san diego marathon '07
As some of you may remember this was my first full marathon in 26.2 years (2:49:37) and my goal was to BQ and see how I could do after such a long hiatus. The San Diego course was picked for convenience and because it is held in June gave me a bit of time to get in some quality training after finishing a 10K on Thanksgiving (43:13 with a sore back) and a ½ marathon in February (1:29:24).
In early March I started Higdon’s Advanced marathon schedule (18 weeks) in the middle of week 5. This corresponded with my 12 mile long runs at the time. The schedule was a bit daunting, building up to 55-60 miles a week and running 6 out of 7 days. I had never trained two days in a row .. in the past I would skip running days and cross train instead but in my quest to BQ I wanted to give it a try. Things went pretty well in training until some of the killer weeks started to pile up. 10 miles of MP on Saturday followed by long runs of 18, 20 on Sunday. I was hoping there was method to this madness and kept on following the schedule but was on the ragged edge of injury. Ice baths, something that would normally make me shudder were suddenly like a day at the spa and my foam roller became my personal masseuse. Such is the perspective of a possessed runner in search of fresh legs and dreams of Bean Town.
Fortunately, I started seeing results from these runs and the speed workouts in the last month before the race. I was holding a sub 3 pace on the MP runs without feeling overly tired, clocked in some sub 6 miles on the track and held an 8 minute pace for 23 miles. Things were looking up. I moved up my secondary goal, 3:10 to a sub 3:00 wager. I gave this whopper a 50/50 chance. It was a stretch but if felt doable for some reason. Probably because I hadn’t done a marathon in 26.2 years and the mind forgets unpleasant painful things over time.
The day before:
Headed down with Mrs irun to the expo on Saturday and FE’ed with Kayry (Go Team John). It was great to meet a fellow forumite. After John conferenced with Dean Karnazes at the Accelerade booth we headed over to talked to the SD running club pacers. (btw, Dean looks smaller in person than he does on the cover of his book but his tan is real .. well it looks real .. just thought you’d like to know that). The pacer meeting was a bust since the 3:00 pacer was not there. We did learn they were planning to use two pacers for the 3:00 group but I really wanted to know what the pacing plan was for the up hills and down hills and first half vs. second half. As it turned out it didn’t matter much but hey, I was looking for some edge .. any edge.
Dinner was at the very nice Trattoria La Strada down in the Gas Lamp District. This was recommended by San Diego local WaterDog66 and was perfect. We dined outdoors near the sidewalk and watched the people strolling by. It was an odd mixture of marathoners (check out the shoes first) and prom night teenagers (who comes up with these polyester colors?) giving a surreal atmosphere to the place. Youngster playing dress up and the older generation just playing it casual. A younger woman and someone who looked to be her mother were seated at the next table. They were carrying expo bags so I asked if they were running the marathon tomorrow. They told us their stories, one having done her last marathon in the early 80’s and for the other it was her first. I tried not to grimmace when they admitted they hadn’t run more than 10 miles for their long runs (and one was complaining of what sounded like ITBS). I told them “Good Luck” as we left and I meant it.
The night before was fairly uneventful. My wife had come down with a head cold the day before and as I prepared for bed my sinuses started to clog up a bit. I took an airborne tablet and hoped for the best. I picked my singlet .. the bright orange one because I knew it would be easier to be seen by Mrs. irun and some other friends that were coming down tomorrow. I set two alarms, one for 3:15am to eat two yogurts and a banana and another for a 5:00am wake-up. My internal alarm woke me at 3:10 and 4:55. How does that always happen when I need to be up at a certain time? Overall I got a good 7 hours of sleep.
Race day
We walked the 1.5 miles from downtown to the starting area and arrived about 5:50.
I looked for Debbie (another RT formite) near the meeting spot before the race but did not see her and decided I needed to start warming up. There were tons of people in Purple running kits. Team in Training was going to make it hard for anyone in a Barney suit to stand out.
Since last Tuesday I had been nursing a sore solius muscle on my left leg. Not quite sure what caused it during the taper but it was definently there during a short speed session on that day and I decided to put it on deep freeze at every possible moment. Some days it felt like it was going away but anytime I took stairs or tried to jog it hurt so I decided to not run until the marathon. This was a great way to not worry about other little details .. it had my full attention. So 15 minutes before the race I decided to try a small warmup as I didn’t want to go out cold and make it worse. I could feel it during the first 10 slow running steps (oh crap!) but then it started to go away! I kept running on the grass (and tried to not get run over by the elites doing the same) for several hundred yards and then went on the road. After a ¼ mile shakedown, no pain, no soreness, no inkling of a problem so I was hopeful and optimistic at this point.
