Here comes a novel. Seriously feel free to skip. But basically cliff notes of my last 6 weeks leading up to the AF marathon where I took a small break (4 rest days in the week after AFC half) and then pretty much did as much marathon specific training as I felt was wise without going overboard.
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I guess the last time I posted my training was the week before the AFC Half. At which point I basically hit a rut with my running at the same time I got swamped with work. So here’s a quick summary of my training for the past 6 weeks and how I rallied to salvage the cycle.
Week 8/11-8/17: 67 miles – Wednesday was my standard 3mile tune-up run where I averaged 5s/mi than before the Garry Bjorklund half, so the attempt for sub-67 was on! Arrived at San Diego and forecast got worse and worse, race day was 70-75 deg with 80%+ humidity and I bailed on the race after coming through mile 7 about 10s/mi slower than goal pace and it was just getting worse.
Week 8/18-8/24: 38 miles – Took Monday off for travel, got really dizzy on my afternoon run on Tuesday so I took Wednesday-Friday off as well. Key session this week was a 20-mile race on Sunday in 1:56:48 at about 5200-5400 feet altitude. (5:50.4 pace). My legs were nice and fresh from the days off though so I wasn’t that psyched about it. I also ran a 2-min positive split (57:24-59:24) and had to fight to hang on the last few miles.
Week 8/19-8/31: 88 miles – Took Monday off because my hamstrings were shot from the 20-miler. Ran easy the whole week and did a 24-miler on Sunday in 3:01. Had two sets of friends run the first and second half with me, including swift.
Week 9/1 – 9/7: 71 miles – 10-mile MP @ 5:45s on Wednesday. Ran a 5K at sea level while visiting my sister and managed a blistering 16:27. Was a little worried that I ran GMP for the last 2 miles, but just chalked it up to the 65 deg temp / 80-90% humidity.
Week 9/8-9/14: 83 miles – 9-mile MP @ 5:44s on Wednesday. Then 4 miles in 22:30 on Sunday (5:41, 5:45, 5:44, 5:20).
Week 9/15-9/21: 65 miles – Just ran easy the whole week. I was going to try to squeeze in a short tuneup but I traveled for work on Monday and was at a conference Tuesday-Thursday in Orlando so I just relaxed. Then my marathon on Saturday.
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2014 United States Air Force Marathon Trip Report:
Pre-race:
I left Orlando on Thursday afternoon flew into Dayton at around 11:40 PM from my work conference, and my wife’s plane landed 10 minutes later. Oh yeah, sometime during the conference word got out that I was trying to win a marathon this weekend (I am pretty sure I only told 1-2 people, and only because they asked me if I was running any races this fall) so right before I left I got good luck wishes from my manager, our area practice leader (my manger’s manager’s manager), and his boss (the chief actuary). Talk about pressure
We got to the hotel and settled in as quickly as we could, but I think it was still around 1AM when we finally fell asleep. I slept for a solid 9 hours, then went for a quick shakeout with the wife and we hit the expo. I napped for a couple of hours before NP1112 got here and we went out for dinner. Then after dinner we decided to go and scope out the course to see where him and my wife could catch me on the course during the race. I think I fell asleep around 10:30-11.
Race day:
NP and my wife dropped me off at the runner shuttle location and I got to the start area about an hour or so before the start. I just hung out, jogged a bit (ended up totaling about 0.75 miles of pre-race jogging) and stretched out. The time flew by and before I knew it I was on the starting line ready to race. I lined myself up on the left end of the start line, and noticed there was a young Air Force airman lined up behind me and another next to me joking about how they were going to try to lead the race and get on TV. Not wanting to get run over at the start, I offered my spot on the starting line to the kid right behind me.
The Race:
Note: I am going to post mile splits according to the race course during the report since I was making decisions based off of those, and then post actual distance adjusted splits at the end.
The race went off and I settled into what I thought was a decent effort, and after the first half mile I found myself sharing the lead with the Air Force marathon team captain (PB of 2:24 and two-time winner of this race) with the lead 10K runner a few steps ahead of us. After passing the first mile in 5:47 we started one of the two big climbs for the race and right away we dropped whoever was leading the 10K. We crested the hill and hit 5:50 for the 2nd mile. I really didn’t want to trash my quads too early in the race so I tried to relax on the 3rd mile where we pretty much lost all the elevation gain from the last mile, but we still ran a 5:15 3rd mile before settling back in. Mile 4 was another 5:48 and I am getting a little antsy since we are barely averaging sub-2:30 pace. It’s early but I step on the gas just a little bit and the next 2 miles were 5:36 and 5:23. Shortly after 10K I made a small move and opened up a gap. I don’t remember exactly why I did, but maybe because I sensed the other runner was going through a bad patch, so I wanted to put the pressure on a little bit. By the time we hit 7 miles I could tell I had a 5-10 second lead based on the pause between the crowd cheers. I saw NP and then my wife around here as the race went through the nearby town of Fairborn. A little after mile 9 we hit an out-and-back and I had about a 15 second lead at this point. Then I saw NP and my wife again around mile 11 and heard NP telling me I had about a 20 second lead. Miles 7-11 (5:33, 5:28, 5:37, 11:01) (missed the 10 mile mark)
Right after mile 11 or so we got back on base, and somehow I heard footsteps again. I took a glance behind me going around a corner and it really seemed like my gap had shrunken significantly. (not to mention that for the past few minutes the spectators have been saying “good job guys” or “good pace guys” again). I then told myself to relax, and just run what I feel is comfortable and if he catches me I’ll decide whether to pick up the pace then. The next few miles were pretty uneventful as we were running on long stretches of road while going around the perimeter of the base. Miles 12-18 were 5:37, 5:28 (passed halfway right under 73:00) 5:33, 5:32, 5:37, 5:39, 5:37. It was somewhere around 18 miles that I was able to get a quick gauge of my lead again as the course took a pretty sharp turn (not quite 180 but close). I rounded the turn, ran for about 15-20 seconds and couldn’t see him on the other side, but there were also some trees right there so I was 100% sure if I just missed him. The course went through a very shaded area and I all the sudden started feeling pretty good, although my 19th mile was a strangely slow 5:53, followed by miles 20-22 in 5:35, 5:36, and 5:40.
