OC (Orange County) Marathon Race Report

If a headline was written for my race it might read something like… Slade Sets Marathon PR by 30 Minutes; Still Misses BQ.

Let me start with the obvious: racing a marathon is kind of hard… and painful!  I found it different hard than a marathon at the end of an Ironman. Maybe that should be my biggest takeaway from this: a marathon as part of an IM shouldn’t be different. But of course it's not that simple and clear cut. The mental component is a pretty big deal.

My performance goal was to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I was inspired by Caitlyn and her Boston Qualifier last year, along with my much-improved ½ marathon time this year.  3:55 is the qualifying time, though it took somewhere around 3:52:30 this year to get in. My aim was to get under one or both of those times. I fell short with a 3:59:57. It was a PR by 30 minutes so that’s consolation and makes falling short more palatable. If I'd gone 3 seconds slower (4 hours) I'd have viewed my time as a LOT slower!

My other two types of goals, the process goal and experiential goal, had mixed results but were mostly met. 

• Experiential: absorb and enjoy the excitement, enthusiasm, and support. Be grateful for being able to race and for the love and support of family, friends, and volunteers. Thank people, Smile, Race joyful. Embrace the pain and push to my limits. 
• Process: monitor HR and mile pace. Control pace at the beginning to finish strong. Take in calories and water on the course at planned intervals. Run the shortest route. 

As brief as I can be, here is the race report. I got up at 3:30am for the 5:30 start time, getting a good 6 hours sleep. Thought about getting up at 3:45 but felt I needed to eat as close to 3:30 as I could. Took a fancy Mercedes Van shuttle from the hotel to the start line and used one of the many portapotties at about 5:00 – perfect timing as I had no GI issues on the run. I lined up with a race pacer – 3:50 finish time (too optimistic?!) – but that pacer didn’t instill any confidence. He forgot his sign so he’d be hard to spot and he said his watch wasn’t working so needed someone to report the mile pace to him. He also said he’d have trouble doing a 3:50 as he had PRed 2 weeks before in a 3:20. I went my own way.

 

I started out a little too fast. My plan had been to keep my heart rate under 130. It kept creeping up into the low 130s so I kept reining it back in. By memory I thought I’d blown this but looking at my splits (see below) I was pleasantly surprised at how true to plan I was, at least based on average heart rate. However, I DID pick up the pace too early, at 6 miles instead of 9. I kept to the 130s a little longer than planned but it was slowly moving up towards 140s. From mile 20 to the end, though I struggled based on my mile pace, I was putting out the higher effort. 

My plantar f-ing-itis was a 1 out of 10 on the pain scale at mile 1, 2 at the end of the second mile, and then it varied between 1 and a low 4 for the rest of the run. My legs never felt fresh for the whole 26+ miles and the quads gradually protested more and more starting with mile 10 or so, escalating to the point where they were cursing at me during the final 4+ miles. At that point I was sometimes getting tunnel vision and sometimes feeling like I was unbalanced and could tip over accidentally with any slight misstep. I didn’t want to quit but I sure wanted that damn finish line to appear. With about 2 miles to go the 4:00 pacers went past me. With less than a mile left I passed them back, determined to finish ahead of them and hopefully be under 4 hours. As it turned out they were dead on their pace which helped force me across the line with 3 seconds to spare.

Nutrition went fine. My pre-race breakfast smoothie (coconut milk, protein, super greens, beet powder, and Generation UCAN carbs went down fine.  So did the stuff I took at the starting line. I took a little water during the first 10 miles as well as a little salt/electrolytes. I didn't take in Gatorade or any other calories until around mile 14 (or was it 16?). I felt slightly hungry at that point. Overall I probably took in 16 oz. of Gatorade altogether - probably about 120 calories. I didn't take in any gels though I carried 2 as back up. I'm not sure if this lack of calorie intake was a detriment to my performance or if it was to my benefit as perhaps I'm a good fat burner and therefore avoided GI issues as a consequence. I certainly didn't 'bonk' so the question really is simply if I'd have done better on more calories.

