Having missed qualifying for the Boston Marathon, I looked hard for my next race. I originally started looking for something around May/June. I ran the Buffalo Marathon this year, and it was a good bet, though the course is relatively uninteresting. But it is flat and probably would be a fast course.
But in my searching I found the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach, VA. I had heard of it from seeing ads, and cards in my goody bags from other races. I even got a Shamrock Marathon plastic cup at the expo for the Las Vegas Marathon. The Shamrock Marathon takes place in mid-March (March 16th). The course is supposed to be VERY flat and fast. One concern is wind. I have read reports of wind. But any course can have wind. The Las Vegas Marathon had a strong head wind last year, but nothing this year.
But since the race is in March, I will have three months to train for it. And if I don’t qualify for Boston there, I can try again in May or June at another race.
And the course looks interesting, running near the ocean. So I signed up for the race. I still need to book a hotel room.
We are looking at maybe making a short vacation out of it, and maybe visit North Carolina or Georgia and do one of those treasure hunting things that we have seen on TV.
I arrived in Las Vegas on the Tuesday before the Marathon. I did the Great Santa Claus Run. Actually, I walked it since I was going to running the marathon the next day.
On Saturday I visited the expo at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, and picked up my race packet. I also hooked up with many of my friends from the LVM21 club. I was planned to go to lunch with a couple of them, but they were a little late to arrive. Eventually they showed up, and we headed off to Jack In The Box. After a quick lunch, we headed back to the Excalibur hotel where we were staying. I quickly went through the check in process and got my room key. I rushed back to my car, changed into my Elvis costume, and headed back to the expo and met up with the other Running Elvi (what the Running Elvises call themselves). We were escorted out to the parking lot where the finish line would be, and they got pictures of us. I recognized some of the Running Elvi from last year.
After the photo session, I rushed back to my car, changed back into my normal clothes, and headed off to the LVM21 pasta party. The party was a blast with lots of food, awards, raffles, and even Tegla Letoure an elite runner from Kenya. I left the party about 8:00 and was in bed by about 9pm.
I didn’t sleep well. My alarm clock went off at 3:30. I got up, and started to get ready for the race. I needed to be at the Mandalay Bay Hotel to meet up with the Running Elvi. I had planned to walk from the Excalibur to Mandalay Bay, but ortunately ran into another LVM21 member who told me there was a shuttle. We headed to the shuttle. On our way we met one of the wheelchair athletes. She was in a regular chair pushing her racing chair and trying to go up a ramp. My friend grabbed her racing chair, and I pushed her up the ramp. We rode with her and assisted her as we could until we got over to Mandalay Bay. I headed off to meet the rest of the Running Elvi. It was a lot of fun talking to the many Elvises, some from last year, and many new Elvi.
After a while we were escorted to the starting line. The Elvi were corralled off to the side of the Sub-3 and sub-4 hour corrals. I watched the people over in those corrals warming up, and thinking that maybe I should have been over there instead. It was slightly below 40 degrees, and I was shivering while standing around. There was the various pre-race stuff. The elite women were started about 6am. The rest of us were started about 18 minutes later. As the starting horn was sounded, the people behind the sub-4 hour corral rushed forward. So the running elvi merged in behind the slower people. I started the stopwatch on my Garmin 305 as I crossed the start line. I spent the first few miles working my way through the slower runners. I wanted to run at 8:00 minute/mile pace. But I passed the first mile at close to 9 minutes. I must have run a faster 2nd mile since I passed that mile marker at less than 16 minutes.
I was expecting to see a friend around mile 4 or 5, but passed her around mile 2 or 3. I aso passed by the Blue Man Group around mile 2. Just passed mile 5 was the wedding chapel. The Elvises were going to stop there to be witnesses for the weddings. I ran on by as I was going for time. A couple times I passed the family of one of our club members. They were holding a green inflatible alien. And I would shout A. Leon! I passed by Freemont Street Experience. Last year we ran right through it. That was really cool! This year they routed us around it. Oh well. After that we were on surface streets.
