Race Recap: San Antonio Marathon (Jer Edition)

I think that for runners, more than any other group of athletes, it is sometimes very difficult to be completely satisfied in a performance. No matter how well we do, we often have a mindset of “well, I could have done just a little bit better”. That’s pretty much how I feel about my race on Sunday. I PRed by a solid 3 minutes, but I lost by 2 more. I put myself in a position to do something really good, and I executed, but now I find myself thinking about how to put myself in a position to do something great. Anyway, on to the actual recap.

Sunday was not a pleasant day. Since I had been compulsively checking multiple weather forecasts for several days in advance, I was aware of this well in advance, but that didn’t make me any happier about it. At race time it was 63 degrees with a dew point of 62, far from ideal, but also cool enough that I wasn’t feeling terribly hot while waiting around for the race to start. One big plus was that it was very overcast, since direct sunlight can drastically increase how hot one’s body actually gets during a race.

I did about 5 minutes of jogging with Em, some light stretching, and then a few strides from the start. During this time, I also grinned like a moron every time Shalane Flanagan, Brent Vaughn, or any of the other OTC peeps came striding by me. I don’t often warm up in the same area as Olympic medalists.

So the race went off, and I sauntered off the starting line at what I figured was a reasonable pace. I had decided once I was sure the weather would suck to not shoot for any particular time, since I didn’t know how my body would respond as the temperatures got higher. I definitely wanted to PR, and I figured even in bad conditions there’s no reason I couldn’t run 2:32 pace and still be able to finish strong the last 10k. My first mile was a little too fast (5:38) but I intentionally eased off the pace for 2 and 3 (5:47, 5:49).

Great photo taken by our friend Mark Wright early on in the race.

At this point, I could tell that David Fuentes, who is a friend of ours, was going out at a fast enough pace that I wouldn’t be able to see him much longer. I felt very good about my preparation for this race, but at the end of the day, David’s half marathon PR is 4 minutes faster than mine - if I was going to beat him, I was just going to have to run an even paced race and hope that he would come back to me. Going out with him wasn’t really an option (he went through the half marathon mark about 30 seconds faster than my half marathon PR), so I was essentially stuck in no man’s land. I caught some half marathoners, stayed as relaxed as I could (repeating “calm down, stay calm” over and over in my head) and just tried to get through the early miles using as little energy as possible. Most of my miles in this section were between 5:40 and 5:48, with the exception of one quicker one (5:34) when I saw my family around mile 9. I also took a gel, for the first time in a serious race, around mile 10.

The marathon splits off from the half marathon around mile 11, and at this point the spectators confirmed what I was already pretty sure of: I was in 2nd, but was over 4 minutes behind 1st, and at least a couple minutes clear of 3rd. Plus side is I could essentially coast in if I wanted to and have 2nd locked up, downside is 15 miles is a long way to go with no one anywhere near you. I hit the halfway mark at 1:14:53, but I was still feeling really good.

All by myself...don't wanna be...

I remember going back and forth between periods of feeling really confident and strong, and periods of questioning whether I was in for another blowup like last year. At this point the longer tempo runs paid off, at least mentally; since I had already gone through a few workouts where I had to go 18+ miles, it wasn’t anything terribly worrisome during the race. Around 18 miles the sun came out completely, and I realized it was pretty damn warm, but I had been throwing water on myself already and that seemed to be doing the trick.

At 20 miles (1:54:30 or so) I knew I just had to run 35:30 for the last 10k to get under 2:30, which would have been amazing. I had been averaging about 35:30 per 10k thus far, so I really started to get pumped up around then. I knew I had to be catching David, but at this point there was no real way to get an idea of whether he was 8 minutes or 2 minutes ahead of me. All I knew is I couldn’t see him, and I was rapidly running out of real estate. I stayed pretty steady through miles 21 to 24, all between 5:40 and 5:50, but I was definitely getting outside of my comfort zone. Just a sip of water through all of the water stops, as I didn’t have enough oxygen to spare for actually drinking much. I also lost the coordination to throw the water on my head, so it mostly ended up flying onto the road behind me or drenching my jersey.

Mile 24!

By mile 24 I had pretty much accepted that I was getting 2nd - David would have to stop and take a nap at that point for me to catch him. But I got an absolute TON of satisfaction in running sub 6 minute pace on the same route where, last year, I was on the verge of throwing up and running 7:20 miles. During mile 25 or 26 I spotted a co-worker with a giant sign that read “Jeremy Daum is my hero”, which pretty much made my day. Mile 25 was 5:53, and mile 26 was 5:58, and then I was in the finish chute feeling pretty damn pleased with a 2:30:34 marathon. I ran the 2nd half in 1:15:41, a good bit faster than the 1:19:50 I closed in last year. Considering temps were in the 70s this year, versus 50s last year, it was a vastly better performance and a really great way to finish the season.

Last quarter mile of the run..all up hill!

Finally! The finish line!

So I’m happy. But not completely satisfied. I have some thoughts on how to improve, but that’s a discussion for another day. For now, it’s the magical off-season, and I’m going to enjoy some much needed relaxation time with my darling wife and my cute furry children. And coming soon, my first spring marathon. Maybe in better weather?

Awards Time!