Rory Gumina 2018 Erie Marathon Race Report - PR & BQ!
Race Summary: 3:50:09 … BQ by 5 minutes … and PR by over 30 minutes
Erie was my 2nd ever stand-alone marathon. 1st one was Sept. 2010, resulting in 4:20:56 finish … and plantar fasciitis and hip issues that kept me from running pain-free for almost a year.
I registered for Erie on a whim … fueled by my IMLP run … it was disappointing. I felt that my run fitness was way better than was demonstrated, so I wanted to race a stand-alone marathon to test that theory, and to get a baseline for future IM’s, and Coach agreed. Plus, the “upside” of walking a lot of an IM run is reduced physical stress, and recovery time.
I chose Erie because it was pancake-flat, and the timing was ideal … ~7 wks after IMLP seemed like enough time to prepare given my IM fitness, while still being within qualifying window for 2019 Boston Marathon.
I took 4 days off after IMLP, then loaded up the Marathon Plan in Final Surge and began my quest. Only major hack to FS Plan was that I had chosen to begin a run streak also, so on days where there were no Plan runs I filled in with 2 easy miles. I also scheduled a call with Coach P. for 2.5 weeks out from the race, to discuss race strategy.
- I chose that timing for 2 reasons … first, it would give me the opportunity to test the race strategy for the last Race Rehearsal long run … and secondly, I'd have enough time to create & submit my Race Plan in the Forums … to tap into the shared knowledge and experience from my EN Teammates … You did not disappoint!
The initial wkos were ok, but sluggish … guessing lingering IMLP hangover. Executed all the Long Runs as written, incl. the 20-miler … but honestly never felt “really good” till middle of the 2nd taper week just prior to the race. (tss chart below)
My race prep included gathering info. from the Forums … and most notably from @Tim Sullivan 's Jack & Jill Marathon Race Report. His whole RR is a great read! … or multiple reads in my case. His race execution especially resonated with me in 3 areas: running with Stryd Power, starting out slow, and negative splitting the 2nd Half.
I’ve been running with Stryd Power for over a year now, so I have a lot of data, but I really hadn’t analyzed it till I started prepping for my call with Coach. I focused on data from my most recent “long” runs (> 10 miles) and found correlations between Power, Pace, HR, and Cadence. In fact, my avg. Lap Power is an extremely good predictor of my avg. Lap Pace.
I shared this data with Coach, and on our call, we discussed it and developed a Race Strategy that focused on Power instead of Pace … and he updated my final Race Rehearsal long run (8/25 in table above) to focus on Power:
• 6 miles at 220 watts...
• 8 miles at 230 watts...
• 2 miles at 240 watts...
That final 16-mile run went according to plan (at least for the first 10 miles till 920xt stopped receiving power data from Stryd). Focusing on Power made me more aware of how my legs were feeling as I ran … and the pace alerts at every mile showed that Pace was correlating as expected … both of those observations convinced me that focusing on Power was the way to go for Erie.
I submitted my Race Plan in the Forums which was a first for me. I have submitted post-event Race Reports before, and gotten terrific feedback and insight, but never pre-event Plans … not sure what took me so long!
I am so grateful for all the Team feedback! It was invaluable for the many perspectives it had, and in illuminating potential issues (add link) … HUGE THANKS to everyone AGAIN for their comments!
One key comment on that original Plan was the magnitude of the 2nd Half neg. split (> 7min) … with @Gordon Cherwoniak providing a link to an analysis of Boston Marathon historical data that showed just how unlikely that magnitude of neg. split has been for that race.
Pacing input from Tim S. (e.g. not going out too hard) was also critical.
All the feedback led to the Final Race Plan (shaded green below), and you can see that the Race Day Actuals were pretty close (shaded blue ... note: these actuals correct for my Garmin accuracy error of -26 feet/mile).
Final Race Plan:
- Start with 4-hr pace group
- Increase Power after mile 6 (should catch 3:55 pace grp ~mile 13)
- Then increase Power again after mile 20 (should catch 3:50 pace grp ~mile 25)
My nutrition & hydration plans were as follows, and I used them for all August long runs ... but with hydration belt which I didn’t wear in the race:
- Nutrition: Pre-Race same as IM ... Coffee, Crank e-Fuel drink, Clif bar, Clif caff. gel ... during race will rely on Clif caff. gels every 4-5 miles just prior to Aid Stations and will then "wash it down" with water and on-course hydration Gu Brew
- Hydration: 100% on-course Gu Brew (no hydration belt or handheld) ... sip every mile ... base salt every 2 miles
In review, my avg. Power for each segment was 3-4 watts higher than plan, and the pacing was pretty well correlated. My 1st Half was 1:56:40, and 2nd Half was 1:53:29 ... neg. split of 3:11. And the total time of 3:50:09 was only 16 secs off the Plan time of 3:49:53. Clearly running with Power worked for me! My plan is to continue to learn with it, and train & race with it, similarly to how we use Bike Power within Endurance Nation.
Lastly, after the race, I posted my result & BQ in Group Me and Tim S. commented: “It's nice to be able to catch groups instead of dying “… ... I couldn’t agree more!
