A Tale of a 9.39-Miler and Two Friday Night 5K Races

DC Front Runners post-Cherry Blossom photo.  Photo by Socrates, pilfered from the DC Front Runners Instagram page.

Cherry Blossom 10-Miler
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Washington, DC
Difficulty score: 1/10 (0 for weather conditions, 1 for course profile, 0 for altitude)

Crystal City Friday 5K
Friday, April 17, 2015
Friday, April 24, 2015
Arlington, VA
Difficulty score: 4/10 (2 for weather conditions, 2 for course profile, 0 for altitude)

The Cherry Blossom 10-Miler was actually to be my first 10-mile race ever.  I have wanted to do one for a while now, but it was never in the cards.  In 2012, the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler was too soon after the USA Marathon, and by the time I got around to registering for the George Washington Parkway Classic 10-Miler, it was sold out.  In 2013 and 2014, I didn't feel like I was in good enough shape to race either the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler or the George Washington Parkway Classic 10-Miler, having recently returned from vacations to China and not having run at all while there.

But this year, I decided I was going to do the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler.  I was not running a marathon at all this spring, so I didn't have the problem of having to recover from one in time to run Cherry Blossom.  I was not going to China this year, so I could keep training after I ran the Rock and Roll DC Half-Marathon and come into Cherry Blossom ready to race.

I did indeed run, and had a great experience, but I still do not have a 10-miler PR.  Unfortunately, somewhere on the course around Independence Avenue and East Basin Drive, an accident occurred that left a pedestrian injured; that portion of the course had to be closed off as a crime scene and the entire race rerouted, resulting in a shortening of the race.  The website reported that the length of the course was 9.39 miles, and I covered that in 1:00:29 (6:26/mile), which would have projected to a 1:04:25 for the full 10 miles.  I am satisfied with that time; going into this race, I was hoping to run 1:04:59 or better.  Breaking 1:04:00 would have been the cherry on top.

I ran the Crystal City Friday 5K five days later.  Pacers holds this series of four Friday night 5K races each week of April every year; I had done one of these races in 2012.  The best way to describe my race was "interesting."  I had not raced a 5K in almost a year and a half; I had decided to do this one because I thought it would be good for me to do a shorter race from time to time.  I was still recovering from the 10-miler earlier that week.  I also was suffering from allergies, and the evening was warm and humid.  I still managed to run 18:53 (6:05/mile); this probably was my weakest race performance this year and was not even close to my best 5K time, but given the conditions, and the fact that I think I have forgotten how to race a 5K, I was not totally surprised.

Initially, that 5K was to be my last race until September, but then after noticing that I had completely recovered by the end of the weekend and that weather conditions were supposed to be much better the next Friday, I decided to run the next 5K race in the Crystal City Friday series.  The weather was indeed much better; when I arrived in Arlington, it was in the high fifties, sunny, and negligible humidity.  I ran twelve seconds faster, in 18:41 (6:01/mile).  This was much closer to where I hoped to be for a 5K, but still nowhere close to my PR.

Training and the Days Leading Up to Each Race

I really did not do much mileage in the weeks between the Rock and Roll DC Half-Marathon and the Cherry Blossom.  Part of it was because I was tired; after taking a few weeks to recover from the Chicago Marathon, I increased my mileage again for the Rehoboth Half-Marathon, and then, after a break lasting only a week or so, I started training for the DC Half.  Also, I realized that my fitness during the DC Half was essentially going to be my fitness during Cherry Blossom.

My mileage was actually substantially less than what I should have been doing for a 10-miler or a half-marathon.  I think I ran twice the week right after the DC Half, and then during the following weeks, I ran four days a week.  This included eight to nine-mile long runs on Sunday, six to seven miles easy on Saturday, and six-mile runs with three miles at target 10-miler pace on Tuesday and Thursday.  I estimated that 10-miler pace should have been around 6:25/mile; I took the projection from the McMillan Calculator based on my time from the DC Half and made it slightly more aggressive, in part because the Cherry Blossom course was much easier and in part because I was convinced I could do better than 1:27:19 in the half.  Also, I'm 33 years old and male, and I, like the vast majority of people of my age and gender, have been disproportionately faster in the shorter distances relative to my half-marathon and marathon performances.  Weather was predicted to be ideal on race day, which convinced me even more that being aggressive was the right move.

After Cherry Blossom, I really could not do any quality workouts to prepare for the first of the Crystal City Friday 5K races.  I still was in recovery on Tuesday, so I could not run faster than 9:30/mile pace.  I did not dare to run quickly or do any more than three miles on Thursday because the race was the next day.  I simply went into the 5K not knowing what to expect.

After doing the first Crystal City Friday 5K, like I had said before, I recovered relatively quickly; one advantage of a 5K race is that you can certainly recover within a few days and be ready to run another one the very next week.  In the middle of the week, I decided to run the next Crystal City Friday 5K in the series.  Again, I really did not do much thorough preparation; I only did a six-mile run the preceding Tuesday with the inner four miles at approximately 10-miler effort.  Besides, it was too close to race day for me to make any substantial gains in 5K race fitness.

Cherry Blossom 10-Miler

The night before the Cherry Blossom, I got about three hours of actual sleep.  I set my alarm for 4:55 am and went to bed at around 9:30 pm, but I spent much of that time lying awake in bed and tossing and turning.  That may have had something to do with pre-race excitement, but I also did fall asleep at 2:00 pm the day before and slept soundly until 5:00 pm; that definitely had something to do with my insomnia.

I woke up when my alarm went off at 4:55 in the morning.  I felt a little sleepy on my way to the start of the race, but I still felt like I could function.  I was a little concerned about how my lack of sleep would affect me during the race; when it comes to lack of sleep, I really am a delicate flower.

The weather was just as nice as predicted.  After arriving at the Washington Monument, I checked my bag, which was when I heard the news that the course was going to be shortened due to that accident.  I then ran into Socrates and we talked a little; we both had to go to our starting corrals as we had little time left.  I positioned myself about halfway between the front of the Yellow Corral and the start of the Red Corral, on the right hand side as the first turn was a right turn, and began thinking about how I would handle race circuit scoring for this race.  Thorne and Daniel joined me as I waited in the corral.

The Cherry Blossom 10-Miler course has very few difficulties.  As I mentioned before, it is very flat, aside from a few slight hills near the Memorial Bridge shortly after the one-mile mark and right at the end, after exiting the Hains Point loop and just before the finish.  The hairpin turns at around Mile 3 on Rock Creek Parkway near the Kennedy Center and at around Mile 4 on Ohio Drive could also be a little tricky; hairpin turns often cause me to lose my rhythm.

Cherry Blossom 10-Miler map, from the website.

Mile 1 (6:36): I had to do quite a bit of weaving during the initial first mile.  Looking back, I should have gotten as far onto the right side as I could, even in spite of the gentle left turns that followed that first right turn; I would have had a much easier time settling into my target pace.

The Yellow Corral was for people predicted to complete the race in under 1:12:24, and within the corral, I could not find any subdivisions indicating where we should line up given our target pace (e.g. signs indication where to line up if you want to run a 6:00/mile pace, where to line up if you want to run 6:15/mile, etc.)  I probably had encountered some people who were actually going to run 1:10:00 to 1:12:24 that had lined up in front of me; since I was going much faster, I had to do a lot of accelerating and decelerating and weaving in and out of people.

But after the first half of this mile, I was finally able to hit a good pace.

Miles 2 through 8 (splits: 6:26, 6:23, 6:26, 6:21, 6:25, 6:22): For the next several miles, my goal was to settle into about a 6:25/mile pace.  Every so often, I made sure that I was keeping my body relaxed, and that I was not pushing the pace or making any moves just yet.  Keeping my pace and effort level constant did take a bit of self-control, particularly when I saw Daniel ahead of me (sorry, Daniel; I was not about to let you beat me in this race).  I also tried to resist the temptation to glance at my Garmin too often; during the days preceding this race, I made the realization that my best races were ones where I just ran at the pace my body told me to run and let whatever pace I ended up running be the pace for that day.  After all, checking your pace too often can cause you to panic that you are not running fast enough, and freaking out takes energy.

I was very happy to see that many of the DC Front Runners that were not running the race were on the side of the course at various locations spectating and heckling.  As I turned onto Memorial Bridge after the Mile 1 marker, I heard Ricky and Dave call out my name.  At around Mile 5, I encountered Chris, JR, and Lavar.  And then shortly afterwards, I saw Brian on Ohio Drive on the way to Hains Point.  That is one thing I like about local races, particularly the larger ones such as this; you get to see many familiar faces on the side.

My pace remained quite constant through most of these miles.  I did end up passing Daniel at around 6.5 miles into the race.  Shortly after that, I started to push the pace just a little.  But at the same time, I held back so I would not surge too much too soon.

