Marathon challenge is update
This past Friday, after several grueling months of some of the most inane, mentally challenged challenging training I have ever done, Vinny and I finally met in our great nation's capital to engage in a battle for the ages.
The battleground: a long, flat, gravel towpath, consisting of a ~6.5 mile out and back to be completed twice. This meant that there would be three turnaround points, each presenting an opportunity for the competitors to gauge how far ahead or behind the other was.
In addition to myself and Vinny, the originator of the challenge Edd was there to observe and run the half marathon, as well as Harry, another old teammate who was racing the full.
We awoke early Saturday and prepared to do battle. Arriving at the course, I began sucking down a bottle of Maurten mix, plus a gel about 10 minutes before the gun. I was certain that my superior fueling strategy would help me easily defeat Vinny's comparatively poor preparation.
Before going into detail on the race, I should also mention one other crucial piece of information that I have not yet mentioned in this thread: there was prize money offered at this marathon for the top 3 finishers. Being the frugal young professional that I am, I was intent on earning at least some prize money in addition to winning the bet, so as to at least partially cover my costs for this trip. Therefore I committed myself to going out with the leaders, regardless of Vinny's strategy.
The gun went off and very quickly I found myself off the front pack of three which included Harry and two unknown competitors. Nevertheless, I was well ahead of Vinny and clipping off 6:20ish miles alongside another recent grad - a 9-something steepler from a D2 school looking to BQ off 20 miles per week. We joked that neither of us would last long at this pace we had set for ourselves.
I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth this pace felt though. I figured if it felt good and it gave me an outside shot of tracking down one of the top 3 guys, I might as well roll with it. I sucked down another Maurten gel about 30 minutes, and made it to first the turnaround (6.5mi) in under 42 minutes. I hit my split button and waited anxiously to see how far back Vinny was. Before long I saw him, and hit my split again. 2 minutes from the turnaround, meaning he was already roughly 4 minutes behind me.
By this point I had even started to separate from my D2 friend and was feeling good. But disaster suddenly struck when my stomach turned on me. Consuming such a large amount of sugar in the form of Maurten mix and gels in such a short amount of time left me desperately fighting off the urge to vomit. This was especially frustrating since my legs and lungs were otherwise fine. After fighting through the next few miles, I finally decided it would be better to just get it over with. I pulled to the side of the course just before mile 12 and pulled trig. I was passed by D2 friend and then another runner who told me to "get it all out bro!" After doing just that, I continued on my way, having only lost about 2 minutes. I finished out the next mile to the half in a smooth 6:20.
Half Split: 1:28:58, 6:47/mi, Fastest Mile 6:08, Slowest Mile 8:42 (vom)
Confident that I had time to kill before I saw Vinny again, I stopped for a minute or two to get water and switch out my gels if I ever got the opportunity to force another one down (this opportunity never materialized). Setting out again, I clocked Vinny at a roughly 8 minute differential.
Over the next 6.5 miles my slow death began as I began to pay back hefty interest on the debt I incurred in the first half. I stopped intermittently at aid stations, and by mile 16 I was trudging along at over 8:00/mi pace. I was briefly rejuvenated at the turnaround when I clocked Vinny at 15 minutes back, but over the last 5 miles I was reduced to a walk-jog strategy that entailed alternating between running for half a mile and walking for a minute. I closely monitored how much of my banked time I was using up, worried that Vinny would be coming up on my back.
Once I was within a mile of the finish I mustered all the mental strength I had to run it in without any more stops. At some point I passed my D2 friend who was walking and urged him to join me, but his hamstrings had blown so I continued on alone.
Finally, I crossed the line in roughly 3:16:14. 7:22/mi, Slowest Mile: 10:56.
After exchanging congratulations with friends and competitors I slinked into the medical tent and sat in a daze to wait for Vinny. Surely, we all thought, he'd be here soon (Our bookie had set the spread at 10 minutes).
10 minutes came and went. Then 20. Then 30. Then 40.
As an hour approached, I had regained some semblance of lucidity and enough strength to join my friends in ambling back down the course to see if Vinny was in need of dire medical assistance. Thankfully, he materialized not much later and crossed the finish line.
His finishing time: roughly 4:15. He had rightly predicted that I would fade badly in the second half and so hung back early on, but he underestimated just how much he would fade himself. Interestingly, of the three marathons he has run to date, this was his slowest time by far - over an hour slower than when he ran while drinking 12 standard drinks.
And so the debate has been settled. As I claimed and knew from the start, 10 minute miles beat out 5 minute miles. Granted, my mileage was wanting throughout the last few months, as was Vinny's. In fact, for 4 weeks straight, Vinny didn't log a single step - partially because he was busy with work, partially because he had decided to implement an alternative training method which involved doing plyometrics for an hour straight (technically not a violation since it could be considered weight training). I personally found this approach all the more amusing, since it meant Vinny knew all along that his claim of 5:00/mi pace being better training was wrong, and so he had to resort to plyos to try and close the gap.
Many LRC haters have derided our challenge as poorly executed, our work ethic as sorely lacking, and our commitment as nonexistent. To that I say, get bent. You can't argue with the scientific method.
But that's the great thing about this experiment. Its entirely reproducible and repeatable. If you're unconvinced by these results, by all means, grab a friend and do it yourself! You won't have a good time! You're not gonna like it! But it would be pretty funny.
Discus.
TLDR: Sloppy Joe (10:00/mi training) wins by over an hour! Vinny goes home DEVASTATED !!