Right after 22 we left the base and start up the 2nd big hill on the course (climbing up an overpass on the highway). I felt like I was running at a steady, strong effort but towards the end of the half mile or so climb my garmin was showing 5:55-6:00 pace, I also held back on the downhill after this since my hamstrings/calf have a history of giving out on downhills this late into marathons. This was also a good spot to check on the competition since right after you crest the hill the downhill is on an exit ramp off the highway so I took note of my time at the top, and glanced over at the crest of the hill about 75-90s later and still couldn’t see the next runner. At this point, I realized the only way I am going to lose this race is if my legs cramp up. I made a pretty gutless decision to back off and hold onto the win since I felt my legs were starting to show signs of potentially cramping soon if I keep on hammering. I went into cruise control and ran my last 4 miles in 5:52, 5:57, 6:11, 6:00. I was still hoping to run in the 2:27s, but that 25th mile pretty much killed it. I went around a fence with a little over half a mile left and then the race finishes on an air field. I rounded the last turn and heard some official yelling “Half on the left, Full on the right!” but I saw NP on the left so I ran that way and gave him a high five, and then about 50 yards from the finish I saw my buddy Jason on the sidelines going nuts so I reached over and gave him one too. Other than those two incidents the last 2-3 minutes was basically a blur, and I saw a couple of videos of me acting a little like an ass fist pumping at the finish, but it was hard not to get caught up in the moment. I broke the tape, walked for a few seconds and then got dragged to the side to do interviews. Luckily that was over pretty quick and I found my wife, gave her a kiss, and got out of there quickly with her and NP as we had to go check out of the hotel and then come back for awards
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Amusing post-race story:.
I took a quick shower when we got back to the hotel, and then I thought we had enough time to get to the awards. But apparently unlike most award ceremonies where it takes forever to hand out all the age group awards they only gave out overall winner and first military finisher for each race. My buddy Jason (who is on the AF marathon team) apparently held up the ceremony long enough for me to make the 1 mile run from the parking lot to the awards tent before they had to leave. By the time I made it there I was sweaty enough that I might as well have not showered. I had my picture taken with a few Air Force Generals/Colonels which was cool. (and apparently earlier when they thought I wasn’t going to make it there in time they had Jason accept the award in my place, including the picture taking part too). The foreshadowing part of this whole thing is he’s got a really good shot at winning the race next year and having his picture taken for real.
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Race Splits: (garmin distance / actual pace).
1. 5:48 (1.00 / 5:48)
2. 5:50 (0.99 / 5:54)
3. 5:15 (0.98 / 5:22) – I knew this was short even as soon as I saw it.
4. 5:49 (1.04 / 5:35)
5. 5:36 (1.00 / 5:36)
6. 5:23 (0.97 / 5:33)
7. 5:34 (1.00 / 5:33)
8. 5:28 (1.00 / 5:28)
9. 5:37 (1.02 / 5:30)
10. 11:00 (1.99 / 5:32)
11. ---- (5:32)
12. 5:38 (1.02 / 5:32)
13. 5:28 (0.99 / 5:32)
14. 5:33 (0.98 / 5:40)
15. 5:32 (1.00 / 5:32)
16. 5:37 (0.99 / 5:41)
17. 5:39 (1.00 / 5:39)
18. 5:37 (1.00 / 5:37)
19. 5:53 (1.05 / 5:36)
20. 5:35 (0.99 / 5:38)
21. 5:36 (1.00 / 5:36)
22. 5:41 (1.00 / 5:41)
23. 5:53 (1.02 / 5:46)
24. 5:58 (1.01 / 5:54)
25. 6:11 (1.07 / 5:48) – I wish most marathons that are purposely a little long wouldn’t put all the “cushion” in one of the miles right at the end.
26. 6:00 (1.03 / 5:51)
27. 1:11 (0.22 / 5:22)
Analysis: So my official race splits were 72:59 / 75:16, but looking at the garmin data the first 13 miles of the marked course was 13.00 and the last 13 miles was 13.14. (Yes, I know garmin data isn’t 100% reliable, but I didn’t really shut it down that much the last few miles). So it looked like I had about a 2% slowdown even with running the last 3-4 miles a bit on the conservative side. I do wish I had pushed it a little bit and gotten into the 2:27s, but in the grand scheme of things it’s not a huge deal as I have decided to do a dedicate marathon cycle for a January/February marathon before deciding on my focus for the rest of 2015. The goal marathon will most likely be Houston, but if I get into the USA Half champs I’ll figure something else out.