May 2016 Running Challenge

<<ETA: Way too long! For a reasonable length report just read the mileage notes>>

Sorry I'm late with my race report. After the race, I had some beers, laid down on the sofa to watch some baseball and rest, then have been doing dad & husband stuff (including building a trebuchet for my son's science experiment!).

If you follow me on Strava you know my results. While I'm very pleased how it all turned out I'm a little disappointed I didn't make my goal of a sub 4 hour first marathon. My "official" time was 4:09:29 but there was no chip timer at the start so my actual time was several second less than that.

That's the short version. The long-*kitten* version is below. I know many won't read it because it's too long, but I love reading detailed race reports so I'm going to write one.

Lead up
As you know, I was struck with an Achilles strain 5 weeks prior to the race. After 3 weeks of rest (and a few test runs) I was finally able to run pain free, up to 9 miles. Of course, 26 miles at race pace is completely different. While I did get in two 20 mile runs before that, the first one was only supposed to be 18 so they came early. The injury forced me to miss a 25K trail race and another 20 mile run. In total I missed 55 miles of planned running.

All that considered, I was torn between going for my original 4 hr goal time and risking an Achilles blowup, or taking it easy just trying to make it to the finish without incident. I always knew the answer in my heart though. Go for it. Not knowing for sure where my fitness level was, however, I did decide to make my HR the guiding factor in my level of effort, rather than pace, and hope that pace would be where it needed to be.

Day before
I took the day off from work the day before the race so I could sleep in. After packing, running some errands, and working a few hours from home, I made a last minute check of the weather and realize that the windchill will be just 19F at race start. I grabbed my running tights and a couple of long sleeved shirts and added them to the pile.

I finally loaded up and headed out for the 90 minute drive to St. Joseph, MN. Once there I went to packet pickup (they put a smiley face on my bib, indicating that this was my first marathon), joined their spaghetti dinner (and made the mistake of sitting by non social people when I was in the mood to chat), then decided to check out the location of the bus pickup at the end of the trail to make sure I could find it the next morning. I hadn't been able to fit in a planned 2 mile run earlier that day, and I had just eaten, so I opted for a four mile walk on the trail I'd be running the next day. That done I bought some juice for the next morning, checked into my room and went to bed both nervous and excited about the next day.

Morning of:
Alarm goes off at 4am. I'm feeling like I hadn't slept much overnight but my Fitbit tells me I had nearly 6 hours. Perhaps but it didn't feel like a good sleep. I eat my bagel and banana, and drink some juice and two cups of coffee. Shower (even though I'll be sweaty shortly), put bandaids on my nipples, Trail Toes on my toes and other chaffy bits, HR monitor on my chest, clothes on my body, then fill up my drop bag. I double and triple check everything, certain I'm missing something but I'm not. One last attempt to...ah...take care of some business with only partial success. I make the bus pickup area by 5:45.

The race start is at a small town high school. We are allowed to gather in the gymnasium before the race for stretching and final prep, packet pickup, bathrooms, water, etc. This is an AWESOME feature for a race! NO standing around out side in the windy cold, shivering. I went to the bathroom to try to take care of business again but the line to the one stall is too long and I'm not willing to wait. I should have looked for another bathroom or waited.

Pre-race announcements, a shout out to first timers (yay me!), the national anthem, and we're directed to head outside, drop off our drop bags and head to the start line. Oh *kitten*!!! It's about to happen!

The Race:
I mentioned above that I decided to let my HR be my guide for my pace. From Daniels tables, my HM stats from a race 6 months ago, and data from key runs since then, I set 158 BPM as my goal, hoping this would bring me in at 4:00 (avg pace of 9:09). I found the 4:00 pacer and hung around him. I wasn't planning on using him, but I wanted to know where he was for reference on the course.