The Marine Corp band played a few tunes at the start line …a very nice touch. Since the band was in the #1 corral, I stayed on the sidelines. Stood next to a few elite runners (btw, most of these guys are much smaller in person than on TV .. just thought you might want to know that). Also stood next to an elite woman who also was even smaller. Hmmm .. I’m noticing a trend.
Saw the hand cyclist getting ready and saw a friend who heads up training for the Wounded Warriors. These are soldiers with disabilities that were doing the “wheel chair” race and it was great to see these 13 guys all fired up and ready to go. My friend was a little worried about some of the guys on the downhill going too fast. (I should have taken that as a sign).
Finally in the corral for the national anthem, a female Marine Corp officer barked out a speech to get us all pumped up (if you weren’t already pumped that is). Kayry and I were close to the 3:00 hour pacer sign (they really should change that to 2:59) and waited as the hand cyclist took off and waited some more for the starting gun.
Took about 20 seconds to get over the start line and I was fooling with my GPS cell phone to punch the start button at the line, close it, get it into the arm band and put it on while running. All the while I was looking to make sure I didn’t get run over or trip. Finally got things squared away and saw the pace sign about 30 yards up the road and pulling away. Dang. I was caught in traffic so just slowly eased over to the left until things opened up and caught up with them.
This GPS phone was going to be great. I had used it during training runs with it set to beep every ¼ mile and chime every mile. It was also set to send text messages with time, distance and last split to update my wife and friends that were going to meet me on the course. Great it was until at mile 1.5 it stopped beeping. Oh well, I thought maybe I just missed a beep and it will be on track by mile 2. After mile 2 it was obvious that it wasn’t working anymore and I thought my wife and friends would think I dropped out because of the leg problem. So on the next open stretch I pull off the arm band, pull out the phone and one touch dial my wife. She picks up and here I am running at a 6:40 something pace with a cell phone on my ear trying to tell her the text message have stopped but I am still running. “What did you say?” Turns out she was on the freeway overpass, super noisy and couldn’t hear me. I repeated my message but of course this was as I was passing one of the bands playing and I was just in front of the speaker .. I couldn’t even hear what I was saying! After the third time she understood enough and I could put away the phone. I tried not to look at any other runners around me for fear they would be laughing or giving me the evil eye. I mean what’s so important that you need to call someone on your cell phone at full pace on mile 3? This is about the time I pulled ahead of the pace group. All this drama had unsettled me a bit and it was time to just try to relax into it again.
*missed split so averaged
1- 6:44 (6:44) flat – catch up with 3:00 pace group
2- 6:46* (13:30) flat – think my GPS phone stopped. Switch over to watch for splits
3- 6:46 (20:16) flat – yup the phone isn’t tracking. Time to call Mrs irun and alert her
4- 6:47 (27:03) start downhill – relax this is just the warmup
5- 6:16 (33:19) downhill – o.k. this a bit too quick – take first gel
6- 6:46 (40:05) flat – see my support crew in front of the hotel, swoop over for high fives and smiles.
10K split (41:43) flat – hmm maybe I can use this for the Team 4 virtual 10K?
7- 6:57* (47:02) start gradual uphill – not bad
8- 6:57 (47:02) gradual uphill – not bad at all
9- 6:49 (1:00:48) uphill and flat portion – little bit of relief
10- 7:29 (1:08:17) steeper uphill, worst part –why didn’t I do more hill training? 1:08 pace right on track.
11- 6:06 (1:14:23) fast downhill – just opening it up and relaxing but wow that’s too quick but what ‘cha gonna do? Can’t take it back.
12- 7:02 (1:21:25) flat w/ small uphill at end – take second gel
13- 6:59 (1:28:24) flat – starting to slow a bit but feeling good
½ Marathon split (1:29:19) 6:49 pace – right on target
14- 7:01 (1:35:25) flat – hmm quads are starting to fill up. Thinking this is way too early to start feeling this. Must just be a slight hiccup. Slow down just a bit. John runs up and then moves on. Must regroup.
15- 7:17*(1:42:42) slight up – o.k. now I know I’m in a heap of trouble. Why is this happening before the 20 mile mark?
16- 7:17 (1:49:59) slight down to flat – maintain. Maybe this is just a bad patch and I’ll pop through it.
17- 7:30 (1:57:29) flat- getting disappointed now. I’m not worthy. o.k. just hang on.
