Grandma's Marathon 2011 has come and gone. This race marked the 10 year anniversary of my debut marathon. I ended up running that first marathon almost entirely alone, and afterwords wrote about the realization I had during the early miles that I had chosen a long and lonely road in becoming a "professional" or "elite" marathon runner.
Fast-forward 10 years, and I feel completely different. It was a weekend full of seeing friends, runners who I coach, and various other familiar faces. It's so much fun catching up with people, hearing how everyone's doing and of course sharing race day stories after the finish. It no longer feels at all like a lonely road. In fact, as I was trying to get through the last 10k amid the beer-drinking UMD students and blaring music, I felt myself longing for some of that sense of solitude and peace. Weird how time changes your perspective.
As for the race itself....
I went in knowing that I was not in personal best shape. The goal was to run a solid marathon, sort of a building block and confidence booster to get me moving in the right direction as I begin to look toward next January's Olympic Trials.
As luck would have it, the year when I don't feel like I'm in the best shape is the year with the best conditions you could hope to find. I went out much faster than I planned to, hitting a string of about 5:15 miles in the early going, before settling back and going through halfway just under 1:10. This was still faster than I had planned, given that any objective assessment of my fitness suggested I was in 2:25 shape, low 2:20s if the taper really worked some magic. I don't regret going for it. I know if I had gone out conservatively and finished strong and with extra in the tank I would always have wondered what would have happened if I had gone out faster.
While it is discouraging to have fallen off the pace so much (I ended up running 2:25), there were some fairly encouraging aspects to the race as well. I never actually felt at all out of breath, so I believe that I really was rounding the corner aerobically and had the capacity to run 2:20 strictly in terms of energy delivery.
The limiting factors lay elsewhere. My legs, particularly on the right side, were kind of stiff and not quite firing at 100%. Over the second half of the race I had a really bad stomach as well, which made it mentally hard to push myself at all. The legs never really got worse, and actually feel pretty decent in the aftermath. I am coming to terms with the obvious...that I need to get in for PT and just in general take better care of myself.
The explanation for my stomach woes has to be my decision to mix my special fluids stronger than usual, a choice I made after realizing that it was going to be cool and figuring that I probably wouldn't actually drink very much. I wanted to get in the calories, but after halfway, I totally stopped absorbing anything. My stomach has gotten much better at handling whatever I throw at it at ultra pace, but that apparently does not translate back to running marathon pace. Anyway, the thrilling conclusion to my race entailed me dropping to my knees and leaving a river of Gator-puke in the finishing chute. Sorry to those who witnessed that spectacle.
Next up:
1) Planning a fall/winter training and racing schedule that will set me up to run well next January at the Olympic Marathon Trials.
2) Figuring out how to stick to a more healthy lifestyle in terms of rest, recovery, nutrition, etc...doing the small things that are actually really, really big. Sleep? Yes, it matters.
Fast-forward 10 years, and I feel completely different. It was a weekend full of seeing friends, runners who I coach, and various other familiar faces. It's so much fun catching up with people, hearing how everyone's doing and of course sharing race day stories after the finish. It no longer feels at all like a lonely road. In fact, as I was trying to get through the last 10k amid the beer-drinking UMD students and blaring music, I felt myself longing for some of that sense of solitude and peace. Weird how time changes your perspective.
As for the race itself....
I went in knowing that I was not in personal best shape. The goal was to run a solid marathon, sort of a building block and confidence booster to get me moving in the right direction as I begin to look toward next January's Olympic Trials.
As luck would have it, the year when I don't feel like I'm in the best shape is the year with the best conditions you could hope to find. I went out much faster than I planned to, hitting a string of about 5:15 miles in the early going, before settling back and going through halfway just under 1:10. This was still faster than I had planned, given that any objective assessment of my fitness suggested I was in 2:25 shape, low 2:20s if the taper really worked some magic. I don't regret going for it. I know if I had gone out conservatively and finished strong and with extra in the tank I would always have wondered what would have happened if I had gone out faster.
While it is discouraging to have fallen off the pace so much (I ended up running 2:25), there were some fairly encouraging aspects to the race as well. I never actually felt at all out of breath, so I believe that I really was rounding the corner aerobically and had the capacity to run 2:20 strictly in terms of energy delivery.
The limiting factors lay elsewhere. My legs, particularly on the right side, were kind of stiff and not quite firing at 100%. Over the second half of the race I had a really bad stomach as well, which made it mentally hard to push myself at all. The legs never really got worse, and actually feel pretty decent in the aftermath. I am coming to terms with the obvious...that I need to get in for PT and just in general take better care of myself.
The explanation for my stomach woes has to be my decision to mix my special fluids stronger than usual, a choice I made after realizing that it was going to be cool and figuring that I probably wouldn't actually drink very much. I wanted to get in the calories, but after halfway, I totally stopped absorbing anything. My stomach has gotten much better at handling whatever I throw at it at ultra pace, but that apparently does not translate back to running marathon pace. Anyway, the thrilling conclusion to my race entailed me dropping to my knees and leaving a river of Gator-puke in the finishing chute. Sorry to those who witnessed that spectacle.
Next up:
1) Planning a fall/winter training and racing schedule that will set me up to run well next January at the Olympic Marathon Trials.
2) Figuring out how to stick to a more healthy lifestyle in terms of rest, recovery, nutrition, etc...doing the small things that are actually really, really big. Sleep? Yes, it matters.
are you kidding? that was a most impressive display of vomitude.
ReplyDeletebut seriously, glad to hear you're feeling better and gearing up for the trials. good luck chris!