October (2016) Running Challenge

Still resting post-race, although I may try a light 4 miler after my swim. Below is the full race report from Sunday.

Chicago Marathon - 3:04:57 - It was a personal best, but..


I think some of you got my condensed race report, but I figure I'd put together something a bit more substantial to help get my thoughts straight on Sunday's Chicago Marathon. In short, it was the first time I've ever raced a marathon without the explicit goal of completing it with as fast of a time as possible. I ended up accomplishing that goal, setting a small personal record, but the strategy made the latter part of the race feel a bit too much like work and a lot less like fun.

Background:

Going into 2016, I set a few personal fitness goals. They were to:

* Run 2016 miles (almost done),
* Put more miles on my bike than car (up to 6,000 bike vs. 3,000 now on the car)
* Race a marathon fast enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon (hopefully done),
* Race a strong Half Ironman triathlon (done - 4:43 in Augusta)
* Survive my first Full Ironman (coming up in 3.5 weeks).

My first marathon back in January (Disney) was a bit of a disaster, as the 99% humidity at the start in 70 degree weather drained my soul and shook my confidence, as I crumbled in the last 6 miles to a 3:29 time.

Still, I trained hard, raced a solid half-ironman in April (Florida in 5:08), and finally had a breakthrough race at the Pittsburgh Marathon in May, racing the course in 3:08:25 (a Boston qualifying time for being 39 for the 2017 race) in randomly assigned bib #666 while in costume as the devil, and then crushed my half Ironman 2 weeks ago in Augusta in 4:43.

With my training going well (peaking at 70 miles/week, but averaging about 50/week - mostly long slow distance running around a 10 minute/mile pace with some speedwork/threshold pace work thrown in once/week), my confidence high, and feeling in solid shape, I wasn't sure how to approach Chicago. I had initially registered for it as my planned race to finally qualify for the 2018 Boston marathon (as I was moving up to the 40-44 age group with a 3:15 qualifying cutoff vs. 3:10 for 35-39 year olds), I knew I was feeling fast, but also had my first Ironman looming 4 weeks afterwards.

Ten days before the race, I found out from the Boston Marathon that they cut their 2018 field size by 800 qualifiers vs. the prior year, and my time of 3:08:25 from the Pittsburgh marathon (95 seconds under the 35-39 year old qualifying standard) didn't make their cutoff of 129 seconds (but would have been accepted if they kept the qualifier field size the same). I was a bit disappointed, and knew I'd want to lock in a better time at Chicago. Having a Pittsburgh running partner who was looking to get back to Boston as well made determining my race strategy a bit more simple. As my running partner is 35 years old, I was guessing that he'd roughly needed a 3:05 to qualify for the 2018 marathon, I knew a 3:05 was manageable for me (as the course was much flatter than Pittsburgh), and despite knowing I might be in good enough shape to crack the 3 hour mark, I decided to make it my goal to race it with him at that pace.

So, going into the race, my plan was to:
1. Worst case, lock in a 3:10 which would be 5 minutes under my new 40-44 year old Boston Qualifying standard for 2018
2. Pace my 35 year old buddy to a 3:05 so he could also qualify and we could run together
3. If 1 and 2 were a lock, and I was feeling fresh, push the pace later in the race and maybe squeak under the 3 hour mark
4. Regardless of all of the above, stay totally healthy for my impending full ironman on November 5th

Once I saw that the weather forecast for the race was nearly perfect (with just a touch of wind), me and the buddy planned to set out to start with the 3:05 pace group.

Pre-Race Stuff:

After escaping from Florida by plane on Friday with no delays despite a category 4 hurricane being 150 miles away during takeoff, I wandered over to the McCormick place convention hall for the underwhelming expo. Despite having 40,000 participants, the expo hall had roughly the same quantity of vendors & giveaways as my 3,000 competitor half ironman 2 weeks back in Augusta. I grabbed some pasta for lunch at Connie's, snagged my race packet, grabbed a bit more in-race fueling supplies (3 more gus and 2 packs of gummies), and chatted with marathon guru Hal Higdon as I snagged his updated "Run Fast" book before I headed off around 4PM.

Having worked for a company mostly based out of Chicago from 2004-2013 before retiring (DiamondCluster/Diamond Mgmt & Tech Consultants/PwC), I had a bunch of former colleagues I wanted to catch up with while in town. An awesome colleague was kind enough to host me for the weekend, so after leaving the expo, I headed over to the PwC office and met up with him then took him out for some yummy italian at Nonnina as we caught up on the past 4 years.

Saturday I ended up doing my final pre-marathon 3 mile pace/heart rate check run (confirming I was in 3:05 shape) in 40 degree weather, with my lungs burning, but feeling OK. I had a massive order of fried rice for lunch nearby, met up another former colleague and fellow runner for coffee to hear about her recent Disneyland France half marathon experience, then headed over to former colleagues place for loads of cornbread, guacamole & chips, and got to hear about his recent forays into Ironman racing while the cubs played their game a few blocks away. Afterwards, I headed up to my running buddy's Aunt/Uncle-in-law's house to spend the night so we could commute to the starting line together early the next morning.

