Race report: Light at the End of the Tunnel Marathon

I’m finally a 3:30 marathoner.

The week leading up to the Light at the End of the Tunnel Marathon didn’t start out so well. What was supposed to be a 20-mile run the weekend before turned into a pair of runs on Saturday and Sunday, a 9-miler and an 11-miler. I just wasn’t “feeling it” either day and cut those runs short. Then we had what felt like the hottest week in Portland. So I ended up with three 4-5 mile runs throughout the week and they were hard. Also, my plantar fasciitis started flaring up again. And something was going wonky with my knee, which was probably a result of a trail run. My goal going into today’s marathon was a 3:30. But considering how my week was going I wasn’t too hopeful.

The day before didn’t give me any reason to be optimistic. Cat and I were supposed to go camping outside of North Bend, WA. But I made the mistake of not reserving a campsite at primary campground I picked out or the backup campground. So we ended up having to get a motel room in North Bend. I was feeling kind of bad about spending $50 more than I planned for lodging, plus the extra money for a real dinner instead of the campfire mac+cheese and PB&J sandwiches. But hey… we got a real dinner. Plus a TV to watch the Olympics. And a real bathroom. And a real bed. As we were lying in bed we thought, “yeah… this is much better than camping.”

Then came race morning. And my alarm clock didn’t go off… again. The only reason why I woke up 15 minutes before I had to leave the motel room to catch the bus to the starting area were the people outside the room making some noise. Damn. But we managed to get out the door at the planned time. I just didn’t have the customary amount of time to stretch, eat, and relax. Okay… no big deal. I’m running 26 miles so there’s plenty of time to warm up and relax, right?

The race was real low-key. A lot of Marathon Maniacs. A bunch I’ve meet before and a bunch I got to meet today. Lot’s of good folks. The 2 mile tunnel was more humid than I expected. Actually, I didn’t expect it to be damp and humid at all. It was also darker than I expected. I probably should have changed the batteries in my headlamp I guess. I didn’t bring my Garmin Forerunner thinking it would have a hard time finding the satellites after coming out of the tunnel so my pacing wasn’t exact. Using a normal watch, I figured I was running 8:00 miles, +/- 10 seconds on any particular mile. At least I was at that pace for the first 23 miles. The gravel on the trail was a bit more slippery than I expected but nothing too bad. The real killer for me was the humidity. Every time I hit a breezy section it felt like heaven.

The last 3 miles were tough. I was definitely slowing down. But I was on track for a PR, and even better, a sub-3:30. So I needed to push myself. I had just enough Hammer gel to get some calories every mile from 23 on so I was hoping I wasn’t going to run out of gas. When I glanced at my watch and saw 3:24 I was getting a bit worried because I hadn’t seen the 26 mile marker yet. But I stayed relaxed. And then there it was, mile 26. And my watch said 3:27-ish. Okay. No problem. Then 3:28. Okay… time to panic. Then I saw the finish line and went into a full-on sprint. I finished at about 3:29:30. Official finish times aren’t in yet.

Here’s my analysis of my performance. The speedwork I did 10 days before definitely helped with that final sprint. And I think I conquered the nutrition issues finally. Hammer gel and regular water definitely suits my GI tract. No GI cramping today at all. And no muscle cramping, despite the fast pace I was a pushing. And I was sweating a lot with the humidity. Electrolytes are overrated. The vanilla flavor of Hammer gel, incidentally, only has 25 mg of sodium. Brooks shoes rock. No blisters. Zero. And no chafing in my nether regions, despite the humidity. Always a plus. And this was only the second marathon where I wasn’t forced to take a walking break. Now that I think about it, I had the best marathon of my life so far today. Still looking for the negative split. But now I’m a 3:30 marathoner.

Update: Official results are in. My time… 3:29:35!

New plan!

Here’s the new plan for fall (ultra)marathons:

1. October 12: Bank of America Chicago Marathon (registered)
2. October 19: Sisters Poker Run, 34M (just need to mail my registration fee)
3. October 25: Autumn Leaves 50M (registered)

Hmm… that leaves only 5 days of rest between a 34-milers and a 50-miler. I’ll have to think about doing the 50K Autumn Leaves instead of the 50M. The Las Vegas and Death Valley Borax marathons in December I briefly considered are off the schedule.

Denied

Crazy Idea #2 got vetoed.

I need to work on selling the “fantastic vistas of the surrounding mountain ranges: the Panamints, the Funerals, the Cottonwoods, the Blacks and the Grapevines. Your immediate surroundings are the exotic flora and fauna found only on the desert floor” instead of “hey, what do you think about me running a marathon in Death Valley?”

Crazy Ideas #1 and #2

#1:
October 12: Bank of America Chicago Marathon (registered)
October 18: Indianapolis Marathon (undecided)
October 19: Nationwide Better Health Columbus Marathon (undecided)
October 25: Autumn Leaves 50-mile (registered)

#2:
December 6: Death Valley Borax Marathon
December 7: Las Vegas Marathon

I’m pretty sure I can combine Crazy Idea #2 into a pre-holiday family visit.

Capital City Marathon

Today was the 3rd marathon in as many weekends this month. Oh man. It was a hot one. After what has got to be the hottest couple of days in the Pacific Northwest with 90 degree weather, today was supposed to start a cooling trend back to normal. I was a bit worried when I was on I-5 driving into Olympia around 6:00am and the sun was out with no cloud cover in sight. It was going to get warm out today.

This was my first Capital City Marathon so I didn’t know what to expect. I read it was hilly but the elevation map didn’t look too scary. I was standing in line for the port-o-potties and the guy in front of me noticed my Marathon Maniac singlet and asked what number I was, as in what’s my Maniac number. “#369, what’s yours” I replied. “#660, my name’s Andy”. It was his 5th Capital City Marathon. So naturally, I hit him up for tips. He tells me to save something for the big hill at mile 22. Oh man.

Then I run into Dave, who I met last week at the Tacoma City Marathon. We chat a bit. He’s planning on going fast and I was planning on taking it easy so we wouldn’t be running in the same pack.

So was Capital City hilly? Yeah, it sure was. The first half of the course had a good deal of shade along tree-lined country roads. But then the second half… oh man, nothing but sun beating down on asphalt. No good. The upside was the neighborhood folks along the residential parts of the course who set up sprinklers or their garden hoses just for us marathoners. That was awesome!

I think the sun was a bigger factor in my fairly slow pace today (3:47 finish), more so that the hills. The Tacoma City Marathon was pretty hilly. My Garmin Forerunner GPS says the total elevation gains for both courses are comparable at about 3000 ft. I also just felt better before Tacoma. I had trouble getting the cobwebs out of my head on the drive up and felt a bit mentally exhausted before the start, probably feeling drained from the heat of the prior few days. Under better weather conditions I would probably do this marathon again. I liked being on the country roads and the race organization and volunteers were great.

Oh, and during the first half mile of the course I ran behind an elderly Asian woman no bigger than my mom, who’s 4′10″, and probably not much younger either. She was wearing a shirt which had “Go Grandma Lee” printed on the back. I think I’ve seen her before, so this wouldn’t be her first marathon. In fact, I may have seen her last week at the Tacoma City Marathon. Pretty amazing, I think to myself, a woman no different from my mom running marathons, and running them on back-to-back weekends. Then I overhear someone talking to her. He says to her, “I saw your picture in the paper, congratulations on your 100th marathon.” What. The. Hell? 100?!?! Here’s the story. Every time I read a story like this or get passed on the race course by someone at least 20 years older than me, I’m reminded about how much we can achieve through shear force of will. Grandma Lee is one amazing woman.