Gigantic Recap

Have I really not updated since September 10th?  I kind of wish I updated more consistently, to keep you all along on my journey toward a Boston qualifier, but unfortunately I have not.  Better too busy running to blog then the other way around, right?  

Anyway, just thought I do a big recap of some of the key runs I’ve had in the past couple of months, as I start to get ready for my final marathon of the season.  

New Mexico Recovery/Transistion to Toronto Waterfront Marathon

I had a tough time recovering from New Mexico, mainly because I hadn’t quite built my mileage up before the race, and because the race had a lot of downhill.  This was a big concern with Toronto Waterfront only a month later.  In particular, I had a discouraging run just 2 weeks after New Mexico, suffering in the heat through 14 miles at over a 10 min/mile pace.  I started to grow pessimistic about my ability to recover in time for the next race.  Only three days later, however, I turned in a 34:06 for a 5 mi tempo run.  I had a pretty good track workout that week as well, coming at a 6:30 pace through 6 1 mile repeats w/ jogging rest, but had to cut the workout short with some injury concerns.  Fortunately, I give myself a lot of rest after doing speedwork, so nothing bad came of it.  

Toronto Waterfront Marathon – September 28th

With a 3:35 marathon under my belt, I wanted to make the next step towards my goal of a Boston qualifiing 3:10, so I decided I’d pace myself for a 3:20 for this race, even though I knew I could of paced myself for a 3:30 and come up well under.  It being an international marathon, there were only kilometer markers, and no mile markers.  I double-checked my math several times in the first half of the race, but ended up coming in at a little under 1:40, on a perfect pace for a 3:20.  I kept a pretty solid pace in the third quarter of the race, but in the final quarter I struggled.  I got confused and thought that a marathon was 44k – your mind is extremely easy to fool 20 miles into a race.  I got discouraged, and thought that not only was I not going to run a 3:20, I might not even beat my old time.  I tried to keep running well even in spite of it.   I was keeping ahead of the 3:30 group, and was surprised they had not passed me.  I kept looking out for them.  As I came up on the 39k mark, a spectator shouted “just 3k to go!” and then I realized, hey, he’s right, it is just 42.2k, not 44k.  I felt better knowing this, and tried to push hard toward the finish.  I had nothing left in me.  Then I heard a loud group of footsteps – the 3:30 group.  I fought to keep ahead of them.  I saw the 3:30 leader come up right next to me.  I knew I had to keep ahead of him to get that elusive sub-3:30 time.  He passed me in the final 1k.  

My final time was a 3:30:29.  I couldn’t help thinking if the course had mile marker instead of kilometers, that I would have come in under 3:30.  It was much like New Mexico.  I ran aggressively, and paid the price at the end, really suffering in the last 6 miles, and really slowing down.  I ran another personal record, but still came up well short of my goal.  With this time in books, I was pretty certain that I wouldn’t be able to qualify at the next race I had lined up, in Harrisburg, PA, a month an a half later, so I was seriously considering doing the fast, downhill Tucson Marathon in December.  

Toronto Waterfront Recovery/Harrisburg Transition

My recovery from the Tortonto Waterfront Marathon went a lot smoother then New Mexico.  Because I had done the distance recently, the 2nd marathon was less of a shock to my system.  The best evidence of this was 8 days after Toronto, I put in a good tempo run of 6 miles in  40:36.  I was encouraged by this and sought to achieve my goal of 16 miles in 1:56 a few days later.  This would have been a 7:15 pace, the same pace needed for a 3:10 marathon.  I came up well short in a 2:04, a 7:48 pace.  

The following weekend I had greater success in achieving my goals.  I did Yasso 800’s – 800m repeat, with 400m jogging rest.  The idea with these, if you haven’t heard from Runner’s World, is you do 10 of these and the average time in minutes and seconds will tell you what you can run a marathon in hour and minutes.  Naturally my goal was to hit them in a 3:10.  I felt that this was possible since I was hitting 6:20’s in my mile repeats.  I ran my first half conservatively, but kept them all under a 3:10.  I was very strong in my last two, hitting them in 2:55, and 2:56.  I averaged a 3:02.7.  Does this mean I can run a 3:02 Marathon?  I wish…I also heard that you may need to add 5 minutes for it to work.  3:07 would work for just fine for me too…

The week after that I ran in DC Road Runner’s predict-your-time 5 mile race.  I wanted to be aggressive here, so I put down 29:59 for my time, hoping that I could hit the amitious time.  I probably could have played it safe, but since I had been running faster then I’ve ever run before, I thought I was being reasonable.  I ran a 32:48…about what I would have predicted if I weren’t being aggressive…oh well.  

Harrisburg Marathon – November 9th

I really looked forward to this race, since it was the closest to home.  The drive was only a couple hours, and it sure beat driving to Toronto!  I also had more time to do a full taper leading up to it.  WIth this added rest, I again wanted to be ambitious.  I considered only for a second trying to pace myself for a 3:20, knowing that if I did, I would certainly come under it.  Instead, I decided to go for the BQ pace.  Either I’d hit it then, and Tucson would be nothing but a celebratory run (or a chance to push for a sub 3:00!), or I’d at least come close, and really set myself up for Tucson.  

I found the pace surpisingly easy early on.  My first mile was a 7:00 even.  This was a good sign, but I knew that I’d have to fight hard throughout this race to keep it up.  6:42 was my next mile.  My new record for fastest mile in a marathon…and this wasn’t downhill either!  It was certainly time to slow it down.  I settled into a grove, running just over the 7 min/mile pace.  Thriteen miles in, I came in at 1:34:07, a 3:09:30 pace.  Things were looking good, and it was feeling surprisingly easy.  After not being able to do my 16 mile run a few weeks prior in under 2 hours, I came in at 1:56:57, on pace for a 3:11:15.  I knew I was close, and told myself “I’m 10 miles away from Boston”.  

I tried to keep pace as we entered a park, which contained the only significant uphill of the course.  I was a little off the pace here (7:58, 8:10, 7:49), but I wasn’t completely out of it.  I knew I had to pick things up for a Boston qualifier, otherwise I was at least looking at a sub 3:20 performance.  Twenty miles in I was still holding a 3:14:22 pace.  I knew that this was when I started to drop off in previous races, so I just focused on a fellow race.  We kept battling.  He would start to pull away, and then I’d catch up to him.  We’d take turns differntly, but always end up side to side.  He slipped past me at a rest stop, and I couldn’t catch up to him.  That’s when a man in a tutu passed me.  Yeah, that was kind of weird.  I’d expect that in the back of the pack, but don’t expect someone to come flying past me in under a 3:20 pace, 21 miles into the race.  

Twenty Three miles in I was still on pace for a sub 3:20, in fact a 3:17:41.  I was determined not to have the same kind of fade I’ve had in previous races, but I had absolutely nothing left in the tank.  I kept moving, and kept telling myself to go faster, but my legs were not responding.  At this point I knew I was toast.  I ran some awful finals miles: 9:04, 9:52, 11:07, 11:13, and 2:01 in the last .2.  I had again faded at the end.  My final time was 3:27:48.  After being in 3:10 range for so long, I felt distraught that I had lost 10 mins of my time in the final 4 miles.  Once again, I ran my fastest time ever, but still felt disappointed.  

So, that’s everything, up until my last race.  More on how things have gone since then, and my preparations for Tucson are coming up.  Tucson is next week!  It’s mostly a downhill course, so I’m hoping I can finally get that 3:10!