Race Morning:

After agreeing to head out at 5AM, I went to bed at 9PM, then executed my usual pre-race carbo loading plan to a T, with a protein bar before bed, a clif bar at 2:30AM, a PB sandwich at 3:30AM, a granola bar at 5AM, a coffee at 6AM after we drove downtown and parked, some gatorade chews at 6:30AM, then my final pre-race packet of gu chews at 7:15AM. The coffee did the trick of emptying my stomach during a few porta-potty breaks before the race started, and luckily I found my buddy in the corrals as we lined up right behind the 3:05 pacers. At the start I was feeling happy and fat (although it turns out, about 10lb heavier than when I left Florida), but didn't have any fueling related troubles on the course.

First 5K - 7:00 pace, 21:43

After crossing the start line 2 minutes after the the elites and corral A, my buddy and I settled in about 50 feet behind the corral B 3:05 pace team and started our 26.2 mile journey through the streets of Chicago. Studying the first few miles of the map, despite the high density of runners, I decided to try to stick with running the shortest path around each corner, and slowly wound myself to the left side, then right side for the first 2 miles of curves to minimize the distance traveled. Although the pace felt a bit fast, after about 2 minutes, my garmin somewhat tracked our progress and my heart rate settled in around the mid 160s (my target mid-marathon pace). As my watched beeped a few seconds early for each of the first 2 miles around a 6:50 pace, I was OK with the speed, and figured as long as we stayed with the pacers, who were supposed to be doing a 7:03/mile pace we'd be fine. I did a quick check with my running buddy who held on to me through these miles and we both seemed to be feeling OK.

Oddly enough, despite having great supporting crowds along the course, I really didn't notice them or feed off them like I had in prior races. I tried to smile, but wasn't feeling my usual sense of early marathon euphoria.

5K-10K - 7:04 pace, 21:56

Once we cleared the downtown corridor, I initially looked out for a former colleague at LaSalle and Chestnut a bit before the 4 mile mark, but couldn't pick her out from the crowd, and may have confused her as I said I'd be with the 3:05 pace group, but as there was a 3:05 pace group from corral A about 2 minutes ahead of us (along with a corral A 3:10 pace group) that would have passed beforehand. Also, being about 100lb lighter than when she last saw me, it may have been even more tricky to pick me out from the hundreds of runners flying by.

Still, as we wound along the lake the breeze was nice and the group started to thin out. My buddy split from me a few times to get water at different stopping points, I downed my first gel around the 4 mile mark, but we mostly stuck together occasionally sharing a word or two of encouragement.

10K-15K - 7:01 pace, 21:46

As we curved past the northern end of the marathon route, then started winding south again, the cheering crowds definitely picked up, but I ended up losing contact with my buddy. It was around this point of the race that my heart rate started dropping a bit to the 162 range (vs. my 165 goal), I think my runners high finally kicked in, and I decided that since my buddy was falling back, I'd pick up the pace, get ahead of the cluster of runners sticking with the 3:05 pace group which would allow me to feel a bit less crowded on the course and finally run tangents around corners.

15K-20K - 7:01 pace, 21:47

Still, as it was early in the race, and I wasn't sure if my buddy would try to follow me, I stayed closer to the 3:05 group (as I could hear them working the crowd behind me), for the next few miles, and once I couldn't find my buddy behind me around the 10 mile mark, I decided to slightly pick up the pace until my heart rate got back to my target 165 range, netting me a few seconds each mile of distance, and potentially setting me up for a second half where I could squeak under the 3 hour mark.

20K-25K - 7:03 pace, 21:52 (1:31:57 halfway mark)

As I crossed the halfway mark in the middle of the city at the 1:31:57 mark, I started evaluating my options for how to approach the second half of the race.

I felt relatively fresh, my heart rate was stable in the 165 range at a good pace, the weather was great, my buddy (who I later found out was just a minute behind) had seemed to have dropped off, and I was able to run my own race.

At my last marathon, this was the point where I decided to switch into half marathon effort mode (i.e. 170 heart rate), and go for broke. Still, with an ironman race another 4 weeks off, I started worrying about my body. All of the sudden the slight soreness in my quads felt slightly worse with each step, the slight amount of food in my stomach felt like it was going to explode out, a small twinge in my ankle felt like it was going to turn into a full blown sprain, and thoughts of me hobbling across the line after the 3:15 mark and not making it to Boston in 2018 raced through my brain.

From all of this analysis, I wimped out and decided to just hold on.

