Better Late Than Never!

This post is loooong overdue. The Denver Marathon was over a month ago and I haven't posted on how it went.

First I want to thank my unofficial coach, Dana Roueche for all the tips, advice and encouragement. I put a lot of time into the training cycle and by the end I was exhausted and filled with self doubt.  Had I done enough? What else should I have done? I had such a horrible experience last time - what if that happens again? Dana got me to relax and focus on the plan for the race rather than what I had or had not done in preparation for it. In fact, his turn by turn guide to the course was very helpful as I felt like I knew the course before I had even run it. So - Thanks Dana!!

One of the most valuable things Dana got me to do was look pretty hard at was the pace I was planning.  Based on my training plan and a nifty app called PaceCalc, I was convinced I was training for a 4:10 marathon. This would have meant 9:30 pace throughout the race. I had run up to 8 miles at 9:30 pace in training...but no more. In hindsight, there was no way that running 9:30 for 26 miles - in fact, had I tried it I might (probably would) have had a horrible day.  Instead I set my sights on a more realistic target of 4:30 - 4:35, which would be a pace of 10:15.

On race day I was ready. This year, unlike last year, I was able to remain healthy all the way up to the race. I was able to do the full taper, my legs felt fresh and I was good to go. There is a tendency to go out too fast and kill your chances of finishing strong, so I paid close attention to my pace early on and I hit the first mile in 10:05.  Right on track! I soon found the pacers for 4:30 and I fell in with them at about mile 2. I had my energy gel stops mapped out and I sailed through the first half in 2:11 - about a minute off of a 10 minute pace. Easy, peasy lemon squeezy.

Then around mile 16 I started to slow.  Mile 17 I hit at a 10:09 clip, then I had to wait for a port-o-let at mile 18, and I never got close to a 10 minute pace for the rest of the day. I did hit 20 miles much faster than I did in training (by 20 minutes) but I was pretty much out of gas at that point. It was 13 and 14 minute miles after that...walk a tenth, run a tenth, and so on for the last 6 miles.  In the end, I finished in 4:52 which was far off of my 4:35 target, but in reality it was a successful day.

First, in the Colorado Marathon in 2011 I hit 19 miles and was in physical pain. My knees felt like I had rocks in them grinding at the bones, and I was not capable of running. I wound up walking in the last 5 miles and finishing in 5:45; so lopping 53 minutes off of my previous marathon was pretty impressive, even if I do say so myself.

Second, as I touched on before, I was healthy all the way up to the marathon. Last year I was sidelined with a case of plantar faciitis that kept me that from running much for the last month before the marathon. And while I was in agony last year and gimping my way in, this year I wasn't hurt, my tank was just empty. I was able to run a couple of minutes, and when I was out of breath I'd walk a couple of minutes. For the record, I did run the last half mile to the finish - there was no way I was walking over the line!

Lastly, last year I barely was able to run afterwards due to my aching knees - in fact I ran a total of 48 miles from May until December, and it wasn't until mid-May this year that I decided to do another marathon. This year I have run more than 80 in the month since, and I am already looking at doing another next year.

For next year - I will focus more on a 10:15 to 10:30 pace, which would put me at 4:28-4:35...I think the pace setters were going a little too fast. And I need to fuel differently before the race so I have more gas in the tank at the end. I'll be another year older, but I will also be wiser, and that seems to be as important as physical conditioning. See you out there next year!