May 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

Race report later, short version:

My wife PR'd at 5:55! She rocked it!
I did poorly. Details to come later.

Race Report:

TLDR; It went poorly but I live to race again!

So, the morning started out rough. We had stayed in the city overnight due to the road closures and etc. This also let us sleep in a good hour to ninety minutes longer. It was a good choice, but we had planned to put most of our luggage in the truck and just leave the truck in the garage while we raced. Turns out we could not get to the garage from the hotel race morning due to all the barricades and etc. Thankfully we were at a nicer hotel and they had a service to hold bags. So we left the bags there and went up to the pre-race breakfast that Steel City Road Runners (SCRR) puts on every year for its club members.

I went for safety and only ate food I was one hundred percent sure of. That should have set me well for the race. But you know about the best-laid plans of men and mice…

So, we head out to the corals in light rain. I sneak into my coral a good 30 mins ahead of the closing it so that is good, but then I discover I was in a slower section than I expected. I was in the one I was assigned; it just had the 4:20 hour pacer and slower in it. My last marathon was 3:50 and I was shooting for sub 4 again. Well, that meant the 3:50 and 4:00 pacers would have a good fifteen to twenty minute head start on me. No way I would be chasing them down.

That was okay because I had actually remembered my pace tattoo. I was not worried about gun time, only chip time, so it really did not matter when I started. Side note: The pace tattoo worked great! I will probably use it again.

According to the official results, I started at 7:20 am. Not bad since the non-elite race was supposed to start at 7:05.

Well, it was a very very crowded field to start. I did a lot of ducking and weaving trying to hold my pace. The plan was easy, try to keep pace as reported by my Garmin between 8:30 and 9:00, and check every mile marker against the pace tattoo. Everything was going great. The weather was as predicted, and I was ticking off the mile markets with a little to spare each time. I started to wonder if I had a PR coming but held myself back and put off that decision until much later in the course. This turned out to be great wisdom

I got to mile 11 and the dreaded hill. The hill was where runner’s dreams die on. Seems all the hill work I had done had paid off, ran the whole hill without issue. Past mile 13.1 with my second best ½ marathon time and still feeling great. I was eating the gummies I brought and drinking the water I was carrying since they changed the brand on the course this year and I was unsure how I would react to it.

I was feeling great, I even stopped to ask someone if “this was the way to the 5k?” It was a hilarious question in my mind, but it went over like a lead balloon. Ah well.

At mile 15ish things started to change. First, my stomach started to rebel, and I really needed a bathroom which I have never needed before in a race ever. Did not find one until mile 18, and ducked in. Looking back, I think this was when the race really ended for me. I was in the sitting position too long and had a very hard time getting started again. Pace fell from 8:42 to 9:56, but I was still ahead of my target times, so I hoped to be able to recover that lost time.

Then the unpredicted happened. The temps fell and the rains came. Neither of which was in any weather forecast. I was not dressed for the new weather. I got a chill that I could not shake for hours. Pace fell into the 11s as I switched from making a sub-four to survival mode. At several points, I was clenching my teeth to stop the chattering. It was not fun.

I strongly considered finding a place to duck in and warm up several times. I also considered stopping and waiting for my wife (who was way behind me) and just giving up and running in with her. But I stuck it out. I held the pace in the 11s (though I did employee run/walk for parts of it) until mile 25 when I had to give up and walk for a long stretch. Pace fell to 18 minutes.

Overall I finished in 4:23 which is not horrible, but well off target. I am not sure I could have done anything else though. Not a single weather report mentioned that rainstorm in the middle of the race.

My wife killed it though. She held her pace pretty tight and came in at her personal best of 5:55:23. She was very cold too. Blue lips, uncontrolled shivering, so we got her warm clothes from gear check and then I rushed her into a McDonalds and got her decaf coffee. We stayed in that McD’s for a couple of hours until she was warmed back up and then headed home.

We both are fine now. Well, she is laid up in bed, but nothing unusual for a PR marathon. Nothing that time and donuts will not fix at least.

What a great racing weekend—I’ve loved reading all the race reports!!

Here’s my dispatch:

Getting up at 5 really helped with the 7 am start time—and I had plenty of time for some granola, a banana, and some coffee, and found the right bus to take from my hotel to the start line. The weather was in the 50s to start, and after about the first two miles the rest of the race was sunny and gorgeous.

The first 4K were significantly downhill, so I just went with fairly easy effort, and my 5K chip time ended up being a 5K PR, to my surprise. I was trying to take it easy. It’s a net downhill course, and had two modest uphill bits, and a couple of smaller ones. I walked the uphills since I’ve been training on flat runs, and hadn’t wanted to add hills in when I was still focusing on lengthening the distance—and since I knew it was a net downhill course I wasn’t too worried. This ended up being a good strategy. Walking the water stations was too—thanks @PastorVincent! Working in hills is now up next after recovery.

Basically, I felt pretty beat at miles 5, 9, and 11 to the end, but overall I really really enjoyed it. All the races (marathon, HM, & 8K) were sold out, so there were tons of people there and lots of energy. I liked the funny signs people made. I was less of a fan of the encouragers at the end when I was feeling spent—but I know it’s all motivational! The course itself is just beautiful—lots of running by the sea wall, and through beautiful Stanley Park. And it couldn’t have been more perfect weather.

I was hoping to do better than 2:20, and my time was 2:19:43, so I was very happy with that for my first HM.

And @rheddmobile yes, those were gloves! The swag was all lovely—now I just need to find a place to hang it...

May goal: 70 mi

5/1 2 mi
5/2 2 mi
5/3 13.3 mi

May total: 17.3 mi

2019 Races:
3/16 Kirkland Shamrock Run 5K
4/13 Mud & Chocolate 4.5 mi trail run
5/5 Vancouver BMO Half Marathon
5/12 The Color Run 5K
5/18 Your Canyon for a Day 35 mi Bike Tour, Yakima
6/16 Monroe Bubble Run 5K
7/21 Seafair Triathlon?
8/11 Lake Union 10K?

I woke up this morning to more knee and hip pain, so that's not fun. I thought about feeling sorry for myself, but managed to pull myself out of it and sent a message to my GP requesting an appointment or referral. At this point I've accumulated a little bit too much advice to make heads or tails of, so I think seeing a specialist and getting a clean slate will be welcome. I did do some stretches I got the last time I saw a massage therapist and that helped a little, and now I've got my TENS unit going on my knees while I work. Gym this afternoon but I'll walk there, not run.