Race Post-Mortem: Richmond Marathon

Mick, Justin, and me at the start line of the Richmond Marathon.  I'm ready to tackle Marathon #9 and Mick and Justin are ready to take on their first.

Saturday, November 12, 2016
Richmond, VA
Difficulty score: 3/9

I ran the Richmond Marathon as my very first marathon exactly five years ago, finishing in 3:23:36 (7:46/mile) after making a few very critical yet unfortunately common first-timer mistakes: low mileage during training (I don't think I even ran 35 miles in any single week leading up to Richmond 2011), and speeding up to 3:05:00 pace at the second mile after my original 3:15:00 pace felt too easy, only to crash eighteen miles in.

Now, as a better, more experienced, and (possibly) wiser runner, I was looking forward to returning to Richmond to run the marathon again.  Richmond was an enticing choice for attempts for a PR and for a sub-3:05:00, which would have been five minutes under my Boston qualifying standard, thus allowing me to submit an application during the first week of registration for Boston 2018 (and thus giving me a 99.9999% chance of getting in).  After all, it is a fast course, although with some very noticeable rolling hills, with very few turns.  Plus, temperatures on race morning were almost always very conducive to a PR; the usual overnight lows in Richmond in mid-November are usually in the low to mid-forties.  It was also a mid-sized race of four to five thousand marathoners; after Chicago, I found that I tend to do better in races with several thousand participants since I don't like feeling boxed in and my typical negative-split strategy can be difficult with a large race like Chicago since I would be weaving through a lot of people in the last miles.  But despite its size, it also had the energy level of a much larger marathon; the volunteers, the bands, and those cheering on the sides of the course really made this a lively event.

For these reasons, it was also a very good choice for a first marathon.  Two of my friends, Mick and Justin, finished their first marathons this morning after I had recommended Richmond to them.  It also helped that the race was logistically very easy for those of us living in DC; Richmond was only a two to three-hour drive and hotel rooms typically were not particularly expensive.

Training

My training for Richmond was very much like my training for my last two marathons.  I ran six days per week, with the following general structure:

• Monday: OFF
• Tuesday: my dedicated "quality" day, which consisted of a two-mile warm-up plus 25 to 40 minutes at tempo effort (between 6:18 and 6:36/mile, with adjustments for adverse weather conditions) and then a cool-down.
• Wednesday: 30 to 40 minutes very easy to recover from Tuesday's tempo run.
• Thursday: mini-long runs lasting between 60 and 90 minutes, with most of these miles being easy (7:48 to 8:24/mile), although I did occasionally throw in some marathon effort miles, particularly toward the end of the cycle.
• Friday: 30 to 40 minutes very easy to recover from Thursday's mini-long run.
• Saturday: 50 to 80 minutes easy (7:48 to 8:24/mile), with 4 x 8 seconds hill sprints.
• Sunday: long runs last between one hour 30 minutes to two hours 45 minutes, with most of these miles being easy (7:48 to 8:24/mile).  I did include a few long runs in which I ran marathon pace for an extended period.

My mileage was not as high as it was for Chicago or Hartford, although it was definitely adequate for my purposes.  My highest mileage week was 59 miles, taking place three weeks before the race itself.  After spending building my mileage back up, my mileage was in the fifties for most weeks (exceptions being tune-up race weeks and the occasional cut-back week, in which my mileage was still in the mid-forties or higher).  Although training was a little more difficult this year due to an unusually hot and humid summer here in DC, I was able to remain consistent.

The Race

The taper preceding this marathon was the worst taper ever.  About ten days out, I bit into a Starburst candy a little too hard, which induced trauma to one of my molars and a nasty infection that caused constant sharp pain and made me incapable of eating anything solid for two days.  After getting a deep clean from the dentist and getting on antibiotics; I got sick.  I was unsure of what it was, but I started to feel some flu-like symptoms one week before the race, my head felt heavy (it felt full like I had been hanging upside down), and I had some persistent post-nasal drip.  I also felt tired for most of that week.  

In fact, I was so unsure that I would finish in a time that I would be satisfied with, if I did finish at all, that I even began toying with the idea of another marathon; I was especially looking at the Rock and Roll New Orleans Marathon in the beginning of February.  But on Thursday morning, I did begin to feel a lot better.  I skipped my marathon pace tempo run on Tuesday to recover, but I did a three-mile shakeout run on Thursday evening and did not feel worse afterwards.

By the time I arrived in Richmond on Friday afternoon, I felt fine; I did have a bit of irritation in my throat that evening, though.  But even though I felt much better, I decided to start out a little conservatively; although whatever I had was gone, I was unsure of the lingering effects it would have on my body.  I decided to take the first 15K a little slower.  My original plan had me targeting 7:05/mile pace for the first 30K and then speeding up or hanging on, depending on how I felt at that point.  I decided to target about 7:10/mile for the first 15K, or even 7:15/mile, if I felt that was the best pace for me that day.  I would then reassess at the 15K mark and try to target my initial 7:05/mile pace if I felt good enough.

Weather was actually beautiful for a marathon: 41 degrees at the start, low humidity, and sunshine.  Over the week leading up to the race, I was so busy worrying about whether I would recover in time that I neglected obsessing over the weather.  

After a quick pre-race selfie and wishing Mick and Justin good luck on their races and reminding them to stick with the target paces that I had recommended for them, even if it did feel ridiculously easy in the early miles, I lined up about halfway between the 3:15:00 and the 3:05:00 pace groups.  The gun went off and thus began our 26.2 mile journey.

Map of the Richmond Marathon course (from the website)

Miles 1 through 6 (7:19, 7:13, 7:09, 7:11, 7:09, 7:13): The first six miles of the course take us through downtown Richmond along West Broad Street, after which we run down Monument Avenue for a while and then through some neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city.  This part of the course was a long, steady, but gradual uphill, with a few steeper hills to make things interesting.

As planned, I went out conservatively, easing into my target pace and letting hundreds of people fly by me.  I had actually been expecting to run the first mile in 7:20 to 7:30, but my Garmin read 7:19 as I crossed the Mile 1 mark and I felt relaxed.  One thing that also pleased me was that my Garmin indicated one mile right as I crossed the Mile 1 mark; considering how straight this part of the course was, I should have been concerned if I had covered more than one mile during this segment.

During the second mile, I decided to gradually accelerate toward my target 7:10/mile pace.  At the end of the second mile, I took some water at the first water station; for this race, I had used my tried-and-true fueling plan of getting water at every single water station prior to the 30K mark and consuming three Shot Blocks every 5K or so.  For Miles 3 through 5, I settled into about a 7:10/mile pace, and was glad to find that this pace felt controlled and almost easy.  Mile 6, however, was a little slower due to more uphill segments, especially a relatively steep one right before the 10K mark.

I took water every two miles and consumed three shot blocks right before the Mile 4 and Mile 6 water stops as planned.  Fortunately, I was not feeling any lingering effects of whatever I was suffering from earlier in the week, and I was still hitting those tangents wonderfully; as I crossed the Mile 6 mark, I was no more than 0.01 miles over.

Miles 7 through 11 (7:05, 7:17, 7:12, 7:14, 7:17): The next several miles are some of the most aesthetically pleasing parts of any race I had run.  After the 10K mark, runners are rewarded with a long downhill segment into the first Party Zone, an area for spectators to congregate and heckle the runners.  We then cross a bridge over the James River and get to run on Riverside Drive, a narrow road that runs alongside the river, for about a mile.  Then we run through some neighborhoods on the other side of the river before crossing back toward downtown Richmond by way of the Lee Bridge.

During the long downhill leading to the first Party Zone, I followed my own advice to keep control; this hill could easily punish my quads.  This was my fastest mile so far, although I was sort of thinking that I would cover this mile in faster than 7:05.  The next few miles, though, were noticeably slower.  I attributed my slower Mile 8 to Garmin issues; for the entire first half of this mile, it indicated I was going at 7:25 to 7:30/mile pace, which definitely seem right.  Only when I crossed the bridge did the pace according to my Garmin begin to move closer to 7:10/mile.  Also, my Garmin indicated I had covered eight miles a little after I crossed the Mile 8 mark.

