I can start with all the changes I didn’t make. The easy narrative in this type of situation would be I got focused, trained harder than ever before, cleaned up my diet, etc - but unfortunately that isn’t even close to true. Am I still known to toast a good workout with a glass (or 6) of beer? Yep. Do fried chicken and mexican food still feature prominently in my diet? Definitely. Oh and the training I’ve done is more or less an exact replica of what I’ve done for previous marathons.
This isn’t to gloat or seem overconfident. My build up races were spotty at best. I prepared conscientiously and even tapered(!) for a 10 mile race in mid October - a race in which I ran 52:37 last year at the end of a 130 mile week - but this year I turned in an awesome 54:30. Thanks taper, really stellar work there.
But somewhere around mid-December I started to get in a groove. 4 weeks out I did a moderately hilly 20 mile tempo at 5:37 pace (which was my previous PR pace). Then came 8x(2k fast, 1k medium), hitting ~5:15 pace for the fast ones, 5:45 pace on the slow ones, for a total of 14+ miles at 5:23 pace. I could only smile as I sailed a minute under my time from that 10 miler and then kept going another 4+ miles.
The workout that gave me the most confidence though was 20 days before the race: 4x4 miles at just below marathon pace, with 1 mile “float” recoveries between at roughly 5:55 pace. I averaged 5:26-5:27 for the fast parts, and 5:31 pace for the entire 19 miles (2:24 pace). At that point I started to think that maybe 2:24 could be doable, but I tried to stick with my previous goal of 2:25-2:26 and not get ahead of myself.
Even with this attempt at conservativism, by race day I was beyond nervous. I didn’t help much at the time, but with hindsight I can see now that the weeks leading up to the race could not have gone any better. I got tons of sleep, drank plenty of water, and with the exception of the last 24 hours, didn’t let the nerves get to me. Lots of people at work getting sick? Nope, somehow doesn’t affect me. Ok maybe my legs didn’t feel great, but they never do during the taper.
Let’s revisit that whole 2:25 goal - on race morning I heard that the elite women were planning on going out at 1:12, which didn’t exactly match my original plan of negative splitting my way to 2:25 (more like 1:12 high or 1:13 at halfway). I figured it would be better to hang onto a pack of pros and their pacers than to do my own thing in no man’s land. I mean 5:30 I’ve been preparing for 5:33-5:35 pace, so what’s another 3 seconds? 5:30 pace won’t be so bad.
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| Early on, hanging by a thread |
Except right from the gun we were hitting more like 5:25. I was a little frightened (ok, maybe terrified), but I stayed hanging off the back of their pack. Thankfully after 5 miles in 27:10 and 10k in 33:50ish, they started slowing down. To my goal pace? Nope, after going too fast for me for 6+ miles, they now went decidedly too slow (almost like the world doesn’t revolve around my exact pace goal? Weird). At that point I decided I was in too deep and should just go for it, for better or worse. I pushed forward and, after a couple mid 5:30s, brought the pace back down to high 5:26-5:29. I hit the halfway mark in 1:11:37, and I knew I was officially committed.
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| Making new friends |
At this point the best possible thing happened to me: I caught another guy who was trying to run 2:24, no slower, no faster. JACKPOT! We worked together for 6 magical miles, splitting mostly high 5:20s along the way, until my inner moron again showed himself. My split at mile 18 was slower (5:37). And what does a moron do when confronted with exactly ONE (1!) slow split? Why crank the pace down to 10:44 for the next 2 miles of course. I hit 20 miles in 1:49:14. It made me very happy to see that split under 1:50.
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| I know it doesn't look like it, but I am actually feeling quite good |
I hung tough through the next 5 miles, mostly in the mid 5:30s, but by the start of mile 26 I was cratering hard. 2:23 went out the window during that mile - a time that 2 days prior I would have told you was not even in question, but when you’re that close it’s hard not to get greedy. I got over that thought pretty quickly, and as I was coming down the homestretch I felt myself smiling despite the immense amount of discomfort I was in (definitely located that wall during 26). I felt (and still feel) a great sense of accomplishment. I did exactly what I set out to do, and I felt as though everything had gone exactly as I hoped.
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| Last 50 meters |
If I could chalk this success up to one (or two) things I would say these:
1. A sudden and previously undiscovered ability to blow off a bad workout, and
2. The old ball and chain, Emily Daum.
I had a few stinker workouts in there, even mixed among the great ones towards the end, but for whatever reason I didn’t waste much thought on the bad ones. And as for #2, which may be related to #1, I let Em dictate a lot more of my decision making in training and racing. During training she helped me make good calls that kept me injury free and motivated, and during the taper she forced me to focus on rest to an extent that I haven’t previously. The result was the best feeling race of my life. Happy training everyone.
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