18- 7:27 (2:04:56) flat – keep going. Perhaps a 3:10 is in the cards. Take 3rd gel. Man these things are nasty
19- 8:08 (2:13:04) flat – damn in the 8’s. Feel like I’m running backwards. How come it feels like everyone is passing me? Well .. I guess it’s because they are. Try picking it up. Oh no getting dizzy .. slow back down .. survival mode.
20- 8:07 (2:21:11) flat – I think spectators are pointing out my bad form. Those ‘looking good’ comments are white lies, aren’t they?
21- 8:18 (2:29:29) – flat – try picking up the feet. O.k. try shuffling along. Ok. Just keep going.
22- 8:20 (2:37:49) – flat – I would love to stop but there are too many people waiting for me. There’s an out and back loop here and I see the 3:15 pace sign/group about 1/3 mile back. Don’t let them catch you.
23- 8:48 (2:46:37) –flat- lowest low- decide to walk through a water stop and splash some on my face. Only a 5k to go. Time to move.
24- 8:41 (2:55:18) – flat – feeling a tinge better. Don’t let the 3:15 catch you.
25- 8:27 (3:03:45) – flat – tick off the miles. Seeing more walking wounded. O.k. I’m not that bad. Actually feeling better.
26- 7:46 (3:11:31) – flat – let’s pick up the pace. Lot’s of ‘you’re almost there’ shouts. No more getting passed.
26.2 1:27 (3:12:58)-flat -7:15 pace for the last .2 – sprint the last section, pump the arms, I can hear my friends yelling, the announcer says my name, age and home town. Whew… over .. keep moving .. don’t stop or you will fall over. Where’s that beer?
Chip time 3:12:48
Overall place 292
Men’s place 257
Division place (45-49) 20th
1st place 49 year old (unfortunately no cash prizes for this)
Age grade 71.6%
Overall pace 7:22
First half pace 6:49
Second half pace 7:54
Positive split + 14:10
Total runners/walkers 21,400
Post script
Despite my mental anguish during the second half, I was pleased with the overall result. But not too pleased with what I had to go through to get there. I thought I was prepped better than I was. It’s obvious in retrospect that I wasn’t ready for the sub 3 pace and I paid the marathon gods with zero down fully amortized interest on this one and the balloon payment was due at mile 14. I will need to build a better base and learn where my lactate threshold is better. But hey .. I am going to Boston!!
Cheers,
John
In early March I started Higdon’s Advanced marathon schedule (18 weeks) in the middle of week 5. This corresponded with my 12 mile long runs at the time. The schedule was a bit daunting, building up to 55-60 miles a week and running 6 out of 7 days. I had never trained two days in a row .. in the past I would skip running days and cross train instead but in my quest to BQ I wanted to give it a try. Things went pretty well in training until some of the killer weeks started to pile up. 10 miles of MP on Saturday followed by long runs of 18, 20 on Sunday. I was hoping there was method to this madness and kept on following the schedule but was on the ragged edge of injury. Ice baths, something that would normally make me shudder were suddenly like a day at the spa and my foam roller became my personal masseuse. Such is the perspective of a possessed runner in search of fresh legs and dreams of Bean Town.
Fortunately, I started seeing results from these runs and the speed workouts in the last month before the race. I was holding a sub 3 pace on the MP runs without feeling overly tired, clocked in some sub 6 miles on the track and held an 8 minute pace for 23 miles. Things were looking up. I moved up my secondary goal, 3:10 to a sub 3:00 wager. I gave this whopper a 50/50 chance. It was a stretch but if felt doable for some reason. Probably because I hadn’t done a marathon in 26.2 years and the mind forgets unpleasant painful things over time.
The day before:
Headed down with Mrs irun to the expo on Saturday and FE’ed with Kayry (Go Team John). It was great to meet a fellow forumite. After John conferenced with Dean Karnazes at the Accelerade booth we headed over to talked to the SD running club pacers. (btw, Dean looks smaller in person than he does on the cover of his book but his tan is real .. well it looks real .. just thought you’d like to know that). The pacer meeting was a bust since the 3:00 pacer was not there. We did learn they were planning to use two pacers for the 3:00 group but I really wanted to know what the pacing plan was for the up hills and down hills and first half vs. second half. As it turned out it didn’t matter much but hey, I was looking for some edge .. any edge.