I wasn't paying much attention to my pace through the next two miles; I was just enjoying the scenery and, of course, fueling as planned with Shot Blocks right before the Mile 10 water stop.  People were catching up to me and passing me, but I just let them go and continued to do my own thing.  Mile 10 was a little slow due to a relatively steep uphill leading up to the neighborhoods on the other side of the river and Mile 11 was even slower because of the rolling hills and a minor water stop delay (the girl I got water from was literally clutching the cups to her chest and seemingly very oblivious that runners wanted to get water from her; I had to stop and wait for her to extend her arm to hand a cup to me).  But even though my pace was slowing during these miles, I didn't really panic; I still felt strong and I had faith that I could conserve enough energy for a significant negative split.

Miles 12 through 15 (7:08, 7:10, 7:03, 7:09): During these miles, I got back on track in terms of pace.  I decided at this point to push the pace just a little, after having felt that the pace during the preceding miles truly was conservative and that I could go a little faster without worrying about an implosion in the later miles.  This part of the race had some relatively long uphills, but they didn't seem to slow me down too badly.  The second Party Zone in the fourteenth mile also contributed to my speeding up just a little; Mile 14 was my fastest so far in this race.

I crossed the halfway mark in 1:34:25; a few seconds slower than my halfway split in Shamrock in 2014 and a few seconds faster than my halfway split in Hartford last year.  If the second half went well, perhaps I could cover it in 1:30:00 or so like I did in Shamrock and come in under 3:05:00.  If the second half was more difficult, then I could perhaps target 1:31:00 or so like I did in Hartford and come really close to 3:05:00.  

Miles 16 through 19 (7:16, 7:05, 7:05, 7:01): After a strong Mile 15, I came to what I felt, looking back, was the most difficult mile in the entire race: the Lee Bridge mile.  Being high up above the river and exposed, I was subject to some stiff headwinds.  Meanwhile, I told myself not to panic if this mile was slower than the previous ones.

Halfway through this mile, this very nice man named Tom who had been running near me for the past several miles and had been running behind me for the first half of the bridge moved up ahead of me and acted like my shield against the wind.  I followed him across the bridge and up the hill immediately afterwards.  After the bridge was behind us, I ran next to him and thanked him for shielding me against the wind.  I would have liked him to run with me, but I began speeding up and he was unable to keep up.

We had now returned to downtown Richmond.  I did remember from when I did the race five years ago that this part had some rolling hills and a pretty substantial one near the Mile 19 mark right before the Diamond.  With 16 miles down, I felt like I could be a little more reckless.  Seeing Lavar at the end of the bridge picked me up.  I charged up the rolling hills in the seventeenth and eighteenth miles, especially after getting energized by the Taiko drummers along the course near Mile 17.  But at the same time, I kept my pace under control so I wouldn't expend all my energy; after all, I still had quite a ways to go.  But when I noticed I was maintaining a 7:05/mile pace and finding it not terribly difficult, I decided to stay with it for a little while.

I took my last three Shot Blocks shortly after the water stop at Mile 18 and there, I took my last serving of water for the entire race.  I was glad; I felt like I had almost choked on Shot Blocks a few times.  I could also now really get into a good rhythm.  After passing this water stop, I began to push the pace a little more; I fell in with this group of guys, but ended up dropping them shortly afterward.  As I crossed the Mile 19 mark, I kept thinking to myself, "This was where I fell apart last time."  Not even the hill near the Diamond slowed me down.

Also, police were directing traffic, letting cars cross the marathon course.  Somewhere between the Mile 17 and 18 mark, some very irate driver was arguing with the police officer directing traffic.  All I heard was this driver saying to the police officer, "Give me your gun and I'll get across."  Seriously?

Mile 20 to the end (6:58, 6:52, 6:49, 6:49, 6:52, 6:54, 6:31, 1:45 for the last 0.29 miles): For the last stretch of the race, all marathoners headed north on North Boulevard, through some residential areas in the northern part of the city, and then back south for a downhill finish near the river.  Although the last 10K of this marathon featured a few rolling hills, it was not a terribly difficult finish.  I really felt like I could speed up even more for a strong negative split.

At this point, my legs were quite tired.  But my typical late-race impatience kicked in; I just wanted to be done, and that caused me to speed up a little.  After crossing the Mile 21 mark, I did some math; I could finish very close to 3:05:00, if not under, if I maintained a sub-7:00/mile for the rest of the race.

For Miles 22 and 23, I brought my pace down to below 6:50/mile.  I was now quite energized, even though my legs were wearing out fast; I realized that I was going to at least qualify for Boston by a relatively healthy margin, and all I needed to do is not to screw up.  Plus, at Mile 22, the neighborhood residents were blasting U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name", one of my favorite running songs and one of my favorite songs in general.  I sang along a little to distract myself from the fatigue and soreness in my legs and my core.

I noticed that I was not running tangents nearly as well as I was in the early miles; after crossing the Mile 23 mark, I noticed I was about 0.04 miles over.  For Miles 24 and 25, I was a little afraid to push the pace, fearing an implosion; I still had a few more miles to go.  These miles were a little more difficult in terms of course profile than the preceding miles; I ended up slowing down, but not by much.  After crossing the Mile 25 mark and seeing Lavar again, I quickly did some more math.  I had crossed in around 2:58:00, so a sub-3:05:00 was not likely at this point; but I could definitely get a sub-3:06:00.  Realizing this, I charged up the hills and then flew down the final downhill stretch, covering Mile 26 in 6:31.

Me shortly after Mile 25.  Photo courtesy of Lavar.

I took the last 0.29 miles at sub-6:00/mile pace, hoping to beat my Hartford time.  I crossed the finish line when my Garmin indicated 3:05:42, one second faster than Hartford.  It was kind of disorienting to stop right after a long downhill segment like that; as I was trying to recover and get my bearings, one of the medical volunteers asked me if I was okay.  After collecting my medal, a blanket that all finishers receive, and a hat, I left the finisher's area and waited for Mick and Justin to finish (both of them ended up breaking 3:20:00 in their first marathons this morning).

I learned that my official time was 3:05:44 (7:05/mile), one second slower than my time at Hartford last year.  I finished 140th out of all 4056 humans that finished the marathon, 127th out of 2016 male human beings, and 30th out of 261 in the Male 30 through 34 age group.  It wasn't the 3:04:59 that I was hoping for, but it was still four minutes and 16 seconds under my Boston Qualifying standard; that should still be enough to get me into Boston 2018.  Besides, I still have Boston 2017 coming up, and during that, I could make another attempt to qualify by more than five minutes.

Finally, thanks to my negative split (1:34:25 for the first half, 1:31:19 for the second), I am eligible to win a free pair of shoes in the Strava Back-Half Challenge (those who completed a marathon and ran a negative split this fall are eligible for a free pair of New Balance running shoes).

The medal and a prize the race gives out for people who qualified for Boston today.

Next steps

After taking a few weeks to recover, I plan on running the Jingle All the Way 5K here in DC in early December.  It's fun, especially with the sheer number of DC Front Runners that come out to participate.  But also, I need some races for the Race Circuit, and 5K races are some of the best ones to get a relatively high score.  

Then I will begin training for the Boston Marathon.  Perhaps I could go for the PR or the sub-3:05:00 there, although a part of me just wanted to run at around 3:08:00 to 3:10:00 pace and just enjoy Boston.  I would have to think about how I would approach training for that, and what I would do differently; it seems like the training structure that I had used these past few years is not going to get me a much faster time than 3:04:00 or so.  Perhaps I need better balance in my training; I did, after all only run at three paces (tempo, easy, and very easy) throughout most of the cycle.

Other Thoughts and Observations

• One of the most common signs that I saw out on the course was "26.2; because 26.3 would be crazy".  Actually, most of us often do cover 26.3 miles or more during a marathon, usually because it can be extremely difficult to run all the tangents.
• I ran into Tom at the finisher's zone after the race.  It turns out he slowed down a little in the late miles, but he still qualified for Boston by more than two minutes.  Although a two-minute margin may have been a little too close to comfort given the cutoffs these past two years, I'm glad he qualified.

