Post by brucedenton on Apr 19, 2010 21:53:26 GMT -5
First, a little background...I was out of the loop for a few years as far as running goes. I never really stopped running, but it was only about 10-15 miles a week from 2004-2009. A couple times I got the itch and started increasing the miles, but each time an injury would flare up and I'd have to take a couple months off before resuming my limited easy miles. Late last year, I finally found some exercises that seem to have me and my chronic Achilles tendinitis at an uneasy detente, although I have to be very careful about racing or speedwork. This, coupled with the realization that I would soon attain (if that's the right word for it) masters status got me re-energized to begin training and I pretty much set my sights on this race as my first competitive marathon since 2003. I really overhauled my diet and lost 8 pounds between New Year's and race day, which made a big difference. I had a decent winter of 40-50 mile weeks, with good long runs, and even did a few speed workouts the last month or so. My original goal was to qualify for Boston, but it became apparent to me about six weeks ago that a BQ was almost certain, so I lowered my goal to 3:10. About three weeks ago I began to consider that going sub-3:00 was a possibility, but it had been so long since I ran a marathon, I just wasn't sure.
mile 1: 6:49
2: 13:50 (7:00)
3: 21:04 (7:04)
5: 35:10 (14:05)
6: 42:21 (7:11)
I was feeling pretty good at this point. I had hooked up with Sean Gallagher for a few miles and chatted a bit. We passed Jen Sober and I saw Charlie Falter a little bit ahead of me. I figured all three were going to be in the 1:30 range for the half, so I was about where I wanted to be.
7: 49:52 (7:30)
8: 56:55 (7:03)
9: 1:04:08 (7:12)
10 1:11:13 (7:05)
11: 1:18:16 (7:02)
12: 1:25:25 (7:09)
13: 1:32:25 (7:00)
This is a lonely stretch after the half marathoners turn around. It would have been easy to slough off, but I maintained good splits. Luckily, I was about 100m behind David Venables (masters winner) and had a younger guy from out of town running with me, talking about ultras with him as he is training for the upcoming Ice Age 50mile in Wisconsin. We worked well together to keep an honest pace and I could sense with my 13 mile split that the sub-3:00 goal was realistic. I've always been an even to negative split runner, and obviously this course was set up for that.
14: 1:38:57 (6:31) running downhill now are we?!
15: 1:45:23 (6:25)
16: 1:51:52 (6:29)
around here I took an electrolyte capsule and had some issues with reflux and stomach pain briefly. I was worried I was getting into trouble, but it passed after a mile or two. This was the only thing I ingested the entire race except for a few sips of water and sport drink. I would guess the total volume of fluid I ingested during the race would fit in one or two of the cups at the aid stations. Good thing it was a cool day. I had a few Gu cubes and more lyte capsules in my pocket, but they stayed there.
17: 1:58:35 (6:42)
18: 2:04:59 (6:24)
19: 2:11:23 (6:23)
20: 2:17:55 (6:32)
This was a tough stretch. Breathing-wise, i was good, but my legs were feeling the pain. I had pulled away from my friend by about 50 meters but had made up minimal ground on Venables. I told myself a 42 minute 10K was definitely do-able to get under 3:00. I repeated often my mantra that Eric wrote on my Facebok page a couple days before ('Jason--you are in great shape man. I have seen you on the long runs. You look strong. Run with confidence. I say sub 3:00'). Eric, this really helped me keep the pace up when I was feeling rough.
21: 2:24:18 (6:23)
22: 2:30:46 (6:28)
23: 2:37:18 (6:31)
Caught Venables here, told him we could break 3:00 if we pushed. He fell in behind me and I could FINALLY see in the distance a couple other guys starting to come back to me. I had been in 8th or 9th place for the entire race and kept thinking I would catch more people, which I usually do in longer races, but give those guys credit, they were all very strong and ran very smart races. I caught a couple right at the end, and finished in the middle of a close group.
25: 2:50:02 (12:44) very strong stretch here and I knew the sub- 3:00 was in the bag
26.2 2:57:47 (7:44)
My friend from earlier caught and passed me in the last half mile...I went with him and managed to pass one other person to finish in 7th place as he had a great finish ahead of me.
I was elated at the finish and thrilled with my race and to see Dennis, my parents, my girls, and other friends. Dad handed me a beer which I promptly downed, but based on the puking and diarrhea I had later, this was probably a mistake. (Only the second time in my life I have thrown up after a race.) It was a great day to run, but I quickly became very cold and went to the car to change clothes, then worked my way back to the finish to see Mary Jane come in, which was the highlight of the day for me.