25K-30K - 6:58 pace, 21:38

As I rounded the corner at the 15 mile mark, all of a sudden I felt some wind cooling me down, and my mindset shifted back to racing mode. At the 16 mile mark, the customized bib-triggered cheerboard displayed a message from my training partner Larry to pick up the pace, so I obliged and slightly went faster as my quads continued to ache rounding through Little Italy and University Village.

30K-35K - 7:04 pace, 22:04

Around mile 18, although I felt somewhat fresh, the pounding my legs were withstanding in my racing flats ended up catching up with my quads, and although my energy level could sustain my pace (as my heart rate was still around 165), my quads started yelling at me to slow down. Although I had worked my way to about a minute and a half ahead of the 3:05 pace group, I realized that with only about 8 miles left in the race, picking up 3.5 more minutes to squeak under the 3 hour mark by the finish just wasn't going to happen as it would require running a personal best 10K.

Knowing that a sub-3 hour time wasn't in the cards, with 6 miles to go, my mindset shifted to just doing whatever I could to hang onto the 3:05 time as it would let me finish with my buddy who was hopefully still with the pacers, let me register for Boston in the -10 minute group next year, and speed my recovery for my ironman looming 27 days away away.

35K-40K - 7:16 pace, 22:35

Right around the 38K mark, I started hearing the crowd cheer 3:05 as the pace group was sneaking up on me, my quads were screaming at me, and I knew I had given up most of my cushion. As the pacers caught up to me, I did some quick math, noticed that they seemed to be running a bit fast, and asked one if they were on track for a 3:04. The pacer affirmed they were "30 seconds hot", so instead of sticking next to them, I decided to fall a bit behind so I could continue running with more free space around me and hopefully find my buddy so we could finish together under the 3:05 mark.

Still, following them became pretty damn tough, and I started remembering how the last few miles of marathons generally suck.

40K-Finish - 7:05 pace, 9:40 time, 3:04:57 finish

Once I crossed the 40K mark, after not finding my buddy, I knew I just had another 10 minutes of racing left, so I just focused on hanging onto the 3:05 group, and did some math to figure out exactly how much time I'd have to make it across the line. The last mile and a half felt like an eternity, but once i crossed the 800m left sign with 3:01:30 on my watch (and my heart rate around 170), I knew I could get to the finish in under 3:05 with an agonizing 3:30 800m repeat. Oddly enough, after rounding the corner off Michigan onto Roosevelt and seeing the hill up the overpass, my quads felt relieved as I finally wasn't running on flat land, and after racing up the small incline, I rounded the last corner, saw the finish line and pushed it, squeaking across the line at 3:04:57 about 20 seconds behind the 3:05 pace group.

Post-Race:

After crossing the line, I painfully hobbled through the chute at 0.5mph as my quads finally gave out on me and hundreds of folks passed by looking much happier. As it was just muscular pain, I skipped the medical tent and hobbled back to the gear check area after grabbing some water, gatorade, bananas, a chocolate protein shake, but no beer (gasp). After checking my phone and seeing that my buddy had fallen about 10 minutes behind in the second half, then taking the obligatory post-race selfie in front of the Buckingham fountain (from the opening credits to Married with Children), I painfully made my way back to the subway, got back to my buddy's place, and crawled into bed to curl up and die for about 3 hours.

Overall Impressions:

As far as conditions for a fast race go, it didn't get any better than Chicago. The weather was in the low 50s, the course was pancake flat, the wind was refreshingly moderate, the race had awesome pacers, there was lots of on-course support & crowds, and the course was extremely well organized and marked.

The only thing bad I could even say about the race was that because the course passed by so many tall buildings my garmin gps watch became pretty confused (as it measured the course at 27.02 miles, but that was less of a concern due to the awesome pacers), and with relatively big faster crowds (as the race guaranteed an entry to guys who had run a marathon faster than 3:15), running the tangents and shortest path around the course was challenging.

That being said, I ran the race three and a half minutes faster than my prior marathon (Pittsburgh in 3:08:25), completed it at the pace and total time I set out to run, locked in a time that is 10 minutes faster than my Boston Marathon qualifying time (making entry into 2018 pretty much a lock), but unlike prior strong running performances, I'm not feeling quite as satisfied as after other races.

I think the frustration stems from both not really experiencing my usual in-race runners high, and from knowing I could have finished 2-3 minutes faster, but proactively decided not to push it in the end. Also, I hadn't realized it while racing, but as I was feeling happy and fat at the start, I had actually put on roughly 10lb from the time I left Florida, as the 4 day carbo-loading diet may have been a bit too excessive. Still, all of this can be addressed at a future race, and if I find a good marathon for the spring, and wear more comfortable shoes, clearing the 3 hour hurdle should be feasible.

Thanks:

Big thank-yous go out to my running partners for this training cycle, my awesome Florida based triathlon team, my incredibly hospitable hosts for the weekend, friends who met up with me and/or fed me, friends who time stalked me online and sent their congratulations, and friends who tried to cheer me on the course.