Mile 8 to the end (splits: 6:22, 6:12, 2:58 for the last 0.48 miles): I kept at around a 6:22/mile pace for another mile, deciding not to accelerate just yet; I was not sure if I had three miles (or, rather 2.48 miles) at sub-6:20/mile pace at this point.  Once I passed the Mile 8 marker, indicating that I only had two more miles left, I finally went into Beast Mode and started pushing the pace to 6:12/mile.

I ended up passing quite a few people during this portion of the race, but I did not remember anyone passing me.  But I won't lie; these last two miles hurt.  I focused on keeping as relaxed as I could and making it to the finish.

Seeing Jeremy, Joel, Nate, and JR at that turn back onto East Basin Drive gave me a boost of energy; I threw in a surge as I ran past them.  I maintained my 6:11/mile pace down East Basin Drive, up that last hill right before the finish, and then down 15th Street to the finish.

I waited for the other members of DC Front Runners running this race near the bag check area, after which we all invaded the Starbucks on 14th Street and New York Avenue in accordance with our post-Cherry Blossom tradition.  After a few hours there, I went home and tried, unsuccessfully, to take a nap.

April 17 Crystal City Friday 5K

When I stepped out of my apartment on Friday to head over to the race, I was taken by surprise at how warm it was.  When I checked my phone, I saw it was 76 degrees.  I had been teleworking that day and did not leave my apartment until it was time for me to go down to Arlington.  I had my windows open, though, and it didn't feel particularly warm.  When I arrived in Arlington, I could see some relatively ominous-looking rain clouds near us; the impending rain storm caused Arlington to be very humid.  Even after my warm-up, I felt like sweat was dripping down my body.

The Crystal City 5K route had changed slightly since I last did it in 2012.  We still started and finished in the driveway of this office complex.  After the start, we would do this loop down Crystal Drive and then down this service road behind these office complexes; in 2012, we also ran down this service road, but I remember there being a hairpin turn somewhere in that area.  The subsequent segment north on Crystal Drive was still the same.  After winding through some side streets, we would then come to a hairpin turn at the Mile 2 mark, which definitely was not there in 2012.  Finally, we would come back down Crystal Drive for the finish.

Crystal City Fridays 5K map, from the website.

Since this was a circuit race, several members of DC Front Runners were running also.  Harry was running this race as well; we had trained for the Richmond and Baltimore Marathons together, but this was the first race in a long time in which both of us were running.

Pre-race photo with the long lost Harry.  Photo by Jeremy.

Miles 1 and 2 (splits: 5:54, 5:50): I spent the first mile doing a bit of weaving and not running the tangents well, which was probably the reason why I ended up running 3.16 miles instead of closer to 3.1.  I was considerably faster than some of the people who had lined up in front of me at the start.  Also, the route was quite twisty in the beginning; no matter where we lined up, we would be running the tangents for half the turns and not for the others.

But once I escaped this twisty part and began my trek up that service road behind the office complexes, I started to settle into a pace.  It felt manageable; I even felt like I was holding back a little.  When I looked down at my watch near the Mile 1 mark, I noticed I was running at a 5:54/mile pace.

JR, Jeremy, Alfie, and Andy were near the Mile 1 marker, cheering on the runners.  I was also pleasantly surprised to see Thorne on the side of the course shortly afterwards; I had no idea he was coming down to watch.  Lavar was not much further, taking pictures of us as we ran by.  I had so many friends watching me run today.

The second mile was even faster and felt even easier.  The segment down Crystal Drive had no twists and turns like the first mile, and was slightly downhill.  I dropped this woman and man with whom I ran most of the first mile, and caught several people ahead of me.  Some other people passed me, but I didn't care; I felt I was still keeping a much faster pace than I predicted I would.  As I approached the Mile 2 marker, I looked at my watch and noticed that I was now running closer to 5:50/mile pace.  This still felt manageable; as I ran, I began thinking that I might actually run a 5K PR today.  However, once I hit that hairpin turn, that changed.

Mile 3 to the end (splits: 6:11, 0:57 for the last 0.16 miles): The third mile did not feel nearly as good as the first two; I felt like I was working, yet I could not get my pace down to sub-6:00/mile.  I did have trouble getting back on pace after rounding that hairpin turn, but I also think that the warmth and the humidity were catching up to me at this point.  Plus, much of this part was a slight uphill.

I just kept running at the same effort to the end.  A few people passed me and I just did not have the energy any longer to respond.  I ran past JR, Jeremy, Andy, Alfie, Thorne, and Lavar again and threw in a little sprint as I turned onto the driveway and toward the finish line.  

Me struggling during the last stretch of the 5K.  Photo by JR.

I got some water, walked around a little, and watched John finish his race, as well as get a PR and achieve his goal of breaking 20:00.  I then returned to where JR, Jeremy, Andy, Alfie, and Thorne were standing to watch Harry and Matt finish their races.

April 24 Crystal City Friday 5K

As mentioned before, the temperature was much cooler and the humidity was much lower.  We were also blessed with abundant sunshine and a cloudless sky.  The weather would have been perfect had it not been for those headwinds.

The course was exactly the same as the preceding week's Crystal City Friday 5K, so I came in with a better idea of what to expect and where the difficult parts lay.  JR was also running this time, and again, we had our cheering squad of Jeremy, Andy, Alfie, and Eric.

Mile 1 (6:08): I did a much better job of running tangents through that initial twisty part of the race this time, and I managed to do it without cutting anyone off.  As I turned onto the service road behind the office complexes, I glanced down at my Garmin and noticed I was running a 7:30/mile pace.  That was definitely not right; looking back, what I think had happened was that the GPS still had trouble resolving even after I started the timer.  This sometimes happens on runs; the GPS is unable to find signal during the first thirty seconds or so, which makes the timer continue even though my Garmin is not recording any distance.  Essentially, thirty seconds pass before my Garmin detects the first hundredth of a mile that I run, ultimately resulting in an unusually slow first mile.

But I knew by feel that I was definitely not running 7:30/mile pace.  I focused on running the tangents and not freaking out; I kept my effort at a constantly hard level, but not too hard that I would implode on the much more difficult third mile.  On the service road, I ended up passing this guy with whom I would be locked in a struggle until the very end of the race.

My Garmin read 0.96 miles and 5:54 when I crossed the first mile marker.  This also gave me reason to believe that my Garmin had a signal issue at the very beginning of the race.

Mile 2 (5:53): I kept my pace controlled throughout this section, remembering from last time that this mile was much faster than the other two.  However, headwinds began to strike.  Remembering my experience from the Shamrock Marathon, I tried not to charge into the headwind.  Even in spite of the headwind, I was able to keep my target pace.

Aforementioned guy that I passed in the first mile on that service road passed me right back halfway through this mile.

Mile 3 to the end (splits: 6:02, 0:38 for the last 0.11 miles): Just like last time, the third mile was the most difficult for me.  Again, I felt like I was working harder, even though my Garmin indicated I was running slower.  The headwinds certainly did not help; I still encountered them, even though I was going in the opposite direction of what I was running in the second mile.  But I did pace the third mile much better than I did last time; 6:02 versus 6:11.

At the very end of the race, I did end up passing that guy that I passed in the first mile who passed me back in the second mile at the very end.  From this mile until the end of the race, I also had my sights set on JR; he was several seconds ahead of me, and I tried to catch up to him, but I could not close the gap (I am truly happy that he got a PR in this race; I'm just a little competitive).

During dinner, every few minutes I would have these chesty coughs where I would hack up slime from inside my lungs.  It all cleared up shortly afterwards.  I was not concerned; this is typical after I run a shorter race.  I've always believed that if you're hacking up a lung after a 5K race, then you did it right.

Next Steps

I have forgotten how much 5K races hurt.  They are so short and fast that it is pretty much a lung-searing effort the entire way.  It isn't an effort that is strenuous enough to have you tasting that coppery lactic acid taste afterwards like an 800 meter or 1600 meter race would, but it will still leave that burning sensation in your lungs for hours afterwards.  Also, due to their length and speed, they leave very little room for error.

I'm finished racing until the Navy Half-Marathon in September.  I don't really like racing during the summer, not only because the heat and humidity leads to slower finishing times, but also because I have been training for fall marathons every year these past several years, and I typically prefer to spend my time and effort for training.  Doing the shorter races that are typically held in the area in July and August still require at least a few days of recovery, but are not as helpful to my marathon training as long runs or high mileage would be.

This also marks the end of my 2014-15 DC Front Runners race circuit season.  Spring 2015 was not exactly a season of jaw-dropping personal bests or breakthroughs, although I did manage some perfectly satisfactory performances.  But I have been a little lazy this winter; my mileage has been lower.  But in general, this race circuit season was a good one; my total score (431.00) was similar to last year's (430.24), I did get a half-marathon and marathon PR, qualified for Boston again (although by 72 seconds, which still probably would not be enough to allow me to run Boston in 2016), and won an age group award.

