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| The sign that Thorne made for all of us running the Shamrock Half-Marathon and Marathon. Go Miss Pam! |
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Virginia Beach, VA
Difficulty score: 2/10 (1 for weather, 1 for course profile, 0 for altitude)
I finished the Shamrock Marathon in 3:04:47 (7:03/mile). This was the first time I had qualified for Boston. Even though there is a good chance that I might not get to run the Boston Marathon in April 2015, as I had only run 13 seconds faster than the 3:05:00 qualifying standard for men aged 34 or younger and runners who beat their qualifying standards by larger margins get higher priority for entry, I still consider my first Boston Qualifier a significant achievement in and of itself.
I actually did not think that I would qualify during this race. 3:04:59 was my "if everything goes right" goal, but when I lined up at the start, I was expecting to finish between 3:06:00 and 3:07:00. My plan was to take the first few miles to ease into a 7:05 to 7:10/mile pace, and then to hold that pace until the 30K mark, at which point I would assess how I was feeling. If I was feeling strong, I would accelerate; otherwise, I would try to maintain a 7:05 to 7:10/mile pace. Under this plan, "everything going right" would have meant that I stayed within that range for the first 30K, and then averaged 6:53/mile for the remainder. While I had been able to average 6:53/mile or faster in the last 10K of previous marathons, whether or not the initial 7:05 to 7:10/mile pace in the earlier miles would be enough to exhaust me by the time I hit the 30K mark was unknown. Plus, the headwinds that I was expecting for large segments of the race would certainly make execution of this plan more difficult.
But I was able to execute the "if everything goes right" scenario, even in spite of some relatively slow early miles. I stayed within my target range for most of the first 30K as planned, finishing most of these miles near the slower end of that range and crossing the halfway point in 1:34:20. I accelerated after the 30K mark, ultimately bringing my pace to faster than 6:40/mile from the mile 23 mark onward and finishing the second half of the marathon in 1:30:27. Some may argue that had I been less conservative in the beginning and run more even splits, I would have finished with an even faster time, but looking back, I would not have executed this race any differently.
Training
I decided to use a training program similar to the one I used for the Wineglass Marathon, thinking that I did something right last time given my substantial PR in the Philadelphia Half-Marathon. Like the previous training program, I would run six days a week, with Tuesdays being tempo runs of six miles or more, Wednesdays and Fridays being recovery runs of between four and six miles, Saturdays being easy runs of six or seven miles, and Sundays being long runs. However, this time around, I decided to eliminate the track workouts and the hill workouts that would be my Thursday runs. Realizing that the Shamrock Marathon course was extremely flat, I would not need hill workouts. I wanted to focus on maximizing mileage during this training cycle; eliminating track workouts and hill workouts allowed me to do a second tempo run for the week on Thursdays, which allowed me to add another two or three miles to my weekly mileage. Besides, during the winter, the DC Front Runners run up and down Massachusetts Avenue NW from P and 23rd Street every Thursday. That route is essentially a hill workout for the first half and a track workout for the second; the first three miles out to Ward Circle consist largely of three steep and long hills, which we run down on the way back. This segment of Massachusetts Avenue had fewer traffic lights than usual, which would allow me to attain a good speed for extended segments.
Thus, my mileage during this training cycle was slightly higher. During my training for the Wineglass Marathon, I averaged 46 miles per week, excluding the initial four-week mileage buildup and the taper, with a maximum weekly mileage of 54 miles. This time, I averaged 48 miles per week, again excluding the initial four-week mileage buildup and the taper, with a maximum weekly mileage of 57 miles. I kept my training paces the same. For tempo runs, I targeted between 6:20 and 6:30/mile; achieving this pace on my Tuesday night tempo runs, which took place on the National Mall, was definitely feasible, but the hills on Massachusetts Avenue often made hitting this pace difficult during the first half of my Thursday night tempo runs. For the Saturday easy runs and Sunday long runs, I targeted around 7:55/mile.
