let the pace group go. I never saw the pacer again. So, I eased up to my target pace, and enjoyed this stretch. Around 13 km I passed a flower shop, where I resolved to buy flowers for my wife next week if I BQ'd. The route this year added a fairly sustained hill at the 18 km mark, I was ready for this, and slowed to around a 5 m/km pace (8/mile). Split for the 2nd 10 km section was 49:33 - perfect. I hit the halfway point in 1:43:47. Feeling good, with a bit of margin.
The third 10 km started fine, and I was holding a steady pace. I saw the wife & kids at the 24 km mark, high fived the kids then stopped to give my wife a quick kiss. Wife was floored that I stopped (I figured it would be good luck). At 26 km I realized the party was over. My left quad started to hurt, and I got a minor side stitch. Focusing on breathing dealt with the stitch fairly well, but the quad was more of a worry. I ruptured this quad 20 years ago, and it does hurt during longer races, but this was early to be feeling it. I was still right on pace, but started to slow a bit. I told myself I just needed to push through, I've done plenty of runs longer than 26k, and hopefully this would pass. So, I set a goal of getting to 30 km to re-evaluate. I finished the 3rd 10km section in 50:15 - too slow, and I realized I was using my margin.
30-40km sucked. No way to sugarcoat it. I knew if I could just hold that 5 m/k pace till the finish I'd make it, but if felt like I was working WAY harder than 5 min pace. At 30km I told myself only 1 hour if I hold that pace, and I pretty much counted down ever km marker like that. At 32 km I resolved never never never to do this to myself again. I also decided that I was probably finishing this race on the ground, the only question was which side of the finish line I'd be on. During this stretch my other quad started to hurt, and one foot felt like it wanted to cramp (or something, really weird feeling in the foot). Right Achilles hurt. Left (repaired) Achilles however felt great! With 5km left to go in the race I was getting dizzy, and my arms were tingly. It was all I could do to hold something resembling a reasonable pace, but coming out of each water station I was having a hard time getting my pace back up. I finished the 4th 10 km section in 50:33.
At this point I realized I was in trouble. 2.2 km to go, under 1.5 miles. I was very lightheaded. My quads & achilles were in a lot of pain. The crowd was huge but I couldn't even turn to look at them for fear of falling if I turned my head. The last 20 km had chewed up my margin. And if I missed a BQ by 2 seconds after stopping to kiss my wife she was going to feel hugely guilty (no matter how many times I explained that it was 100% ok, and totally my fault). But I couldn't get my pace up, or do the math to figure out if I even had a shot. There's a sign at 750m to go, and when I checked my watch I was convinced I couldn't get there. The next sign at 500m took forever to arrive, and it still seemed too far. I couldn't even look to try to find my family. At 200 m to go I heard my daughter screaming, I was breathing as fast as I could, pumping my arms, and I STILL couldn't get my pace under 5 min/km. With 200m to go my watch said 3:29:30, and I botched the math and convinced myself that it would take me 2 minutes. I was gutted, but made myself push as hard as I could As I approached the line, I looked at my watch, and realized I'd made it. Final time: 3:30:36 (I had 3:30:42 on my garmin). Several people that I know saw me in the home stretch, and say my form was still good, but that I was breathing really hard, and clearly incredibly focused.
I wobbled as soon I got over the line, two medical people got my arms and helped me into a wheelchair. I stayed there for about 5 min, then with some help got up, and started towards the recovery area. I definitely was in pretty much the worst shape of anyone in the recovery area, but what this said to me was that I'd left it all on the roads.
So, I'm putting Boston 2011 on my calendar, but planning to set a goal of somewhere between 3:50 & 4 hours and enjoy the experience. My guess is that will be my last marathon, and I'm good with that.
Update: The 3:30 pacer finished in 4:09. Apparently his calf cramped at the 25 km mark, and he took some ibuprofen, iced it, and limped to the finish. I actually passed someone at around that point hollering to a medical station to ask if they had ibuprofen, but didn't realize it was the pacer.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
The Marathon
Background:
Back in my 20’s (and early 30’s) I frequently said I’d run a marathon someday, but not until I felt like I could do it in under 4 hours. Then, seven years ago I ruptured my left Achilles tendon, had a horrible rehab, and said it was clear that I would never manage a marathon. A couple of years after the rupture, I tried running a few times, and developed tendonitis in my right Achilles. My doctor told me not to run anymore, and for a couple more years I didn’t. Then I went to see a sports Dr, who told me she thought I could try running lightly, get PT, orthotics and start gradually. I did start slowly, and last year I ran my first half marathon in 1:51. I’ve continued to have some pain in my right Achilles, but not as bad as when I saw the sports Dr, and my feeling was that if I was ever going to run a marathon, this was the year.
Training:
I’ve been training since January, using a modified Hidgon Novice 1 program, modified to add another 20 miler, and one very low mileage recovery week after the first 20 miler.
I set my goal to 4:10, and was planning to run at 5:55/km (9:32/mile). This seemed like a conservative goal, but in the last weeks I’ve wondered if I could hit it, some of the runs have been tough (but the weather has been brutal this spring too).
The Race:
I couldn’t believe how nervous I was yesterday. My wife said I looked green – and I thought I was hiding it well! I was worried about everything, and just wanted to get started. I did sleep some, but not much, and got up at 3:45 to have breakfast 3 hours before the 7AM start. Last minute panic, I realized I was on the wrong side of the barricades from the bag check, and had to jump the barricade, and run to the bag check as the national anthem was being sung. When I got back in (jumping the barricade again), I realized I was lined up too far forward. I did move back some, but wound up around the 4 hour crew.
