Well, I ran the B&A marathon yesterday and while I was please with my time, it was not my best day ever. I had (in a previous blog post) expressed some concern about my left knee. I had figured that if it was bothering me, I could stop running at the half and be scored for that instead of the full marathon, but that turned out to be no problem at all. My problem was all in my head -- I ran far too fast at the outset and then died towards the end.
My wife dropped me off at the Severna Park HS at about 7:15 am. I had been struggling over what to wear both the previous night and that morning. The forecast was for low 30s in the morning and up to the low 50s during the day. So, in the end, I wore shorts (with an extra pair of runners underwear because I hate getting cold in certain places) a long sleeve shirt, and an Annapolis Striders vest, which has mesh pockets for gels and so on. Then, in a fit of indecision, I put heavier stuff in my gym bag, figuring I would decide as late as possible what I wanted. Well, at 6:30 am, the thermometer in my car was reading 24! It was a bit colder than the weather gods had predicted. I had cotton sweats on to keep warm before the race and I was really undecided about what to wear. In the end, I decided (hoped) it would warm up, so I left my heavier stuff in my checked bag. I did add a second-layer shirt, and in the end I think it was perfect. Although the highs for the day eventually reached the low 50s, it was in the 30s and 40s for the race.
After getting that struggle out of the way, I did some short slow runs around the starting area to warm up and to stay warm. As the time to start approached, a strange thing happened: the race committee decided we were all set up on the wrong side of the starting line. So they had us move around to the other side (now heading east). But before we got there, the decided that was wrong and to go back (heading west). And then, they decided the east-facing start was correct after all, so we all moved to the other side. This time for sure! I was lined up way in the back, in any event. I didn't want to get in the way of any of the other runners.
When the starting gun fired, we all started pressing forward. It took me a little over a minute to reach the starting line. Much better than the 12 minutes for the Marine Corp! I started to run and had to stop immediately, the walkers ahead of me (who I assumed would start running when they crossed the starting line) kept walking. So I had to dodge around them to get running room. But then we were off, and it felt great. I was pretty much keeping pace with other runners around me when we hit mile 1. I was on a 9:40 pace, which seemed fast but felt good. Soon enough we were out of the residential area and onto the B&A trail which is a paved, mostly level trail that used to be the Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad. I love the trail -- it has all this history to it. And it just rolls along, though it was quite crowded with the 1000 entries in the marathon and half-marathon.
I saw several people I knew from Striders training, and got an encouraging hello and wave from Renee Cover (thanks) as we passed each other (twice). Anyway, I seemed to want to keep the 9:40 pace up -- I hit the 10 mile mark very close to the 9:40 pace at 1:37. And I passed the half marathon point at around 2:08. And it all felt great. Warming up, my knee was fine. So I kept going. I was doing great and going strong all the way to mile 18, which marker I passed in just under 3 hours. But then things began to get tough. I got more and more worn out. I started slowing down a lot until by mile 22 I was running a 12-minute pace. The only problem I had in those early miles was water -- it seemed like a long way between some of the water stops and I should have tanked up a bit more at each one. But that didn't seem to be a problem later.
Around there somewhere, I was caught and passed by a Ruth Ripley from the Syracuse, NY area. Ruth was running her 96th Marathon and she looked great. She was doing a run/walk Galloway approach and it was working well for her. I kept my pace up until Mile 23. By yelling at myself. Several years ago, my father passed away after a 7-year fight with cancer. So I told myself that the exhaustion and pain I was feeling were nothing compared to the exhaustion and pain he felt in all those years of chemotherapy and to buck up. And that worked for a long way. But at mile 24 I was dropping. So I shifted to Ruth's walk/run approach. I walked for 2 minutes and ran for 8. I was amazed at how much better I felt. I only actually walked for 3 intervals -- 6 minutes -- but it brought my pace way back down again to something nearer to 11/mile. And, as I came around the last turns into the finish area, I was almost sprinting.
There was a real treat waiting there. The race officials had a PA system and were announcing everyone's name as the approached the finish, shouting encouragement. It was a fantastic end to the race.
In the end, in spite of the difficulties I got into late in the run, I set a new PR at 4:35:25 -- about 4 minutes faster than the Marine Corp last October. So I can't complain too much. But I do believe that if I had held my pace at a slower 10/mile, I might well have broken 4:30. Who knows? Not me!
I would like to say thanks to the Annapolis Striders for putting on a great marathon. I liked this a lot more than the Marine Corp (which was just too crowded). To the Ron Bowman of the Strider for the training programs, timely coaching and training advice. To my running buddy Spencer Hines, who keeps me honest. And most importantly to my wife for putting up with the training time.
Slogging Onward...
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