Something about human nature allows, or rather forces, the suppression of trauma from long term memory. It is said to be true of child birth, and of running marathons.
And so, less than 9 months after subjecting myself to my first "full," and despite being 100% satisfied with my performance and my official marathon PR, I found myself at the start line of my 2nd marathon.
I believe it started with a tactic made popular by one of my endurance heroes, Rich Macdonald. Rich has repeatedly convinced his wife, Megan, to sign up for ridiculous athletic adventures by getting her drunk and then mingling with other co-conspirators, applying group bias and peer pressure to get her to commit. I'm quite certain Melissa employed the same tactics on me.
Following a first half summer season of bike racing, Melissa and I went to Europe for Duathlon World's, where Mel represented Canada proudly in the Elite field, and I stood on the side lines as her manager, yelling "go baby" at all the right moments (other teams had more traditional managers yelling time gaps and other useless tactical information).
The summer concluded with more cycling in Italy, then some late season races, including Tour De Bowness, Calgary 70.3 (bike leg of the winning relay team), and Revelstoke Steamer Hill Climb.
Then, as the leaves fell and Alberta voted yet again, to skip autumn and go straight to winter 1.0, my mind turned to running again. And drinking. Next thing I know, we've got flights and hotels and are registered.
Mel put together a great program which would get us ready, with each of us taking slightly different routes.
The general strategy was to increase mileage a lot more than the previous plan. My body had held up really well and we could increase the stress on it.
Physio from Shari MacDonald and chiropractic from Dr Carson would ensure that continued to be the case.
In addition to growing volume and targeted intensity, we sprinkled in a few preparatory races
09/08 - MEC 15k: 3rd OA, time: 59:11
10/07 - Kelowna SynRype Half Marathon: 5th OA, 2nd AG, time: 1:21:01
10/27 - Dash of Doom 5k: 1st OA, time: 18:04
11/27 - AWS re:Invent 8k: 2nd overall, time: 28:36
The half marathon broke a 4 race "slump" of 1:23:xx that went back nearly 2 years.
My weekly average was over 90km, maxing out at just over 100.
The AWS race 5 days before the marathon moved the chains on my 2 mile, 5k, and 5 mile PBs.
Final preparation included walking 20,000 steps a day in Las Vegas but sleeping over 10 hours a night. With a disciplined end of week and proper fueling once we arrived in Sacramento, I knew we were ready!
Race morning:
Rather uneventful, thankfully! After maybe 3 hours of decent sleep, alarms rang at 4:30 AM and Mel and I ran the 2k from the hotel to the busses, hopped on and were transported in the dark to Folsom, CA. Weather was about as perfect as it comes; very low wind, temps around 2C. And no smoke/fire/snow/etc.
Bit of a scramble getting to the front for the start due to the volume of talent at this race.
CIM served as the US National Marathon, as well as a US OTQ (Olympic Trials Qualifier), with serious incentives going to speedy Americans. I pushed my way through a huge mob and find myself at the prescribed 3 hour mark, only to see literally hundreds of runners STILL ahead of me at the start.
Nutrition:
High percentage of carbs, effectively starting 48 hrs prior to the race. Not really increasing calorie count, just redistributing it. Nothing too spicy or exotic.
1.5 glasses of wine the night before (don't change anything too drastic right before the race, right?)
Morning breakfast of oatmeal and half a bagel with peanut butter, coffee, water, and a maple gel 20 minutes before the start.
During the race, took a Honey Stinger Gold gel at km 12, half a Maple ReKarb gel at km 28, sip of water at nearly each station, and 1.8 oz of pickle juice*
The plan:
Due to the aforementioned OTQ, there was a pace team for the women's B standard time of 2:45, and it was my plan to start the race fast and latch on to this pacer. I planned to run a 1:23 half (as I've done many times before), which would keep the pacer in sight. I would then try to hang on as long as I could. I have been known to be able to find another gear in the final kms of most races, and with CIM's flat finish I was banking on testing my abilities like never before.
The reality:
First half went almost exactly to plan. A bit faster, but with the net descent it was pretty reasonable.
Distance markers every 5km showed I was averaging around 3:51 pace, 4 seconds under the 2:45 pacer and 9 seconds under my sub-2:50 "A" goal.
I caught the pace team around after about 30 minutes, and ran within eye shot for most of the day.
Melissa came running up beside me and we both didn't notice until she was literally right beside me. Then she dropped me on a hill.
Then I passed her on a downhill. The thing about CIM that is not in the brochure, but best advice we received from friends was that for every uphill (and there are plenty), there is an equal or longer downhill right after. I capitalized on this by running steady up, and flying downhill to regain contact with the pacer.
Kilometer 22 it started to get old. My first half went great and my average pace was still incredulously quick, but these next few miles were tough. I was starting to make mistakes.
I sprayed sport drink all up my nose. I spilled a gooey gel all over my leg and arm. My legs bobbled. I lost the pacer in a crowd.
Then I approached the final quarter, the WALL, and my excitement grew. This is the moment I go from pacing to racing. My typical race tactic this year has been to pace the first third, observe the field in the 2nd third, and compete in the final third with the mindset of "you've been holding back for this section of the race!"
Though my body was still feeling rough and muscles were drained, I focused on form and increased my cadence to keep my legs turning over. My watch average pace said 3:55, but it occurred to me the course was probably a bit long, and if I could that average down by just 1 second I might finish with a sub-2:45! Somehow I managed to run the final 8km at 3:47 pace, bringing me in with a 2:44:49 chip time (2:44:10 Strava time); an 8 minute improvement on my Phoenix time.
I crossed the finish line in a state of hyperventilation, and in disbelief, and in relief. Then I got to witness Melissa run across the finish line a couple minutes behind me, also smashing her expectations!
Key Takeaways:
- Training Plan
Can't overstate how valuable it was to have Melissa put my training plan together with the long range vision, pushing me with confidence-building high speed and big distance workouts, and holding me back enough to prevent burnout and injury. - Mental strength / confidence / risk taking
Great truth spoken by one of the elites before the race, "you will experience a tough mile, but there's another good mile right around the corner." Marathon distance will present plenty of such tough miles. Be prepared to combat them each one of them. - Recovery (Normatec compression pants, Massage, Physio, Chiro, sleep, rest days).
Your muscles only grow once you stop working them. One visit with Shari and she transformed the way I run today. The last 8k was literally made possible by the new and improved running form she prescribed. - 80/20 rule. Train slow to race fast. Nailed this one. See below zone distribution over the past 3 months. Aerobic Zones 1 and 2 are represented by the lightest shades, and you can see, account for the bulk of training time.
