2012 Shamrock Marathon/Whale Challenge Race Report
I've been out of the triathlon scene as a competitor since my last Ironman debacle at Wisconsin in 2010, so I've been primarily focused (when my gnat like attention span allows) on running. This is also why I haven't really been active in da Haus during this period too. Anyway after getting married last May, I finally got on track with my run training again and have managed to put in 10 consistent months - go me. 
I did MCM as a test marathon last fall, relearned some things about nutrition and pacing that I shouldn't have forgot, and then went on to PR at Philadelphia with a 4:15 a couple of weeks later. Which was awesome until other news from that day rolled in.
I spent the intervening 4 months between Philly and Shamrock training with a hybrid method, but one which leaned heavily on Arthur Lydiard's methodology. I didn't do much in the way of Jack Daniels/EN type run training during this period. Leading up through January I was feeling pretty good, and planned to add a speed block which would have more EN-esque type training in February. I only got about a week into that though when I aged up into the fourth decade and decided to do this "run every day from 40 to 41" challenge. Because of that, I decided discretion was the better part of valor since I was just starting the challenge, and so basically cut the speed work from the schedule. (FWIW: I plan to add it in now that I'm 5 weeks into the challenge, and other reasons....to be explained momentarily.)
My wife and I have run the half-marathon together for 3 years, but since this year I was running the marathon we decided to run the 8k together instead on Saturday. I think this ended up being a good thing for me since I ran her 'still recovering from injury' easy pace for that race, and certainly didn't put any kind of hurt on myself doing it. Had lunch later at Guadalajaras, and then a pasta dinner at our hotel (which was tasty, but I think gave both of us some overnight and race morning GI scares.) My wife was doing the half, so she was up early and headed out. I slept in until about 7:15, went down to the hotel breakfast buffet and got a cup of tea and an english muffin with butter to eat back at the room. Lazed around until about 8:00 when I heard cheering outside the window so I went to the balcony to watch the lead runners from the half finish their race. Had another cup of tea, visited the restroom for the Nth time and finally got dressed. Sauntered out towards the start line (about 1-1.5 blocks away) at about 8:20. Got into my corral but wasn't able to move backward in it, I wanted to start near the back closer to the next corral given my time expectations. Start happened maybe 5 minutes after I entered corral.
Now, while I may not have trained the EN way for the marathon, I certainly practice and advocate the EN pacing strategy. My broad goal for the race was between 3:45-3:50. I told my wife the night before that I built my plan for the race on a 3:48:30 pacing consisting of miles 1-2 @9:15, 3 @9:10, 4 @9:05, 5 @9:00, 6 @8:55, 7-11 @8:45, 12-16 @8:40, 17-20 @8:40 (or better), 21-26 @best possible.
Race started and I was off. I had problems slowing myself down enough to reach goal, in fact I never actually clocked any mile over 9:00 during the first 6, so a bit of a fail on the execution there. I was being passed by boat loads of people though, including runners from the next two corrals. So I just kept my head down, let everyone else do their thing and told myself that my race didn't start until mile 20, everything was just a warmup until then. The first section of the race was a little faster than plan, but by the time we made it to the ARNG post I was pretty dialed in. I had taken walk breaks at miles 2, 4, 6, and 8. I'd intended to keep that up, but got distracted and it was mile 14 before I realized I hadn't walked recently. In the end, other than some quick breaks for nutrition at ~16, 19, and 23 I didn't walk for the remainder of the race. I kept myself contained at the Rudee Inlet bridge "hill" both ways, despite all the whack jobs who kill themselves running up it only to lean back and slow down once they reach the top. Seriously dudes! "Uphills are ego, Downhills are SPEED!" I had been a little concerned during the ARNG section (~7-9) because I started passing some folks. Given my plan, expectations, and experience with how others run marathons I didn't expect that to happen until much later. I checked my pace but I wasn't going too fast, stil I dialed myself down a hair to ensure that I wasn't drinking any kool-aid (of the stupid pacing flavor.)
Made it back into town from the southern end of the loop and started the northern end, which having done the half so many times I was familiar with. I'd taken the caboose position on this train of 3 runners who knew each other for about 4 miles and were running consistent 8:40 splits. I was loving life. Then around 16 they trade out their lead runner and the new runner (Charlotte) simply takes off! I thought maybe it was a quick burst and they'd reign her in, but she was zooming at an 8:05 pace when I decided I had to drop off from them and run smart. (Side note: ended up passing 2 of the runners later in the course because they were hosed, and I think Charlotte only edged me by about 2-3 seconds at the end based on the results listed.) It's so much easier to run evenly when someone else is doing the pacing work, so from 16-20 or so my splits bounced around a bit. Managed to keep things in check, read some funny signs on the side of the road, and not get screwed by the slight inclines and false flats leading to Ft. Story.