Race Post-Mortem: Army 10-Miler

Justin, me, and Mick post-race.  This was our last tune-up race before the Richmond Marathon.  Photo by Justin.

Sunday, October 9, 2016
Arlington, VA
Difficulty score: 2/10 (0 for weather, 2 for course profile, 0 for altitude)

The Army 10-Miler, the second of two tune-up races for my upcoming marathon, was to be my first 10-mile race ever.  People ask me why I have never run a 10-miler, in spite of having run eight marathons and more than a dozen half-marathons.  It seemed like good opportunities for a 10-miler for me never really surfaced these past several years; all the 10-mile races in the DC area took place close to or right after a fall or spring marathon.  And last year, when I finally got to run the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, it needed to be shortened to 9.39 miles due to an accident on the course.

I was excited to finally have the opportunity to run a 10-mile race.  I had reason to believe that I could achieve a very good time for my 10-miler debut so long as I didn't screw up the pacing.  The weather in DC on an October morning was usually better than the low seventies and high humidity under which I ran the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon last month, and this course was considered as fast, if not faster, than the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler.  Starting near the Pentagon, we would head north on Virginia Route 110 to Arlington National Cemetery and then across the Memorial Bridge and down Constitution Avenue.  After less than a quarter of a mile on Constitution Avenue, we would then turn left onto 20th Street Northwest and then a left on Virginia Avenue.  Virginia Avenue would then spit us out onto Rock Creek Parkway, which we would follow back south toward the monuments.  After merging onto Independence Avenue, we would do this out-and-back segment before turning onto the segment that most runners dread: the 14th Street Bridge.  The 14th Street Bridge would take us back to Arlington, where we would complete the last mile of the race through the streets of Crystal City.  All in all, this was a relatively flat course with a few hills to make things interesting.

Thus, I had set my bare minimum goal to be 1:04:20, the slowest I could run in order to score 70 points toward the DC Front Runners Race Circuit.  My primary goal was sub-1:04:00, and my "if everything went right" goal was sub-1:03:00.

Map of the Army 10-Miler (from the race website).

Training

My training this past summer was very much like my training for Chicago and Hartford: six days of running per week, with a very similar weekly structure.

• Monday: OFF
• Tuesday: a two-mile warm-up plus 25 to 40 minutes at tempo effort (between 6:18 and 6:36/mile, with adjustments for the weather) followed by a cool-down
• Wednesday: 30 to 40 minutes very easy to recover from Tuesday's tempo run
• Thursday: mini-long runs lasting between one hour and one hour 30 minutes, with most of these miles being easy (7:48 to 8:24/mile); I did occasionally throw in some marathon effort miles
• Friday: 30 to 40 minutes very easy to recover from Thursday's mini-long run
• Saturday: 50 minutes to one hour 20 minutes easy (7:48 to 8:24/mile), with hill sprints
• Sunday: long runs of one hour 30 minutes to two hours 30 minutes at 7:48 to 8:24/mile pace, with some of these being fast finish

So far, my mileage most weeks have been in the fifties or high forties, with a maximum of about 56 miles.  Training was made a little more difficult by an unusually hot and humid summer here in DC, but overall, I was able to remain very consistent with my training up to now.  Following the Army 10-Miler, I planned on two more weeks with mileage in the high fifties or low sixties, and then a taper before my marathon.

The Race

The night before the race, I had a dream that I woke up on race morning and it was 9:14 am.  After panicking and realizing that it would have even been too late to get down to the Pentagon and start with the last wave, I then decided to check my phone to see the angry messages from Mick and Justin, whom I promised to drive down to the start.  But for some reason, my phone kept crashing.  When I finally was able to get it to work, my alarm went off and I woke up.

Had that actually happened, I would have started to believe that the 10-miler was really a cursed distance for me.  But actually, getting to the start actually proceeded quite seamlessly; after a quick breakfast and my typical pre-race preparations, I picked up several other members of the DC Front Runners and made it to Arlington at 6:45.  Traffic was nowhere near as terrible as I thought it would be, and neither was parking.  I thought it was strange, though, that everyone parked in one of the parking garages suggested by the race website when there was plenty of parking on the side of the street.  I found a very convenient parking spot near the Ritz Carlton on the side of South 15th Street, while just about all of the other cars were waiting in this very long line to get into the nearby parking garages.

Temperatures were also much better for this race; high fifties with less than 80% humidity, and the latter was expected to drop substantially as time went on whereas the former would not increase too much.  When I woke up, there was a steady light rain, but that subsided by the time we all arrived at the starting area and changed into an 18-mile-per-hour wind from the north.  I was not terribly concerned about the winds; I had run a half-marathon and a marathon PR under similar conditions. Given the course and the temperatures, I went into the starting corrals thinking that a sub-1:04:00 was very achievable today.  My plan was therefore to ease into a 6:20 to 6:25/mile pace over the first two miles or so, hold that until about Mile 7, and if I felt I had something left in me at that point, I would try to bring the pace down closer to 6:15/mile.

After running into other members of the DC Front Runners and wishing them a good race, I lined up in the Yellow Corral and waited for the start.

Miles 1 and 2 (6:28, 6:22): Initially, I was running at more like half-marathon pace.  The race began on a slight but relatively steady uphill, but about 0.6 miles in, we got a pretty noticeable downhill, which I took advantage of to bring my pace to faster than 6:30/mile.  According to my Garmin, my first mile was 6:28, exactly where I wanted to be.  However, I did notice that my Garmin indicated the one mile mark a little before the actual one-mile mark sign.  I attributed that to the weaving and dodging I did during this first mile.  Halfway through this first mile, I realized I probably lined up too far back; I was passing people left and right with very little effort.

During the second mile through Arlington National Cemetery and across Memorial Bridge, I settled into a 6:22/mile pace.  This felt very controlled, I was glad to have gotten on target pace a little earlier than I thought.

Miles 3 through 5 (6:31, 6:18, 6:20): For me, Mile 3 was the most difficult mile of the entire race.  The relatively lengthy uphill on Virginia Avenue threw me for a loop; after hearing how fast this course was, I wasn't expecting anything like this.  Nonetheless, I looked at my watch and noticed my pace was closer to 6:40/mile.  I kept myself calm; knowing that if I pushed too hard up this hill, I would regret it later; after all, I still had seven more miles to go.

After we crested the top of the hill, we were treated to a brief downhill as we went through an underpass.  After another brief hill, we had a much longer and more gradual downhill segment.  I was able to take advantage of this and bring my pace down to 6:31/mile.  This was slower than what I would have liked, but I knew I could still manage sub-1:04:00 nonetheless.

For the fourth and fifth miles, I focused on getting back to 6:20 to 6:25/mile pace.  This part, in which we turned onto Rock Creek Parkway and followed it toward Independence Avenue, was flat and fast and featured very few turns, although some relatively strong winds were still coming off the river.  I ended up doing the fourth mile a little faster than what I wanted; I finished this mile in 6:18, but I still felt like I was in control of the pace.  During the fifth mile down Independence Avenue, I continued trying to hold back; I wanted to push a little, but I knew that I had some more somewhat difficult segments up ahead.

The DC Front Runners cheer squad, waiting for us at the top of the hill on Independence Avenue.  Photo from Adam.

Miles 6 through 8 (6:16, 6:17, 6:16): After the halfway mark came one of the more difficult segments: a hill leading up past the Washington Monument.  Some members of the DC Front Runners were at the top with signs, which gave me an extra boost of energy up this hill.  After this came a slight downhill and another long, flat, and straight out-and-back segment down Independence Avenue.  I enjoyed this part: in addition to it being fast, spectators were lining the course and I got to see the faster runners on their way back.  After rounding the corner at the turnaround loop and passing the Mile 6 marker, I noticed that I had indeed brought my pace down closer to 6:15/mile already.  But since I was still feeling strong, I decided to stay with it.

