Last week we had our 2nd annual Run/Walk event at my work. We get Active Health points for various activities, that we can later get cash for. Many races cost more money than the points we get are worth. We put together a run/walk event that is free for employees.
We had about 270 people signed up for the event, but only about 20 people in the race part. The race was 3 laps on a 1 mile path around a couple ponds at a local park.
We lined up at the start line. Then with a ready, set, go, we were off. I took off running, and within less than 2/10′s of a mile, I looked back, and there was no one there. I thought for a second, that it was a joke, and that I was the only one who went. But then I saw the people back there. I looked at my Garmin 305, and saw I was running a little fast, in the low 6 minute/mile range. I slowed down. I tried to keep a 7:00 minute/mile pace, or slightly faster.
I kept looking back and seeing a guy in a red shirt, maybe 2/10′s of a mile back, maybe farther. But I held the gap, maybe expanded it a little. I ran the first mile in 6:30 I think. I slowed down a little, but not too much.
I worked to hold the pace, and not let anyone close the gap. In the last mile. I kept looking back and seeing the guy in the red shirt. But then a guy in a blue shirt passed him. And then another guy in a blue shirt. Everytime I glanced back, I saw these guys in blue shirts, and they looked like they were really running fast! I had about half a mile left, and didn’t want them to catch me. I kept the pace, and crossed the finish line in 20:56. That’s 17 seconds faster than my time last year. The course is actually slightly longer than 3 miles. There is a small gap between the finish and start lines of the 1 mile course. So the whole course is probably about 3.05 miles. 2nd place finished in 22:00. So I finished a minute and 4 seconds ahead of second place!
I was very happy with my time. After my poor results at the Boston Marathon, this was a little reassuring that I was still improving. It also bodes well for the Chase Corporate Challenge race that I have coming up in a couple weeks.
There are no medals or anything, just bragging rights.
Only 16 weeks to the Louisville Ironman! I have taken it kind of easy for the last couple weeks following the Boston Marathon. Then I had a cold for a week and a half. I am still recovering from that somewhat. But now I am into my Ironman training schedule. I combined the Furman FIRST marathon schedule, with an Ironman training schedule. My goal is simply to finish.
My schedule today had my riding for 2:15. I went out and did a 30 mile ride. It was a hilly out and back ride, with a stop at McDonalds in the middle for breakfast. It was nice and sunny when I got up. But it turned cloudy almost the instant I stepped out the door. The 15 miles out was nice. I was cruising along and averaged a little over 17mph. But while I was in the McDonalds, it got colder, and windy. The ride back home was into a cold headwind the whole way, and I spent most of it in the lowest gears. It was like a nearly 15 mile uphill ride.
When I got home, I was under 2 hours. So I jumped on my fluid trainer, and spun for another 18 minutes, to make up the difference.
I looked up my route on Bikely.com, and found I did almost 1150 feet on climbing in the 30 miles.
I was very dissappointed with my results at the 2009 Boston Marathon. I had qualified at the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach with a 3:30:14. But then I ran a 4:47 in Boston. I started out okay, but the hills killed me. Not even the Newton Hills. But the rolling hills early on. I really should have done more hill training.
When I got home from Boston, one of the first things I did, was to get online and register for the Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, PA. It is supposed to be one of the fastest marathon courses in the country, with a net downhill drop of like 900 feet. It is held in October, meaning that if I qualify there, I would qualify for both the 2010 and 2011 Boston Marathon, which would be a bonus. Also, it will give me some recovery time following the Louisville Ironman.
And if I don’t BQ at Steamtown, I will still have another opportunity to try again in December at the Las Vegas Marathon.
Another benefit of doing Steamtown, is that I haven’t done a marathon in Pennsylvania. I have run 6 marathons in 4 states (NY, NV, VA, MA). I have sub-4 hour marathons in 3 of those. Steamtown would give me another state. Just in case I decide to go for the 50 states thing. I have friends who have done it. Oh, and the Louisville Ironman, will give me KY, if I manage to finish it. I am not counting THOSE chickens before they hatch!
In the morning I got up, got ready. I wore my long sleeve tux shirt and leggings because of the coldish temps. I met James and Jon in the lobby. Connie, Hannah and Helen would head to Boston later. It turned out the hotel had arranged for cabs. We shared the cab with another girl for whom this was her first Boston Marathon also. We expected the cab to take us to the State Park, but he took us right the athletes village! So cool!
We staked out an area under one of the tents. There were lots of people, and more arriving all the time. We kept an eye for others. I made several trips to the porta potties. When I was standing in line at the johns, I thought about going over and having the LVMers paged. But then I saw Hill in line to do that. I yelled at him and got his attention. He had the announcement made, and after I hit the john, I joined everyone over at the bin inflatable bottle.
ElJeffe said the lines over in the other for the johns were very short, so we headed over there. They turned out to be longer now. We got in line. Hill and I talked while waiting. Keven came walking by having already made his way through the line. Apparently Hill and I got in the wrong line. We got closer and closer, and time got shorter and shorter. We managed to get there, and then hustled to the start, dropping our bags off at the buses on the way. It was probably the better part of a mile to the start.
I entered corral 12. I was waiting for the start, talking to some other people when I looked over and saw James and Jon. I joined them. We hung out till the start.
We heard an announcement that the race had started. Everyone started walking slowly forward. Occasionally we would jog a few steps, but then walk again. But by the time we hit the start line, we were running.
