Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 11-4-18

too hot was registered, then medium hot was registered, then icy hot, now too hot 2...someone here sabotaging their own thread...pretty sad that it’s one of us

Outsiderunner: Congrats on the PR! You killed it in this marathon. A well deserved result from all of that hard training.

Wow! Congratulations OR! Terrific race!

Well, that's lame.

Thanks so much, guys! Really...thank you.

That race kicked the crap out of me. I ran mostly solo, and from pretty early on. Once I got near the bridge around mile 15, I could feel the wind kick in...was running alone throughout that whole stretch until the end. Was glad to see the 1:21:xx through the half, but I had a feeling it would be a slugfest in the second half, and it was. The last five miles were not pretty. Was hanging on...thinking of my family, fr end, you guys. Hamstring pain at 22 and then quad pain kicking in about a mile later. I think someone menntioned here that I was “deep in the hurt zone,” and I was. Had lots of nasty junk running through my mind, too. Glad I made it. Glad I had so many good people on my side.

What a great blessing this is.

Legs are pretty nasty right now. They were quivering on the shuttle bus ride back to the hotel. Will grab a hot shower. Race report to follow later.

Great job with that race and toughing it out through the pain cave. This did get me thinking about my NYC marathon though.. I didn’t really enter the pain cave and felt fine even at the finish. I wonder if this means I went too slow in the first 20 miles if I did not hit the “hurt zone”. Some of my friends suggested that I could have gone faster given my negative split. What do you all think?

outsiderunner wrote:

... Once I got near the bridge around mile 15, I could feel the wind kick in...was running alone throughout that whole stretch until the end.

Really strong running. So tough to run solo like that, especially when the wind is an issue.

One of the downsides to the proliferation of marathons is how diluted the competitive fields have become in the smaller marathons.

By comparison, I looked up the results from the small local marathon in which I ran a similar time (2:45:57) back in '82. Fewer than 1,500 finishers, and here's how the group around me finished (overall place, time, age-group place).

44. 2:43:01 6/M18-24

45. 2:43:21 16/M30-34

46. 2:44:22 17/M30-34

47. 2:44:34 10/M35-39

48. 2:44:45 7/M18-24

49. 2:44:54 11/M35-39

50. 2:45:27 12/M35-39

51. 2:45:50 12/M25-29

52. 2:45:55 8/M18-24

53. 2:45:57 9/M18-24

54. 2:45:58 1/M50-54

55. 2:45:59 10/M18-24

All the logistical advantages of a small race a short drive from home, plus a deep field at my pace. What a huge advantage!

OR, your toughness digging so deep out there alone is just incredible! Enjoy your accomplishment.

Congrats OR! Crushed it. A very good masters time, and at 49 very very good!

Congrats on the PR OR. Way to lay it all out there. I have to hand it to AJ for his prediction. I thought he was underestimating things a bit. It is rather windy here in the northern part of the state and if any of this made it down to Richmond then that bridge crossing would have made for a tough mile 16. I look forward to the race report.

Solid race, OR! Motivating all of us here.

Still Improving wrote:

I have to hand it to AJ for his prediction.

SI - My last 8 marathons have established me as the world’s foremost expert on the 2:4X marathon. All I lack is a 43, 44, and 48 to have them all covered.

Allen - the lack of depth at the local races is a big reason why I prefer the bigger races.

angryjohnny wrote:

... the lack of depth at the local races is a big reason why I prefer the bigger races.

It's amazing how drastically the marathon scene has changed over the years. I've been keeping an eye on sub-3 results for M60+, and it's crazy how rarely I need to scan beyond the first 100 overall finishers, even in marathons with thousands of finishers.

In the marathon I mentioned earlier, we had a pack of probably 15 runners for most of the race. Hugely important as we were battling a 20 mph headwind for the entire point-to-point race. It would have been a nightmare running solo.

And it was just an hour's drive from home. I parked at the starting line, and relaxed in my car until we lined up to race.

Bruin1996 wrote:

Great job with that race and toughing it out through the pain cave. This did get me thinking about my NYC marathon though.. I didn’t really enter the pain cave and felt fine even at the finish. I wonder if this means I went too slow in the first 20 miles if I did not hit the “hurt zone”. Some of my friends suggested that I could have gone faster given my negative split. What do you all think?

If a race does not hurt, then yes you ran it to slowly.

Bruin1996 wrote:

Great job with that race and toughing it out through the pain cave. This did get me thinking about my NYC marathon though.. I didn’t really enter the pain cave and felt fine even at the finish. I wonder if this means I went too slow in the first 20 miles if I did not hit the “hurt zone”. Some of my friends suggested that I could have gone faster given my negative split. What do you all think?

You can probably run sub 2:35 right now. Or at least sub 6:00 pace.

OR- hammering.

Hey guys...

I am not sure if I am right on this, but I think the results for Richmond could be off by as much as a minute. What I could find looks strange, and they also have yet to post anything, even unoffically, nor have they sorted out the age groups. Usually this is done by now, at least with the “unoffocial” designation.

So, my time might be 2:46:xx, which would be disappointing, as I went into the race with 2:45:xx as my minimum goal, my threshold of acceptability. Full disclosure: I really wanted 2:42 or 2:43...and had 2:45 as my “decent job” result, or cutoff of acceptability (ya gotta cut it off somewhere, right?). I gather you can see that I wanted low 2:40s, judging by the fact that I pretty much went out like a house on fire. Perhaps I was dumb to do that?

In any case, I hope I am wrong, and that I can “keep” my 2:45. Would be disapponting to have done all of that work, eight months worth, and not get my minimun, esp. after running well in the 20-miler.

All the very best to you, guys.

Great job , OR. You showed toughness, determination, and speed. You really earned this PR. Congratulations.

What did you have on watch time?

And I think you did the right thing. Fortune favors the bold. Laid it out there. (I plan on being equally aggressive in Orlando in 3 weeks)

I think you went out just fine. 1:21 isn't absurd for your fitness at all. Aggressive? Sure. But not unreasonable. 1:21:/1:24 is nothing to be ashamed of.

RunnerSam - so it looks like OR has set the time to beat at 2:45.5. You ready to go for it? Looks like a brisk, calm forecast.

Good luck tomorrow. You've put in a whole lot of work all summer for this. Go execute.