Execution of this training plan went smoothly, aside from the initial heel discomfort at the beginning of the cycle that later inexplicably vanished, and the snow and the cold. Washington, DC had one of its coldest and snowiest winters in several years, and this was definitely the most snow I had encountered in this city since I started running marathons in 2011. The cold made some of the runs a little uncomfortable, but largely did not affect my training. Due to the snow, I did, however, have to turn several of my tempo runs into easy runs; footing was treacherous, and running at my usual pace through several inches of snow was just not possible. Running through snow definitely worked muscles that I had not worked in a long time.
The Days Leading Up to the Event
Three weeks prior to the marathon, I ran the Colonial Williamsburg Half-Marathon as a tune-up race, hoping to assess whether my marathon race plan was realistic and to get back into the racing mindset; this was, after all, to be my first race in over two months. Race day was bright, sunny, and unseasonably warm; the temperature at the start of the race was 71 degrees.
I finished this half-marathon in 1:28:25, 21 seconds slower than when I ran it last year. I knew at the start that I was not going to get anywhere near a half-marathon PR on this very hilly course. But even in spite of the temperature, I would have at least have beaten my previous year's time. I did know that a 1:28:25 in 71 degrees would have most likely translated into a time faster than 1:28:00 in the the mid-fifties that it was the previous year, but I could not shake the feeling that this may have been an indication that my race plan was unrealistic.
But unlike the previous two training cycles, I did not completely screw up my taper. I had researched proper tapering, something that I had not done before, and obeyed two important recommendations: to refrain from too drastic a reduction in mileage and to never run much faster than target marathon pace. Looking back, I certainly did not do the latter during the taper periods preceding my last two marathons, and that might have prevented me from doing my best. Nine days before the USA Marathon in March 2013, I had turned what was supposed to be a marathon-pace tempo run into an all-out race between another member of DC Front Runners, where at the end we were going faster than 5:50/mile pace. The twelve-mile marathon-pace run I did two days after that went disastrously; had that been race day, I would have walked off the course. Five days before the Wineglass Marathon, I did a six-mile tempo run where I was running between 6:30 and 6:35/mile pace; given the 72 degree weather that afternoon, that kind of effort would have resulted in an even faster time in cooler temperatures.
This time, the very last truly difficult workout I would do before the marathon was a marathon-pace long run two weeks before the race; here, after a two-mile warm-up, I would run twelve miles at target marathon pace, after which I would finish with a two-mile cool-down. After that, my workouts would only consist of easy runs and marathon-pace runs. I strictly adhered to this plan. Most of my marathon-pace runs did not turn out to be marathon pace, however. During the first one, which took place two days after that marathon-pace long run, what felt like marathon effort actually turned out to be about 7:40/mile pace; even though my legs felt fine, that long run was having an effect on my running. During a marathon-pace run the following Tuesday, the 70 degree weather forced me to go a little slower. Regardless, I was glad I erred on the side of running too slowly during these final weeks.
The week preceding the marathon, I focused on consuming carbs whenever I could and staying hydrated. I also tried to stay off my feet as much as possible during the few days leading up to the race.
The Race
Race morning was cold and windy; 44 degrees with 57% humidity and a 13 mile-per-hour wind coming from the northeast due to the approaching cold front. The temperature and humidity were great for a marathon, but I would be running into a strong headwind between much of miles 6 through 16.
Fortunately, the course was very flat. This course consisted of two loops, the first of which would go south toward Fort Pendleton and back to the start along the boardwalk and Atlantic Avenue, and the second of which would go north along Atlantic Avenue and U. S. Route 60 toward Fort Story, past the Cape Henry Lighthouse, and back by way of Atlantic Avenue and the boardwalk. This course only had three hills: the overpass at mile 3 leading us south, which we would run again at mile 9, and the slight but significantly longer uphill at mile 20 in Fort Story. All of these were mere speed bumps compared to the hills in the Baltimore or USA Marathons.