The start was ok, and as expected a lot of people were passing me. Just before 10:00 in, I heard what sounded like a heard of elephants coming behind me. Turned out is was a 4 hr pace bunny, doing a 10 min run, 1 min walk, and just after passing me they started to walk. I moved left, and saw another 4 hr pace bunny, doing a continuous run. As the 4 hr bunnies & crowds moved in front, I decided to see how their pace would feel, so I started to run about 30 meters behind the big mob of 4 hr runners. It was nice there, lots of space since most people around that time seemed to be flocking to the bunnies, and I stayed there for a while. I hit the 10k mark at 56:22, about 3 min too fast, but feeling great. So I kept following the pace bunnies, wondering what the average pace should be for that goal, and held that position until the 20 km mark. Around 13 km my right Achilles started to hurt, but it never really got much worse than it was at that point. The second 10 k took 56:54, I was hit the halfway mark with an average pace of 5:35/km(9:01/mile).
Just after the 20 km mark, I realized I had slowed, and picked it back up to a comfortable pace. This is when it got strange. I passed both 4 hr pace bunnies and their crowds. Now I was worried, but feeling good, and there was lots of space in front of the 4 hr crowd too. The third 10 km took 55:44, and I started to pass lots of runners. At this point I was waiting for something bad to happen, I didn’t really think I could hold that pace. The next 10 km took 56:11. I was dog tired at this point, but knew I could make it. My average pace in the second half was 5:25/km (8:44/mile) – a negative split!!! My finish time (chip) was 3:56:51. I had a smile on my face from about the 10km mark till the finish, and kept hearing people yell at me to keep smiling. It was a great day.
My legs are very sore now, and my right Achilles isn’t happy with me, and is swollen and a bit red. So, I have no idea if this will be my only marathon (hope not), but if it is, I can live with it.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Five Days Left
Five days till race day and I'm feeling pretty good. Nervous sure, but physically pretty good. I've had heaps of energy on my last couple runs, 12 km Sunday, 5 km this morning. There's still a bit of a twinge in my right Achilles, but it isn't bothering me during my runs. I'll plan to keep icing it every evening, and doing some stretches during the day. It doesn’t really feel any different than it did when I started training, so I'm hopeful that it won't be an issue.
The forecast for Race day is currently around 5 degrees C at 7AM, with a high around 20 degrees. I'm trying to figure out how to dress for the start. I tried doing my run this morning in shorts and a singlet, with the temperature at 4 degrees C (wind chill of zero). Short summary: I need more clothes than that at the start Sunday, my arms and hands were frozen.
The forecast for Race day is currently around 5 degrees C at 7AM, with a high around 20 degrees. I'm trying to figure out how to dress for the start. I tried doing my run this morning in shorts and a singlet, with the temperature at 4 degrees C (wind chill of zero). Short summary: I need more clothes than that at the start Sunday, my arms and hands were frozen.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Again with the Shinsplints
I went out for a tempo run Wednesday evening. The plan was to go 15 km, 4 km easy up to the trans-Canada trail, 7 km tempo on the trail, 4 km easy. The tempo pace should have been at 5:25-5:30/km. We had some rain Tues & Wed, so the path was a bit soft. Being my usual bone-headed self, once I got into the tempo portion I picked up the pace, and was running around 5:10/km, then 5:05/km, finally was running around 4:50/km. At the turn around point I was heading into a fairly stiff headwind.
Somewhere around 9 km, my left shin got very painful. The rest of the run wasn't much fun. I'm sure this was a result of going too hard.
I'm kicking myself for not writing down what I did to rehab my other shin in March, but I'm going to try to write it all down now. I found that it took about 3-4 weeks until I was completely comfortable on it again.
1st, icing:
I used a dixie cup frozen, and rubbed it over the painful area for about 10 minutes. I did this daily for about a week.
2nd, stretching:
I found some articles mostly in the forum post linked below, the ones I used were:
3rd, Slow Down:
I did my 1st run 2 days after the pain started, but only 5 km on the treadmill and very slowly (6:15/km). I didn't do any runs faster than easy pace for the next 2 weeks.
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Runners World Shin Pain Forum Post
Somewhere around 9 km, my left shin got very painful. The rest of the run wasn't much fun. I'm sure this was a result of going too hard.
I'm kicking myself for not writing down what I did to rehab my other shin in March, but I'm going to try to write it all down now. I found that it took about 3-4 weeks until I was completely comfortable on it again.
1st, icing:
I used a dixie cup frozen, and rubbed it over the painful area for about 10 minutes. I did this daily for about a week.
2nd, stretching:
I found some articles mostly in the forum post linked below, the ones I used were:
- Lie down on back, extend 1 leg up in air, wrap towel around ball of foot holding onto both ends of towel. Pull one side of towel and it will turn your foot that direction, hold for 30 sec. Pull on other end of towel turning foot opposite direction, hold for 30 sec. Do several times a day. Your ankle is staying at about a 90 degree as you turn the foot inward or outward and your leg is extended straight up. (3x/day)
- Calf stretches against a wall (2x/day)
- Eccentric calf stretches on the stairs (2x/day)
- Sitting stretches: While sitting lift legs onto toes, hold 2 sec, drop feet down then raise toes off ground, hold 2 sec. Do this for about 30 seconds (many times/day).
3rd, Slow Down:
I did my 1st run 2 days after the pain started, but only 5 km on the treadmill and very slowly (6:15/km). I didn't do any runs faster than easy pace for the next 2 weeks.
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Runners World Shin Pain Forum Post
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