She's always been a runner, not a racer, and she wasn't even a runner until she started dating some skinny guy with long hair on the college cross-country team back in 1991. She ran her first marathon in 1996 (Columbus), and has done quite a few ultras and marathons since then, including Big Sur, Marine Corps, Steamtown, JFK, Highlands Sky, etc. She's made two trips to Boston with me (1996, 2002) and said how maybe someday she could run Boston on a charity team since she would never be fast enough to qualify on her own. She works full time running her own PT practice, takes care of our three girls, doing the bulk of the parenting duties, dance class, girl scouts, etc, gets up at 4:30 am to get her runs in many days. She logged a lot of treadmill miles this winter, including a 20-miler during the blizzard week, and started doing more quality/tempo type runs because of time limitations. I could sense that she was really getting a lot faster and told her all week that she was easily going to break her PR (4:09) and should go under 4 hours, no problem. She didn't want any pressure and just went out with no watch, ran how she felt. I could tell at the turnaround that she was on sub-4:00 pace for sure, but she must have absolutely hammered the second half. I would like to know her splits, but she says if she had been wearing a watch, she probably would have freaked out and not run as fast as she did. I barely made it to the finish to see her because she came in at 3:35:55...and she started way in the back, probably would have been 20-30 seconds faster if it was a chip time. She was so amazed to finish third overall and set such a monster PR that it capped off a great day! It wasn't until 10 minutes later when she announced what should have been obvious, but hadn't even occurred to me yet..."I just qualified for Boston!" So we'll be there next year for sure, and she won't be a spectator this time. To rub it in, she was the one chowing down at the Creamery later, carrying Meghann around, and taking Alexandra to softball practice when we got home while I was alternating between the fetal position and the toilet for several hours after the race. She is amazing.
Sorry to have such a long-winded recap. It was great to see everyone out there during the race and at the finish line, and I am very sorry I did not get to visit with more people after the race. It was a great day to run, but a crappy day to stand around after a marathon. I ran just about as hard as I could and really felt bad after the race, so I was inside laying on a bench trying to get warm. I have really enjoyed getting back in the game the last couple months and it is great to see all the runners we have around here, young and old. I would like to thank and congratulate Kevin for bringing a quality event to Cumberland. As a race sponsor and member of the marathon club (and QCS), I can tell you that the amount of time he has put into this race is basically the equivalent of a second job the last few months. His wife and kids have been a big part of this effort as well.
What's next? The biggest thing is to avoid going crazy and getting injured now that I am getting back in shape. We'll be doing the Catch Me If You Can run in a couple weeks, Capon Valley 50K the week after that. A few summer races, Charleston Distance Run in September, Freedom's Run marathon in early October, Turkeyfoot 50K in late October, maybe JFK again (better check if it's already sold out)? I look forward to the weekend runs with you guys, congratulate everyone on Boston, and anticipate what we'll see from the Pittsburgh crew, Justin at Frederick, and MCM team efforts this fall. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.
mile 1: 6:49
2: 13:50 (7:00)
3: 21:04 (7:04)
5: 35:10 (14:05)
6: 42:21 (7:11)
I was feeling pretty good at this point. I had hooked up with Sean Gallagher for a few miles and chatted a bit. We passed Jen Sober and I saw Charlie Falter a little bit ahead of me. I figured all three were going to be in the 1:30 range for the half, so I was about where I wanted to be.
7: 49:52 (7:30)
8: 56:55 (7:03)
9: 1:04:08 (7:12)
10 1:11:13 (7:05)
11: 1:18:16 (7:02)
12: 1:25:25 (7:09)
13: 1:32:25 (7:00)
This is a lonely stretch after the half marathoners turn around. It would have been easy to slough off, but I maintained good splits. Luckily, I was about 100m behind David Venables (masters winner) and had a younger guy from out of town running with me, talking about ultras with him as he is training for the upcoming Ice Age 50mile in Wisconsin. We worked well together to keep an honest pace and I could sense with my 13 mile split that the sub-3:00 goal was realistic. I've always been an even to negative split runner, and obviously this course was set up for that.
14: 1:38:57 (6:31) running downhill now are we?!
15: 1:45:23 (6:25)
16: 1:51:52 (6:29)
around here I took an electrolyte capsule and had some issues with reflux and stomach pain briefly. I was worried I was getting into trouble, but it passed after a mile or two. This was the only thing I ingested the entire race except for a few sips of water and sport drink. I would guess the total volume of fluid I ingested during the race would fit in one or two of the cups at the aid stations. Good thing it was a cool day. I had a few Gu cubes and more lyte capsules in my pocket, but they stayed there.