I ran with James for a bit, but he took off. There was a girl dressed up as Wonder Woman running. I said I liked her outfit, and she said she liked mine.
I expected mostly downhill, with a couple short uphills. But it turned out to be sort of rolling hills with more down than up. Jon caught up with me, but I dropped him again. He passed me somewhere again, but I didn’t see him go by.
I had already kind of given up on running a 3:30, but figured I would run easy, have fun, and try to run close to a 3:30, or at least a sub-4 hour marathon. I high-fived countless people. Many people liked my tux outfit and I got many shouts of go Tux-Man or Tux-Guy. I stopped and petted a couple dogs along the way including an Airedale terrier like we have. I took my usual 25 second walk breaks every mile. But the rolling hills were beating me up.
At mile 12, I started hearing the scream tunnel, and saw it at mile 12.5. It was awesome. All these girls screaming. There were so many signs saying kiss me. Kiss me, I am a senior. Kiss me I am first year. Kiss me I am Chinese. Kiss me, I love runners, Free Kisses. I kissed and was kissed by many of them! I wish I had slowed down a little more here and gotten more pics. They liked my tux shirt too! I ran into Greg (Park City Runner here) and he took a picture of me I think. I though it was with my camera, but I didn’t have a pic. So maybe it was with his camera. The line of girls was much shorter than I thought it would be. A little passed the scream tunnel, there was a girl with a sign saying “Free kisses for lesbians”.
At the halfway mark, I was on pace for a 3:40 marathon. But I was slowing down, and starting to hurt.
When I came to the start of the hills at mile 16, I decided to walk up the hills. My legs started to hurt more and more. I would run down the hills and flats, but found that I was running so slow. People were flying by me. I passed the Hoyts at mile 17.5. I found Jeff around mile 19.5 I think. He walked with me for a bit. I asked if this was Heartbreak Hill and he said no. Ack! He had to get going. I thought I might see he again, but didn’t.
I had taken Gels at mile 5, 10 and 15. People were also handing out candy and other stuff. I regularly got Gatorade at the aid stations, and poured cold water in my hat. I ate some candy. On heartbreak hill, there were guys handing out canisters of oxygen. I tried one, but it didn’t do anything for me.
When I got over the hills, I was having a hard time running at all. When I did run, I was running at maybe 10:30 min/mile pace, and everyone was passing me. I started surrounded by people with blue bibs (#’s 1-13999), and was now surrounded by a sea of yellow bibs (14000+). I was going into a head wind. And it was cold now.
Eventually I couldn’t even run anymore. It just hurt too much. My legs were a bundle of cramps. Quads, hams, calves, inner thighs. I saw a medical tent about mile 23, and threaded my way through the runners to get to it. I asked if they would massage my legs. They did. I had a huge knot in my right calf. Whenever the guy hit it, I would jump. After maybe 5-10 minutes, I decided I should go. They said I could catch the T to the finish. I told them no, that I would finish this thing if I had to walk it. And I did. I literally was forced to walk the rest of the course. Every time I tried to run, something would cramp up. It hurt to even walk. People yelling go tux-guy were now starting to get a little on my nerves. I yelled back at one of them “I’m Gonna Finish!” I think I had my teeth clenched for much of the last 5 miles or so. I kept seeing other people walking, but they would always start running again.
The Hoyts passed me back around mile 25. I tried to jog with them, but couldn’t. I just walked. Finally I saw the finish line. I tried to run the last little bit, but would just cramp up. I gave up and just walked. I passed a woman who was limping to the finish line. She had her ankle wrapped in an Ace bandage. I walked across the finish line. I could have maybe done a Wazzu, but this finish did not merit it. I finished 4:47:02. This was my second slowest marathon. The only marathon I have run slower was my first.
I walked and walked wanting to get the chip off, and get my medal. I also wanted my clothes, and food. It was a long finishing chute. After standing in a crowd, I got my chip off, got my medal and a hug from the volunteer. A little bit later I got a space blanket, and some food. The food did not appeal to me much. A bagel, granola, and some chips. I also got a banana. I wanted to eat, but I was cold and also holding the blanket around me.
I saw a volunteer with a wheel chair. I asked her if I could sit in it to put my sweat pants on. She said no. Gee, thanks! I found another volunteer and he let me sit in his wheel chair to put them on. I just didn’t think I could manage to put them on while standing. And if I sat on the ground, I might not be able to easily get up.
I made my way to place where families were waiting. We had arranged to meet at Q. Maybe we should have chosen X since it was the first one I came to. Q was around the corner. I saw my wife and gave her a hug. James, and Jon and family were still there. I was surprised to see them still there. I told James that, and he said that I would have waited for them, and I said yeah I would have.
Due to the roads being closed, we had to walk way around to get to the subway. Did I mention it hurt to walk? Just as we got to the subway entrance, there was a cop turning people away. He wanted us to walk to the next subway entrance. WTF???? I was pretty pissed off. I told my wife that if we got to the next one, and it was closed, I was going to punch someone, and that I might be going to jail. But just as we started to leave, they suddenly opened the subway entrance again. There were multiple sets of painful stairs. They let the people who had run the race, ride for free. That was cool. Our Charlie Card still has a few rides left on it.
When we got back to the parking area, we walked to our cars. Helen and I headed to a Burger King where I got a Whopper With Cheese Value Meal. Yummy!
When we got back to the hotel, I went down and soaked in the hot tub for a bit.