After about one hour, I ate some Jelly Belly Sport Beans. They are difficult to eat while running. I planned to eat more at the two hour and three hour marks, but that never happened. I decided to try some gels next time.
I kept running at a 7:40-7:45 pace, taking a 30-60 second walk break each mile. I was averaging an 8:00 pace. I ran briefly with a friend around mile 11, but then pull ahead. My iPod Shuffle kept me entertained.
The mile markers were much more accurately place this year with the exception od mile marker 11 which was probably placed around 11.15 miles.
Around mile 15 I was thinking only 11 miles to Boston. And around mile 16…only 10 miles to Boston. And again at mile 17 only 9 miles to Boston. It was then I started to slow down very gradually. After another couple miles, I knew I wasn;t going to get my 3:30 Boston Qualifying time. I figured I could still get a 3:30 something time. At mile 20 I passed through a giant fake wall. That was cool. I kept going. Around mile 21, I was looking for the Official Cow Bell for the LVM21 club. But I never saw it. After a little I did see one of the members of the club, but no bell. I did finally find the bell around mile 23.
In the last couple miles, I was running behind the casinos. It seemed to be subtly up hill. But I kept plugging away. I was passing many of the slower half marathoners. The last couple miles went by surprisingly fast. I crossed the finish line with a chip time of 3:36:30.
I got my medal, and went hunting for food. I passed by the first tent, and asked if that was food. They said it was the medical tent. There was another tent, but that turned out to be the massage tent. Eventually I found the food which bananas, and sugar cookies. I think there were orange slices too.
I was expecting a friend at the finish line with a cold pepsi, but I never found her. I learned that she and some other friends were along the finishing chute and were cheering me on. But I never heard them among the hundreds of other people cheering.
I made my way back to my hotel where I eventuall got my cold pepsi. I took a shower, got some clean clothes. Then I made my way back to Mandalay Bay where I hobbled across Las Vegas Blvd to get food at McDonalds.
I missed qualifying for Boston by 5 1/2 minutes. But I had improved my time by 15 minutes in 2 1/2 months since my previous marathon. So I am very happy with my time! 
Here are pictures from the weekend:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=63s6442n.6wm9e0wv&x=0&y=ixo69e
Here is my Garmin 305 data:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4557375
I ate spaghetti for dinne last night, and then went to bed about 8pm. I set the alarm for 3am. We needed to be up in Niagara Falls Ontario early enough to find parking and get my runners packet between 6 and 7 am. And I wasn’t sure about the parking.
I tossed and turned and didn’t sleep well. I finally got up about 2:45 and shut off the alarm. I took a shower, and got dressed for the race. I was going to be wearing my Elvis costume for the race.
I ate a quick breakfast of a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and a diet pepsi. We got out the door about 3:45. We got on the New York State Thruway heading west. We stopped at a rest area, and got some more breakfast at a McDonalds. It was early and the race didn’t even start until 10am.
The border crossing was a cinch. There were no other cars there at all. We tried the parking lot down by Table Rock, but there was no one there, and were concerned about getting the car towed if we just left it there. We left there and headed up to Fallsview Casino. The parking here was only $5. And if we joined the players club, it was free. So we parked here. We met another runner who was heading over to the Brock Plaza Hotel also. So we walked together talking about running. He was working on running 50 marathons in 50 states. I mentioned I was trying for a BQ, he asked about my previous running times. He proceded to tell me I wasn’t fast enough to run a 3:30 marathon. He was a nice guy other than this.
We found the Brock. I got my runners packet, and then waited at the Starbucks. The race shirt was great! A tech shirt, and it wasn’t covered with advertising at all! It was about 6:15. We were supposed to meet Shirley aka Hammergirl, and catch the 8am bus. I wasn’t sure what time she was planning on being there. She came shortly before 8am. We caught the bus, and arrived at the starting area about 8:15. And the race doesn’t start until 10am. The forecast said the temps for the day would be 36-47 degrees. It was chilly. They had tents that the runners could gather in to stay warm. I was wearing sweats over my Elvis costume. I hung out with Shirley, and some girls that were planning on running with her. Shirley was going to be the 2:45 pace bunny.