Now, I plan to take a bit of a break from running.  I will still run, though, but just the bare minimum to maintain some fitness so I don't go into training for my next marathon completely out of shape.  I will be doing a lot of dancing for the DC Front Runners Dance Troupe, which was excellent cross-training, did help maintain fitness also, and exercised muscles I usually don't work when I'm doing heavier mileage.  But I did like having a season of less running and no marathons.  Come June, I will be ready to start training for Hartford.  I'll aim for a PR, and hopefully, I will run a fast enough time to allow me to run Boston in 2017.

Race Post-Mortem: Pi Day Half-Marathon

Pre-race picture of me, Thorne, and JR waiting in the rain in our corral.  Photo by JR.

Saturday, March 14, 2015
Washington, DC
Difficulty score: 3/10 (0 for weather, 3 for course profile, 0 for altitude)

No, there is no Pi Day Half-Marathon.  This was actually the Rock and Roll DC Half-Marathon (formerly the Rock and Roll USA Marathon, which before that was the Suntrust National Marathon), which just happened to take place on 3/14/15.

For Spring 2015, I decided I was going to break the cycle of fall and spring marathons that my racing scheduled had been centered upon for the past three years or so and devote a few months to focus on half-marathons, 10-milers, and perhaps some shorter distances.  I had planned a series of shorter races for the spring, including the Rock and Roll DC Half-Marathon, the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler in mid-April, and possibly one of the Crystal City Friday Night 5K races shortly after that.

I finished in 1:27:19 (6:40/mile), about two minutes slower than my PR at the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon this past September.  This was also the "longest" half-marathon that I had ever run; when I crossed the finish line, my Garmin read 13.29 miles.  Usually, I am pretty good about covering close to 13.1 miles in a half-marathon race; for other half-marathons, my Garmin reads anywhere from my record "shortest" half-marathon of 13.12 miles in the Colonial Williamsburg Half-Marathon to about 13.19 miles.

Oh well; I guess not every race can be a PR.  I did have a number of factors working against me this time around.  My training did not go as well as I would have hoped, nor was my mileage nearly as high as it was preceding my half-marathon PR.  Even though I did have a string of four or five weeks with mileage in the mid to high forties, I did have a few short interruptions to my training: once at the beginning of the cycle due to some bad hamstring soreness and twice due to sickness.  Also, the DC Half-Marathon course is tricky, and certainly more difficult than the Philadelphia Half-Marathon course; in addition to a very nasty hill near the 10K mark leading up to Woodley Park from Rock Creek Park, other tough segments featured in this course include a long uphill from Woodley Park to Columbia Heights and the rolling hills near the Mile 12 mark.

But at least I did get a good amount of points toward the DC Front Runners race circuit with this race.  A 1:27:19 half-marathon for me would translate into 71.22 points (that half-marathon time from a 32-year-old male gives an age grade score of 67.83; the extra 3.39 points comes from the 5% bonus added to scores for half-marathons in accordance with DC Front Runners race circuit scoring rules).  In general, I'm happy with any score above 70.

Training and the Days Leading Up to the Race

When I sat down to plan my training for this race back in December 2014, I set a goal range of 1:24:30 to 1:24:59 (6:27 to 6:29/mile).  This would have been slightly faster than my half-marathon PR from the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon this past September, and I thought a small improvement like that would have been reasonable.  My mileage was not going to be nearly as high as it was when I was training for the Chicago Marathon, but I figured that would not be a problem; after all, I was training for a half-marathon right now.

Also, I planned to include a little more speedwork, which I pretty much completely neglected while training for Chicago.  During marathon training this past summer, I sacrificed some of my quality workouts to be able to increase my weekly mileage to figures quite a bit higher than I had ever done.  The increase in mileage certainly did help; I got a 59-second PR in Chicago and ran a four-minute negative split.  But including a little more speedwork probably would have led to an even greater improvement.  Three weeks later, when I ran the Veteran's Day 10K here in Washington, DC to capitalize upon my fitness from marathon training, I found I had lost quite a bit of speed.  I finished in 38:55, 45 seconds slower than the 10K PR I ran just seven months before following the Shamrock Marathon (this never happened before; usually, when I run a shorter race after a marathon, I get quite a few PRs, or at least very close to my PRs).  So this time, I included weekly hill sprints and some add-on 300-meter intervals, following suggestions from Brad Hudson's and Matt Fitzgerald's book Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon, hoping that the bit of additional speedwork would help during the half-marathon.

The weekly structure of my training for this half-marathon consisted of five days of running per week at the beginning, moving toward six days per week in the middle of the cycle as my mileage increased.  Each week looked like this:

• Monday: easy recovery runs of four to five miles.
• Tuesday: half-mile intervals done at 3K pace (5:40/mile) at the very beginning of the cycle; in the middle of the cycle, these would be replaced by six to seven mile runs containing tempo portions at 6:25 to 6:30/mile pace, with four 300-meter intervals done at 3K pace added on every other week.  
• Wednesday: OFF
• Thursday: seven to eight-mile runs up the very hilly segment on Massachusetts Avenue Northwest toward American University, in which I progressed to tempo pace for the last few miles.  
• Friday: OFF in the early weeks of the cycle, easy recovery runs of four to five miles later.
• Saturday: seven to nine-mile easy runs plus hill sprints, going from four by six seconds at maximal effort uphill to six by eight seconds.
• Sunday: long runs of between 10 and 14 miles.  The ones toward the end of the cycle included segments at target race pace.

With this training plan, I would have a string of weeks with mileage in the mid to high forties, with two 49-mile weeks in the middle of February.

However, as mentioned before, training did not go as smoothly as I would have liked.  I was dealing with a very sore hamstring during the first few weeks of the cycle, which prevented me from doing the Tuesday half-mile intervals.  I caught two pretty nasty colds; one in the middle of January and toward the end of February, both of which interrupted my training and forced me to forego a few of my Tuesday evening tempo runs as I recovered from sickness.  The snow and ice we got here in Washington, DC made some of the tempo runs and the add-on intervals infeasible, forcing me to replace them with slower runs.  

But I did, like I also mentioned before, get a good string of weeks where I was able to execute my training plan as originally written, and fortunately, these coincided with the highest mileage weeks.  Thus, I was able to get several weeks with mileage in the mid to high-forties, just like I had planned. 

The Race

Race day morning was cold and wet, with temperatures remaining in the forties or low fifties and a steady light rain lasting for the entire morning.  But I found that the rain did not really affect my performance, provided I avoided running through puddles; my shoes were like a sponge, and I really did not want to carry any additional water weight.

When I arrived at the start line, I immediately stripped off the jacket I was wearing and went directly to bag check.  Once again, bag check was arranged by last name in alphabetical order, which is one of the most thoroughly stupid race day logistics decisions I have ever encountered.  They had done this when I ran the Rock and Roll DC Marathon in March 2013, and this not only caused a number of people in the earlier corrals to miss their start, but also resulted in some misplaced and lost bags.  I had always asserted that arranging by bib numbers is the logical way to go for bag check.  This way, at the beginning, more volunteers could direct their attention to the lower-number bibs (i.e. the earlier corrals), making sure they get to the start line on time.  Then afterwards, they could gradually move more volunteers toward the higher-number bibs.  Also, ascertaining a runner's bib number takes a fraction of the time that it takes to ascertain their last name; all the volunteer needs to do is look at the runner's bib, rather than ask "what's your last name?"  Then there is the tendency of a surprisingly large number of people to mix up the second and third letters of my last name for some reason.  Then they would tell me I'm at the wrong truck when I'm really not; that's another bit of time spent dealing with bag check and holding up the line.

But regardless of my ranting, bag check was not a complete disaster.  I was able to drop off my bag within three minutes.  Of course, given that I had very little faith in bag check at this race, one logical thing to do could have been not to check any bags; but given the rain, a change of clothes for after the race and an umbrella would have been really nice.  Besides, I wanted to see my friend Socrates finish his first marathon, and I probably would not have been able to go home and change between when I finished and when he would pass the 26-mile marker where I planned to see him.  I was also very glad that bag check did not lose my bag.

As I mentioned before, the Rock and Roll DC Half-Marathon course is quite difficult.  The first six miles or so, in which runners go east on Independence Avenue, out and back along Memorial Bridge, and then north on Rock Creek Parkway are relatively flat and fast.  The next three miles are difficult; at around the Mile 6 mark comes the Shoreham Drive hill connecting Rock Creek Parkway to Calvert Avenue, which is short but steep.  But even though this hill is what most people bring up when talking about the difficulty of this course, the more difficult segment is yet to come; the next two miles through Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, and Howard University feature quite a few uphills and downhills.  Once runners reach North Capitol Avenue, the course does allow for faster running again, but it does become a little tricky again once we turn onto K Street; the course features several turns and uphill segments.  The last mile, fortunately, is mostly downhill.