Thanks for reading! ... and any & all comments!
PS: I needed to be < 3:50 to register for Boston during the last “early entry” window (Fri. 9/14). Now I have to wait till Mon. 9/17 … but hopefully I will still get in.
Comments
@Rory Gumina Congrats on the huge PR and the BQ time. Nice job on carrying your fitness from IMLP and crushing the marathon 7 weeks out from that race. You set the bar high and went out and executed a great race.
The one note I will make is you ability to push up you HR during a race. Looking at all your long run data and your plan average you definitely have the ability to push during a race. I think I recall one average HR (maybe 2) in the 130's from your Lake Placid training brick runs but 137 for the Marathon is well above 124 from your 20 miler.
Dang @Rory Gumina this is fantastic! What a year it has been for you. Excited for your BQ. Keep up the strong work. Interesting to see how your power plan worked out in planning and during the race. Very cool.
Congratulations on a great race and for the BQ!!! @Rory Gumina!!
Congratulations on the BQ and PR! Well executed race.
You. Will Love. Boston!! There's no other race that compares (IMO).
Great report Rory and thanks for the power context. Certainly some great data and a well deserved result!
Congrats Rory!!! Huge PR, huge to negative split, huge to get that BQ time! Fingers crossed you get in!!! 🙌
@Gordon Cherwoniak ... thx! yeah HR was a bit higher than expected, but without ill-effects, so good learning ... I still want to dig into that Boston Marathon link you sent with Race Plan input ... will post if can assimilate the learnings.
@Jeff Horn ... kinda humbling year w/FL 70.3 fitness and nutrition issues, and IMLP run issue ... so this result feels damn good! ... ps you need to add BFC to your sig line ... #Animal
Thanks for your comments @Sabra Gonzalez , @Derrek Sanks , @Jenn Edwards and @Trish Marshall !!!
Wow, that's some ninja preperation and race execution! Congrats! I'm considering taking a shot at a BQ next year because I'll age up. Will definitely hit you and Tim up for advice if I do.
Thx @Gabe Peterson ! And will certainly share & help however I can!
@Rory Gumina This is a great report from several perspectives. First, for you, the personal success and opportunity to run on Patriot's Day from Hopkinton to the Hub - there's nothing else like it. Some years, the crowd support over the entire 26.2 miles feels like one long finish line, at least the last 13 from Wellesley. Only thing I've seen to compare is the final half mile down Ali'i in Kona, but that;s so much shorter. So congratulations on your race and your future running successes, whether stand alone or in triathlon.
Second, because you are so organized and data oriented, there is so much here for others to learn from. Those of us who have been using Stryd and seeing the correlation understand, but you are documenting the value in race execution. Next step in this project is to provide Stryd 2.0 - how to use it when you are running up and down, and not just flat! Thanks for this.
In the spirit of group learning, I'll note that this was basically your first stand-alone marathon, and the Stryd helped you in both your training and racing. But for those who've done a few marathons, I'd suggest that your strategy for this race is not the best one for achieving the lowest possible time. There is great data that shows an even or VERY SLIGHT negative split produces the fastest overall time for citizen marathoners (3 hours and over). Looking at your data, I'd bet that having a good 1-1.5 mile warm-up prior to the race (slower than race pace, with a few strides thrown in), followed by your mid-race watts for the first 25.5 miles, then a final kick, would result in a 3:46/7 time. Again, not complaining at all about your race, it was a learning experience into unknown territory for you. But for someone used to marathons, but new to power, this might not be the way to go.
And if you add in hills, then the power comes in even more handy - just eep it constant whether going up or down, no need to factor in the lag time for HR!
Coming so close to your planned time, and holding such a steady effort is really remarkable. After the fact, it might seem foreordained, but, one has to actually execute the plan, and you sure did that!
@Rory Gumina Congrats on the race and the loads of data you provided!! I'll be pouring over your data! Well done!
Thx @Jeff Kane ! ... looking forward to seeing you attack Maryland! ... am pretty sure that race will be on my 2019 calendar, so I'll be eagerly awaiting your race report!
Thanks for you great feedback @Al Truscott ! Yes, I'll be super-pumped if I get into Boston! (all smart people are saying 4:51 under Q Time should get in ... so am hoping they're right!)
My goal will be to apply Power on the run as you've described, a'la EN-way on the bike ... I do have a good deal of data including elevation, and once I find time am hoping to glean & share more learnings.
I agree (or at least I hope) this race strategy left time on the table for me to improve(!) ... but my 100% motivation for this race was borne out of some pretty dismal IM runs, so the ability to execute this fairly "safe" strategy has done wonders for my confidence. But yeah, now that I have this baseline, I can get more aggressive next time ... hopefully at Boston! Thx Again (and always) for your insights!
Congrats on your achievement ! that is so cool to be able to BQ not that far from an IM. We are seeing more and more people able to carry their IM fitness to other running events and its unbelievable what can be achieve.
Again, congrats and sorry to be late to this party ! :)
Thanks @Francis Picard ! ... and YOU are the poster child for being able to carry IM fitness to other running events! Well done at BMC!