But one thing that I was not happy about was that my Garmin indicated 6.07 miles at the Mile 6 marker.  I had no idea how I managed to cover 0.07 extra miles given how few curves and turns there were on these past few miles, but I really preferred not to cover more than 10.10 miles today.  After all, that extra 0.1 miles could mean as much as 45 to 50 extra seconds.  For the seventh mile, I focused on maintaining my pace while trying not to weave around runners anymore.

I then turned left onto 14th Street to start my journey along the infamous 14th Street Bridge.  Most people who talk about this bridge say that not only are runners already tired at this point, but this long expanse of bridge across the river, on which there are almost no spectators, could be mentally draining.  But I myself actually did not find it to be as bad as many people have made it out to be.  It was by no means easy, especially compared to the previous miles; this bridge has some noticeable rolling hills.  But I found the third mile of this race to be far more difficult.  Meanwhile, I was able to keep my 6:15 to 6:20/mile pace with little problem.

Mile 9 through the end (6:13, 6:10, 0:32 for the last 0.1 miles): I then approached a rather unexpected difficulty in this race: the exit ramp leading to Crystal City.  Right before the exit ramp was a very sizable hill; it was not as long as some of the others I had encountered on this course, but it was substantially steeper.  In addition, I was now faced with a powerful headwind.  As I pulled myself up this hill, trying not to charge up it, I asked myself why I was encountering this kind of headwind; I was heading south and the weather forecast indicated winds were to be coming from the north.

After the exit ramp was behind me, I just focused on getting to the finish line.  Some other runners behind me had capitalized on the downhill of the exit ramp to accelerate past me.  I just decided to let them go and just run at my own pace.  I was able to catch back up with most of them and eventually drop them again, though.

Nina and her mother were cheering on members of the DC Front Runners at the Mile 9 mark, which was very much appreciated.  After waving back to them, I looked at my watch and did the math.  Sub-1:04:00 was definitely within reach; I just needed to maintain this pace and not do anything stupid.  I did find myself speeding up even more during this mile; after noticing that my Garmin indicated I was going at 5:55/mile pace, I decided to hold back a little just so I would not implode during the last half mile.

As soon as I rounded that curve back toward the Pentagon and saw the finish line, I just gave it all I had left.  I was very happy when I crossed the finish line when the first three digits of the gun (cannon) time clock were 1:03; my Garmin, meanwhile, indicated a finish time of 1:03:43.

I wanted to wait for the other members of DC Front Runners to finish, but I was told to keep moving.  As I headed toward the finisher's area, I saw Justin behind me; he had just run a 10-miler PR by more than two minutes.  We then walked to the finisher's area together, sharing notes about the race.  We decided to wait for the other members of DC Front Runners doing this race near the food area.

It was not until that afternoon when I got my official results (Army 10-Miler does not do real-time runner tracking): 1:03:42 (6:22/mile), which translates to 70.727 points toward the DC Front Runners Race Circuit (age-graded score of 69.34 times 1.02 in accordance with Race Circuit rules).  I was 383rd human out of 24014, 362nd male out of 12716, and 78th out of 1880 in the Male 30-34 age division.

Next Steps

I felt that my performance during this race was more indicative of my fitness for Richmond, since the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon was run under less-than-ideal conditions and was probably run before I was anywhere near peak fitness.  So given my mileage, which was less than what I ran for Hartford last year but not by much, I would take my 10-miler time of 1:03:42 and multiply by 2.88 to get a projected time for my marathon: 3:03:28 (approximately 7:00/mile).  If I ended up with a time like that, I would be very happy; that would be a PR and a BQ by more than six minutes.

Thus, my plan for Richmond is to target 7:00 to 7:05 for the first 30K, with the first two miles a little slower than that, and then gradually speed up at the 30K mark for a negative split.

Other Thoughts and Observations

• I like this race a lot.  The race has a great atmosphere, is quite fast, and is executed very well.
• Metro is often accepted as the best way to get to the starting line, but it may take longer than driving to get there using Metro, particularly if you need to transfer lines or if the nearest Metro station is quite a walk from where you live.  It looks like driving can get you down to the start line relatively quickly, particularly since I-395 Southbound, the best way to get to Arlington, still remains open before the race.  Parking is also not difficult as it will be 6:00 am when you (should) arrive.  However, getting out of Arlington is a whole different story if you're driving due to all the road closures and the closure of I-395 Northbound, and this is where the advantage of Metro really comes into play.  If you drive, consider hanging around Crystal City for a bit (I would have, but I had to return to DC to prepare for a friend's birthday brunch).
• I like the finisher coins a lot (photo below).
• Winds from the north my foot.  I have always maintained that the winds are always blowing in one direction when you are running: against you.  I rarely felt any tailwinds, but headwinds were very frequent throughout the race, even when I was running southwards.

The Army 10-Miler finisher coin.

Race Post-Mortem: Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon

DC Front Runners at the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon.  We survived!

Sunday, September 18, 2016
Philadelphia, PA
Difficulty score: 4/10 (2 for weather, 2 for course profile, 0 for altitude)

I ran the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon as a tune-up race for my fall marathon this year, the Richmond Marathon.  I had done this race three times before: in 2012, in 2013, and in 2014, and I had thought very highly of it.  Back then, the course used to be flat and fast, and given good weather conditions (or even not-so-good weather conditions in the case of 2014), it was a great PR course.  Plus, a number of DC Front Runners members had registered for it also, which would make for a fun weekend in Philadelphia.

But after last year, the course had changed slightly.  Previously, the first four miles would be spent running through the streets of Center City.  Now, that segment had been shortened to about three miles.  To make up for that missing mile, runners would now do and out-and-back segment along Fairmount Avenue past the Eastern State Penitentiary.  That segment featured some very noticeable and long uphills, the likes of which were not experienced ever on the old course.  The remainder of the course along the river still remained the same.

However, an even bigger issue that foiled my plans during this race was the weather; at the start it was 72 degrees, with almost 90% humidity and a dew point close to 70.  These were perhaps the most undesirable conditions under which I had ever run a half-marathon (even more so than the warm and humid race in 2014 and the Navy-Air Force Half-Marathon in 2015).  The warmth and humidity really took a toll on most runners, including myself; I saw many runners out on the course struggling, including a number who were walking or had dropped out, and each of us that ran the race had reported seeing at least several people being taken away in ambulances.

I ended up finishing in 1:27:20 (6:40/mile); not a terrible time, but I knew that under better conditions, I was capable of faster.  But I did place unusually high this time; 150th human overall out of 12206, 122nd male human out of 4965, and 29th out of 688 in the male 30-34 age division.  And I did at least meet my "bare minimum" goal of achieving 70 points toward the DC Front Runners Race Circuit: a 1:27:20 half-marathon would translate to an age grade score of 67.02, times 1.05 in accordance with Race Circuit rules to produce a score of 70.371.

The new Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon course.  Map from the race website.

Training

Like my training for Chicago and Hartford, my training during this summer consisted of six days of running per week, with a very similar weekly structure:

• Monday: OFF
• Tuesday: a two-mile warm-up plus 25 to 40 minutes at tempo effort (between 6:18 and 6:36/mile, with adjustments for the weather) followed by a cool-down
• Wednesday: 30 to 40 minutes very easy to recover from Tuesday's tempo run
• Thursday: mini-long runs lasting between one hour and one hour 30 minutes, with most of these miles being easy (7:48 to 8:24/mile); I did occasionally throw in some marathon effort miles
• Friday: 30 to 40 minutes very easy to recover from Thursday's mini-long run
• Saturday: 50 minutes to one hour 20 minutes easy (7:48 to 8:24/mile), with hill sprints
• Sunday: long runs of one hour 30 minutes to two hours 30 minutes at 7:48 to 8:24/mile pace, with some of these being fast finish

So far, my mileage most weeks have been in the fifties or high forties.  But my highest mileage weeks were still to come.  Training was made a little more difficult by an unusually hot and humid summer here in DC, but overall, I was able to remain very consistent with my training up to now.