Map of the Rock and Roll DC 2015 course, from the website.

The start through Mile 6 (splits: 6:40, 6:33, 6:35, 6:38, 6:38, 6:40): After a slightly slower first mile to transition into my target pace, I wanted to aim for about a 6:30 to 6:35/mile pace during these first six miles.  I managed to run in that range for the second and third miles, which covered Independence Avenue and Memorial Bridge, but once I turned off Memorial Bridge onto Rock Creek Parkway, I found that keeping that pace was actually a little difficult.  As usual, I focused on hitting the tangents and not wasting energy weaving in and out of people.

For the first half of the sixth mile, I was able to drop back down closer to 6:30/mile.  But when I arrived at the hill, my pace slowed again, as expected.  I tried to relax and just make it to the top.  I was able to pass several people on this hill, but I did not focus too much on that.  I did not want to expend too much energy on this hill; after all, I still had seven more miles to run.

Miles 7 through 9 (splits: 7:02, 6:40, 6:34): After finally reaching the top of the hill, I ran down the Calvert Street bridge toward Adams Morgan, through a large inflatable plastic blue arch that seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever.  Mile 7 is, in my opinion, easily the most difficult mile of the half-marathon.  In addition to the fact that it starts on that nasty uphill, runners have to face two more hills in this mile: one on Calvert Street right before the large intersection with Columbia Road and one on Columbia Road right before entering Columbia Heights (and right past where I live).  Neither of these hills are super long or steep, but they are enough to slow most runners down quite noticeably.  What also makes this part of the race difficult is that here, runners would need to find their rhythm again after that hill up from Rock Creek Park; that was what I spent much of this mile doing myself.

Mile 8, which features a long downhill stretch followed by a relatively substantial uphill segment, is less difficult, but still not a particularly fast mile either.  I was able to get closer to my original pace during this mile.  By the time I was running through Howard University at Mile 9, I was right back to where I was before that hill.  But during this portion, I began to encounter some slight headwinds, which were somewhat annoying, but not debilitating.

Miles 10 through the end (splits: 6:24, 6:20, 6:27, 6:23, 1:44 for the last 0.29 miles): North Capitol Street is a much faster segment than any part of the race that preceded it; even though the course does have a few uphills due to the underpasses, most of this part is straight and gradually downhill.  I took advantage of that and sped up once I turned onto North Capitol Street for a bit of a late-race kick.

I had managed to bring my pace down to 6:20 to 6:25/mile here, which was pretty uncomfortable.  During these miles, I was focused on just maintaining this pace until the end of the race.  But I did notice a few familiar faces on the sides during this portion, including the DC Triathletes spinning on the side of the course who called out my name as I passed, and Chris from DC Front Runners.  I did also notice that some people that I passed back near Howard University or Columbia Heights were now flying past me.

I had forgotten about the tricky parts of Mile 12 until I was staring at an uphill portion on 13th Street Northeast leading up to Constitution Avenue.  I was really pushing, and an uphill at this point was not something I wanted to see.  After reaching the top of this hill, I began the gradual descent toward the finish line at RFK Stadium.  Shortly afterwards, the marathoners, after having run with the half-marathoners for the past 20K or so, split off.  As I watched some of the marathoners turn right toward the more desolate and less aesthetically pleasing second half, I began to feel glad that I was not them.  At this point, I had barely enough to get me to the finish line.

I kept my pace steady for the thirteenth mile, although looking back, I could have been more aggressive, particularly since it was almost entirely downhill.  But I did put in one last surge once my Garmin indicated I had run 13 miles.  I gave it all I had and tried to break 1:27:00, but unfortunately, there was too much distance between myself and the finish line.  After finishing, I waited for Thorne, JR, and other members of DC Front Runners who were also running the half-marathon to finish before claiming my bag from bag check and changing into a dry shirt and dry socks and shoes under an overpass.

Remember, kids: let this be a lesson to you to always try to run the tangents.  The difference between running 13.29 miles and 13.15 miles can be a minute or more.  In this race, I finished that last 0.29 miles in one minute and 44 seconds.  Compare that to the last 0.17 miles in the Rehoboth Half-Marathon and the last 0.15 miles in the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon, both of which I ran at a similar effort and covered in 58 seconds and 51 seconds respectively.  Had I hit the tangents better and ran 13.15 miles rather than 13.29, I probably could have finished closer to 1:26:00.

Next Steps

My next race will be the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler on April 12, which will actually be my first 10-miler ever.  I'm not sure what to expect during this race; I'm currently not in as good shape as I hoped I would be, and with less than three weeks to go, whatever shape I am in right now is essentially the shape I will be in on race day.  But I do think I can still manage a pretty good finishing time; I hear from many people who have run that race that the course is fast, flat, and very conducive to a PR (or in my case, a strong 10-miler debut).

I am also considering doing the Crystal City Friday Night 5K five days after the Cherry Blossom.  For this race, I'm even less sure what to expect.  I have not raced a 5K in over a year, and I have not done any training for a 5K.  I suppose I could expect to finish in under 19 minutes; under 18:30 would be fantastic.  But after this 5K race, I would be done with racing until fall.

Gargoyles, Opus 29 (Liebermann)

Gargoyles is a set of four short, contrasting character pieces written by American pianist, conductor, and composer Lowell Liebermann.  Gargoyles was composed in 1989, when the composer was 28 years old, and is actually the first twentieth-century piece post-dating Impressionism that I have done in a long time.  Numerous sources indicate that the four movements of Gargoyles were meant to evoke imagery associated with the carved stone figures, but none of the movements refer to a specific gargoyle.

What exactly each of the movements depict is largely left to the listener's imagination.  For example, the first movement (0:00 to 2:02) conjures up images of more demonic-looking gargoyles; marked Presto (fast), this movement is a scherzo whose mischievous and sarcastic character is achieved through the irregularity and unpredictability of the music.  The movement is full of dramatic and sometimes schizophrenic dynamic changes, including the sudden loud dissonant chordal outbursts throughout the middle section and the long crescendos.  Liebermann also employs hemiola to add rhythmic unpredictability, switching from the standard 3 + 3 partition of the 6/8 time signature to a 2 + 2 + 2 division.  The polyrhythms in the beginning and at the end also contribute to the irregularity of the rhythm.  The unresolved dissonances everywhere and the lack of familiar major and minor chords also gives this movement its demonic character; out of the four movements, this one is the most dissonant.

Meanwhile, the second movement (2:08 to 4:41), marked Adagio semplice (slow and simply played), is a pensive aria that could depict a weathered, time-worn gargoyle, like one fixed to the ruins of a church.  Here, Lieberman uses stagnant harmonies, sparse textures, and dynamic markings that never rise above mezzo-piano to achieve an atmosphere of desolation and loneliness.  The beginning and end of the movement feature a chromatic melody in the right hand, played in bare octaves, over a plodding accompaniment in the left, whereas the contrasting middle section features a chorale over slow repeated notes.  The music is also entirely restricted to the higher registers of the piano, giving the movement not only a lonely character, but a haunted feel as well.

The third movement (4:50 to 7:24), marked Allegro moderato (moderately fast), is a reverie that seems to evoke imagery of water; after all, many gargoyles serve not only as decorations, but also water spouts to drain rainwater from the roofs and walls of buildings.  The water-like feel of the music is achieved through a continuous harp-like arpeggio accompaniment, which, throughout most of the piece, is to be shared between the two hands, which makes for a challenge in maintaining evenness.  Most of this movement consists of a simple theme in F-sharp major with some chromatic inflections in the soprano over this arpeggio accompaniment, with the addition of a bass melody that imitates the soprano toward the end.

Finally, Liebermann returns to a depiction of the demonic in the last movement (7:32 to 10:31), marked Presto furioso (fast and furious).  This movement, which most pianists would agree is the most technically demanding of the four by far, takes the form of a very energetic dance.  The unrelenting triplet rhythm, abundance of accented notes, extended passages in the lower registers of the piano, and the dense chordal passages gives this movement a savage character also.
  

Gargoyles is perhaps the most frequently performed work for solo piano piece of Liebermann's, and has been becoming a favorite among pianists and audiences; threads on piano-related message boards requesting recommendations for modern piano pieces often get Gargoyles as an answer.  Its outwardly virtuosic writing certainly could be a reason for its popularity; technical challenges in Gargoyles include rapid scales, arpeggios, broken octaves, dense chords, and leaps, which not only give the pianist an opportunity to show off a diverse set of techniques, but also are almost certain to excite audiences.  But more notably, Gargoyles is a twentieth-century piano piece with Romantic Era characteristics.  The twentieth-century characteristics of Gargoyles, particularly its use of atonality in the first, second, and fourth movements (none of these movements can be reliably said to have a central key) and its avoidance of more traditional harmonic progressions of the Classical and Romantic Eras, including unresolved dissonances in the first movement and the use of exotic scales in the first and fourth movements introduce some variety and novelty, but the resemblance of Gargoyles to character pieces and etudes of the nineteenth century prevent the piece from becoming so foreign that it would be unenjoyable to most pianists and audience members.

