Vermont City Marathon

Where is the Danimal's compete level right now?

fonch wrote:

Where is the Danimal's compete level right now?

11.

I'm feeling a little buzzed right now, I'm starting to think retrospectively about my performance today, and I just wanted to get everybody's opinion from the race.

Here is my take on it. When the rain started just before the start, it really broke the humidity and the conditions where pretty good. The first 10-11 miles or so were awesome. I felt great, and I went through the 1/2 exactly where I wanted to be. I felt great, and I was really happy. Then when the rain stopped, the humidity started rising, and by 18 I was cooked. By 22 I was walking dead, just trying to survive to the finish.

A lot of the people I knew at the race had bad experiences. Personally, my second half was 17 minutes off of my first half, and it was probably the worst performance I've ever had in my career. I'm know that you need to take the good races with the bad races, and that everybody will have a horrible performance every now and then. I'm relatively new to marathoning, but today was by far the worst I have ever done.

Did anyone else have a bad experience? Anybody else think that the conditions were adverse? Misery loves company. Was today a bad day? Or was I just severely over estimating what kind of shape I was in. I don't know what the high was in Burlington, but do you think the humidity had such an impact?

Sorry in advance for any typos, I've got a good buzz going on right now. Congrats to everybody that did well today. And my condolences to anybody who's second half was as miserable as my own.

PS - Kudos to Dan V on the W!

Take your performance, put it on the shelf, recover and then enjoy the rest of your summer. It's always a crap shoot with weather late in May, today you lost, but got yourself an experience. Good luck and congrats.

Thanks Boston32. You are right. We'll all have many more races in the future. Some good, some horrendous. I had a really big 1/2 marathon PR earlier in the spring, so this build up was not without its rewards.

Time to recover from this adventure and then train for the next one. Nice job to everybody that ran today.

I had a similar experience yesterday, but I DNF'ed. The rain at the start was great.... but it was still 68 with 90% humidity (according to the Burlington Free Press) at the start of the race. It warmed up from there. I too felt great through the half.... but was having a hard time staying cool and by mile 16 I had slowed by over a minute per mile. I live in Burlington, and rather than slog through the last 10 I turned off the course at mile 17 and ran home. Dissapointing day, but I felt it was better to call it a good workout - and not risk ruining myself for the next few weeks. There are always more races...

I saw a few of the top guys DNFing, and I know a lot of people had terrible second halves.

my story is similar to the above poster.

my first half went well, except that at mile 9 i started having trouble with my hip/butt muscles (a recuring problem). i stopped twice to try and massage the knots out, to no avail. i decided to call it a day at mile 16, as i was hurting. walked back to my house.

as the others said, the temps were ok until the rain stopped. then it just got really hot and continued humid.

i'm surprisingly sore today after only running 16.

D&D,

Been there done that. Yes the H&H zapped you no question. Rest up a bit, recover. The experience will make you stronger, better.

How'd everyone like the 200 meters of cross country running through the forest on ply wood. I thought it was pretty funny. Also, some nasty puddles to dodge on the way in.

Drunk and Disgruntled wrote:

PS - Kudos to Dan V on the W!

Seems like the top finishers (all finishers quite frankly) had to make some on the fly adjustments to their race plans due to the humidity and rising temps during the second half of the race. Takes a lot of maturity and determination to keep fighting when some of your goals are clearly not going to happen.

Hodgie, Thanks so much. That means a lot coming from somebody with your credentials.

To the people that DNFed, if I wasn't 4 miles out on the bike path, I think I would have DNFed too. ha ha ha... I had no idea how I would have gotten back though. I just kept thinking that I needed to finish what I started.

The muddy plywood section was pretty fun actually. It took my mind off of the ensuing pain.

Thanks for the responses everyone. I'm ready to recover from this and I'm hungry to start training for the next time. I definitely learned something from this race. Have a great Summer everybody!

-Slightly Hung Over and Feeling Better

culdnt make it this yr

I also DNF'd. I am embarrassed to say I didn't make it past the 9 mile mark. When the rain stopped I was at mile 7 and that highway section of the course was where I started to feel like garbage. Once the rain stopped I felt like steaming hot garbage. Started to slow even though I tried to pick myself up. Too early in the race to feel that bad, I have no idea what went wrong. I stopped running once we got back into town but I was mentally done before mile 8. Sucks.

I only ran the relay, but those were some weird conditions to run in. I wasn't surprised that most people were well off of their PR's. The heat and humidity by the end were pretty brutal. Still a fun race!

Tough day everyone. Shake it off. My father-in-law has worked a first aid station for this marathon for many years. He said people were dropping out like never before yesterday.

It is a week out but the long range forecasts have 2012 KeyBank being toasty again. 80's maybe?

Weather channel has lows in the 50s. Too far out to tell. Year I ran it the long range forecast had thunderstorms. Up until race day, I thought it would get cancelled because of storms. There was a decent rain shower for about 30 min and ideal conditions for the remainder (if you run 3:10 or better). But I do have to say that the current 10 forecast looks more like late July than May. But if it is hot, run smart and make real adjustments. The good news is that the last 5-6 mi are fairly well shaded and slightly downhill.

Anyone know where I can find this essay? I really enjoyed reading it, but it isn't on the Duncan Larkin site anymore.

I ran there in 1992. Drove up the day before temps in the 90's.

Morning of the race snow shower 38 degrees.

http://duncanlarkin.com/roads/my-favorite-essays/how-to-crack-the-vermont-city-marathon/

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