At about 9:45, I finally stripped off my sweats, put them in a bag, and put them on the bus to be transported to the finish.
We all headed over to the start line. Shirley and the girls headed towards the back of the pack. I saw a 1:40 pace bunny (too fast), and a 1:55 pace bunny (too slow). I line up about a third back from the start, closer to the 1:55 pace bunny. I wanted to start off not-too-fast.
After the national anthems, we started running. I turned on my metronome watch. As I crossed the start line, I hit start on my Garmin 305.
I was running a little fast, and focused on slowing down, and staying around 7:45-7:50 pace. After a couple minutes, I remembered the metronome. It was vibrating away on my wrist at 90bpm. I started to focus on matching my cadence to the metronome.
I was passing people, people were passing me. The water stations were all located just before the mile markers. They all had water & gatorade. I normally like to grab a couple cups of water, or a cup of water and a cup of gatorade. I like to pour one water over my head, and drink the other cup. But I managed to get only gatorade at the early stops. I figured out the people at beginning of the line have water, and the end of the line have gatorade. The problem is that you don’t know where the dividing line. As the race the race proceded, the racers spread out, and the the water stations weren’t so crowded. Since it was chilly out, I didn’t miss pouring the water over my head too much. Each station seemed to have a different flavor of Gatorade. At each water station, I walked while getting water, and while drinking it. Only about 10-15 seconds. Then I walked for about 20-30 seconds when I passed the mile marker. My pace was averaging out to about 8:00 minute/miles, or just barely faster. I did manage to take some pictures along the way.
Somewhere around the middle, a girl running in front of me pointed back on the ground saying theres $10 on the ground. I looked back and sure enough there were a couple Canadian $5 bills. I went back, picked them up and shoved them in my pocket. Hey, $10 is $10!
During my walk break just after the one hour mark, I downed some sport beans. This was my longest walk break.
I really missed my mp3 player!!! At this pace, people don’t talk much. I could have really used some distraction from the tedium of running.
Somewhere around the 2/3rds mark, were started running into a strong cold headwind. It was tough to actually keep my pace below 8:00 minute/miles. It took effort, but I did it!
As the race went on, I started to have doubts whether I would be able to hold this pace for 26.2 miles. But I also thought that I hadn’t tapered for this race as I would the full marathon. That this was a training run, and it was supposed to be hard.
As we got closer to the falls and the finish line it seemed to get colder. As I passed the 11 mile mark, I made an effort to pick up my speed. This wasn’t easy running into the cold headwind. But I did get it up a little. As I approached the 12 mile mark, I slowed took a picture, and only walked for maybe 10-15 seconds, then started running again. I tried to pick up my pace as much as I could. Only 1.1 miles to go. This last two miles was supposed to be downhill, but didn’t seem like it. Most of the guys around me had also pickup their pace. I was able to pass some of them though. I caught up to one guy as was about to pass him when I looked over and said “Are you going to let a guy dressed in an Elvis costume beat you?” He replied that he would cross the finish line with me and get his picture on the front of tomorrow’s paper. True to his word, he picked up his pace and crossed the finish line along side me (actually a split second behind me). I thought about doing the Wazzu kick (jumping and clicking your heels together). But I finished with people around me, so the photographer probably wouldn’t have gotten it. And when I was right at the finish line, I saw the photag was right there actually focusing farther down the course with a long lens.
I stopped my Garmin 305 which read 1:41:53 just a little after I crossed the line. Way cool!
