Getting to the starting line was tricky this year. My bout with tendonitis mostly sidelined me from May through August. I set my VFFs aside and began increasing my mileage methodically and aggressively, tapering late only 2 weeks before the marathon with an 80 mile week. My legs and feet felt good.
I wasn't sure what my goal should be besides maintaining my Boston Qualifiying streak by completing in 3:30. I still intend on breaking 3:00, but was under no illusions that I could achieve that this time. My reach goal would be to break my PR of 3:06.
As a bonus, I enlisted a visiting friend, Mike Nossal, to run this as his first marathon. He signed up for it but for various reasons, including moving to Seattle, he wasn't able to devote himself to a full marathon training program. I persuaded him he could complete by running slowly. We went on fairly easy runs Monday through Thursday prior to the marathon fora total of 25 miles, minimum training needed for him; taper runs for me.
Mike and I arrived at the marathon reasonably early (for me) with more than 30 minutes before the start. THe weather was clear in the lower 40s, excellent conditions for a long run.
When the howitzer went off, I went out and tried to deliberately pace myself according to what felt comfortable, conscious of my history of starting out too fast. I found myself running with the 3:10 pacers, the team leader running with a stick and balloons over his head marked "3:10." There were quite a crowd with that group, so I made an effort to stay ahead of them, though I was wondered to myself whether I might be going too fast. I was pretty strong going up the hills in the first 8 miles, having a pretty good hill regime built into my training; I took the downhills pretty fast. II managed to increase my lead ahead of the 3:10 group!
The mile markers passed with regularity and focus. I saw a few VFF runners, most sporting what looked like Bikila models. There was one barefoot runner I saw.
I made it to the 14th Street Bridge (m20) in good form. I noticed I was starting to slow down a little, and was concerned that my legs might be getting ready to cramp. Fortunately, there was no cramping.
By the time I was running to Crystal City (m22-m23), I was starting to wonder how far back the 3:10 pacers were. Leaving Crystal City (m24-m24), I saw the 3:20 pacers going in the opposite direction. That meant to me that the 3:10 group would be narrowing the gap. Around Mile 25 I heard the 3:10 pace team leader barking encouragement to his followers ("you've got 50 seconds in the bag!"): they had almost caught up with me. I kicked it up a notch. However, I was running out of gas for the last mile. I still managed to stay ahead as I headed up the Marine War Memorial hill (m26_, but I had no kick left in me for going up this hill. That disappointed me a little, as I find inspiration in the memorial and it usually allows me to go that final .2 miles. The 3:10 pace team leader sprinted up the hill, balloons and all, passing me. I could not make it a race! Fortunately, I was still ahead of the larger group and finished in 3:09; my MCM PR and 2nd best marathon time ever!
MCM Marathon Personal Statistics
========================================
age: 48
chip time: 3:09:43
overall: 363/21,941
sex place: 332/13,247
45-49 div place: 25/1646
pace: 7:15
half: 1:33:44
Age grade: 72.2%
mile elev pace net pace
---- ---------- ----- --------
(each * counts as 50 feet in elevation)
m0 . -
m1 .* 7:30-m2 .** 7:30- 7:30 m3 .*** 7:07 7:22
m4 .** 6:44 7:13
m5 .* 7:07 7:12
m6 .* 6:50 7:08 m7 .** 7:26 7:11
m8 .*** 6:51 7:08m9 .* 7:02 7:08
m10 . 7:00 7:07 m11 . 7:14 7:07
m12 . 7:12 7:10
m13 . 7:23 7:09
m14 . 7:05 7:09 m15 . 7:14 7:09
m16 . 7:08 7:09
m17 . 7:11 7:09
m18 . 7:19 7:10
m19 . 7:26 7:11
m20 . 7:27 7:11
m21 . 7:16 7:12
m22 . 7:28 7:12
m23 . 7:29 7:13
m24 . 7:30 7:14
m25 .* 7:11 7:13m26 . 7:30- 7:15end .** 1:30- 7:15 3:09:43