Dinner was at the very nice Trattoria La Strada down in the Gas Lamp District. This was recommended by San Diego local WaterDog66 and was perfect. We dined outdoors near the sidewalk and watched the people strolling by. It was an odd mixture of marathoners (check out the shoes first) and prom night teenagers (who comes up with these polyester colors?) giving a surreal atmosphere to the place. Youngster playing dress up and the older generation just playing it casual. A younger woman and someone who looked to be her mother were seated at the next table. They were carrying expo bags so I asked if they were running the marathon tomorrow. They told us their stories, one having done her last marathon in the early 80’s and for the other it was her first. I tried not to grimmace when they admitted they hadn’t run more than 10 miles for their long runs (and one was complaining of what sounded like ITBS). I told them “Good Luck” as we left and I meant it.
The night before was fairly uneventful. My wife had come down with a head cold the day before and as I prepared for bed my sinuses started to clog up a bit. I took an airborne tablet and hoped for the best. I picked my singlet .. the bright orange one because I knew it would be easier to be seen by Mrs. irun and some other friends that were coming down tomorrow. I set two alarms, one for 3:15am to eat two yogurts and a banana and another for a 5:00am wake-up. My internal alarm woke me at 3:10 and 4:55. How does that always happen when I need to be up at a certain time? Overall I got a good 7 hours of sleep.
Race day
We walked the 1.5 miles from downtown to the starting area and arrived about 5:50.
I looked for Debbie (another RT formite) near the meeting spot before the race but did not see her and decided I needed to start warming up. There were tons of people in Purple running kits. Team in Training was going to make it hard for anyone in a Barney suit to stand out.
Since last Tuesday I had been nursing a sore solius muscle on my left leg. Not quite sure what caused it during the taper but it was definently there during a short speed session on that day and I decided to put it on deep freeze at every possible moment. Some days it felt like it was going away but anytime I took stairs or tried to jog it hurt so I decided to not run until the marathon. This was a great way to not worry about other little details .. it had my full attention. So 15 minutes before the race I decided to try a small warmup as I didn’t want to go out cold and make it worse. I could feel it during the first 10 slow running steps (oh crap!) but then it started to go away! I kept running on the grass (and tried to not get run over by the elites doing the same) for several hundred yards and then went on the road. After a ¼ mile shakedown, no pain, no soreness, no inkling of a problem so I was hopeful and optimistic at this point.
The Marine Corp band played a few tunes at the start line …a very nice touch. Since the band was in the #1 corral, I stayed on the sidelines. Stood next to a few elite runners (btw, most of these guys are much smaller in person than on TV .. just thought you might want to know that). Also stood next to an elite woman who also was even smaller. Hmmm .. I’m noticing a trend.
Saw the hand cyclist getting ready and saw a friend who heads up training for the Wounded Warriors. These are soldiers with disabilities that were doing the “wheel chair” race and it was great to see these 13 guys all fired up and ready to go. My friend was a little worried about some of the guys on the downhill going too fast. (I should have taken that as a sign).
Finally in the corral for the national anthem, a female Marine Corp officer barked out a speech to get us all pumped up (if you weren’t already pumped that is). Kayry and I were close to the 3:00 hour pacer sign (they really should change that to 2:59) and waited as the hand cyclist took off and waited some more for the starting gun.
Took about 20 seconds to get over the start line and I was fooling with my GPS cell phone to punch the start button at the line, close it, get it into the arm band and put it on while running. All the while I was looking to make sure I didn’t get run over or trip. Finally got things squared away and saw the pace sign about 30 yards up the road and pulling away. Dang. I was caught in traffic so just slowly eased over to the left until things opened up and caught up with them.
This GPS phone was going to be great. I had used it during training runs with it set to beep every ¼ mile and chime every mile. It was also set to send text messages with time, distance and last split to update my wife and friends that were going to meet me on the course. Great it was until at mile 1.5 it stopped beeping. Oh well, I thought maybe I just missed a beep and it will be on track by mile 2. After mile 2 it was obvious that it wasn’t working anymore and I thought my wife and friends would think I dropped out because of the leg problem. So on the next open stretch I pull off the arm band, pull out the phone and one touch dial my wife. She picks up and here I am running at a 6:40 something pace with a cell phone on my ear trying to tell her the text message have stopped but I am still running. “What did you say?” Turns out she was on the freeway overpass, super noisy and couldn’t hear me. I repeated my message but of course this was as I was passing one of the bands playing and I was just in front of the speaker .. I couldn’t even hear what I was saying! After the third time she understood enough and I could put away the phone. I tried not to look at any other runners around me for fear they would be laughing or giving me the evil eye. I mean what’s so important that you need to call someone on your cell phone at full pace on mile 3? This is about the time I pulled ahead of the pace group. All this drama had unsettled me a bit and it was time to just try to relax into it again.