Mile 1 and 2:
The gun goes off and we start. Typical race start jockeying for position, going around slow folks, getting passed by fast folks. The route takes us around the parking lot, onto the road, down a big hill, a short length of gravel road, a sharp u-turn onto the paved trail, all in the first half mile. From there on out, there's only 1 turn. I'm trying hard not to go too fast at the start and am checking my GPS frequently. The 4:00 pacer goes out too fast, I think and I let him go, staying with my plan. At the first water stop at 1.7 miles, I ditch one of two pair of gloves I'm wearing. For the first two miles my HR is right at 158 and my splits are 8:55 and 8:56. A perfect start! Well other than the fact that I have to pee.

Miles 3 - 5
We had been protected from the 16 mph wind (gusts to 24) by trees up til now. When we hit an open spot, that wind had some bite. A guy next to me makes some comment about it and we start chatting. He's done 20 marathons and is attempting to do 12 this year, this being his first. I enjoy our conversation but after a mile or so, I realize that running with him is slowing me down. I slowly increase the pace and he tries to keep up. At the 5.5 mile water stop I gulp down a Gatorade and I come out of the pit stop ahead of him and keep my pace up so we're not running together. I kind of felt like an *kitten* doing that, but he knew I had a goal in mind. Splits were 9:08, 9:10 and 9:15, HR at 157 to 158. Temps were wonderfully cool

Miles 6 - 15
I'm running very strong at this point. Except for a poor water stop on my part at mile 7, all my splits are faster than 9:09 and my HR is averaging 157. The scenery is beautiful, the groups start settling down, I slowly catch up to the 4:00 pacer and the temps remain cool. By the end of mile 14 my overall average pace is 9:02 which should get me in at 3:57:35, taking into account the overrun (which ended up being just 0.1 mile for me on this course). Damn this felt great! Well except for one more thing...that unfinished business from before. Several times I considered stopping at one of the port-a-potties, or even in the woods if I had to. It came close to emergency several times but would eventually subside before I had to take action. I don't now if this ever slowed me down, but it was certainly and uncomfortable bloaty feeling. I don't know about you folks but running makes me fart more than normal and this feeling was making me afraid to fart, further compounding the discomfort. I know, in normal circles this is TMI, but we're not normal, we're runners.

Mile 16
This is when I first started feeling my Achilles. Not really pain so much as a niggle of impending pain, if that makes sense. I must have spent the mile thinking about it, and figuring out what to do about it. I decided my Achilles isn't going to make the distinction between 9:02 and 9:30 or even 10:30 at this point, so I was just going to keep going with it and keep my HR pegged at 158 but wiht a bit of concern on my mind. SPlit for this mile was 9:13. We're now running into the sun and I'm getting warm

Mile 17
I speed things back up this mile but as I do, the Achilles awakens. I'm down to 9:07 but it becomes more of a mental game with the pain slowly increasing.

Miles 18 - 20
The success of pushing through on mile 17 doesn't continue and my pace slowly creeps up each mile as the pain gets worse. My HR decreases as I am unable to keep up the effort. Though the running becomes easier fitness-wise, it's harder pain-wise. My heart keeps trying to draw up the strength to push through the pain but my mind keeps telling me that there are more races to come. I have an internal battle about what to do. In spite of my slowing pace I think I can make another push to get back into the sub-4 zone as my overall pace is still 9:07, right on the edge. Splits are 9:17, 9:26 and 9:38 and my HR is 152, 151, 151. The 4:00 pacer starts getting away from me. The sun is getting to be a real pain in the *kitten*. I have my shades on, but really wish I had my North Face hat for the visor. I had opted for a buff to keep my ears warm at the start. I should have brought both.