Overall, I liked the course very much, even if much of it was not particularly aesthetically pleasing. The stretches along Atlantic Avenue were lined mostly with hotels and stores. The wooded segment between miles 16 and 19 down U. S. Route 60 toward Fort Story and the areas along the beach near the lighthouse were actually quite visually attractive. But what I did like about this course was the crowd; I do not think I ever went even one quarter of a mile without a group of spectators cheering for us. Most notably, the Air Force men and women in Fort Pendleton provided a much-appreciated cheering section between miles 8 and 9, and the stretch down Atlantic Avenue between miles 13 and 16 and between miles 23 and 26 was lined with people. The latter were certainly helpful in motivating me during those middle miles and at the end of the race.
I ran the first mile rather conservatively, finishing it in 7:14. Over the next ten miles, my pace stayed between 7:09 and 7:11/mile. During this segment of the race, I kept thinking to myself that I would have liked to run at a faster pace, but this was the pace that my body was telling me to run: a comfortable pace, yet an honest effort. At this point in the race, I was not even thinking of qualifying for Boston. But it was okay; if I kept this pace throughout, I still would have gotten a PR, and I would have been happy with that.
I fueled exactly as I planned, taking water or Gatorade at every water station before mile 18 and consuming three Shot Blocks every three to four miles until mile 18. A little past mile 4, a member of the Capital Area Runners caught up with me. I did not get his name, but he asked me what pace I was targeting; when I told him that I was aiming for between 7:05 and 7:10/mile, he said that was similar to what he wanted to run that day. We talked about the course and previous marathons in short spurts of conversation. Between miles 6 and 7, he pulled ahead and I relaxed a little, noticing that the first half of that mile was a little fast. I was actually grateful we parted ways here; he was a talker, and I wanted to concentrate on my race.
Several more people passed me on the way to Fort Pendleton, and I just let them, knowing that my pace was fine and that at this point, I needed to just run my own race. I got a burst of energy thanks to the Air Force men and women along the course in Fort Pendleton, but I did my best to keep my pace under control.
After we left Fort Pendleton, we were to go back across the overpass, through the Rudee Inlet, and along the boardwalk back to Atlantic Avenue. I faced constant and powerful headwinds along the boardwalk. My first instinct was to run behind somebody; I got in the back of a line of runners who were thinking the same thing. I ran with them for a little while, and passed them when I wanted to go faster. I continued running into the headwinds, being careful to stay relaxed and not charge ahead. Surprisingly, my pace stayed constant throughout this segment of the race.
But the segment along Atlantic Avenue after we left the boardwalk was even worse in terms of headwinds. This was a wind tunnel where my pace did actually slow; I ran mile 12 in 7:14, my slowest in this race since the first mile. Several times here, I felt like the wind was going to blow the visor off my head.
The headwinds were noticeably less severe for the next several miles down Atlantic Avenue, but they were still strong and constant. My thoughts during these miles were just to get through them; I knew that once I reached that wooded segment along U. S. Route 60, I would have some respite from the headwinds. On this stretch, my pace stayed constant, I felt fresh at the halfway mark, and I was actually able to run my fastest mile so far: 7:06 for mile 13. I drafted behind other runners; I was able to tell some of them were getting a little annoyed with me, but I did not really care. I was there to run a PR, not make new friends.
As expected, the segment along U. S. Route 60 was much easier with the trees around me blocking almost all of the headwinds. I continued to feel strong and my pace started to veer toward the faster end of the 7:05 to 7:10/mile range that I was hoping to run for the first 30K. Thus, at the 30K mark, I started speeding up in accordance with my original plan. I averaged 6:53/mile for miles 19 and 20, encountering Rich, a friend from DC now living in Williamsburg, watching the race from the side of the road near the mile 19 mark.
Miles 21 and 22 through Fort Story and past the Cape Henry Lighthouse were quite difficult. The headwinds were back and even stronger than before. At times, I felt like the wind would rip the race bib right off my shirt; my race bib rippled and vibrated with the wind. Plus, I had to deal with a slight but long uphill toward the lighthouse. Unlike that stretch up Atlantic Avenue, I could not find anyone that I could run behind to hide from the headwinds; runners were quite sparse at this point. I just focused on getting through this part, knowing that the direction of the wind meant that once I got back onto Atlantic Avenue at around mile 23, this headwind would become a tailwind. My paces for these two miles were 7:01 and 7:02; a little slower than those for miles 19 and 20.