Each of the four movements of Gargoyles have structures similar to those of piano pieces from the Romantic Era.  The first, second, and fourth movement are all in ternary (ABA) form, namely an exposition of the main theme (A), followed by a central section in which either a contrasting theme is presented or the main theme is developed (B), and then a reprise of the main theme (A) with a coda.  The third movement is in rondo (ABACA) form, consisting of three statements of the main theme (A) with two intervening interludes (B and C).  As a result, these pieces are easier to follow than most others composed around the same time, which often tended to be more loosely structured.  Dissonances, although prevalent in all four movements, serve functions such as for shock purposes in the first movements and to build tension in the second, third, and fourth movements, similar to those they serve in the pieces of eighteenth and nineteenth-century composers.  In the third and fourth movements, dissonances even resolve into familiar major and minor chords.  Thus, these dissonances, although sometimes jarring and even harsh at times, are placed in contexts where they make sense to most listeners, which would tend to make the audience more receptive to these harmonies.

The video above is of my performance of the complete set at the Washington Music Teacher's Association (WMTA) Annual Adult Recital on January 17, 2015 (thanks to Thorne for taking the video.)  Somehow, I managed to accurately execute the runs in the first movement cold; I did not get much of a chance to warm up prior to the recital, and I was fifth in the lineup, which meant I had to wait another forty minutes or so before I finally performed (do not try this at home, kids.  Always precede a performance of this piece with a proper warm-up or a performance of a more sedate piece.  I'm just a little crazy and have a tendency to do dumb things like this.)

Overall difficulty assessment: Difficult.

First movement (Presto):

• Technical difficulty assessment: Difficult.  Technical problems include rapid scale passages, alternating martellato chords, and irregular polyrhythms.
• Musical and interpretive difficulty assessment: Straightforward.  This is not a subtle movement.  Playing the notes and following the dynamic markings will result in an effective performance, but pianists should be sure to play the soft passages very softly and hammer the louder chords to make the contrasts more stark and the crescendos more dramatic.

Second movement (Adagio semplice):

• Technical difficulty assessment: Easy.  This movement contains no substantial technical difficulties.
• Musical and interpretive difficulty assessment: Tricky.  Attention to phrasing and dynamic detail and a sensitive touch is needed to create the atmosphere that Liebermann wants from this movement.  Any carelessness in phrasing, touch, and dynamics will be exposed due to the sparse textures and lack of technical fireworks.

Third movement (Allegro moderato):

• Technical difficulty assessment: Difficult.  Technical problems include maintaining evenness in the arpeggiated accompaniment shared by both hands, balance of sound between the melody and the accompaniment, and voicing of the canon in the recapitulation.
• Musical and interpretive difficulty assessment: Tricky.  In addition to difficulties in voicing and balance of sound, the pianist must put some thought into how to prevent this movement from becoming monotonous.

Fourth movement (Presto furioso):

• Technical difficulty assessment: Very difficult.  This movement contains alternating martellato chords, leaps, dense chordal passages, and rapid repeated octaves, all of which are to be executed at a very fast tempo.  This movement also requires endurance.
• Musical and interpretive difficulty assessment: Straightforward.  Like the first movement, this is not a subtle piece of music.  Here also, playing the notes and following the dynamic markings will capture the spirit of this movement and result in an effective performance, but performers should be sure to really capitalize on the softer passages for make the contrast with the louder passages more pronounced and the crescendos more dramatic.

Race Post-Mortem: Rehoboth Beach Seashore Half-Marathon

Post race with my age group third-place trophy.  Photo courtesy of Craig.

Saturday, December 6, 2014
Rehoboth Beach, DE

Difficulty score: 2/10 (0 for weather, 2 for course profile, 0 for altitude)

Initially, I had planned to run the Jingle All the Way 8K (which was temporarily transformed into a 5K this year due to construction near Freedom Plaza) this weekend, but instead decided to register for the Rehoboth Beach Seashore Half-Marathon after learning that three other members of DC Front Runners were running the marathon.  I had several reasons for wanting to do this race.  I knew a weekend in Rehoboth Beach would be fun, even in December; actually, I prefer Rehoboth on "off" weekends when it is not inundated by beach-bound people from Washington, DC.  But also, I wanted to do a half-marathon for some points toward my race circuit total score.  DC Front Runners has a race circuit in which your score for a particular race equals the age-graded score according to USA Track and Field.  However, by the rules of the race circuit, those that complete a half-marathon receive an additional 5 percent bonus on top of their age-grade score (i.e. their circuit score for that race equals the age-grade score times 1.05); as a result, half-marathons are one of the best race distances for maximizing your race circuit total score.  

I was not expecting to run a PR this time.  I would not consider this half-marathon course a PR course; I knew from my first time running this course in 2012 that the half-marathon course is deceptively tricky, primarily because miles 7 through 11 take place entirely on trails of packed dirt and gravel.  However, I did know I was probably capable of a 1:26:00 to 1:27:00 on this course, and that would have gotten me a score of 71 to 72 points, a high score for me.  Plus, with a time like that, I would have a relatively good chance of placing in my age group; I finished in 1:28:12 in 2012 and had won third place in the Male 30-34 age group.

Thus, I set finishing in 1:26:59 or faster as my primary goal, hoping that was enough for me to place in my age group.  Running a PR and finishing in the top 10 overall would have been bonuses.  My plan for this race was to firmly stick to a 6:35 to 6:40/mile pace for the first six miles, before we reached the lengthy trail segment.  I would allow about a five second per mile slowdown for the trail segment, and after the trails were behind me for the last mile and a half or so, I would pick up the pace to make up some time.  Given perfect execution, I was expecting to just dip below 1:27:00.  I was also hoping that the trails would help me overtake some runners by draining their energy, and I aimed to pass some people during my surge during the last mile.

I ended up finishing in 1:26:30 (6:37/mile), which translates into 71.89 points toward my race circuit total score.  That time was also good enough for third place in the Male 30-34 age group.  It was not a PR (my half-marathon PR was 1:25:12 at the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon earlier this year), nor did I finish in the top ten overall.  But I was happy with my 15th place finish; with 1400 finishers in this half-marathon, this was probably my highest overall placement in any race.

Training and the Days Leading Up to the Race

My preparation for this half-marathon was not particularly thorough.  When I had registered, I had just finished recovering from the Chicago Marathon and had less than five weeks to get myself back into half-marathon racing shape.  I probably would not have been able to get my weekly mileage much above 40 miles, but that would have to do.

This time, I made sure that I was a little more serious about my tempo runs and speed workouts.  During my training for Chicago, I had turned my focus away from these toward increased mileage.  But when I ran the Veteran's Day 10K four weeks after Chicago, I realized that this decision probably was not a particularly good one.  Whereas I was able to run a 10K PR in the 2013 Veteran's Day 10K in 38:19 following the Wineglass Marathon and another 10K PR in the 2014 Pike's Peek 10K this past April in 38:10 following the Shamrock Marathon, I finished the 2014 Veteran's Day 10K in 38:55.  Given that I had been able to PR in shorter distances following previous marathon training cycles, I concluded that I had indeed lost speed; my body simply could not go faster than the 6:16/mile pace I ran that day.  Looking back at my workouts at garminconnect.com, I noticed that many of my tempo runs may have been too slow this summer; I knew I would have to slow down my tempo runs due to the heat and humidity here in Washington, DC, but I think I slowed them down a little too much.  Also, I had done no track workouts, hill sprints, or hill repeats during my training for Chicago.

During the weeks leading up to Rehoboth, I ran five to six days per week, with a tempo run on Tuesdays, hill repeats on Thursdays, long runs of up to 13 miles on Sundays, and easy runs of four to six miles elsewhere.  I made sure that I hit a 6:20 to 6:25/mile pace during my Tuesday tempo runs, until the two weeks before the half-marathon, during which I ran my Tuesday tempo runs at my target race pace.  I was able to run one 35-mile week and one 41-mile week.  I would have liked a string of weeks of mileage in the forties, but what I had was still better than nothing.

I drove with Brian to Rehoboth Beach the day before the race, arriving at around four in the afternoon.  Our first stop was the expo, where we picked up our race packets and I picked up a visor in case it rained on race day morning; I had stupidly forgotten my visor back in DC.  We then went to check into our hotel, after which we met Eddie, Thorne, and Jacques for dinner.  Given the 7:00 am start of the race, that was pretty much the extent of our activities that day.

The Race

Race morning temperatures were great; when I arrived at the start line, it was 48 degrees.  The weather forecast predicted that the temperatures would not exceed 55 degrees that day.  However, the humidity was extremely high.  I felt it when I was running; I could feel sweat just dripping down my body even as early as mile 3.  Many of the runners agreed that the humidity was high enough to affect most people's race performances that day.