The Race

Initially, predictions for race day temperatures were not ideal but tolerable: temperatures in the low sixties at the start with relatively high humidity.  But as race day approached, the predictions got progressively worse.  I had thought about just powering through the conditions and targeting about the 6:30/mile pace I would have been able to do in better conditions (similar to what I did in Philadelphia in 2014), but the temperature and humidity on race day were higher than any under which I have ever run a half-marathon before.  After some more thinking, I decided to start slower; 6:40 to 6:45/mile pace for the first two miles or so, and then I would work my way down.  After all, I knew the course from Mile 6 on to be relatively fast and along the river; I could use the terrain to my advantage, and hopefully the river would keep temperatures from getting too high.  I also knew based on previous years of running this, the final segment after that bridge at Mile 9 was very fast.  If my start turned out to be too conservative, I could probably make up the time after I crossed that bridge.

Miles 1 through 5 (6:54, 6:40, 6:38, 6:43, 6:34): As planned, the first mile was conservative.  I had no idea how fast I was going for a good part of this first mile because the tall buildings around me were screwing up the GPS signal; at times, my Garmin had indicated I was going as slow as 7:30/mile pace.  It wasn't until I approached the first mile marker that I got an indication of my actual pace; even though my Garmin indicated a first mile split of 6:54, I noticed that I crossed the one mile mark at 6:45.  The second mile was more of the same.  However, during these first two miles, I noticed that surprisingly few people were passing me, yet I was moving ahead of quite a lot of people.  And my Garmin indicated a 6:39 split for the second mile near the actual two-mile mark, which would mean a 6:46/mile pace for the first two miles; a little slower than I would have liked, but not by much.

The segment in which runners go by the start and get to see people from later corrals starting, which had been my favorite part during the Philadelphia Half-Marathon the past few years that I ran it, now occurred at Mile 3 rather than Mile 4.  This part had always been an energy boost as quite a few of the runners starting their races would be quite enthusiastic; plus, this part was flat and fast and was good for picking up a little speed.  I did push the pace a little and ended up doing a 6:38 split for this third mile.  I figured if I could stay around this pace for the remainder of the race and push it a little toward the end, I could go under 1:27:00.

But then I came to the hill leading up Fairmount Avenue.  I wasn't expecting this hill to be this long and noticeable; the course video never showed anything like this (funny how course videos always seem to make hills seem much less long and steep than they actually are).  We did get a bit of a break after the first hill, but we then came to another before the hairpin turn.  I focused on constant effort throughout this segment, and, as expected, it was quite a bit slower; but I kept telling myself that I would get a long downhill on the way back.  I did take advantage of the downhill fifth mile to cover my fastest mile so far, a 6:34.  High-fiving the DC Front Runners on their way out along this segment helped also.

Miles 6 through 9 (6:37, 6:35, 6:41, 6:38): Once that out-and-back segment down Fairmount Avenue was behind me, I knew I had a flat and fast segment along the river.  I focused on keeping a steady pace for the next few miles.  Aerobically, I didn't feel particularly taxed, but my legs were really working.  I found myself catching up to and dropping runners I recognized from the early miles that had pulled ahead.

I have been unable to explain the sudden slowdown in Mile 8.  I tried pushing the pace a little when I saw that my Garmin was indicating I was running at a nearly 6:50/mile pace; I hoped to get the split for this mile down to below 6:40.  After my Garmin indicated a 6:41 split for this mile, I considered the possibility I might be able to pick up the pace a little.  Initially, I thought I was able to; my Garmin indicated I was going 6:31/mile pace for the first half of this mile.  But then the hill leading up to the bridge smacked me in the face; every year that I had done this race, this segment has slowed me down, and this year was no exception.

Mile 10 through the end (6:38, 6:35, 6:34, 6:34, 1:00 for the last 0.17 miles): After the bridge, I tried to take advantage of a downhill segment to accelerate, but my legs just would not listen.  I just could not go faster than 6:38.  But even so, I was still passing quite a lot of people, and no one was passing me.  I noticed a lot of people were not having great days today; I passed one woman and overheard her apologizing to the man she was running with for her performance today.

After passing Mile 10 and some colorful words when I noticed that my 10-mile split was almost 1:07:00, I made one last attempt to pick up the pace.  Unfortunately, when I passed the Mile 11 marker and saw that more than I was more than one hour 13 minutes into my race, I realized that a sub-1:27:00 was not going to happen today.  I even resigned myself to the possibility that a sub-1:28:00 was not going to happen either.  I did my best not to slow down, but I felt like I was just holding on.

But it was almost as if I was closing quickly today; I passed dozens of people as I approached the finish line.  When I got to that last hill leading up to the Art Museum, I mustered whatever energy I had left and tried to cross that finish line as quickly as possible.  My Garmin indicated 1:27:20; I knew at that point I was going to get more than 70 points for this race toward the Race Circuit (my previous calculations indicated I needed a 1:27:41 or better).  Now all I needed to do was find an age grade score calculator to see how much above 70 points I got.

Next Steps

A 1:27:20 half-marathon time would indicate that I was currently in at worst 3:08:00 marathon shape (this half-marathon time times 2.15 given my mileage, training, and experience level would be 3:07:46).  However, since I am only about halfway through my training and because of the conditions, there is a good chance that 3:08:00 would be a little conservative of a target for Richmond.  But it is good to know that even so, I would still likely qualify for Boston by two minutes or more.

What I will use to determine a realistic target time for myself in Richmond would be the Army 10-Miler on October 9.  It will be closer to the day of the Richmond Marathon; provided I execute my training as written, I will have completed a few more higher-mileage weeks between now and then.  Hopefully, the conditions during the Army 10-Miler would be much better than the ones in Philadelphia.

Other Thoughts

• I really prefer the old course, even though I do like the concept of running past a place that was featured on World's Scariest Places.  I wonder whether the course was changed because of all that construction going on.  Perhaps when that is finished, they would change the course back.
• Humidity is a very insidious weather condition.  A lot of people, myself included sometimes, start out thinking they can proceed at a pace similar to what they can do in better conditions and power through the humidity.  Humidity saps your strength and often, you don't realize it until the later miles when you barely have the energy to hang on.  My race would have probably unfolded very differently had I started out faster than 6:45/mile pace.
• To get an idea of how much the conditions may have affected people, a 1:27:20 during the much better conditions in the 2015 Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon race would have been 313th overall, 226th male, and 47th in the male 30-34 age group.
• Working backwards, the race time adjustment calculator for temperature and dew point at runnersconnect.net predicts that given a temperature of 71 and a dew point of 68, a 1:27:20 half-marathon would translate to a 1:24:07 (6:25/mile) under ideal conditions.  Although I'm not sure how reliable this calculator or any race time adjustment algorithms are, I like what it's telling me.

Etude 7 Pour Les Degres Chromatiques (Debussy)

Saturday, January 16, 2016
Levine School of Music - Strathmore Campus
Bethesda, MD
Difficulty score: 4/10 (4 for technical difficulty, 0 for interpretive and musical difficulty, 0 for scale)

This piece is the seventh in a set of twelve etudes that Debussy composed in 1915.  These twelve pieces are technical exercises, each of which focuses on specific technical issues.  For example, this particular etude deals with rapid chromatic scales, which in turn forces the pianist to work on playing evenly and smoothly and to develop agility and independence of his fingers.

But also, like many of the etudes written during the nineteenth century such as those by Chopin and Liszt, all twelve of these etudes are technical exercises disguised as concert pieces, unlike the etudes of composers such as Czerny that simply consist of dry rote repetitions of the technical issue.  The Debussy etudes are pieces that are meant to be performed in concert (and enjoyed by listeners) in which the technical issue is the building block of the writing; for example, in this particular etude, Debussy capitalizes upon the rapid chromatic scales to create a ghostly and mysterious atmosphere.  Embedding the technical issue into a concert piece like this forces the pianist to not only be able to execute the chromatic scales accurately and quickly, but also to do it with musicality.  This is infinitely more useful than simple rote repetitions of the technical issue.  After all, technique never just occurs in isolation; during a performance, a pianist needs to navigate a variety of technical difficulties and do it musically.