The remainder of the race was much easier since the headwinds, for most of the return trip to the boardwalk down Atlantic Avenue, were not nearly as strong. At this point, given the previous four miles, I adjusted my goal finishing time from 3:06:00 to 3:07:00 to 3:05:00 to faster than 3:06:00. I was perfectly aware that, given my pace, that I would finish with a time so infuriatingly close to yet short of my Boston Qualifying standard like 3:05:20, but that would have still been a PR and a success for this race. I pushed the pace, not really looking at my watch for the next three miles, but running mile 23 in 6:40 and mile 24 in 6:33. It was not until I crossed the mile 25 marker in 2:56:40 that I realized finishing faster than 3:05:00 was now a possibility.
But I had no room for error if I was going to try to qualify for Boston in this marathon. Running mile 26 in 6:35 and the remainder of the race in 1:45 would have done it. The possibility of qualifying for Boston evidently motivated me to run even faster as I covered mile 26 in 6:19. Turning the corner back onto the boardwalk, I could see the finish line. However, the headwinds had returned, just as powerful as before. This time, I charged through the headwinds, breaking into a full-out sprint for the last hundred meters or so before the finish line.
I collected my medal, something to drink, and a beach towel that all finishers received, and waited for Grace to finish, after which we walked around the finisher's tent on the beach and then boarded a taxi to return to the hotel.
Lessons Learned
This race certainly gave me reason to believe that higher mileage pays off in the marathon. In March 2013, while training for the USA Marathon, I averaged 38 miles per week, excluding the initial mileage buildup and the taper, with a maximum weekly mileage of 45 miles. This time, I averaged 48 miles per week, again excluding the initial mileage buildup and the taper, with a maximum weekly mileage of 57 miles, and it coincided with a three and a half minute PR. Some other marathoners with whom I discussed this race at the hotel later that day believed that I may have gotten an even better time had the headwinds not been so strong.
This entire cycle made me realize that what I do the two weeks preceding the marathon are also extremely important. As many online sources on tapering for a marathon had said, there was nothing I could do during these two weeks could improve my fitness before the race, but there was plenty I could do to screw up my race. After a much better-executed taper this time, I felt fresh and energetic at the start line and I felt strong throughout. The weather during the Wineglass Marathon probably would have obscured any adverse effects of an improper taper, but I would imagine that even if the temperatures were cooler, I still would not have performed my best. After all, a too-intense workout too close to the race would probably have affected my performance during the marathon in the way that the 16-mile marathon pace run significantly slowed my pace during the marathon pace the following Tuesday.
Next Steps
After I finish recovering from this marathon, I will run a few shorter races, one of which will definitely be the Pike's Peek 10K in Rockville, MD at the end of April. Between the fitness gain from this training cycle and the net downhill point-to-point course, I am hoping for a 10K PR. If I am feeling ready, perhaps I will also do the George Washington Parkway 10-Miler on April 13. I have never done a 10-Miler before. I will not run any races in May, but I will be running my first trail race: the West Virginia Appalachian Trail Ragnar in the middle of June.
My next marathon will be the Chicago Marathon on October 12. Training for this will begin after the Trail Ragnar. For this upcoming training cycle, I am hoping to increase my mileage, hitting a maximum weekly mileage of 65 to 70 miles, in order to improve my marathon time even more. A sub-three-hour marathon in Chicago would be great, but I will even be happy with an improvement of two or three minutes. After all, the faster my time in Chicago, the better my chances for being able to run the Boston Marathon in 2016.
I will apply to run the Boston Marathon in April 2015 anyway, even though there is a chance my time may not be fast enough for me to get accepted. For the 2014 Boston Marathon, only people who beat their qualifying standard by 98 seconds or more were accepted. But I suppose it could not hurt to try.