17: 1:58:35 (6:42)
18: 2:04:59 (6:24)
19: 2:11:23 (6:23)
20: 2:17:55 (6:32)
This was a tough stretch. Breathing-wise, i was good, but my legs were feeling the pain. I had pulled away from my friend by about 50 meters but had made up minimal ground on Venables. I told myself a 42 minute 10K was definitely do-able to get under 3:00. I repeated often my mantra that Eric wrote on my Facebok page a couple days before ('Jason--you are in great shape man. I have seen you on the long runs. You look strong. Run with confidence. I say sub 3:00'). Eric, this really helped me keep the pace up when I was feeling rough.
21: 2:24:18 (6:23)
22: 2:30:46 (6:28)
23: 2:37:18 (6:31)
Caught Venables here, told him we could break 3:00 if we pushed. He fell in behind me and I could FINALLY see in the distance a couple other guys starting to come back to me. I had been in 8th or 9th place for the entire race and kept thinking I would catch more people, which I usually do in longer races, but give those guys credit, they were all very strong and ran very smart races. I caught a couple right at the end, and finished in the middle of a close group.
25: 2:50:02 (12:44) very strong stretch here and I knew the sub- 3:00 was in the bag
26.2 2:57:47 (7:44)
My friend from earlier caught and passed me in the last half mile...I went with him and managed to pass one other person to finish in 7th place as he had a great finish ahead of me.
I was elated at the finish and thrilled with my race and to see Dennis, my parents, my girls, and other friends. Dad handed me a beer which I promptly downed, but based on the puking and diarrhea I had later, this was probably a mistake. (Only the second time in my life I have thrown up after a race.) It was a great day to run, but I quickly became very cold and went to the car to change clothes, then worked my way back to the finish to see Mary Jane come in, which was the highlight of the day for me.
She's always been a runner, not a racer, and she wasn't even a runner until she started dating some skinny guy with long hair on the college cross-country team back in 1991. She ran her first marathon in 1996 (Columbus), and has done quite a few ultras and marathons since then, including Big Sur, Marine Corps, Steamtown, JFK, Highlands Sky, etc. She's made two trips to Boston with me (1996, 2002) and said how maybe someday she could run Boston on a charity team since she would never be fast enough to qualify on her own. She works full time running her own PT practice, takes care of our three girls, doing the bulk of the parenting duties, dance class, girl scouts, etc, gets up at 4:30 am to get her runs in many days. She logged a lot of treadmill miles this winter, including a 20-miler during the blizzard week, and started doing more quality/tempo type runs because of time limitations. I could sense that she was really getting a lot faster and told her all week that she was easily going to break her PR (4:09) and should go under 4 hours, no problem. She didn't want any pressure and just went out with no watch, ran how she felt. I could tell at the turnaround that she was on sub-4:00 pace for sure, but she must have absolutely hammered the second half. I would like to know her splits, but she says if she had been wearing a watch, she probably would have freaked out and not run as fast as she did. I barely made it to the finish to see her because she came in at 3:35:55...and she started way in the back, probably would have been 20-30 seconds faster if it was a chip time. She was so amazed to finish third overall and set such a monster PR that it capped off a great day! It wasn't until 10 minutes later when she announced what should have been obvious, but hadn't even occurred to me yet..."I just qualified for Boston!" So we'll be there next year for sure, and she won't be a spectator this time. To rub it in, she was the one chowing down at the Creamery later, carrying Meghann around, and taking Alexandra to softball practice when we got home while I was alternating between the fetal position and the toilet for several hours after the race. She is amazing.
Sorry to have such a long-winded recap. It was great to see everyone out there during the race and at the finish line, and I am very sorry I did not get to visit with more people after the race. It was a great day to run, but a crappy day to stand around after a marathon. I ran just about as hard as I could and really felt bad after the race, so I was inside laying on a bench trying to get warm. I have really enjoyed getting back in the game the last couple months and it is great to see all the runners we have around here, young and old. I would like to thank and congratulate Kevin for bringing a quality event to Cumberland. As a race sponsor and member of the marathon club (and QCS), I can tell you that the amount of time he has put into this race is basically the equivalent of a second job the last few months. His wife and kids have been a big part of this effort as well.
What's next? The biggest thing is to avoid going crazy and getting injured now that I am getting back in shape. We'll be doing the Catch Me If You Can run in a couple weeks, Capon Valley 50K the week after that. A few summer races, Charleston Distance Run in September, Freedom's Run marathon in early October, Turkeyfoot 50K in late October, maybe JFK again (better check if it's already sold out)? I look forward to the weekend runs with you guys, congratulate everyone on Boston, and anticipate what we'll see from the Pittsburgh crew, Justin at Frederick, and MCM team efforts this fall. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.