More on the marathon
So, more about my recent marathon… lots more.
Erin and I drove up the night before to stay at a motel. Picked up my chip and race number (512) and breezed through the pre-race exhibits. We had Indian food; I ate a ton of naan and rice. No booze; lots of water instead (though probably not enough). After dinner we headed back to the hotel and went to bed early. I took a Tylenol PM.
I slept pretty well, even though the hotel was loud as hell. (Next year, we’ll spring for better digs.) I got up at 6:00 or so and got ready: vaseline on my feet, baby powder here and there, etc. I wore webbed shorts and a t-shirt. Drank some water and had half a cup of coffee. Doug arrived at the hotel about 6:15, and we headed down to the race, which began at the John Deere Commons in downtown Moline.
Just as we arrived at the race, I realized I had forgotten my sunglasses. Doh. We got in line to pee and watched folks arrive. There were a pretty good amount of runners; afterward I found out about 2,800, with about 650 of those running the marathon. We moved closer to the starting line and stretched and warmed up.
About 7:20 race director Joe Moreno (whose race cred is legendary, since last year he parked on the tracks when trains threatened to block the course) started going through the motions: thanking sponsors, etc. He mentioned a few special runners–one fellow doing his 52nd marathon in 52 weeks, and a woman whose father was killed as they trained for the race. Someone sang the national anthem. Right at the pause after “land of the free,” I heard someone shout, “Bradley!” It was Erin: somehow she had managed to get Madelyn ready, drive to the race start, and find me to give me my sunglasses. What a gal.
The race started at 7:30. We got to the start at 7:35 or so, and were off in a crowd. For the first mile or so, Doug and I passed (and were passed by) quite a few folks as we crossed the first bridge, over I-74, as we began working through all four of the Quad Cities. One lane was closed to traffic, leaving one lane for slow-moving cars. The race organizers did a good job of slowing the traffic down for the narrow bridge. However, too many folks ran side-by-side, and I found myself dodging packs who were slower than I wanted to run.
(Doug’s son Owen decided to run the first mile with us, which was a mistake since the one mile point was in the middle of the I-74 bridge. We left Owen with a cop at the two mile point, and Roberta caught up with him there. But she wasn’t allowed to walk back over the bridge–so she and Owen had to take the long way home, on the half-marathon route. Oops.)
Once we got off the bridge and onto roads in Bettendorf, running got easier as the pack spread out. I felt super until about mile 10, when my right hamstring started to feel a little tight. At the halfway point it was clear Doug was going to go faster than me, so I waved him forward, and slowed down a bit. By mile 18 my leg was really bothering me, and I had to slow down even more. It became clear my goal of 3:40 wasn’t going to happen.
The race course was set up so that the last six miles or so were basically a three mile out and back from the finish line. As I headed into this loop at mile 20, faster runners were heading the other way at 26 or so. Erin and Madelyn were waiting for me at 21 miles. I was very glad to see them and get some whispered encouragement from my sweetie.
As I left them I realized part of the reason for the loop design was the mythical “wall” at 20-22 miles: race volunteers were everywhere, including red-shirted medical staff on bikes. Twice I saw paramedics jumping out of ambulances to tend to stricken runners, including one fellow writhing in pain on the side of the road, with volunteers trying to console him. Blown achilles? Dehydration? Whatever it was, I felt bad for the guy, and I’m glad nothing like that happened to me.
At 23 miles, I figured out that I still had a shot at finishing under four hours–if I got done in the next 30 minutes or so. I realized I had about 5K left, and poured it on as much as I could. I was pretty worn out and couldn’t pace worth a darn. I wanted to run about 9:30/mi but just couldn’t–I went either slower or faster. So I finished the race doing intervals.
I crossed the finish line and was immediately greeted by a race volunteer with a half liter bottle of water. He quizzed me about food and some other things, making sure I was OK. I appreciated that, though I really just wanted to sit down. In the next five minutes I drank two more bottles of water, and ate a little bit, though I really didn’t feel up to it. I passed on the free beer, too (sorry, no Miller Lite for me). I did feel up to getting a hug from Erin.
My final numbers: I finished 3:59:23, with half at 1:52:11. That’s good for 219th overall, 28/50 in my division (men 35-39).
After the race we headed back to the hotel, where I showered and massaged my legs. We met Doug, Roberta, and Owen for lunch at Granite City Brewing, where I drank two of the sweetest tasting beers I’ve ever had.
Six days later, I feel great. I played football today, and had some serious foot pain early, but stretched out after a while. no, I’m not going to run another race this weekend, but I am thinking about one in the future. I’ll definitely drink a lot more water the day before and the morning of the race. I need to work more on flexibility and stretching as I train, so I don’t cinch up as I did this time. But the most important thing is pacing. The graph based on GPS data shows my pace per mile and overall pace. It’s clear that before the halfway point I ran quite a few miles just too darned fast, oscillating between 8:00 and 8:45/mi when it would have been lots wiser to stick at 8:35 or so.
I didn’t get a huge drop in times from my training runs. But I did keep up the improvements I made during the FIRST program: the first 20 mile run I did back in July was 3:02, and this time I was there in about 2:53.