This was actually my first Debussy etude.  I don't know why I waited so long to attempt one of these.  Perhaps it was because these weren't exactly the flashy virtuoso pieces like the Chopin and Liszt etudes were that I was attracted to when I was younger.  Perhaps it was because I needed some time to warm up to the harmonies that Debussy liked to use late in his life.  I would actually say that many pianists may feel the same way; these etudes are often ignored by most pianists in favor of those of other composers.  But regardless, these etudes are full of exotic and beautiful sounds and textures.  They are also a good alternative to Chopin for refining various aspects of your technique; these twelve etudes cover a broad range of technical issues, from the rapid chromatic scales in this etude to the parallel thirds, fourths, and sixths in the second, third, and fourth etudes of the set, to the large leaps and thick chords in the fifth and twelfth etudes of the set and the arpeggios (broken chords) and extensions of the hand in the eleventh.  I do plan on learning more of these in the future.

Considerations for Learning and Performing this Piece:

• The very first thing anyone thinking about learning this piece should do is sit down and write out a good fingering for all of the chromatic figurations (that is, if your edition does not contain fingering; my Schirmer edition did not, and I'm not sure which editions do or do not).  Sloppy or poorly planned fingerings are a recipe for screw-ups later on.
• Don't use the traditional 1313123... fingering for chromatic scales.  Figure out a fingering that minimizes the number of times you need to cross the longer fingers over the thumb or tuck the thumb under the longer fingers.  This way, you will be able to execute these chromatic scales and figurations faster and with less effort, which will really help at the speed at which this piece is supposed to be performed.
• Keep the tempo under control.  In some passages, it is very easy to speed up without realizing it, which will bring trouble in some of the trickier passages (e.g. that horrid left-hand broken sixths passage at 1:38 in the video).
• Don't overthink things during the performance.  I found overthinking leads to memory lapses in this piece.  This is one of those pieces that plays itself once the notes are learned; simply letting your fingers do the work and obeying the dynamic and tempo markings is sufficient for an effective performance.

Race Post-Mortem: I'm Older Now, But Still Running Against the Wind

Me on the final stretch along the Boardwalk, trying to fend off the guy behind me.  Thanks to the race organizers for the free downloads of our race photos!

Sunday, March 20, 2016
Virginia Beach, VA
Difficulty score: 2/10 (1 for weather, 1 for course profile, 0 for altitude)

In other words, it was my birthday and I ran the Shamrock Half-Marathon with 20-mile per hour winds from the north, which gave us a headwind for the first three miles and a pretty nasty cross-breeze in the seventh and eighth miles.  Thanks Bob Seger.  But it could have been much worse.  The mid- to high-forties temperatures were optimal for a PR.  These conditions were certainly better for a half-marathon or marathon than the 70-degree weather that DC and Virginia had been getting these past two weeks.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was originally going to run the full marathon with the goal of getting a 3:04:59 in order to allow me to register during the first week of registration for Boston 2017.  However, after dealing with some Achilles tendon soreness for the weeks preceding this race, I decided to transfer to the half-marathon.  I actually was not regretting that decision going into this race, since I had good reason to believe that I was in a good position to run a half-marathon PR.  Historically, I have run my best half-marathon times during tune-up races following a training cycle for a marathon, and that was what I was doing here.  Plus, the half-marathon course was flat, straight, and fast.  After two and a half miles north on Atlantic Avenue, runners would then veer left onto Shore Drive and run three miles along the border of First Landing Park.  The next three miles were through Fort Story, past the Cape Henry Lighthouse.  Finally, we would return south along Atlantic Avenue to the finish line on the Boardwalk.  The main thing we had to watch out for were the headwinds during the first segment north on Atlantic Avenue and the nasty cross-breezes in Fort Story, which was very close to the beach.

Map of the half-marathon course from the website.

Training

Obviously, much of my training leading up to the Shamrock Half-Marathon would have been more specific to a marathon.  My mileage during the winter was quite a bit lower than it was during my training for Hartford and for Chicago; most of my mileage since the end of December was in the high forties and fifties, with 58 miles as my maximum.  But I did take my tempo runs at a faster pace; whereas before, they were mostly between 6:30 to 6:35/mile pace, I took them mostly around 6:20-6:30/mile pace this time around.

The structure of my training was very similar to my training for Hartford and Chicago:

• Monday: OFF
• Tuesday: tempo runs.  These would typically consist of a one-mile warm-up, followed by four miles at 6:18 to 6:30/mile pace and then a one-mile cool-down.  Later in the cycle, I started extending the length of the tempo portion to five and then six miles.
• Wednesday: 4-5 miles at recovery pace (around 9:00/mile).
• Thursday: tempo runs similar to the Tuesday night ones earlier in the cycle, but later, these transformed into mid-week mini-long runs of 8-10 miles at my typical long run pace.
• Friday: 4-6 miles at recovery pace (around 9:00/mile).
• Saturday: 6-8 miles easy (7:42 to 8:24/mile pace).
• Sunday: long runs of between 12 and 21 miles (7:42 to 8:24/mile pace), although some were used as progressions where I accelerated toward target marathon pace (7:00 to 7:05/mile pace) in the later miles.

My mileage for a few of the weeks were very low; I had one 35-mile week during the huge snowstorm that hit Washington DC in late January, and I had a 30-mile week in February when I tweaked my Achilles tendon.  But other than that, I was able to complete most of my training, even with the Achilles tendon soreness.

The Race

When I left the hotel, I already encountered a relentless wind from the north with steady rain.  Waiting for the start was unpleasant, but I knew that running the half-marathon in this would not be nearly as bad.  The day before the race, Socrates had given both me and Danny heat sheets that he had pilfered from the Rock and Roll DC Marathon the previous week, and I was wearing it like babushka in the starting corral.  It helped keep me warm while I waited and shielded my head from the rain; I owe a big Thank You to Socrates for this heat sheet.

After the National Anthem and a somewhat reassuring update on the weather indicating that the rain was going to let up during the race, we were off.  Fortunately, even though my hands were very cold, I had enough fine motor skills left to start my Garmin.

Miles 1 through 3 (6:37, 6:37, 6:34): As mentioned before, for the first two and a half miles, we would be running north on Atlantic Avenue straight into the wind.  My thoughts during these miles were to get behind a group of people to shield me from the wind, and not to freak out if my splits were more like 6:35 to 6:40/mile rather than the 6:25 to 6:30 that I had been hoping for.  I would most likely get a tailwind-assisted finish on the way back.  Also, I made sure to avoid large puddles so that I would minimize the amount of water in my shoes.

The first two miles were tough.  I felt like I was working during these miles.  That could have been a result of the headwind, or it could have been because I did not have much of a warm-up prior to the start.  I had trouble finding a good pack to run with during these early miles.  First I settled behind this relatively large pack, but I ended up leaving them behind after I felt I was going too slowly.  I caught up with the next group ahead, but then ended up dropping them as well.  I finally ended up finding these two guys that were running at a pace approximately what I wanted to do for the early miles.  I tried running behind one of them, but he kept weaving around; part of me wanted to tell him to stop running like a drunk person and to run in a straight line so he could shield me from the wind.  Fortunately, my Achilles tendon was feeling great throughout these early miles.

Miles 4 through 6 (6:26, 6:29, 6:23): Once we made the turn into First Landing Park, we finally got some respite from the headwinds, so I gradually picked up the pace a little.  So did a lot of other people; I got passed by several runners during this stretch, particularly after I realized halfway through the fourth mile that I was going a little too fast at this stage of the race (6:21/mile pace) and slowed down a little.  By the fourth mile, I had finally settled into a good pace and effort level.  I was pushing my turnover a little, but the effort felt controlled.  The effort was not exactly easy on my aerobic system either, but it wasn't stressing it like a 5K or 10K effort would.