Miles 21 -26.2
Nope. I can't. I may have been able to push past the Achilles pain but at Mile 21 my right quad lit on fire. I can only guess that it was due to some sort of stride change made to deal with the Achilles pain as we had virtually no hills and this had never happened to me in the 20 mile training runs (which had a 9:36 average pace). With my quad and Achilles both against me now, I came to terms with the fact that I wasn't going to break 4:00. I pushed as hard as the pain would allow. At one point I could feel my right hamstring starting to quiver with each contraction and it bound up finally. I stopped, stretched it out, and it never bugged me again. Several times my calves would start to quiver on the pushoff, but they never cramped up. To make matters worse, my unfinished business started bothering me again. I think the fear of the pain of sitting down, and of not being able to get back up, kept me from doing anything about it. I was taking it mile by mile now. Don't think about the 5 miles to the finish but the 1 mile to the next mile marker. My pace crept up from 10:04 at mile 21 to 11:05 at mile 25 and my HR dropped from 146 to 142. Somewhere in there I decided that 4:10 was my new goal and at Mile 26, with that new goal in jeopardy, I actually sped up my pace by 14 seconds. I wanted to sprint in at the finish but there was absolutely no sprint in me. I crossed the line at 4:09:29.

Post Race
I heard them announce my name and city, and that this was my first time marathon. The cheer got a little louder at the mention of this being my first. I was handed my ribbon by a bright smiling young girl, while another gal handed me a yellow rose, given to all first time finishers. An older volunteer wrapped a foil blanket around me. I appreciated the thought but I was hot and took it off. I was directed to a tent where I picked up my drop bag and finishers shirt.

I made it over to a tree and tried to stretch my quads but as soon as I tried to lift my foot up my ham string cramped up big time. Changing positions quickly I stretched that out and decided to just lay down and try to stretch. I must have looked like I was struggling because a volunteer rushed over to see if she could help me. After repeatedly telling her I was fine, which I'm not sure she believed, she asked if she could get me more water or some food. They were serving pizza so I let her get me two slices of sausage, which was awesome!

Next order of business was to finally finish taking care of business! I was shocked that the stall was free and camped out in there for a while until I could tell someone else was waiting to use it. WHAT A RELIEF!! I sure felt sorry for the next guy though.

It was then that I realized with surprise that I was not tired. Not even a little it. I had had visions of me collapsing in an exhausted heap at the end, but I felt, fitness wise, that I could keep going all day. I finally figured it out, that the pain that was causing me to slow down, dropped me from race pace to long slow distance training pace as evidenced by my declining heart rate. Thought I didn't the 4:00 finish, I was consoled by the fact that my fitness level was definitely there. I just need to do a better job avoiding injury.

I filled my face with pizza, cookies and bananas. I had a growler of beer in the truck but skipped that and went to a local brewery instead. Had the sampler flight of 4 of the beers and left to drive home. A big group had arrived and filled up both sides of the steps so I had no hand rail to grab onto. Not wanting to bother folks to moves I walked down the middle and found myself muttering "*kitten*", "*kitten*", "*kitten*" progressively louder with each stop and got some pretty interesting stares. I didn't bother to explain.

Getting out of my truck took some doing as sitting still for 90 minutes did my quads no favors. This morning getting out of bed was a hell of a trick. I couldn't even begin to stand up without pain making me drop right back down, but I finally finagled my way into an upright position. Walking around all day has helped but a recovery run was totally out of the question. The way I feel right now, I don't see me running again until next weekend, and only if my Achilles is completely ok. My quad pain (which is quite a bit greater than my Achilles pain right now) doesn't concern me at all, but my Achilles pain does. I'll lay up as long as it takes to solve that issue.

The Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon (paved) is a fantastic marathon for a first timer, or any one looking for scenic, fast course (it's on a very flat rails-to-trail trail). The field is limited to 450 runners and this year they only had 365. It was GREAT to be able to park just a half block away from the finish and let them bus you to the start.

The race is put on by a local running club and there is only the marathon, not multiple distances. What these guys do they do VERY well. If you need lots of people cheering you on, this is not the race for you. Most of the course in out in the country but there are many crossings where people watch and cheer and where the trail goes through the four towns you see many folks but that's it. I'm torn between wanting to do it again next year vs. wanting to do something else, such as a different marathon or an ultra trail marathon.

