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!

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.

Tacoma City Marathon

I pretty much broke all kinds of conventional wisdom with this marathon. First, it’s advised one shouldn’t do more than 2 marathons in a single year. Second, you’re supposed to get plenty of rest the night before a marathon. Third… well, okay, maybe there isn’t a third.

After running the Eugene Marathon 6 days earlier, I made the 2-hour-and-change drive up to Tacoma early in the morning after 4 hours of sleep. I had trouble getting to sleep the night before. The plan was to get in bed by 9pm so I could get at least 5 hours, but we had a late dinner and I ended up getting into bed a little after 10. I set my alarm for 3am thinking it would take me 30-40 minutes to eat a bowl of oatmeal, change, and gather my things. But I ended up waking up a bit after 2am, went to the bathroom, then back to bed. After a few minutes of trying to get more sleep I got out of bed a second and last time by 2:30.

I got to Tacoma with plenty of time to check in, pick up my number and timing gizmo, stretch, and use the port-o-potty. I decided to stick with the 3:30 pace group, being paced by David “Marathon Diet” Spooner, one of the many Marathon Maniacs running today. He told me he’s lost 125 lbs since picking up running as a sport. That’s just amazing! 3:30 would have been a new PR, just days after PR’ing in Eugene. I know, ambitious, especially with the rumored hills on this course. I stuck with the 3:30 group up until mile 13 and felt pretty good. But I had to pull over and fix my shoe. I laced my left foot tight and the tongue was digging into the top of my foot. Since I use the lace-lock method, it took some time to undo them. And even then, it didn’t entirely alleviate the problem. I would have to fiddle with my laces again at mile 20, and by then, I calculated I wasn’t going to PR today so I was just trying to finish faster than 3:40. I did not want to get passed by the next pace group.

One thing I tried that was new for me was to fill a 500 ml bottle with Accelerade, which I used during training. The plan was to get my calories in liquid form for the first 15-16 miles, then switch to gels. At Eugene, I took 3 gels and all 3 made me just a little nauseous. So I wanted to limit my gel intake today. It seemed to work because I didn’t get nauseous at all.

All in all I did pretty well considering. And I met a couple of other Marathon Maniacs, Guy Yogi (who I met at the Portland Marathon last year and who asked if I was a hapa, which I get quite often) and “The Prez” Steven Yee ( I was amazed that he knew me by name).

Eugene Marathon

I ran the Eugene Marathon on Sunday and finished at 3:32:08, a bit slower than I had hoped but still 3+ minutes faster than my previous PR. It was a good day weather-wise. The sun peeked out a bit more than I would have liked but the breezes and shade along the course kept things cool. The course was nice, flat, and mostly scenic. I’ll definitely keep this marathon on the calendar in the future.

I was hoping for a sub-3:30 time and to average sub-8:00/mile pace throughout the race, but I ran out of gas around mile 23. Up until then everything was fine, if not great. I was even thinking of hitting 3:20-3:25. I took all 3 of my planned gels (Clif Shots). I guess I just need more fuel during a marathon. But I don’t know, I just can’t stomach those things. I’m not sure what’s worse, losing my legs, so to speak, or running with that I’m-going-to-barf feeling in your gut. At the expo the day before we listened to Dathan Ritzenhein (a.k.a. “Ritz”) speak about training, racing, and making the US Olympic marathon team at the US Olympic trials earlier this year. He said he took in 7 gels that day. Holy cow! So that’s what it takes to 2:11.

Peterson Ridge Rumble

Sunday I ran the 30K race of the Peterson Ridge Rumble out in Sisters, Oregon. We drove down to Sisters the night before and camped out at Cold Springs campground a few miles outside of town. Since it was still too early for camping we almost had the entire campground to ourselves. No surprise since there was still some snow and ice on the ground and the overnight temperature dipped down into the low 30s.

The race itself was great. Central Oregon had been pretty dry the week leading up to the race so the trail wasn’t muddy or wet. In fact, it was almost too dusty. Not what I’m used to in Forest Park. Two miles into the race I strike up a conversation with Juan from Eugene who’s run this race a few times. He warns me that it’s not quite 30K (18.5 miles). It’s a little long, more like 20 miles. And I ask him about the elevation since I live in Portland I train at mostly sea-level. Sisters is up around ~3200 feet and the trail we’re running climbs about 1000. Oh man. At least we would be treated to some great views of the central Oregon mountains.

Despite the cold temperatures in the morning, it warmed up really fast out on the trail, which was open and exposed to the morning sun. I started out wearing a long-sleeved top and a short-sleeved top over it and a pair of shorts. By the time I got to the first aid station at around mile 5 I had to shed the long-sleeved layer. The folks at the aid station were kind enough to take it from me and bring it back to the finish line so I wouldn’t have to carry it. Speaking of the aid stations. They were well stocked. Very well stocked. So well, in fact, that I lost so much time dawdling at the four of them munching on bananas, PB&J, pretzels, rice crispy treats, filling up my hand-held water bottle, and drinking Nuun. I also lost some time trying to get my wedding ring off after I noticed my fingers swelling up. Not exactly sure why that was happening or even if it was just my imagination.

My Garmin Forerunner clocked me in at 2:52:48 covering a distance of 19.4 miles, an 8:54/mile pace, with a total ascent/descent of a 1919/1924 feet. My official gun time was 3:01:48, 59th out of 154 30K runners (38th percentile) which is about where I hoped to be (mid-pack and under 3 hours) and I’m reasonably happy with my time considering the elevation, heat, and inexperience with trail racing. This was a fun trail run and both the runners and volunteers were great. Sisters is a nice town to spend the weekend. I’m certain I’ll do this race again next year.