As I mentioned before, the Rehoboth Beach Half-Marathon is a deceptively tricky course.  That would most likely not be evident to first-timers during the early miles; the first six miles are fast, being flat and on asphalt.  Marathoners and half-marathoners start together in downtown Rehoboth Beach, on Rehoboth Avenue in front of the bandstand near the boardwalk and go through subdivisions of Rehoboth Beach before running along the shore down Ocean Drive.  Near the terminus of Ocean Drive, half-marathoners go back down Ocean Drive toward the start while marathoners continue north along a trail.  The remainder of the half-marathon is the last ten miles of the marathon; half-marathoners travel through another subdivision before crossing Route 271 and entering the Junction and Breakwater Trail.  The next four to five miles are an out and back segment on this trail.  The surface of this trail portion can be problematic, particularly when it is wet; often, you will slip backwards a little for every step you take.  Also, I knew from my run on this course in 2012 that a seemingly never-ending trail segment could be very mentally draining, particularly for first-timers who did not know they would be running five miles on this packed dirt and gravel; I certainly was blindsided by this when I ran this course for the first time in 2012, and it took enough out of me that I slowed down during the last few miles.  We then retrace our steps back toward downtown Rehoboth Beach, finishing right next to the building where Rehoboth Beach Running Company is located.

Map of the half-marathon, from the race website.

The start through 6 (splits: 6:37, 6:33, 6:37, 6:37, 6:36, 6:35): I used the first mile to ease into my target pace, being careful not to waste any energy weaving around people and trying my hardest to hit all of the tangents; after all, beating my competitors would be much easier if I covered 13.17 miles while they ended up covering 13.27 miles, a difference that could translate into more than 40 seconds at the pace I intended to run.  From that point up until I arrived at the trail segment, I focused on staying within the 6:35 to 6:40/mile range.  Since 6:36/mile felt relatively comfortable, I decided to run on the faster end of that target range for this portion of the race.

I was not really focused on passing people, although I found I was able to easily pass several half-marathoners and marathoners while running at my target pace.  On Ocean Drive, a few other half-marathoners passed me, including one named Alex, who I formally met after the race, and another guy in green who looked to be about my age that I didn't really see again after we got off Ocean Drive.  I spent most of the Ocean Drive segment trying to catch up to Alex and this other runner, only to have them surge right back ahead of me.  I could not drop Alex; for the remainder of the race, we would be locked into a battle to beat one another.  The other guy, on the other hand, I knew would not be a problem; his breathing was a little too heavy at that point in the race, and both Alex and I quickly dropped him.

Miles 7 through 11 (splits: 6:37, 6:50, 6:39, 6:38): The trail portion did not slow me down nearly as much as I thought it would.  Other than my split for mile 8, I was still able to more or less maintain a 6:35 to 6:40/mile pace for this segment of the race as well.  I still cannot figure out why my pace for mile 8 was that much slower.

Here, I focused on staying away from the patches of loose gravel and dirt and on running on the more packed-down parts of the trail, as well as hitting the tangents.  I ran by myself for most of these miles.  I was able to see a pack of three or four people several hundred feet in front of me.  I was able to put a little distance between Alex and everyone else behind me.  On the way out, I tried to maintain a steady effort; I did not focus too much on trying to close the gap between me and the runners in front of me.  I felt this point in the race was too soon to begin making any moves.  Besides, like I said before, I was trying to let the trails do some of the work for me in draining the energy of some of the more reckless runners in front.

As I approached the turnaround near the mile 9 mark, I counted 20 people in front of me.  I figured that if I finished in 21st place overall, I would probably have a pretty good chance of placing in my age group in this race.  Besides, at least five of the people in front of me were not in competition with me for an age group award.  Among the 20 people in front of me, I counted two women, including the eventual female winner and the Women's Masters winner, and two guys that were clearly younger than 30 years old.  Remembering the awards structure from 2012, the male winner was not eligible for an age group award either.

I was actually closer to the pack ahead of me than I had thought.  I changed my plan to speed up and start trying to overtake runners at the Mile 11 mark.  However, I would not have cleared the trail portion yet at that point.  But I figured I could probably classify this move as a little risky and not totally stupid; this new plan would have me running 0.7 miles of my end surge on trails, which was doable but possibly difficult.  I did inadvertently speed up a little before I hit the Mile 10 mark anyway; that was probably a result of me getting excited as I got to see some other friends from DC also doing the half-marathon as I ran back toward downtown Rehoboth.

I ended up passing three people between the Mile 11 and Mile 12 mark, two of which I overtook on the trail portion.  One of these people was the eventual Women's Masters winner.  However, I did discover that Alex was not far behind me; I could hear his friends cheer his name as they ran past me in the opposite direction.

Mile 12 through the end (splits: 6:25, 6:18, 0:58 for the last 0.17 miles): At this point in the race, I just stopped looking at my watch and focused on passing as many runners as I could.  I passed a few more people, and was now in 16th place.

With about half a mile left to go, Alex surged past me.  He put in a hard enough move that I could not respond to it.  Initially, I resigned myself to the possibility that he would beat me after all, but soon, I noticed I was catching back up to him.  As I chased him toward the finish line, I passed another runner, positioning myself back in 16th place.

After running across the bridge over the canal and around the roundabout on Rehoboth Avenue, I then gave it all I had left.  I passed Alex right back and started chasing the next runner in front of us.  I could not catch him, though, but Alex was unable to catch me.  I rounded that last turn and crossed the finish line, finishing four seconds in front of Alex.

Alex and I then talked a little after we received our medals and heat sheets.  We both were very happy to learn that we were in different age groups.  Even though I crossed the finish line before he did, he may have started far back enough that his net time, which would be the basis of age group awards, was faster than mine (his net time actually turned out to be a few seconds slower than mine).  After seeing Joey, Chris, and Jason finish their races, I returned to the hotel to get my wristband, which I forgot that morning but needed to get into the finisher's tent.  In my hotel room, I checked my phone; I selected the option of having my results texted to me after I finished, and there, I learned that I finished in 1:26:30, 15th overall, and third in my age group.

I returned to the finish line to watch some of the marathoners finish.  Eddie won the marathon, and I was very happy to have witnessed that.  Unfortunately, since the half-marathon awards ceremony would take place between about 10:00 and 10:30 am, about three to three and a half hours after the start of the marathon, I was unable to see Brian or Thorne finish.  But I was able to catch them afterwards, and we did all get to attend the marathon awards ceremony and see Eddie receive his life preserver and box of wine.

Next Steps

I plan to start training for the Rock and Roll DC Half-Marathon (March 14) soon.  I have begun sketching out a twelve-week training plan, in which I have been sure to also incorporate some intervals, hill sprints, and hill repeats.  But my training for that does not begin until December 22.  For the next two weeks or so, I do not really plan to do much running.

Finally, congratulations to Brian and Thorne for running marathon PRs in Rehoboth, and also congratulations to Eddie for winning the marathon.  

Race Post-Mortem: Chicago Marathon

Brian, me, and Jeremy at Grant Park post-marathon, enjoying the gorgeous weather and basking in the glory of great performances.  Photo courtesy of Brian.

Sunday, October 12, 2014
Chicago, IL
Difficulty score: 1/10 (0 for weather, 1 for course profile, 0 for altitude)

I finished the Chicago Marathon in 3:03:48 (7:01/mile), a 59-second PR for me and 72 seconds below my 3:05:00 Boston qualifying standard.  This was a race where the start was a little rough but I pulled it together during the second half, and for that reason, I was pleased with my performance.  The early miles were noticeably slower, due to both feeling a little sluggish at the beginning for reasons I still do not know and lacking the experience in handling the large crowds of runners at the beginning; this race had more than twice as many participants as any other race I have run so far.  But around the half-marathon point, I was able to settle into a rhythm and maintain a steady 7:00/mile pace until the 30K mark.  After I reached the 30K mark, I accelerated, aiming for a more uncomfortable pace.  I managed a 6:40 to 6:50/mile pace for the remainder of the marathon, finishing with a four-minute negative split; whereas I ran the first half in 1:33:50, I finished the second half in 1:29:58.

I started this marathon without a specific time goal.  I would have been extremely happy if I broke three hours; under perfect conditions and with perfect race execution, I may have been able to accomplish this or get really close to doing so.  But my primary goal really was to run a PR and improve my chances of being able to actually run the Boston Marathon in 2016.  I had applied to Boston for 2015 after beating my qualifying standard by 13 seconds in the Shamrock Marathon; however, because the number of applicants to Boston exceeded the number of spaces available, no one who ran less than 62 seconds under their qualifying standard would be able to run in 2015.  Now that I have run 72 seconds under my qualifying standard, I believe my chances of being able to run Boston are indeed much better.  It might be close, but hopefully my time this past weekend would be enough to get me into Boston for 2016.

