January 14th, 2007
Houston Marathon
The day before the race, when passing by a group of other runners somewhere about town, I’d hear them debating whether the cold front would come through or not. Saturday night the word was good with one saying that a high of 53 degrees was forecasted for Marathon day. Sunday morning I stepped into the evaluator at 6:00 a.m. and heard one runner say to another that it was suppose to be 48 degrees at noon! I pumped my fist in anticipation of getting to run my first cool weather marathon. Unfortunately, they must have been discussing the forecast for Fantasyland.
At the 7:00 gun time, the wind was out of the South, the temperature already at 55, and the humidity a muggy 94%. The humidity didn’t drop all day. However, on the good side, the sky remained completely obscured by clouds and the temperature didn’t rise much above 60. Additionally, we were spared the forecasted rain.
Given the weather conditions, I decided to let my running mate John do all the pacing work. He and I planned to run about the same time for the first half, but he does negative splits (runs second half of race faster then first half). Many runners espouse a negative split strategy, but at the Houston Marathon it is almost inevitable; you get boxed-in by the other 15,000 runners for the first 5 miles or so. If you are running only a minute behind schedule at mile 3, you’re lucky.
I was already feeling the humidity at mile 4. John recommended tossing my shirt. I was a bit reluctant that early in the race, but by mile 5 thought it best. It did provide some cooling whenever we would catch a breeze. Also at mile 5, we settled into my planned marathon pace of 8:23 / mile.
At the halfway point, 13.1, I felt better than I had in my previous two marathons. However, I was still apprehensive about dehydrating down the road. I consumed water at every station, and that seemed to be enough. At mile 20, I was still on pace and felt moderately well. In fact, John and I hadn’t deviate from our 8:23 / mile average pace by even a second for a 15 mile stretch. Always positive!
At mile 20 we turned into a slight breeze. Additionally, the congestion on the course had thinned considerable. This allowed me to straighten up and relax into longer strides. About a minute later, John said in a loud supportive voice, “You’re looking strong; nice and relaxed.” That was very encouraging since John had bested me by a full five minutes in our previous two marathons. I initially interpreted John’s remark as an indication that we should increase our pace. Without saying a word, I held out my hand and John gave me five. Then I took off.
However, John didn’t. I reassessed his comments to mean he wasn’t feeling his best that day and for me to go. I decided just to stretch out my legs for a quarter mile to see if I could break the constant groove we had been running for two hours. I couple of minutes later, I couldn’t detect any change in my breathing. I actually felt energize, and then really took off.
I began passing about a dozen runners about every quarter mile. Some spectators lining the street called out in encouragement (our names are on our numbered bibs). Previously, I had never run over 20 miles, neither in a race nor just training, without feeling some endurance related pain. But yesterday mile 22 felt like mile 2. To put it in perspective, the fastest mile split that I ran up to the 20 mile point was 8:19. At mile 25 I ran a 7:44.
I crossed the finish line in 3:38:36 and placed 779 out of 4,015 finishers. In fact I ran so well, at mile 25 I caught that mother of two year old triplets I tied last year and beat her by a solid 15 seconds. Unfortunately, the 60 year old marathoner / triathlete I met at dinner the night before bested me by half an hour.
David
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Marathon #2-Grandma's
Saturday June 17th, 2006
Grandma's Marathon
Duluth Minnesota
This weekend I traveled to Duluth Minnesota and ran in what was billed as a cool weather summer marathon. What a load of crap! At the 7:30 start, the conditions were 67 degrees with 90% humidity. By race end, the temperature was up to 80 degrees. The following day’s newspaper by-line read “Humidity takes toll, 13 hospitalized, medical tent treats 410.”
The heat and humidity affected everyone. One of my running club comrades, who had previously done a 3:20 marathon, finished Saturday’s race in 4:10. As for me, I historically have failed to go past 15 miles in similar conditions. Therefore, I was amazed that I not only finished the marathon, but improved my previous time by seven minutes and finished in 3:52.
My original goal, expecting cool weather, was to run a 3:45. But given the weather conditions, I literally thought my watch was broken when it showed me running at a 3:42 marathon pace at the half way point. The water stations were a significant help. Instead of being the normal 5-6 tables, these stations had tables concatenated 50 yards long and manned by at least a 100 volunteers. It allowed me to consume 3-4 cups of liquid each two miles, instead of my standard of one.
At mile 15 it began getting tough, but I was able to hold my pace by relaxing my upper body and focusing on breath control. At mile 20, I had to stop taking water altogether. Too much water consumption causes over-hydration. Over-hydrations is when you consume so much liquid, you sweat all the salt out of your body which your muscles need to contract.
At mile 22 I hit the “killer” hill I had heard about. Eighty vertical feet of pain. The hill climb combined with over-hydration finally caused me to hit the wall at mile 23. I struggled to maintain a 10 minute per mile pace the last three miles.
Overall, I was thrilled with my results. Not only a personal best, but I believe that I may be able to think about doing sub 3:30 in Houston come January.
