lucKY2b wrote:
RF Reader, I hope that your race went well. Looks like the weather was pretty decent.
The weather was indeed decent. I wore a cheap hat that I was willing to dispose if it became too warm, I also chose a cheap pair of gloves. But I kept them on to the finish. The best part was that I did not have to worry about the wind.
My race plan was to follow the 3:25 pace team, and see what I can do in the last few miles. The pace team started the first two mile in 8:13-8:00, which I thought was okay for a "warm-up." But the pace didn't pick up as much as I thought, and we went through the next two miles in 7:56-7:53. I was very surprised to see the 5th mile in 7:10, but immediately suspected that the mile marker was way off. That suspicion was confirmed when we passed the 6th mile marker for a 8:28 split. (I assume it was more like 7:50-7:48 splits for those two miles.)
Seeing that we were way behind, the pacers suddenly picked up the pace, and I found it hard to keep up with them. I went the next two miles in 7:43-7:41, but the gap between the pacers and myself was widening. I told myself not to force the pace. The pacers would eventually settle down once they make up for the slow start. I reached the 10mile mark @ 1:18:32, which was 32 sec slower than I expected.
Shortly after we got separated from the half marathoners around Mile 11, I finally caught up with the pacers. There were about a dozen runners who were following the two pacers. I told myself to relax as much as I could, and just follow the pack. We reached Mile 15 @ 1:57:04, in spite of some uphills between Mile 13 and 15.
Around Mile 18, the left side of my hip started hurting a little bit. This is a problem that I did not have before. It was not too serious, but bad enough to gradually open the gap between the pacers and myself. The pace slowed down a little bit in spite of net downhill, and I reached Mile 20 @ 2:36:11, several seconds behind the pacers. By this time, only a few runners were left following the pacers.
I managed to run the next 4 miles in 7:51-7:48-7:52-7:42. Then shortly after Mile 24, I stumbled on a pothole (I think that's what it was), and almost bumped into a cone. Then I felt cramp on the bottom of my right foot. I had to slow down to deal with the cramp, and the gap behind the pacers widened from 5-6 sec. to 20-25 sec. 25th mile split was 8:02, the slowest since the first mile (assuming the "6th mile" was longer). I managed to cover the last 1.2 in 7:53-1:37, after I got the cramping under control.
When I finished in 3:24:57, I was disappointed that I failed to improve my PB of 3:24:24 from April 2014. But after a while, I realized there were many positives that I could take from this race. I ran the fasted 2nd half (1:42:41) ever, in spite of dealing with some physical issues. I managed to finish in the top 10 of my age group (I was actually 13th, but the top 3 got the "Grand Masters" awards). In my previous three attempts at this race, I couldn't make the top 20 of my (younger) age groups. My OA place (124th) was also by far the highest, as I never made the top 200 before.
And above all, I thought about what I had gone through since last year. I hobbled to a 1:49 half in September 2014. I went through 6 weeks of physical therapy to deal with my glute/ham problems. I had to withdraw from the April marathon with yet another hamstring injury. Just five months ago, I could not break 22min in a 5k race. 11 week ago, I ran a half marathon 5 min slower than my PB. Considering all that, 33 sec from my marathon PB should be a glass half full rather than a glass half empty.
I have run more mileage in the last 11 weeks than ever before. But the intensity of my training was also lower than any other marathon build-up. I didn't know how this style of training would work, but I really thought I had no other choice. (Especially after the latest injury in March.) If I could avoid another injury (I know that's a BIG if), I should be able to run faster in my next marathon (which will be in late April).
M: off.
T: 7 miles.
W: 5 miles.
R: 4 miles.
F: off.
SA: Memphis marathon. (3:24:57)
SU: off.