Training

I have given detailed descriptions of my training plan for this marathon here and here.  I wanted to increase my mileage this time around, hoping that would improve my endurance and my marathon time.  Whereas my weekly mileage was mostly in the high forties and low to mid-fifties during my training for Shamrock, this time, it was mostly in the high fifties and low to mid-sixties.

In order to be able to increase my mileage, I needed to sacrifice much of my more intense mileage during the week.  Every week during this training cycle, about 90 percent of my mileage was run at 7:40/mile pace or slower, a substantially slower pace than I knew I was capable of running the marathon.  The remaining ten percent was at tempo pace, where I targeted about 6:25 to 6:30/mile.  The structure of my training plan was simple:

• Monday: five to six miles at 8:30/mile pace or slower to recover from my Sunday long run.
• Tuesday: seven to ten miles with the inner four to seven miles at tempo pace.
• Wednesday: rest.
• Thursday: eight to fourteen miles with target pace of 7:40 to 8:20/mile.
• Friday: five to six miles at 8:30/mile pace or slower to recover from my Thursday mini-long run.
• Saturday: seven to ten miles with a target pace 7:40 to 8:20/mile.
• Sunday: long run with target pace of 7:40 to 8:20/mile.

In previous training cycles, Thursdays were another higher-intensity day in the form of a hill workout, track workout, or a second tempo run.  I decided to eliminate that in favor of my Thursday mini-long run.  I could not imagine doing a second higher-intensity workout each week during this training cycle; the mileage was strenuous as it was.

I had little problem executing this training plan and adjusting to the high mileage.  Aside from an Achilles' tendon injury early in the cycle and a cold later on, both of which sidelined me for several days, I was able to complete the training plan pretty much as written.  Summer 2014 was relatively mild, which allowed me to actually hit my target tempo pace of 6:25 to 6:30/mile during some weeks.

The Days Leading Up to the Event

Three weeks before Chicago, I ran the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon as a tune-up race to get back into the racing mindset and to get a basis for a reasonable pace for the marathon.  The weather on the day of the half-marathon was certainly not ideal: 68 degrees and 88 percent humidity at the start, with the temperatures just getting warmer as the race progressed.  But even after a relatively slow first mile, I still managed to run 1:25:12, a thirteen-second half-marathon PR for me.

I probably would have been able to run a significantly better time under less unpleasant conditions.  But for the purposes of estimating a reasonable target pace for Chicago, I decided to use 1:25:12 as my basis.  In terms of planning a pacing strategy for the marathon, I believed it was better to err on the conservative side.  Besides, I had no idea exactly how much better my time would have been under better racing conditions; all I could reasonably conclude was that I was in 1:25:12 half-marathon shape or better.  I am aware that some online calculators can provide an adjusted race time for temperature, but frankly, I was a little hesitant to listen to them; I cannot imagine that any such temperature-adjusting race time calculators have actually been validated with real race results, and I have trouble figuring out a design of this type of study.  Thus, plugging my 1:25:12 half-marathon time into the Maclin calculator on the Moderate aggressiveness setting gave me a 3:02:04, or 6:57/mile pace.  I settled on the plan to target 6:55 to 7:00/mile during the first 30K, and then accelerate or try to hold that pace from that point forward depending on how I felt.

After the half-marathon, I started my taper.  I basically tried to replicate what I did during the three-week taper period preceding Shamrock.  The week following the half-marathon was mostly done at recovery pace.  That Sunday and the following Tuesday would be the last truly difficult workouts I would do before the marathon.  Sunday's long run was a 16-mile long run with six miles at target marathon pace.  The warm temperatures that day prohibited me from hitting my target pace, so I after three miles of trying to hold a 6:55 to 7:00/mile pace, I gave up and just ran the remainder of the run at my normal long run pace.  The following Tuesday's run was a six-mile run with the inner four miles at tempo pace.  I was able to successfully hit tempo pace, even in spite of the warmer temperatures.  After that, my workouts only consisted of easy runs and marathon-pace runs.  The week preceding the marathon, I focused on consuming carbs whenever I could and staying hydrated.

I arrived in Chicago on the Friday before the race.  After meeting Jeremy, with whom I trained for much of this cycle, at the airport, we took the train to our hotel, located only about four blocks from the start line.  We intentionally did not do much on Friday; aside from a trip to the Expo at McCormick Place, which took longer than anticipated because of the relative scarcity of shuttle buses going to and from the Roosevelt station, I did a four-mile shakeout run, and dinner.

The next day Jeremy and I did a bit of sightseeing, which we kept limited in order to stay off our feet and to save our energy for the race.  We did visit Willis Tower and the ledge on the 103rd floor.  We had intended to do an architectural boat tour this afternoon also, but they were booked completely.  I would have loved to get pictures of Willis Tower and the city of Chicago, but the camera on my phone inexplicably froze after I tried to take a picture and I could not get it to unfreeze.  But otherwise, a good portion of this day was spent at the hotel.

The Race

Conditions were nearly perfect on race day: moderate humidity with temperatures starting in the low fifties and never really increasing much more than that.  After waking up at four in the morning and being unable to fall asleep, I passed the time in my hotel room before going downstairs to meet Jeremy at around seven.  Even though our hotel was a relatively brief walk to the start line in Grant Park, we barely made it into our corral before the Wave 1 corrals closed.  According to event rules, Wave 1 corrals closed at 7:20 am, ten minutes before the official start of the race, and all runners in Corrals A through E needed to be in their corrals before then.  Those that were late were required to start at the back of Corral E.  The course officials were actually quite strict about this rule; the gates to the Wave 1 corrals closed promptly at 7:20 with an announcement to all of those not yet in the corrals to report to the back of Corral E.

The Chicago Marathon course is fast and very flat, aside from a relatively small hill on Roosevelt Avenue near the Mile 26 mark.  This course is great for a PR, provided that the weather cooperates, which, based on historical data, seems to be most of the time, despite many marathoners' warnings about the high variability of Chicago Marathon race day conditions.  The course is shaped like a cross with its right prong missing, or a four-leaf clover with a missing leaf.  For the first seven miles or so, runners head north toward Lincoln Park and Wrigleyville before coming back toward the Central Loop.  Near the half-marathon mark, runners then head west on Adams Street for about two miles toward Greektown before again coming back toward the Central Loop.  For Mile 17 through Mile 23, runners head south through Little Italy, University Village, and Chinatown toward Bridgeport, at which point, they return north toward Grant Park by way of Michigan Avenue for the finish.  The Chicago Marathon course has been advertised as one going through 29 neighborhoods of Chicago, and it was certainly a good running tour of the city.

One thing about this course is that GPS watches fail to work during the first 5K and near the half-marathon mark due to the surrounding buildings and the Columbus Drive tunnel near the start.  I have heard widely varying reports on exactly how the GPS screwed up during these segments; some people reported that their watches indicated the end of the first mile when they had in fact already covered two or even three, while others reported that their watches showed them going at unrealistically fast paces.  For the first 5K, I fell more in the former category; according to my Garmin, the distance between the start and the Mile 3 mark was 2.88 miles.  But near the half-marathon mark, I fell in the latter category; my split for Mile 13 was 6:35, which definitely was not correct.

Having known that GPS was unreliable during the first 5K, my plan was to line up about twenty feet behind the 3:05:00 pace group and spend the first three miles or so gradually catching up to them.  I knew I had to run this segment of the race largely by feel, and I felt having a pace group as a point of reference would be helpful in preventing me from accidentally going too fast in these early miles.  Jeremy and I lined up behind what we thought was the 3:05:00 pace group, on the left side of the corral, about halfway between the leftmost fence and the median, knowing that the first two turns would be left turns.  We did not want to line up all the way on the left since after these first two turns, the next three turns would be right turns; we wanted to be able to get toward the right side of the course after the second left turn.

It turns out that what we thought was the 3:05:00 pace group simply turned out to be a bunch of people wearing the 3:05:00 pace group signs on their backs doing their own thing.  Actually, during the race, I could not find any of the official pace groups.  Thus, I had to run the first 5K by feel.  As I entered the Columbus Drive tunnel, I just went with the flow, running a similar pace as the people around me.  I was a little unprepared for the crowd of runners around me at the beginning; this was my largest marathon by far, and I had never experienced having to deal with this many other runners at the start.  Nevertheless, I tried not to waste any energy weaving through people, although a few times, I did go around some people that I felt were running a little too slow.  The runners did begin to thin out a little by the time we headed north on LaSalle, but due to the congestion, those first few miles were considerably slower; I completed the first mile in 7:19 and I averaged 7:14/mile pace for the first 5K.

