I have a friend who running in the Niagara Falls Half Marathon next month. I started looking at it, and thought it could be an interesting race. I first was only looking at the half marathon which runs along the river, and ends near the falls.
But then I started looking at the full marathon. The full marathon starts in the United States, crosses the border into Canada, runs along the river, and ends near the falls. Apparently it is the only marathon in the world that starts in one country, and ends in another.
The full sounded really cool. But then I started looking at the logistics. In order to run the full, I would HAVE TO be up there on Saturday to go through customs and stuff. So that would add the cost of a hotel room ($150-$200). We would also have to board the dog for a day or two.
After looking at the options, I decided it would just be easier to race the half marathon. We can drive up early Sunday morning, pickup my race packet, I can run the race, and then we can drive home that afternoon.
Though running across the border would be really cool! Maybe next year.
The day started early. The race started at 7:30am, but I needed to pick up my timing chip between 6 and 7am, and then catch a shuttle to the start line. I went to bed early, and set my alarm to 5am. I tossed and turned throughout the night, but managed to get some sleep. At 5am, the alarm went up, I got up, and started getting ready. We got out the door at 6am.
We arrived at Frontier Field about 6:30ish. I applied sunblock, and loaded my stuff into my jersey pockets. Picking up my timing chip (the ankle kind) only took a minute, and then we got on the bus to take us to the starting line. It was only a short ride. I knew this from last year. I saw a few runners jogging to the start. There weren’t a lot of people at the start yet, and I headed straight to the porta potties. It was cold, in the high 40s. I wore a tee-shirt over my Tuxedo cycling jersey. But my legs were cold and exposed since I was wearing only compression running shorts. I wish I had brought my sweatpants. I hadn’t known if my wife would be able to come on the bus, and I didn’t want to discard the sweats. The tee-shirt I was okay with loosing. Anyway, I ended up waiting in the cold for about 45 minutes.
I kept an eye out for some people I knew, but I never hooked up with them. About 20 minutes before the start I got into line for the porta potties again. I managed to make it in before the race started. I couldn’t find my wife, so I got lined up. I kept looking for her, and finally spotted her. I made way to her, and gave her my tee-shirt.
Following the National Anthem, they let the two wheel chair guys go first. Then after a couple minutes, they let us full marathoners go. The half marathoners would start about 15 minutes later. I started at a too fast pace probably going as fast as 7:00 minute miles. But I felt good overall. I managed to get over half a mile ahead of pace at one point. But gradually my pace slowed. I passed a wheel chair athlete about the 5 or 6 mile mark I think. Apparently he had problems. I never saw him again.
I was running about the same pace as a couple sisters, Lori and Leah. Lori is apparently a professional triathlete, and was pacing her sister Leah who hadn’t run a marathon for several years. Leah had head phones, so I talked mostly with Lori. But when I would take my one minute walking breaks at each mile, they would pull away. Sometimes I would catch them quickly, sometimes not.
The volunteers were all great, passing out water, Gatorade, and gu. There were some private people also passing out water, Jolly Rancher candies, orange slices, etc. They were all great.
Eventually Lori and Leah slowed down, and I never saw them until the finish.
I passed a few people I knew along the course. I waved at them but kept going. The day before the race I had experienced some twinges of pain in a groin muscle. I was concerned about this for the race. Fortunatly I didn’t have any of these twinges, but it did feel like the muscle was tightening little bit.
I brought Sports Beans with me (Fruit Punch flavored), and left the M&M’s. I learned my lesson in Buffalo when I brought like three pounds of M&M’s with me, and only ate a couple handfulls. The Sports Beans are pretty good, unlike the disgusting Gu’s I have tried. I planned on eating them every 5 miles (5, 10, 15, 20), but I ended up eating them at like mile 5, mile 11, mile 17, and never ate the 4th pack.
I took one minute walk breaks at each mile marker. I also walked up any of the steeper hills. I brought my small $20 Aiptek Pen Cam. I took pics during the walk breaks. In Buffalo I managed to take 64 pictures. For some reason, it seemed to max out 44 pictures today. Oh well. I need to find another better, cheap, lightweight camera.