On anecdote was my return trip. After a marathon, your legs are cramped and sore; most runners dread a long trip home. For me, it started with a cramped 3 hour mini-van ride with 8 other runners as we returned from Duluth to St. Paul airport. A three hour economy class flight from St. Paul to Houston followed. After a two hour layover, I boarded the Houston flight home at 7:00. Eight o’clock passed, then Nine, then Ten. Finally after sitting on the plane with my knees jammed high for three and a quarter hours, the weather hold was canceled and we took off.
After an 11:15 arrival home, no luggage. I then stood in line waiting to make my claim. Fifteen minutes passed, a half-hour, and finally a full hour standing in line before I reached the counter. How many people were originally ahead of me? Four! Needless to say, I will have to go to confession this week for all the four letter words that left my month.
A blistering 26.2 mile run in Baton death-march conditions, followed by 10 hours of economy class traveling accommodations, and then one hour of standing. I need to have my head check because I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
Grandma's Marathon
Duluth Minnesota
This weekend I traveled to Duluth Minnesota and ran in what was billed as a cool weather summer marathon. What a load of crap! At the 7:30 start, the conditions were 67 degrees with 90% humidity. By race end, the temperature was up to 80 degrees. The following day’s newspaper by-line read “Humidity takes toll, 13 hospitalized, medical tent treats 410.”
The heat and humidity affected everyone. One of my running club comrades, who had previously done a 3:20 marathon, finished Saturday’s race in 4:10. As for me, I historically have failed to go past 15 miles in similar conditions. Therefore, I was amazed that I not only finished the marathon, but improved my previous time by seven minutes and finished in 3:52.
My original goal, expecting cool weather, was to run a 3:45. But given the weather conditions, I literally thought my watch was broken when it showed me running at a 3:42 marathon pace at the half way point. The water stations were a significant help. Instead of being the normal 5-6 tables, these stations had tables concatenated 50 yards long and manned by at least a 100 volunteers. It allowed me to consume 3-4 cups of liquid each two miles, instead of my standard of one.
At mile 15 it began getting tough, but I was able to hold my pace by relaxing my upper body and focusing on breath control. At mile 20, I had to stop taking water altogether. Too much water consumption causes over-hydration. Over-hydrations is when you consume so much liquid, you sweat all the salt out of your body which your muscles need to contract.
At mile 22 I hit the “killer” hill I had heard about. Eighty vertical feet of pain. The hill climb combined with over-hydration finally caused me to hit the wall at mile 23. I struggled to maintain a 10 minute per mile pace the last three miles.
Overall, I was thrilled with my results. Not only a personal best, but I believe that I may be able to think about doing sub 3:30 in Houston come January.
On anecdote was my return trip. After a marathon, your legs are cramped and sore; most runners dread a long trip home. For me, it started with a cramped 3 hour mini-van ride with 8 other runners as we returned from Duluth to St. Paul airport. A three hour economy class flight from St. Paul to Houston followed. After a two hour layover, I boarded the Houston flight home at 7:00. Eight o’clock passed, then Nine, then Ten. Finally after sitting on the plane with my knees jammed high for three and a quarter hours, the weather hold was canceled and we took off.
After an 11:15 arrival home, no luggage. I then stood in line waiting to make my claim. Fifteen minutes passed, a half-hour, and finally a full hour standing in line before I reached the counter. How many people were originally ahead of me? Four! Needless to say, I will have to go to confession this week for all the four letter words that left my month.
A blistering 26.2 mile run in Baton death-march conditions, followed by 10 hours of economy class traveling accommodations, and then one hour of standing. I need to have my head check because I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Marathon #1-Houston
January 11th, 2006
Houston Marathon
Two years ago I had this Forest Gump desire to start running. After spending a couple of months jogging around the neighborhood, I set the goal to some day run a sub four hour marathon. Well, this weekend not only did I accomplish that goal, I crushed it with a solid 3 hr 58 min 59 sec performance at the Houston Marathon.
That’s right, after: 15 months of running, over 1,400 training miles logged, 26.2 miles over concrete streets and freeway on-ramps, I accomplished a sub four hour marathon with just 61 seconds to spare! Now of course, there is a lot more to the story.
However, in the spirit of Forest Gump I will just say: over 8,000 started the race, 5,430 finished, and I placed 1,583 with a sub four hour time. As Forest would say, “That’s all I have to say about that.”
David
Houston Marathon
Two years ago I had this Forest Gump desire to start running. After spending a couple of months jogging around the neighborhood, I set the goal to some day run a sub four hour marathon. Well, this weekend not only did I accomplish that goal, I crushed it with a solid 3 hr 58 min 59 sec performance at the Houston Marathon.
That’s right, after: 15 months of running, over 1,400 training miles logged, 26.2 miles over concrete streets and freeway on-ramps, I accomplished a sub four hour marathon with just 61 seconds to spare! Now of course, there is a lot more to the story.
However, in the spirit of Forest Gump I will just say: over 8,000 started the race, 5,430 finished, and I placed 1,583 with a sub four hour time. As Forest would say, “That’s all I have to say about that.”
David
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