During this race, I diligently stuck to the fueling plan that I had also used for my previous marathons: water or Gatorade at every station before the 30K mark, and three Shot Blocks every three or four miles.  Again, I typically would not consume any fluids or Shot Blocks after the 30K mark; at that point in any marathon, a runner's body is so stressed that it would no longer be able to take in any additional nutrients as non-essential functions such as digestion would have been shut down.  I believe that it is the fluids and the Shot Blocks or gels taken in the earlier miles that will make the difference; since the body has not been stressed to the point of shutting down digestion at this point, it still will take in nutrients.

The next 5K was also quite a bit slower at 7:12/mile pace.  I simply felt sluggish during these miles for some reason.  As I noted my pace, I realized that my original target pace of 6:55 to 7:00/mile was not going to happen today; my body simply did not want to go that fast.  But after the 10K mark, I started to settle into a 7:00 to 7:05/mile pace; it still not my original target pace, but it would have brought me a Boston qualifying time if I held it.  I felt that if I had gone faster, it would have come back to haunt me later in the race.  Thus, I listened to my body and stayed at this pace until the 30K mark.

I have trouble remembering much of the race between the 10K mark and the halfway point.  Jeremy and I continued to run together through the halfway point; I focused on fueling, running the tangents, and maintaining my pace, which, for reasons unknown, started to drift back closer to 7:15/mile between the 15K and 20K mark.  I had been so focused on my race during this segment that I failed to notice when I entered Boystown at around Mile 8 or when another member of DC Front Runners also running Chicago flew past me and Jeremy at around the same point; I only knew after Jeremy pointed him out.  I also did not really pay much attention to the very loud throngs of spectators throughout the course.  The noise that they made was unlike anything I had heard in my other marathons; I had mentioned before that Chicago as a city was extremely enthusiastic about the marathon, and this enthusiasm certainly showed on race day.

After the halfway point, I did not feel exactly fresh, but I felt like I still had some more in me.  I did panic a little when I finished the first half in 1:33:50; even though this was the fastest I had ever completed the first half of a marathon, I still would have liked to have come through the halfway mark in faster than 1:33:00.  I continued onward, and my pace accelerated to my initial target of 6:55 to 7:00/mile.  I held this pace for the next several miles.

Jeremy and I continued running together until about the 30K mark.  When I saw that I finished the first 30K in around 2:12:30, I did some quick math and realized that if I ran the last 12K in 51 minutes, I would finish in 3:03:30 or faster, which should have given me a fighting chance of being able to actually run Boston in 2016.  That meant I had to average around a 6:50/mile pace for the rest of the race.  Realizing that I had enough energy left in me for a late-race surge, I decided to go for it.

Right after passing the 30K mark, I pushed the pace to about a 6:45/mile.  I actually could not remember much of the next few miles.  I did remember passing hordes of other runners, including one man running in a Minnie Mouse costume.  I did remember entering and leaving Chinatown near the Mile 21 mark, but other than that, Chinatown was a blur.  And I certainly remember people screaming what could very well be the most idiotic thing anyone can say at the Mile 22 mark of a marathon: "You're almost there!"  Four miles, although a relatively small proportion of the overall marathon distance, hardly qualifies as "almost there"; anyone who has run a marathon knows that those last four miles are often the most difficult.

I kept my 6:45 to 6:50/mile pace for next several miles, even though cramping in my legs that started shortly after the Mile 24 mark.  When I passed the Mile 25 mark and noticed that I was around 2:55:00 into the race, I pushed the pace a little.  As expected, Mt. Roosevelt, namely that last "little" hill right before the turn onto Columbus Drive to the finish, hurt.  That hill was not particularly long or steep, but at Mile 26 of the marathon, it most definitely was not trivial.  After I crested Mt. Roosevelt, I gave it everything I had, sprinting down Columbus Drive to the finish, overshooting the timing mats that would record my finish time; they were positioned right in front of the arches marking the finish, and I thought runners were done once they ran through those arches.

Splits at each 5K and halfway point, according to results.

I made my way to the reunion area and found Brian and his family.  Jeremy was also there, having slipped past me somewhere in the finisher's area.  After basking in the sun and the glory of our accomplishments that day (Jeremy and I had both run a PR and Brian had run a very strong 3:01:11), we returned to the hotel to freshen up and relax a little before exploring Chicago.

I was very glad that I got to stay those two extra days after the marathon.  After the marathon, I was able to do all the sightseeing that I wanted without having to worry about how being on my feet for so long would adversely affect my race.  Chicago has quite a bit to offer in terms of sights and experiences, and on marathon weekend, my marathon medal was able to get me into a number of places at a discounted price.  Notable highlights from the remainder of my trip included an architectural boat tour on the Chicago River, Sidetrack in Boystown, and the Art Institute, which had art from a wide range of time periods, much of which I was, unfortunately, unable to see due to time constraints.

And, of course, I visited the Cloud Gate.  Much to my annoyance, the camera on my phone was still having problems.  It was not until I returned to DC on Tuesday that my camera started inexplicably functioning again.

At the Cloud Gate the day after the marathon.  What trip to Chicago would be complete without a picture in front of the Cloud Gate?  Picture courtesy of Jeremy.

Thoughts About the Race

One thing I wish I did during this race was to soak up the atmosphere a little more.  As can be seen with my lack of florid descriptions of the race itself, I simply did not notice much of what was going on around me; I was so focused on getting a PR and qualifying for Boston again.  Personal bests and Boston qualifiers were important, but so was creating favorable memories; after all, my most fond racing memories were not necessarily races where I ran a PR, but ones where I made that additional effort to enjoy my surroundings, such as Baltimore in 2012 or Shamrock earlier this year.  Plus, this was my first World Major.

But also, this race emphasized the importance of paying attention to how I felt more than the pace on my Garmin.  Of course, the erratic behavior during the first 5K prevented me from relying on my Garmin for pace information.  But also, sometimes, your body just will not cooperate, and you will simply have no choice but to listen to it and adjust accordingly.  My body did not seem to want to run what I had initially planned during the early miles; like I had said before, I simply could not muster faster than a 7:05/mile pace for the first half of the race, and for much of the early miles, even 7:10 to 7:15/mile pace felt like an honest effort.  Sometimes, these stretches where you do not feel as fast and as strong as you would like just inexplicably go away; after the halfway mark, I began to speed up and was able to hit my initial target pace.  But if I had tried to force a pace during the first half of this race, I would have just kept digging myself deeper into a hole; had I pushed the pace in the early miles and actually tried to stay within my original targeted 6:55 to 7:00/mile range, I probably would have expended too much energy in the beginning and I would have suffered for it during the second half.

Finally, as I mentioned before, this was my first race of this size.  Such a large race comes with logistic issues not found in smaller marathons, and reading the rules and procedures carefully is very important.  For example, the Chicago Marathon has very strict rules about starting, such as needing to be in your corral at least ten minutes prior to the start of your wave; in order to accommodate over 40 thousand people starting a race within the space of 45 minutes, the rules do need to be strict.  Starting behind Corral E when I was originally assigned to Corral A just because I arrived at the gates of the corrals a minute late would have forced me to weave through huge crowds of people going almost two minutes per mile slower than I wanted to run; not an ideal start to a marathon.

Also, due to the congestion at the start, lining up in the correct location is very important.  The thick crowds in the early miles prevents you from running much faster than the pace of everyone else around you, unless you waste energy weaving in and out of other runners.  Thus, lining up too far at the front may force you to go at a much faster pace than you should, whereas lining up at too far toward the back may force you to run at too slow of a pace.  Also, lining up in the correct location will allow you to hug the turns a little more.  For Chicago, I feel the ideal location to line up is on the left side, about halfway between the far left fence and the median; the first two turns are left turns, and lining up on the left side would put you closer to those tangents.  But the following three turns are right turns; not lining up all the way on the left allows you to veer to the right much more easily to be able to get closer to the tangents for these turns.  As I have mentioned numerous times before, I am a strong advocate of running tangents; that can mean the difference between running just a little over 26.2 miles and running over 26.6 miles, which can translate to three minutes or more saved.

Next Steps

After recovering from this marathon, I will do several shorter races, including the Veteran's Day 10K in November and the Jingle All the Way 8K in December.  I may also even run my first 12K race, the .US National 12K in Arlington in the middle of November.  I cannot predict how I would do in these shorter distances after my last cycle of marathon training, but perhaps a small PR in the 10K or 8K may not be completely out of the question.

So then comes the question: when and what will my next marathon be?  Currently, I am thinking that my next marathon will be in Fall 2015, and I will focus on improving my times at the shorter distances in the spring.  I would do at least one half-marathon though, and most likely my first 10-Miler.  I think breaking the cycle of spring and fall marathons and focusing on speed for a bit may be good for my long-term development as a runner.

But then again, if I do run a spring marathon, I have a chance to improve my time even more and get an even better chance of being able to run Boston in 2016.  If I choose to run a spring marathon, then I would use Fall 2015 to focus on the shorter distances.  I may do the Spring 2015 marathon if I see any indication that the Boston cutoff time for 2016 will be more than 72 seconds.