Lessons Learned - It was my first marathon, you know I learned a lot

Lesson 1: Don't get injured. Take rest and recovery seriously. You're not a better run for running longer than the planned miles, or for skipping rest days. Don't jeopardize long term goals for short term pleasure.

Lesson 2: Get more sleep. I average barely over 6 hours a night most nights. This is not good. Not for running, not for my health. I had every intention of getting at least an average of 7 hours of sleep for the two weeks prior but didn't even do that. I only had 1 night of sleep over 8 hours in the month before the race.

Lesson 3: Come up with a better carbo-loading plan. My engineering mind was pleased as punch to find the science and math behind figuring out your carbo needs before a marathon. Based on what I read I needed 600 to 900 grams of carbs per day, starting 2 to 3 days prior to the race, and that carbs should make up 80 to 90% of your total calorie intake in that time. I did that starting 3 days back and consumed 762g, 761g, and 888g. While I feel like I had plenty of glycogen stored up, All that food you eat has to be eliminated and that was one of my problems in the race. To put it bluntly, I was full of *kitten*. That third day I did make a much larger percentage of my carbs in liquid form, mainly Gatorade, but clearly I need to change things next time. I think next time around I start just two days prior and I'll drink even more liquid carbs, particularly the day before the race.

Lesson 4: My honey water worked great as a race-time nutrition source. I mixed up about 170grams of honey, about two tablespoons of molasses (for potassim) with however much water it took to fill up a 350ml soft flask and used that during the race instead of gels. Running out of energy was not an issue. The diluted honey was easily sipped through the bite valve and none of the stickiness leaked out. Very clean, very easy to take.

Lesson 5: Learn to drink on the run. I stopped at most water stops because I wanted to get two glasses of gatorade each time (part of my calculations of how many calories I needed to consume during the race). I'd grab the glass handed to me, step out of the way, stop to drink it, then grab another one and not start running until it too was done. Based on my total time vs. moving time in Garmin Connect, that cost me over 2 minutes.

Lesson 6: Trail Toes, a body lubricant, is kick *kitten*!! I lubricated not just my toes but all my chaffy bits and the places that often bothered me were never an issue. I'll never buy body glide again. It's only Trail Toes from here on out. Fantastic stuff! Highly recommended!

Statistics:
Because this post isn't very long, I'll include my statistics. That third column is the cumulative average pace (cumulative time divided by cumulative distance)

I have been a huge, getting-fat slacker over the past couple months. I don't know what my issue is. That being said, I really, really need to get my rear in gear this week - I have a 10K trail run in less than three weeks.

Funny little kind-of-running-related story:
Saturday afternoon, as I was sitting on my butt in front of the TV, my male cat came over, and plopped himself on my lap. His right ear looked like it was wet. I took my thumb and rubbed it, and it was not wet, but actually coated in some sort of sticky substance that smelled sweet and almost a little fruity. I had absolutely no idea what it could have possibly been, but I noticed it was on his right cheek, too. I got a wet paper towel and wiped his ear and face off, which he was not at all happy about. I was still very confused as to what was all over his head. A little while later, I decided to clean up the house a little, when I noticed a fruit-flavored Honey Stinger gel in front of the couch. The darned cat had one tiny hole punctured in the back of the thing. All I can figure is that he stole it from somewhere (I'm not sure where it was - either on the kitchen counter or in a gym bag/backpack somewhere) and was playing with it when he ended up putting a hole in the packaging and decided to rub his face all over the honey that oozed out. I rinsed off the Honey Stinger, inspected it, and realized it didn't lose much of its contents, and it was only a very small puncture on the "a" in "Nutrition Facts," so I dried it off, cut a small square of clear packing tape, and covered the hole. Judge me if you'd like, but I am totally consuming this thing the next time I need a gel. Damn cat.