When I saw my splits for the fourth and fifth miles, I realized I might have a chance at a half-marathon PR.  I just needed to keep my paces for most of the remaining miles under 6:30/mile.  My Achilles tendon was still holding up wonderfully.  Meanwhile, as I rounded the turn into Fort Story, I mentally prepared myself for the more difficult seventh and eighth miles.

Miles 7 through 9 (6:30, 6:33, 6:26): I remembered from my experiences during the Shamrock Marathon two years ago that these two miles through Fort Story and past the Cape Henry Lighthouse were difficult due to the winds.  The race course was very close to the beach, and headwinds and crosswinds during this stretch could be brutal.  As I ran through Fort Story, I made a plan to run behind people, and to keep the same effort level as I held during the previous miles through First Landing Park.  I was expecting my pace per mile to get slightly slower during these next two miles, but I reminded myself of the tailwind waiting for me during the last three miles of the race.

I tried looking for a pack to run with, but again could not find one.  Whenever I would catch up with a group of people, I would end up passing them and trying to catch the next group up ahead; it must have been my lack of patience or the desire to just get out of this stretch of the race.  But I was pleasantly surprised to find that my pace didn't fall off nearly as bad as I thought it would.  Like during the Shamrock Marathon when I ran through this stretch, I felt like my bib was going to blow off; although I knew the safety pins would hold it in place, the rattling sound of the wind against my bib was unnerving, and I regularly used my right hand to press it against my torso as some sort of reassurance.

Miles 10 through the end (6:17, 6:18, 6:19, 6:08, 0:57 for the last 0.16 miles): By the time I left Fort Story, I was running by myself.  The next group of people were about a quarter of a mile ahead.  But just like I expected, the headwinds that gave us all so much trouble in the beginning was now a tailwind giving us a bit of help in these last miles.  Plus, more spectators were out now cheering on the runners, and that made things feel easier.  I accelerated a little, but kept my pace no faster than 6:15/mile; I still had four more miles to go, and I didn't want to burn through whatever energy I had left too quickly.

When I passed the 10-mile marker, my Garmin read 1:05:02.  I quickly did the math and realized that I was on track for a pretty substantial half-marathon PR.  I kept telling myself during these last miles that I just needed to stay faster than 6:27/mile to get a PR.  Plus, I was very happy to find that the moment I crossed the 10-mile marker, I had covered 10.05 miles according to my Garmin; I know running tangents should be very easy on a very straight course such as this one, but still, I wanted to cover as little distance over 13.1 miles as I possibly could.

I wanted to speed up even more thanks to my typical late-race impatience, but the more rational part of me told me just to keep at the 6:15-6:20/mile pace that I was currently running.  Of course, the pace wasn't easy at all; I was going at nearly 10K pace.  But I kept telling myself that all I needed to do to get my half-marathon PR was to stay at this effort level for two more miles and not screw up.

After I veered toward the left for the last half-mile of the race, I was shocked to hear somebody screaming my name.  As far as I knew, Socrates and Danny were the only two people from the DC Front Runners down here, and they were supposed to be lining up in the starting corrals for the full marathon.  As I got closer, I realized it was John; I knew he had mentioned a while ago about possibly coming down to Virginia Beach to spectate and heckle us, but I did not know he actually was here.  It was a very welcome surprise, and it gave me a boost to carry me through the last mile.  He even made signs for us:

Me after the race, holding the sign that John made for us.  Go Miss Pam!

I actually was closing in on the next runner up ahead (who I met after the race and actually turned out to be from Arlington).  I picked up the pace a little and passed him as we both rounded that last right turn onto the boardwalk.  As I could see the finish line up ahead and noticed on my Garmin that I was one hour and 22 minutes into the race, my thoughts were: "Would it be possible that I would not only break 1:25:00 this time, but break 1:24:00?"  I accelerated even more.

But finish lines are always quite a bit further than you think.  I did not break 1:24:00, but I finished in 1:24:31 (6:27/mile), a PR by nearly 45 seconds.  This was also the sixth race that I needed to run in order to complete the DC Front Runners Race Circuit, and it contributed to my point totals by quite a lot; a 1:24:31 half-marathon at my new age gives me an age-graded score of 69.26, which, times 1.05 for a half-marathon in accordance with Race Circuit rules, gives me a score of 72.723.  Plus, I finished 59th out of over 6700 finishers, which means I finished in the top one percent of finishers, a feat that I have not accomplished until now.

Also, according to my Garmin, I covered 13.16 miles.  I'm slowly regaining my abilities to run tangents well; the past two half-marathons that I had done, I covered over 13.25 miles.  Having a straighter course certainly did help, but also, I didn't try to actively hit the tangents this time around, unlike my last two marathons.  Perhaps the secret to minimizing the distance you cover in a race is just to run in a straight line and not worry about it too much?

Finally, my Achilles tendon held up just fine through this race.  It was a little sore afterwards, but the next morning when I woke up, I felt nothing.

Next Steps

I plan on taking about a week off from running, which will hopefully give my Achilles tendon time to recover completely.  Then I plan to run a few 5K races.  Every April, Pacers holds a series of Friday night 5K races down in Crystal City.  I have participated in these in the past and enjoyed them.  I plan to run the April 8 and April 15 races, and then that will be the end of my racing season.  Then I will reduce my running significantly as I focus on dancing and piano for two months or so.  Afterwards, I plan on beginning my training for my Fall 2016 marathon.

Even though I think I made the right choice by transferring to the half-marathon, I am now looking forward to doing another marathon.  I still have not chosen my fall marathon; I have two friends who are considering running their very first marathon in the fall, and I think it would be nice for us to do the same race.  So I think the next step is to peruse findmymarathon.com and find a fall marathon that is reasonably fast, not at altitude, and in a city that we would actually like to visit.

Race Post-Mortem: St. Patrick's Day 10K

Giving it all I got during the last 0.2 miles of the race.  Thanks Pacers for the free race photos!

Sunday, March 6, 2016
Washington, DC
Difficulty score: 2/10 (0 for weather, 2 for course profile, 0 for altitude)

Initially, I had planned on running the Colonial Williamsburg Half-Marathon the week before the St. Patrick's Day 10K as my tune-up race for the Shamrock Marathon, but I decided against it due to some ankle and calf soreness I had been dealing with for the preceding week.  I usually prefer half-marathons as tune-up races for marathons since they are the perfect blend of being long enough to have good predictive strength for my performance in my upcoming race, but short enough that I could recover from them relatively quickly.  A 10K race, on the other hand, is quite different.  But this was the only alternative to the Colonial Williamsburg Half-Marathon, and I wanted to get a tune-up race in as well as another race toward the DC Front Runners Race Circuit.

I figured that if I finished this 10K at around 38:30 to 38:59, that would bode well for my abilities to run a sub-3:05:00 in Shamrock.  Plus, that would translate to an age-graded score of between 69 and 70, which would mean 69 to 70 points toward my Race Circuit total in accordance with DC Front Runners Race Circuit rules (not a particularly high score for me, but it is quite difficult to get high scores with a 10K race given the rules).  But regardless, I definitely wanted to do better than the last 10K I ran; I decided to run the Veteran's Day 10K last November without my Garmin, and I ended up pacing for a 10-miler rather than a 10K, coming in at 39:27, only four seconds per mile faster than my pace for the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler.

The St. Patrick's Day 10K course overlaps with that of several races I have done, including the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler and the Navy-Air Force Half-Marathon.  It starts right in front of the Washington Monument on 15th Street.  Runners then turn right and run down Independence Avenue and Rock Creek Parkway for a few miles before turning around and heading back toward the monuments along Ohio Drive.  But right before we return to the starting point on 15th Street, we veer away along Independence Avenue again for a two-mile out-and-back segment.  After a left turn back down 15th Street, we enjoy a downhill finish.  So this course is somewhat fast, with just a few rather long, gradual uphill segments.  I would say the difficulty rating is actually more like 1.5 than 2.

Map of the course from the Pacers website.

