It's been almost a month, and I'm finally getting around to updating the blog on the big event.
There's so much to say about the day and what happened, so I'll just give an hour-by-hour recap.
We left the Twin Cities on Friday morning to beat the traffic as much as possible. We stopped in Hinckley a little after noon for lunch at Subway. It was really packed, I'd imagine because it's a popular stop for people on their way up north on the weekends.
We arrived in Duluth and went straight to packet pick-up. The expo was fun, we walked through the whole thing and ran into some people we knew.
Anne was doing the 5K at 6pm and was planning to have dinner afterward. That'd be too late for me, so I met a friend at the pasta feed at the expo. We met at 5pm so I could finish and watch Anne do her race. She did great, a PR!After the race we stopped by Green Mill so the girls could eat. I had a few large glasses of water. Their pizza and beer looked TERRIFIC!
We went back to the house where we were staying and I started getting things ready for the morning.
Like a running nerd
I literally laid things out in the order I'd put them on. I packed up the backpack which Anne would bring along the course to support me. I made sure I had plenty of gels, water, electrolyte pills, and anything else I'd need.I went to bed at about 9:15pm with the earplugs in since there were other people in the house. The alarm was set for 4:45am so I could eat and make the bus at about 6am. I woke up ready to go, had a good breakfast and jumped on the bus with a bunch of other nervous people. On the ride up I sent about 10 texts to other runners and friends. This was probably a good stress reliever to keep my mind off the race for a little while.
OK, finally time for the race. The strategy Bill and I established was as follows:
Miles 0-5: 9 minute miles, relaxed
Miles 5-20: 8:15-8:45/mile, relaxed but a little more focused, walk through water stops
Miles 20-26.2: Whatever I have left
I lined up at the starting area just ahead of the 4 hour pace group. I wasn't using a watch since I trained myself to identify my pacing, kind of a "tool box" where I can grab whatever tool I need throughout the race.
When the gun went off, I did the first 5 miles and felt very relaxed. My support crew met me at mile 5 and I had my first gel. The weather was good, not great, for a marathon. It was about 60 and cloudy with a wind out of the south of about 10-15. So it was in our faces. It didn't feel like it provided much resistance, it was more of a refreshing breeze.
I was running with a girl who I chatted with at the starting line. We were at exactly the same pace, so it was fun to chat it up for the first 5 miles.
After the 5 mile mark, I sped up a bit to trim about 30 seconds a mile off my pace. I passed quite a few people at this point. The sun came out and the temperature rose about 5 degrees which was noticeable.
I held the pace pretty well, and at the end of Mile 9 I took a walking break and met the crew for a gel and water. It added about a minute to that mile, which was fine. I was getting tired, as you can see in this picture.
The next 5-6 miles were fairly inconsistent. I was getting pretty tired, and kind of nervous about how I was going to finish. I mixed in some walking breaks, and the weather was getting warmer.
At about mile 18, I saw the crew and was feeling ok but not great. I noticed I was slowing down.
After I crossed the Mile 19 mark, my back completely flared up. Just like 2008! It wasn't really a sharp pain, it was more like a major discomfort. I walked for a while, hoping it'd go away, but it didn't.
My body did NOT want to run anymore. I decided since I had over six miles remaining, I'd take a long slow walk for a while and let things cool down. I found myself zig-zagging in the street. A medical volunteer asked me several times if I was ok, and she told her colleagues "Watch this guy, he might go down any time." There was a time there where I questioned whether I could finish this thing.
So I swallowed my pride and kept walking for almost two full miles. As you can see from the splits, Mile 20 took me about half an hour. The medical volunteer followed me for a while, and eventually I found a medical station and got a chewable Tylenol. That seemed to help after
a few minutes.After walking for what seemed like an eternity, I tried a slow jog. It wasn't as bad as I thought. Actually I should say it didn't hurt any worse than walking :) So for the next few miles I tried to run at least half the time. When I approached Lemon Drop Hill, I decided I was going to run up the whole thing. Turns out my friends Kris and Mark were spectating in the area, and they took this photo. Note how the spring in my step is pretty much gone - but I was still moving!