The first part of the race was all on road. But around mile 9 we got onto the canal path. The first part was paved, but then we got onto a section that was dirt and pea gravel. I felt like I got some pebbles in my shoes, but I wasn’t about to stop to pull them out. After a while we got back on to paved path.
My Under Armour mesh hat was working great! It wasn’t too warm, and it was wicking sweat away from my head, and it was dripping off the front of the bill. If anything, it felt almost like the hat may have been cooling me down a little bit.
I was really getting tired, but I kept going. My wife was going to be ringing a cowbell (The Official Cow Bell of the LVM21 club) at mile 21. As I passed the mile 21 sign, I looked for my wife, but she was nowhere to be seen. I kept expecting to see her around each corner. But she wasn’t there. I started worrying that something had happened to her. I finally found her around the 21.5 mile point. Someone was saying this was the 21 mile mark. NO IT WASN’T!!!! She told me later that an official had said this was the 21 mile mark. Apparently the official didn’t know what they were talking about. The miles were marked by signs, and painted markings. The mile markers seemed to be very accurately placed. I waved to my wife, and kept going. Less than 5 miles left! I was already starting to take extra 30 second walking breaks. I was very tired. The half mile of distance that I had banked early in the race was gone. And I knew I wasn’t going to run my hoped 3:45 marathon.
The last miles of a marathon are the longest and hardest. I kept going trying to keep up my pace. I was passing half marathoners, most if not all of whom were walking at this point since they were heading to a 4 hour plus half marathon. There were also many marathon relay runners that would pass me, or I would pass, or would be running about the same pace as.
About the 22 mile mark, we left the canal path, and got onto a path along the Genesee River.
About the 25 mile mark I thought I could still possibly run a 3:50 marathon. I kept trying to keep the pace up, but it was hard. Even the 3:50 wasn’t going to happen. The last mile is the longest of the marathon, and seems to take forever. I passed by the street the finish was on, but the course went around. I hate that. I saw my wife at the finish line. I managed to finish in 3:51 or 3:52. I was happy finishing under 4 hours. This was a PR by about 30 minutes! I dropped 30 minutes from my time in about 3 1/2 months of training!
I saw cots, and thought they were the massage cots. I beelined for them. I asked about a massage, and they told me to lay down on a cot. It turned out this was the medical tent. They gave me some water, Accelerade, and helped me stretch. I felt better. I headed over to get some food. I saw my wife, and gave her a kiss. Then I got some food, and water.
My wife and I back to the finish line. Big Al had expected to run a 4:20. We got over there about 4:10, and were cheering runners. Then I saw All, and high fived him. He crossed the finish about 4:22. I met him in the finishing chute. He had blood on the front of his shirt. We got a picture, and he was heading off for food.
I headed over for more food, but saw the actual massage tent. I signed up, and after about 10 or 15 minutes, I got a massage. It helped a little bit. I think my ankle got bruised from where the timing chip was.
At this point I was ready to leave. Not many runners seemed to be coming anymore. I saw the results sheets up. I saw my finishing time of 3:51:41. According to the sheet, I finished about 200th.
We stopped at Burger King on the way home, and I got a Whopper With Cheese Value Meal with a Diet Coke. I needed calories!!!
Out of curiousity, I looked at last years results, and saw my time would have put me in 94th place out of 454 runners. So either I was misreading the sheets (maybe they included relayers?), or a lot of faster runners showed up this year. (I checked out the online results later, and they had included all the relay teams in the full results)
I went home and took a hot bath, and a nap.
According to my Garmin Forerunner data, I see my average heart rate was 170bpm. With a max HR of 196, and a resting HR of 41, that works out to about about an 83% average effort over almost 4 hours! That was totally anaerobic!
I debated about whether I wanted to pick up my runners packet on Friday or Saturday. I was going to be downtown today, but I thought that it would probably be even busier today. So I went downtown last night after work. I had gotten a heads up that parking was accross the street. When I got there, I turned in. The small parking lot was pretty full. The part I was in was full, but I managed to squeeze between a couple trucks (one parked awkwardly), and got to the other side and got a spot. I made my way into the building.
The expo was larger than last years. There were booths selling various brands of running shoes (Aasics, Mizuni, etc). There were booths selling running shirts, shorts, socks, hats, lumbar packs, and anything else you might want. There were booths promoting various other things too.