Training

My training had been a little lax during the winter compared to my training for Hartford and for Chicago.  I didn't even write down my training plan for this cycle like I usually do.  My mileage was quite a bit lower; most of my mileage since the end of December was in the high forties and fifties, with 58 miles as my maximum.  But I did take my tempo runs at a faster pace; whereas before, they were mostly between 6:30 to 6:35/mile pace, I took them mostly around 6:20-6:30/mile pace this time around.

The structure of my training was very similar to my training for Hartford and Chicago:

• Monday: OFF
• Tuesday: tempo runs.  These would typically consist of a one-mile warm-up, followed by four miles at 6:18 to 6:30/mile pace and then a one-mile cool-down.  Later in the cycle, I started extending the length of the tempo portion to five and then six miles.
• Wednesday: 4-5 miles at recovery pace (around 9:00/mile).
• Thursday: tempo runs similar to the Tuesday night ones earlier in the cycle, but later, these transformed into mid-week mini-long runs of 8-10 miles at my typical long run pace.
• Friday: 4-6 miles at recovery pace (around 9:00/mile).
• Saturday: 6-8 miles easy (7:42 to 8:24/mile pace).
• Sunday: long runs of between 12 and 21 miles (7:42 to 8:24/mile pace), although some were used as progressions where I accelerated toward target marathon pace (7:00 to 7:05/mile pace) in the later miles.

My mileage for a few of the weeks were very low; I had one 35-mile week during the huge snowstorm that hit Washington DC in late January, and I had a 30-mile week in February when I tweaked my Achilles tendon.  But other than that, I was able to complete most of my training, even with the Achilles tendon soreness.

Race Day

On race morning, we had temperatures were in the low forties and cloud cover and some humidity; I felt it during the race in the later miles.  This was perfect racing weather, or at least it was to runners; on the way down to the start line at the Washington Monument, my Uber driver told me he felt cold looking at me dressed in shorts and about to race in a sleeveless T-shirt (he actually told me he was wearing sweatpants underneath his trousers and had on three sweaters underneath his jacket, and even then, he had the heat cranked up high).  I hoped for similar weather in Virginia Beach on the twentieth.

I arrived just as the 5K runners were starting.  As soon as they were off, I did a one-mile warm-up and then checked my jacket at bag check.  After running into some of the other members of DC Front Runners about to do the 10K, I found a clear and relatively flat area to do some dynamic drills near the final stretch leading down to the finish line.  As I was doing my lunges and Frankenstein walks, I got to see some of the Front Runners doing the 5K finish, including Eric (who got a 5K PR), Blake, Lennie, and Socrates.

I was a little antisocial prior to the race and ended up lining up in the starting corral relatively early; for some reason, I was just anxious to get this race started.  As I waited for the start of the 10K, I thought about my plan for the race.  I wanted to target around a 6:15 to 6:20/mile pace for the first three or four miles, and then pick up the pace if I had it in me.  With that strategy, I would have finished somewhere between 38:30 and 38:59.  I would have loved to get below 38:20, which would have given me an age-graded score of above 70, and therefore 70 points toward the DC Front Runners Race Circuit.  But I certainly wanted to do better than my 39:27 in the Veteran's Day 10K back in November.

Miles 1 and 2 (6:17, 6:15): For the first half mile or so, my Garmin kept indicating I was going between 6:04 to 6:07/mile pace; I kept trying to hold back because I was sure I probably was not capable of holding that pace the entire way.  Strangely, my effort during that segment of the race felt easy; perhaps it was because of the gradual downhill that made up the first half mile or it was because the signal in my Garmin was acting a little weird.  But after about 0.6 miles, when my pace started to climb closer to 6:20/mile, I started to put in a bit of a harder effort level and settled right behind a guy in a turtle costume (green tights, green beanie, and a green T-shirt with a shell pattern on the back).

Turtle and I joined this group of two other guys and a girl and we ran as a pack for a little while.  I felt this effort level was appropriate; I was working, but I felt like I could sustain this for the remainder of the race.  After another half-mile, I started to run next to Turtle, and then in front of him.  As we approached the turnaround near the Kennedy Center, I dropped Turtle and the rest of that pack and started moving forward to catch up to the next group of runners ahead.

Miles 3 and 4 (6:11, 6:14): I continued to feel a bit of a spring in my step as I headed back toward the monuments down Ohio Drive.  This portion, which goes along Ohio Drive and around the Tidal Basin, is straight and flat, which allowed me to pick up the pace slightly.  I spent most of these miles trying to catch up to the next group ahead.  I was unable to find a pack that I could run with for any length of time; whenever I would catch one group, I would end up dropping it and moving ahead.

Gradually picking off people in the middle miles of the race.  Another free race photo courtesy of Pacers.

Also, when I passed the 5K mark, I had a minor freak-out when I looked at my Garmin and noticed that it read 27 minutes.  But then I remembered that included the one-mile warm-up I had done prior to the race; I did not reset my Garmin before starting.  I could not remember exactly how much time it took for me to run my warm-up mile, but I do remember it was less than eight minutes.  Doing the math, that meant 19 minutes and change for the first half; if I maintained this pace until the end, I could finish between 38:30 and 38:59.

Mile 5 to the end (6:10, 6:03, 1:32 for the last 0.27 miles): I ran by myself for the last leg of the race down Independence Avenue and back toward the Washington Monument.  My typical late-race impatience kicked in, which caused me to gradually accelerate.  I really didn't have much to say about these miles; I continued focusing on catching the next person ahead of me and dropping them, and I managed to do that to a number of people.

When I approached that last hill leading back up to 15th Street, I reminded myself not to charge up that hill and to save some for the fast downhill finish.  I kept even effort up that hill, passing more people and not really slowing down too much.  When I finally crested that hill, I gave it everything I got, particularly when I got closer to the finish line and noticed the time on the clock reading under 38:30.  Dan was there on the side near the finish cheering on the 10K runners, but all I could manage in response was a glance and a feeble wave; I was focused on getting to the finish as quickly as possible.

38:40 (6:14/mile pace) was my official time.  That was about 30 seconds slower than my PR two years ago, but I'm still satisfied with this time; it was certainly much better than the Veteran's Day 10K four months ago.  A 38:40 translates to 69.31 age-grade points for me; this will not be my highest score during this Race Circuit year, but at least I got pretty close to 70 points.  Particularly with the 2015 updates to the Age Grade Scoring, it seems to be getting much harder to get a high score on a 10K.

Also, I ended up covering 6.27 miles during this race.  I'm not sure how that happened; I used to be so good at running tangents (my "shortest" half-marathon in terms of actual distance covered was 13.12 miles and my "shortest" marathon was 26.23 miles).  Perhaps if I actually covered closer to 10K in distance, my age grade score for this race could have broken 70.

Next Steps

A 38:40 would have indicated that a 3:04:59 in the marathon isn't completely out of the question.  I have never used a 10K race as a tune-up for a marathon, so I am still trying to figure out exactly how to translate a 10K time into a reasonable target marathon time based on mileage, experience level, and other factors.  But 3:04:59 divided by 38:40 is about 4.78; based on previous 10K races that I have run several weeks after a marathon and my findings playing around with the Maclin Calculator, I expected my marathon to 10K time ratio to be about 4.75 and 4.8.

However, as of Monday, March 14, 2016, I have decided to transfer from the Shamrock Marathon to the Shamrock Half-Marathon.  The Achilles tendon, although better than it was that week after I tweaked it, is still sometimes sore during runs, although I find that the soreness is pretty much nonexistent during the faster runs.  I decided to err on the side of caution this time.  Before I transferred, I had this feeling of dread about the marathon, like something was going to go very wrong if I ran it.  This was not just pre-race jitters; it was some sort of instinct.  But after I transferred, these feelings disappeared.

Besides, I already have a BQ-4:17.  The biggest predictor of the cutoff for Boston 2017, namely the number of qualifiers in Boston 2016, is still yet to be determined, but based on information about qualifying rates in the larger feeder races so far, I have no reason to believe that I will have problems getting in.  Perhaps I might even get a half-marathon PR in Shamrock.