The Ft. Story section is relatively uneventful other than there were a couple of points when the breeze seemed to totally stop and the sun beat down and I suddenly felt really hot. Fortunately those were not long lasting. The other thing that stands out from this section is towards the end of Ft. Story (22-23) a wheel chair athlete was coming up on the left announcing himself. So a bunch of us move over, and he moves up towards this woman in red, still announcing, but she won't move. So I start yelling wheelchair left, then a couple of other folks do the same, and still she doesn't move. The guy in the wheelchair ends up having to move left into the oncoming traffic lane (fortunately no vehicles) to pass her. At which point she says "Good job" to him. WTF?!?! I lost it. Normally I try to be pleasant and nice, and not mess with anybody else's race day. But I couldn't freaking stand that so I told her that instead of saying good job, maybe she could move over to the right out of his way. To which she responds 'piss off'. This self-centered, selfish little tart who can't be bothered to move 3 feet to her right tells me to piss off. F****r! After basically saying that, I move ahead at a quicker pace just to get away from this selfish lump of useless offal, and actually end up holding a 8:15 pace for mile 23 just to get away from her. I know the pace is unsustainable for another 3 miles, but I felt so much better running it - honestly my leg aches went away as I moved away from her at that pace, it just felt like such a right pace.
Leaving Ft. Story, I knew that I couldn't hold 8:15 and decided that "best possible" for me for the remainder of the race meant "dance with the one that brung you", so I just focused on trying to hold an 8:34-8:45 pace for the last 3 miles - just do what got me there and don't sweat it that I couldn't do anything faster. I'd been keeping track in my head of the "running roadkill" (i.e. people I past) starting at mile 20, somewhere around mile 25 my brain energy was needed for forward movement so I stopped counting, but at that point I'd past over 200 people in 5 miles. That return to town leg felt really long and there wasn't much in the way of distractions to not feel the effects of the race start to sink in. I had been very concerned that my longest run prior to the race had only gotten up to 16 miles, and I'd actually done very few "long" runs at all. So I was pretty happy to not start feeling the effects until 24-25. Making that turn onto the boardwalk felt fantastic - as did the tailwind breeze along the shore.
I kept my head in a neutral position, which meant looking at the concrete about 20m in front me, most of the time but couldn't stop myself from peeking every once in a while looking for the Neptune statue. Once I got close enough I started looking for my hotel balcony, Jenn was supposed to be waiting for me there. Once I could clearly see her I tried waving my arms at her, but could only manage to move one arm in a choppy sort of motion. I was putting everything I had into the final 1.2 miles at this point and once I was sure she saw me I just went back to looking at the concrete and wondering why time and distance seem so malleable when exercising hard - in other words, why the hell wasn't this over yet! I was pushing as hard as I could when I hear a voice behind me "I coming for you! I got you! Here I come!" and this dude pushes past me and is trying to get me to chase him, but I'm all in already and have nothing left in my kick to chase him down over the last 20m to the finish. Hear my name. Cross the line. Stop the watch.
Officially: 3:48:53
BOO-YAH!!!
That's an almost 27 minute PR time in 4 months, without dedicated, organized speed work AND without losing any weight (I'm still way too fat for my best possible performances in endurance athletics.) I was off my predicted time by +00:00:23 and I negative split the course by -1:33 - another little boo-ya for that!
It's about EXECUTION! Too many people go out way too freaking fast for too freaking long! I suppose I shouldn't complain, if more people planned their race and raced their plan correctly I wouldn't have the pleasure of passing 200+ on my way to the finish. 
Next goal is going to be to really focus on losing the weight. I figure weight loss combined with some focused speed work, and I can legitimately set my sights on a BQ time this fall at either/both MCM and Richmond marathons. If I can meet some swim and bike metrics along the way, I'll be signing up for another Iron distance race soon too then!
Comments
Congrats on a massive PR. That's huge. Well done!
Hey Mike, I think it's more accurate to say that I've been hanging out on the porch (or maybe the outhouse) of the da haus!