Once I made it to the top of the hill, I was in the town of Duluth. There were a lot of spectators cheering the runners on, which was great. I kept running as far as I could and took some walking breaks, but not as many as I took around miles 20-22. It was tough, but I knew the end was near. Mile 24 seemed to take forever, as I was waiting for the left turn to come up which led to the canal park.
I'm very pr
oud to say that I ran the full lengths of miles 24-26.2. I could not WAIT for this race to be over. My back was on fire, my legs wanted to quit, and I wasn't feeling very good about myself since I was missing my time goal.As I approached the finish line, I saw Anne and Melissa on the last turn (mile 26). I mustered up a smile and a wave. Their enthusiasm and smiles really cheered me up as I approached the finish line.
When I crossed the line, I wasn't feeling too well. My legs were cramping, my feet felt like they were sliced up by a cheese grater, and of course my back was flared. I got my medal and t-shirt, and saw Anne and Melissa on the sidewalk.
I told them I'd meet them later outside of the finishing area, and I went and sat down on the sidewalk for a while. I leaned back and laid down for about 15-20 minutes. It took every ounce of energy to stand up, plus I felt a little nauseous. I gingerly walked around a bit and grabbed some ice cream. I met the ladies at our designated spot and rested for another 10-20 minutes. It felt great to lie down and get off my feet.
Then I limped over to the edge of the lake to cool down my legs. The beach was really r
ocky and the water was freezing. It was almost impossible to walk over this given the state of my legs and feet. It wasn't comfortable but it probably helped my recovery. It was also great to run into my friends Stef and Kristal :) You can see how pained and uncomfortable I am in the picture on the left. But of course it went away after a while.Time for a review of the splits. It's certainly a tale of two races:
Mile 1 - 9:17
2 - 8:58
3 - 9:04
4 - 8:54
5 - 8:52
6 - 8:39
7 - 8:33
8 - 8:46
9 - 9:29 (walking break #1)
10 - 8:11
11 - 8:30
12 - 8:35
13 - 8:24
14 - 8:33
15 - 9:00 (starting to tire and feel some pain here)
16 - 8:56
17 - 9:50 (walking break)
18 - 9:21
19 - 8:55 (gritted my teeth and got back on pace....for now)
20-20.17 - 33:04 (28:16 pace, I didn't hit the watch right on mile 20)
21 - 23:13 pace (still walking)
22 - 15:29, started jogging
23 - 12:22
24 - 13:16
25 - 11:18
26 - 11:07 - speeding up!
26-26.2 - 10:16 pace
Chip time: 4:48:57
10K mark: 55:44
13.1 mark: 1:55:39
20 mile mark: 3:18:54
25 mile mark: 4:35:08
Overall, I'd say I was on pace for about 20 miles, then basically sustained an in-race injury, and managed to recover to run most of the rest of the way. I went in with a sub 4-hour goal, but obviously missed that.
However, I am just as proud of the fact that I recovered from a major setback to finish this race. When I started walking at mile 19 and could barely walk in a straight line, I was thinking it was 50/50 whether I'd finish this thing. I ended up running the last 2-3 miles of the race, and I'm very proud of that fact.
Doing another marathon isn't exactly on the top of my list right now. I'm thinking of maybe doing it again in two years, and address the back issues between now and then. So we'll see what happens!
I'd like to conclude this portion of the blog with a couple of thank-you's. Thanks to my beautiful girlfriend Anne for all of her wonderful support throughout my training and the race itself. And of course thanks for Bill Wenmark for his great and challenging training program. I achieved some amazing things in this training program, things I wouldn't have imagined I could do at the beginning. Thanks again to you both!