The packet pickup was in the back. There was one guy with three boxes of envelopes for the full, and a woman with a half dozen boxes of envelopes for the half. But I signed up for the full. I gave him my name, and he pulled my envelope. Another woman grabbed a shirt for me, and I put it into the bag.
There were a few other freebees. I grabbed a carabiner and tossed it in. I passed on the Snickers Marathon Bar. They are gross. I took a quick peek, and found my marathon runner’s number is 195.
I browsed a couple booths on my way. Nothing really jumped out, so I made my way back out to my car.
Ever since I ran the half marathon about a week ago, I have been experiencing wierd knee pain in my left knee. I didn’t feel any pain during the race, but later that night. When I would walk, I would feel the pain as I lifted the leg, I would feel the pain above the knee cap. I iced it, and took ibuprofen.
I have done a few runs since then, and they have mostly gone okay. I would stretch out before the run. Then I would do an easy warmup. Then following the run, I would ice the knee and take ibuprofen. I was scheduled for an 8 mile run on Saturday. I did a 10 minute warmup, then started the main run. I did about 1.5 miles, but the knee was uncomfortable, so I stopped the run.
But the pain seems to come and go. At times, the knee feels normal, and at other times, I start to feel the discomfort. The pain is more like a light to sometimes strong discomfort. And it has moved around. Initially it was on the top of the knee. Sometimes it is on the inside of the knee. At one point it felt like it was on the corner of the knee cap itself, like a bruise.
I have a full marathon next weekend. So I am trying to rest my knee. I am scheduled for a 30 minute jog tomorrow night, but I am going to skip it. My next main run is for Wednesday, which is for 4 miles at race pace. I will see how my knee feels at that point.
I intended to run it as a training run and maintain a 9:30 pace. This would have given me a total time of 2:04. Part of me played with running a sub 2-hour half marathon, but I wanted to be good.
I wore my Leisure Suit cycling jersey, and got many positive comments on it. I checked in and got my timing chip (the kind that goes around the ankle). I felt wierd at first, then I didn’t notice it. I almost brought me mp3 player, but decided to leave it in the car. For a half marathon, I figured there would be people around to talk to. And there were for most of the race. I did take my little digital camera and took some pics along the way.
The race started at 9am. The first part of the race I was going smooth. I actually tried to slow myself down. But I was slowly gaining time to get ahead of my intended pace. I figured I might need this later as the course is pretty hilly. I just looked at the data and saw that I climbed almost 2400 feet over the 13.1 mile course! Wow! And about 60% of the course was on dirt/gravel roads, with the rest on asphault. I tried to walk every mile, but skipped some of them. I took two cups of water at every water stop. I poured one cup over my head, and drank the other. I talked with one guy I knew (Pat) from aikido, but let him go as he was running faster. I hooked up with another couple guys and ran with them until they started slowing down. I left them, and hooked up with another and ran with her for a while, and then caught up with Pat again. We three ran together for a bit, then I pulled away. I hit the last big hill, and kept running most of the way up, taking a couple short walk breaks at the steepest parts. As I crested the hill, I saw that it was possible for me to break 2 hours if I picked up the pace. I ran the last mile or mile and a half at somewhere I think between 7:15-7:30 pace. I kept thinking a walk break would be nice, but I refused to slow down. I was passing people left and right. I was trying to encourage them to go faster. Cmon guys, you can break 2 hours! Only one mile to go….only a half mile to go. I saw the track where the finish was. I seemed so far. I kept going. I finished in 1:59:35 giving me my first sub 2 hour finishing time for a Half Marathon! I ran faster than I intended, but it was a great experience know that I could run faster after running that far!
I got my medal which seems to be ceramic. Kind of cool! They had more runners than they though, and later were giving out brass medals (with no date). I asked about them, and they offered me a brass one instead of my ceramic one, but I declined the offer.
The food selection was good. I got some hot dogs, semi cold pop, and some cookies. Oh and a banana. They also had pasta and some other kinds of fruit.
According to my Garmin 305, my heart rate hit a new max at 196 in the last section!
The pics I tooks can be seen here:
http://robjacob.winkflash.com
Here is the data for the run:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3831707