2009 White Rock Recap

I know that this is old news (see previous blog entry), but I finished my second marathon on December 13, 2009. I haven't really analysed my race yet, so I'll use this entry to do so.

The measure that everyone cares about is finish time. Honestly, my goal throughout training was to finish under 4:00:00, but I knew that I would be happy with any time under 4:15:00 after last years debacle.

I started my 18 week training program on August 12. The program that I chose (the Novice 2 program from the Hal Higdon website) required me to run four times per week, with one day of cross-training. I was never able to motivate myself to cross-train, so I basically just ran four times per week.

The structure of the weekly runs was short run on Tuesday, intermediate run on Wednesday, short run on Thursday, long run on Sunday. The first week distances were 3 mi, 5 mi, 3 mi, and 8mi. The longest week distances were 5mi, 8mi, 5mi, 18mi. The longest scheduled long run was 20mi.

Early on the training went well, and I was making all of my scheduled runs. However, at about week 10, my body started to break down a little bit and I missed at least one run per week until week 14.

The longest run that I actually completed while training for this race was 19 miles in week 13. I was sick and missed all of my runs during week 15. I was VERY concerned about missing this week because the 20 miler was scheduled for week 15.

I decided not to try to make up the 20 mile run when I was up and running again because race day was only three weeks away, and I didn't want to push my body too far when I should have been tapering. I made all of my week 16 - week 18 runs and felt like I was in good condition for the race.

Including the distance run in the marathon, I ran a total of 391.2 miles.

On race day, Lisa and her parents dropped me off at the AAC at around 7AM. This left me plenty of time to take care of all the pre-race "stuff" before the gun sounded at 8AM. It's really important for me to not feel rushed on race day and I didn't, so this was perfect.

I headed out of the AAC at around 7:45, left my bag at the baggage check, and navigated my way to my starting corral. The temperature was about 48 degrees at the start of the race, which is almost perfect. Studies have shown that the "optimum" temperature to run a marathon is 54 degrees.

Like I said in the opening, what I really wanted to accomplish was a sub-4:00:00 marathon, which is 9:09 per mile pace. My strategy was to run easy for the first three miles at around 9:30 pace. My pace for the rest of the race would be dependent on how I felt after mile 3.

It took me about 3 minutes to reach the starting line after the gun sounded. The start of a race with 20,000 participants is a little crazy. Last year I wasted a lot of energy at the start zig-zagging through people. I was resolved not to make the same mistake this year, so I was patient and waited for lanes to open.

It was funny to me that less than a half-mile into the race, some people were already so winded that they had to stop and walk. I suspect that they might not have put enough time into training! Some of the runners did not appreciate having to dodge walkers that early in the race.

According to my Garmin GPS watch, this is how my race unfolded:

Mile 1 - 9:37
Mile 2 - 9:08
Mile 3 - 9:01
Mile 4 - 9:14
Mile 5 - 9:10
Mile 6 - 9:16
Mile 7 - 9:27
Mile 8 - 8:40
Mile 9 - 8:33
Mile 10 - 8:57
Mile 11 - 8:52
Mile 12 - 8:53
Mile 13 - 9:29
Mile 14 - 8:48
Mile 15 - 9:09
Mile 16 - 8:51
Mile 17 - 8:57
Mile 18 - 9:04
Mile 19 - 8:56
Mile 20 - 9:44
Mile 21 - 11:14
Mile 22 - 9:44
Mile 23 - 10:43
Mile 24 - 11:08
Mile 25 - 10:41
Mile 26 - 11:50
3795 calories burned (doubt it!)

After about a mile, I became aware that I needed to use the restroom, which is pretty typical. A lot of guys will just run over to the bushes, but I'm not really comfortable with that, so I decided to wait until I had access to a Porta-Potty. I ended up "holding it" until mile 13 (about 2 hours) before there was a stop that wasn't crowded!

I stayed at a comfortable pace through mile 7 and was probably about 10 seconds off of my goal pace. Looking at the elevation map (http://www.runtherock.com/race_info/pdfs/TheRockMap2009combinedCLIF.pdf), this makes sense as the course steadily climbs about 200 feet through the first seven miles.

The descent to White Rock Lake begins at mile 8 and my pace began to increase at that point. I felt really good all the way around the lake and was able to push my average pace down to 9:03 through mile 19. I was starting to get really excited at about mile 18 because I thought that I was going to be able to hold it together enough to beat four hours!

There was a light headwind around the back side of the lake that concerned me a little, but I felt good at the lake. I do remember being surprised at how long I was at the lake. I didn't think that I was EVER going to get out of there!

Careful what you wish for.

The climb out of the Lake starts during the 19th mile. It's pretty steep, and I probably should have run it easier. Marathoners talk about the first and second halves of the race. Miles 1-20 are the first half, and miles 21-26.2 are the last half. Let me tell you, the second half is tough!

Shortly after finishing the climb my right hamstring started to cramp, despite my deliberate efforts to stay hydrated with both water AND Gatorade, and my pace dropped significantly. This was pretty frustrating because cramps ruined last year's marathon, and I was afraid that I would fall apart at any minute.

That little voice that tells you to stop started talking to me during mile 21. It tells you that your cramps are too bad to keep running. It tells you that you should stop so that you don't do any permanent damage. It tells you that running 21 miles is impressive enough, so why keep going?

I wasn't listening ...

I thought about all of the runs in the dark, in the heat, in the cold. I thought about all of the Saturdays when I woke up at 5AM to run for 2-3 hours. I thought about all of the things that I would have rather been doing, but didn't. No way am I stopping! I am not a quitter.

I was really hurting at mile 22 and I needed some support. Lisa and her parents had already seen me at 5 different locations, but they were not sure that they would be able to catch me between mile 18 and the finish. Thankfully, they made the last stop and gave me the notivation that I needed to finish.

I just remember my father-in-law yelling out, "Just relax and enjoy it!" I took his advice and accepted that this would not be a sub-4:00:00 race, but it was a race that I could be proud of.

The last 4 miles of that race are tough mentally. There aren't many spectators because they are waiting at the finish line. There's no pretty lake to look at. You can see where the finish is and how slowly you are approaching!

The final bit of drama happened with one mile to go. There was one last aide station and, as I approched, I was deciding whether I wanted to stop. I had taken in so much sugar via Gatorade and gel packets that I was pretty nausious, but I decided at the last second not to miss the last chance to stay hydrated.

As I stopped, my right hamstring knotted into a ball. I tried to stretch it out twice, but both times that I stood back up, it went right back into a ball. I was worried that my day was over with only one mile to go.

Thankfully, it finally let go and I was back on my way. My lower back was starting to have shooting pains, my feet ached from pounding the concrete for over four hours, my thighs had little power, I was nausious, I was cramping every half-mile, but I felt great!

I finally made that last right turn and could see the finish. I decided to stop and stretch one more time about a quarter mile from the line. I didn't want to cramp and fall in front of everyone on the final stretch. I was able to hold it all together and jogged across the finish.

A couple of moments after recieving my finishers metal, I thought about what I had just done and got choked up a little bit. I had been so disappointed after last year's race that this moment was very special for me. It was the culmination of 46 total weeks of training.

I was proud.

Thank you to Lisa and Claire for letting me be so selfish in my training. Thank you to Lisa, Claire, Joe, Bette, and Joey for cheering me on. A special thanks to Joe for inspiring me to run in the first place, and for all of his hard work in planning that allowed me to have a cheering section at 8 points in the race!

More stats here:
http://www.runpix.info/dwr09/ge.php