They cut off my chip, gave me a finisher’s medal. I went to the food. I was disappointed by the food at this race. I am used to a buffet style thing with pizza, hot dogs, doughtnuts, pasta, bananas, and stuff like that. But here they simply gave each runner a plastic bag with a banana, apple, piece of bread, cup cake, and a granola bar. WTF? I need frigging calories!!!! I ate the cupcake, banana and bread. I couldn’t eat the unsliced apple because of my braces.
I looked at the results pages, and it showed my chip time as 1:42:49. WHAT? But my Garmin said I came in under 1:42. I figured it out later. I used the training mode, and set it to 1/2 marathon @ 8:00 pace. But the Garmin slightly exagerates the distance, so it thought I finished before I actually crossed the line. It then displays some sort of message, and I think it pauses the timer during this. So I lost part of a minute.
We watched the runners come in and cheered then on. They announced the lead runners for the full were about a mile out. About 10 or more minutes passed and no elite runners. Close to 15 minutes after their anouncement, the winner came and crossed the line. I think he finished slower than 2:30.
We waited for Shirley to finish. She came with a couple of her runners, and was right on target for her 2:45 time. She was all smiles and looked great. I got some great pictures of her. She did a Wazzu kick right in front of me, but I didn’t get the picture as I wasn’t expecting her to stop right in front of me. We met Shirley and exchanged congratulations.
My wife and I walked back to the car…Okay I sort of hobbled a bit. We drove to a nearby Dairy Queen. Using the 2 Canadian $5 bills I had found, pluss a few Canadian dollars my wife had, and also couple American dollars, we bought a couple Ultimate Burger meals. I wolfed down the food. Soon we were on road driving home. I slept most of the way as my wife drove.
Later last night, I ran another 7 miles on the treadmill at 8:30 pace to fill out the 20 miles that I was scheduled to run.
Pictures:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=63s6442n.a6pyienb&x=0&y=vyoeh8
Garmin 305 Data:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4322615
I read about running with a metronome and wanted to try it. Supposedly the optimum cadence for running efficiently is 90 (or 180 footfalls per minute). So I bought a small Seiko DM50 metronome that I could clip onto my treadmill. So far running to beeping of the metronome seems to be working. I am also adjusting other elements of my running form.
I have a few races coming up: an off-road duathlon, a half marathon, and a full marathon. I am not planning on using a metronome in the duathlon. But I want to try it in the half and full marathon. I tried to figure out how to take the little clip on metronome with me, but feared killing it with sweat, or having it pop off while I am running. I checked to see if my Garmin 305 had a metronome function, but not that I can tell. I search around for other options. I found a metronome watch named “Feel The Beat”. It has the advantage of having a vibration mode which would be nice. I think other runners might get annoyed at a persistent beeping for 13.1/26.2 miles. The watch should come this week, and I will give it a shot on the treadmill to see how it works. I am hoping it will give me an edge in hitting my Boston Marathon qualifying time of 3:30!
I have been using the FIRST program to train so that I can improve my marathon time, and qualify for the Boston Marathon. Last night I was scheduled to run 6 miles. The first and last miles were to be easy ones, and the middle 4 miles were to be run at 7:29 minute/mile pace. I did the first mile gradually incresing the speed of the treadmill. Then I decided to try an find my metronome. I spent about 5-10 looking for it, but couldn’t find it. I have one somewhere. I have ordered another electronic one that has a clip on it. The metronome will be usefull to guage my running cadence.
Having not found the metronome, I got back on the treadmill. I set it to 7:30 pace which was the closest setting it had to the schedule 7:29 pace. I ran 2 miles, then took a 30 second walking break. I ran another mile, and took another 30 second walking break. Then I ran the last of the fast miles. I went and ran my head under some cold water. Then I went back onto the treadmill, and ran one more mile at a 12 minute pace to cool down.
The faster runs are getting easier. I am needing to cheat less and less to get through them.
Next weeks tempo run should be interesting as I am scheduled to run 10 miles at a 8:00 pace, which is the pace I need to run to qualify for the Boston Marathon.