Steve West - MDI Race Report 10/14/12
Mt Desert Island Marathon – 9th consecutive run 3:37:04 @ 8:18
1st half @ 1:49:08
2nd half @ 1:47:56 - 0:01:12
10th of 52 Age group (19%)
104th of 833 Overall (12%)
5:30 AM wakeup for PB&J, shower and coffee
5 Hr Energy @ 7:30 in lieu of second & 3rd coffee
Outfit: Asics DS Trainers, shorts, tech T under run club singlet, arm warmers, waterproof cap w/visor, light gloves.
Nathan hydration w/24 oz H2O, 4 Gu. H2O & Gu @ miles 10.5 and 19.5 (no plans to stop at aid stations)
Plan: mile 1 – 6 @ 8:35; 7 – 20 @ 8:10; 21 – 26 @ 8:10 or best pace to finish
8:00 AM start air temp @ 46* with light drizzle. Threat of rain and showers all morning.
Mile 1 is flat leading to first of many rollers. Just past the crest of the first hill, I felt a sharp pain in my left soleus (medial, just below the gastroc margin). Immediately I thought my day was over. I eased my pace to see if it would work itself out. Just past mile 2 I paused to feel/squeeze my calf and decided I would give it another mile before deciding if the day would end in a DNF or a finish. Just past mile 3 it began to relax so I let my pace self-select. By mile 4 it was much better and I was back on pace too. Average pace for mile 1 – 3 was 8:46, the average for 1 – 7 was 8:26, very close to plan.
From 7 to 20 the flats needed to be at 8:05 – 8:10. Downhills I tried to maintain my effort and increase speed with a higher cadence but not exceed 7:40. I knew over-clocking the downhills would cook my legs and jeopardize the later miles. The uphill goal was to try and hold 8:20 – 8:30 without burning too many matches in the process.
At mile 10 I was in a groove, pace comfortably hard on the flats and very hard on the uphills. I was pleased with the halfway split at 1:49 and felt I would be able to hold on at least thru mile 21 where the long hills started.
Some of the hills always stick out in my mind. The first notable hill is crazy steep downhill at mile 8 – at like 16% or something. Then there are 3 short steep buggers at miles 9, 9.5 & 10. Next comes another trio at 16, 18 and 19. But what I dread most is the long climbs from 21 to 25. Yeah, there are a few give-backs but it really is a fairly sustained uphill section at such a late point in the race that they really can devastate anyone who burned all their matches early. My pace for miles 21 – 25 averaged 8:37. From the height of land at 25 to 26 (all down hill) came in at 7:30 slowing slightly the final 0.2 incline to 7:59 and the finish.
Elevation Profile at http://www.mdimarathon.org/images/c...L-SIZE.jpg
Going into race day, I knew my fitness was only about 90% of what I needed if I was to attempt a PR. But proper pacing to a reasonable VDot lead me to a very good result that I don’t think I could have run smarter or faster. I am very pleased with the result.
By the numbers:
Miles Pace Miles Pace
1 – 3 8:46 1 – 7 8:26
4 – 20 8:03 8 – 20 8:00
21 – 25 8:37
26 7:30
0.2 7:59
How I determined my pre-race VDot:
9/16 5K Susan G Komen Race for the Cure 21:56 (gun time 22:02) >> 44.70
9/23 MAINEiacs Charities Half Marathon 1:42:28 >> 43.83
SWAG half marathon VDot – 0.3 (5K – 1.4) Race Plan on >> 43.30
Hindsight: should have been half marathon – 1.0 @ 42.83 Race finish VDot >> 42.78
Lesson learned? Half marathon VDot minus 1.0 will work for challenging marathons, minus 0.5 may work for flatter, less challenging courses. If using a 5K VDot (from a race, not solo running) minus 2.0 is a good place to start but prefer HM VDot to gauge by.
Comments
Steve this is awesome! Like Tim, I would love to do that race some day. My family is from Swan's Island- not much room to run there lol! Must have been a beautiful course, too! Congratulations and ditto the thanks on the vDot advice!