*missed split so averaged
1- 6:44 (6:44) flat – catch up with 3:00 pace group
2- 6:46* (13:30) flat – think my GPS phone stopped. Switch over to watch for splits
3- 6:46 (20:16) flat – yup the phone isn’t tracking. Time to call Mrs irun and alert her
4- 6:47 (27:03) start downhill – relax this is just the warmup
5- 6:16 (33:19) downhill – o.k. this a bit too quick – take first gel
6- 6:46 (40:05) flat – see my support crew in front of the hotel, swoop over for high fives and smiles.
10K split (41:43) flat – hmm maybe I can use this for the Team 4 virtual 10K?
7- 6:57* (47:02) start gradual uphill – not bad
8- 6:57 (47:02) gradual uphill – not bad at all
9- 6:49 (1:00:48) uphill and flat portion – little bit of relief
10- 7:29 (1:08:17) steeper uphill, worst part –why didn’t I do more hill training? 1:08 pace right on track.
11- 6:06 (1:14:23) fast downhill – just opening it up and relaxing but wow that’s too quick but what ‘cha gonna do? Can’t take it back.
12- 7:02 (1:21:25) flat w/ small uphill at end – take second gel
13- 6:59 (1:28:24) flat – starting to slow a bit but feeling good
½ Marathon split (1:29:19) 6:49 pace – right on target
14- 7:01 (1:35:25) flat – hmm quads are starting to fill up. Thinking this is way too early to start feeling this. Must just be a slight hiccup. Slow down just a bit. John runs up and then moves on. Must regroup.
15- 7:17*(1:42:42) slight up – o.k. now I know I’m in a heap of trouble. Why is this happening before the 20 mile mark?
16- 7:17 (1:49:59) slight down to flat – maintain. Maybe this is just a bad patch and I’ll pop through it.
17- 7:30 (1:57:29) flat- getting disappointed now. I’m not worthy. o.k. just hang on.
18- 7:27 (2:04:56) flat – keep going. Perhaps a 3:10 is in the cards. Take 3rd gel. Man these things are nasty
19- 8:08 (2:13:04) flat – damn in the 8’s. Feel like I’m running backwards. How come it feels like everyone is passing me? Well .. I guess it’s because they are. Try picking it up. Oh no getting dizzy .. slow back down .. survival mode.
20- 8:07 (2:21:11) flat – I think spectators are pointing out my bad form. Those ‘looking good’ comments are white lies, aren’t they?
21- 8:18 (2:29:29) – flat – try picking up the feet. O.k. try shuffling along. Ok. Just keep going.
22- 8:20 (2:37:49) – flat – I would love to stop but there are too many people waiting for me. There’s an out and back loop here and I see the 3:15 pace sign/group about 1/3 mile back. Don’t let them catch you.
23- 8:48 (2:46:37) –flat- lowest low- decide to walk through a water stop and splash some on my face. Only a 5k to go. Time to move.
24- 8:41 (2:55:18) – flat – feeling a tinge better. Don’t let the 3:15 catch you.
25- 8:27 (3:03:45) – flat – tick off the miles. Seeing more walking wounded. O.k. I’m not that bad. Actually feeling better.
26- 7:46 (3:11:31) – flat – let’s pick up the pace. Lot’s of ‘you’re almost there’ shouts. No more getting passed.
26.2 1:27 (3:12:58)-flat -7:15 pace for the last .2 – sprint the last section, pump the arms, I can hear my friends yelling, the announcer says my name, age and home town. Whew… over .. keep moving .. don’t stop or you will fall over. Where’s that beer?
Chip time 3:12:48
Overall place 292
Men’s place 257
Division place (45-49) 20th
1st place 49 year old (unfortunately no cash prizes for this)
Age grade 71.6%
Overall pace 7:22
First half pace 6:49
Second half pace 7:54
Positive split + 14:10
Total runners/walkers 21,400
Post script
Despite my mental anguish during the second half, I was pleased with the overall result. But not too pleased with what I had to go through to get there. I thought I was prepped better than I was. It’s obvious in retrospect that I wasn’t ready for the sub 3 pace and I paid the marathon gods with zero down fully amortized interest on this one and the balloon payment was due at mile 14. I will need to build a better base and learn where my lactate threshold is better. But hey .. I am going to Boston!!
Cheers,
John