As usual, I cannot believe how many people just run the road as it’s laid out instead of taking the shortest route on the curves. In spite of my taking what I thought was the shortest line on the road my Garmin still read 26.57 miles from start to finish. This is what often happens as they measure a course by it’s shortest line. Still, I can’t help wondering how I went a whole 1/3 of a mile more. So it goes. I wonder how far those people who didn’t pick the best line went.

Overall, after having looked at my splits and knowing how I finished the final 10K, I’m happy with my performance today. I fell short but maybe that’s for the best. I thought I knew how to run a marathon but knowing and executing are 2 different things. I also know that I cut one month of preparation for this race because I didn’t sign up for my target race 4 weeks later before it filled up. I also trained for Ironman 70.3 California during this time so I’m not complaining!

 

I cannot begin to express my gratitude for the love and support of so many. Mom and many others were “watching” from afar. I got many messages of support. I received many kind words from friends and Team Challenge Tri members. Caitlyn came out and magically appeared on the course 3 different times. The 1st time was a surprise, as I knew she’d said she was coming but never expected her to be there. She wore her garb fresh from Boston, including her marathon jacket, and she encouraged me every time she found me. She wouldn’t allow me to slow down to hug her, which I now ‘blame’ for not achieving my BQ! (Just kidding of course.) The 2^nd time she appeared with an awesome signage from my TC Tri tribe - “Your TC Tribe Loves You” and “Find It!”. It was awesome. And finally I saw her again with about 6 or 7 miles to go. I was struggling at that point and she ran a good mile with me. Not long after that my legs started to refuse to respond to my desire to pick up the pace for a strong finish.

 

Linda, once again, was amazing and I couldn’t have done this without her. She did all the planning and logistics. She made sure I stayed focused on what needed to be my priority. She was anxious for me to finish and make my goal. She did her own 5K while I was racing. And she was an integral part of my final 3 miles as I focused as much as I could on her, trying to override my discomfort and rebellious legs. Let me just say, “I love Linda”.

The Numbers:

Official Race Results – 3:59:57, 16^th of 81 men in 55-59 age group, 312 of 1,169 men overall, 408 of 1937 overall. “Age Grade” 62.03% = 175^th place

5K – 27:14 @8:46/mi

10K – 56:33 @9:07

10 mi – 1:30:53 @9:06

13.1 mi – 1:59:20 @9:07

15.3 mi – no split

20 mi – 3:01:29 @9:05

24 mi – no split

Chip Time 3:59:57, Gun Time 4:01:01

GPS data – 9:02/mile ave. pace, 136 HR ave., 151 HR max.

1 mile – 9:06, 120 HR ave

2 mi – 8:18, 128HR (contained longest, most significant downhill on course)

3 mi – 8:49, 130HR

4 mi – 9:01, 129HR

5 mi – 9:10, 127HR

6 mi – 9:07, 131HR

7 mi – 8:45, 132HR

8 mi – 8:58, 135HR

9 mi – 8:51, 132HR

10 mi – 8:54, 133HR

11 mi – 8:41, 133HR

12 mi – 8:52, 135HR

13 mi – 8:44, 135HR

14 mi – 8:50, 135HR

15 mi – 9:09, 135HR

16 mi – 9:03, 136HR

17 mi – 9:09, 136HR

18 mi – 9:16, 137HR

19 mi – 9:05, 139HR

20 mi – 9:05, 140HR

21 mi – 8:56, 143HR

22 mi – 8:56, 143HR

23 mi – 9:29, 141HR

24 mi – 9:17, 143HR

25 mi – 9:30, 144HR

26 mi – 9:50, 142HR

26.2 mi – 3:56:35 (estimated)
26.57 mi – 9:06, 148HR (finish line) – 3:59:57