Race Recap: The Rocket City Marathon

This was supposed to be the post where I described my latest marathon PR. It was supposed to be the time I got to write about finally getting to run a marathon all-out, when I wasn't trying to qualify for anything, just go as fast as I could on a very fast course. Rocket City is a well-run marathon with a fantastic history. Typically the weather is very cold for this race; it's been in the teens more than once. I wasn't worried about that -- I run well in cold weather.

Then the weather forecasts started coming out. I tracked them almost religiously. 8 days out from the race the forecast looked fairly good: A low of 43 and a high of 55, with a chance of showers. 7 days out the forecast was the same. Then things changed. 6 days out, the forecast high was 70 degrees.

That's good weather for a 400-meter dash, but not for a marathon. I made a graph to show how the forecast changed day after day:

As you can see, the forecast wasn't improving. The only major change was that the forecast low was getting higher -- which meant I'd hardly even have good weather at the start of the race, let alone the finish.

At the pre-race pasta dinner, Bobby Aswell and I got to hear Bill Rodgers talk about his experience running marathons. "The thing about the marathon distance," he said, "is that there is a lot of luck involved. I was really, really lucky."

The Rodgers luck was about to run out.

My plan for the race, under ideal conditions, was to run a 7:15 per mile pace, steady, for all 26.2 miles. If I could hang on, I'd set a new PR, 3:10, which would beat my previous record by more than 12 minutes.

On race morning the temperature was 62 degrees, with 93 percent humidity. The temperature would rise to about 68 by the finish of the race.

It still felt cool, and I'd be running into the wind, so I decided to give the race a go at my planned pace.

For the first few miles, this pace didn't seem too bad. The few hills on the course were easily handled, and the breeze was keeping me relatively cool. Here are my splits for Miles 1-6:

1. 7:27
2. 7:15
3. 7:15
4. 7:15
5. 7:18
6. 7:21

Then during Mile 7 we passed through a parking lot and under a tunnel. It was a little confusing and I missed the mile marker; I finally pressed the "lap" button at 1.09 miles and recorded 7:52 for the split -- still a 7:14 pace for the mile. I was flustered. And I was starting to feel worn out, just 7 miles in. Could I keep this up for another 19 miles? I doubted it. Then I realized I hadn't had a gel yet: I was supposed to be eating them every 4 miles. I quickly opened and consumed one, but that slowed me even more. I kept running.

8. 7:22
9. 7:30
10. 7:34
11. 7:25

We were now on a seemingly endless four-lane road, heading straight into the wind. It was much more of a struggle to maintain pace, and I was gradually slowing down. I had planned to drop my pace to 7:30 a mile if 7:15 seemed too difficult, but now even a 7:30 pace felt like a struggle.

12. 7:50
13. 7:48
14. 8:10

My backup-backup plan was to hit an 8-minute pace for the last half of the race. If I could do that, I'd still have a shot at a PR: My 7:22:55 was an average 7:42 pace, and I already had a lot of faster miles in the bank. Then we turned and started heading back north into town. What had been a headwind was now a tailwind, which meant that we could feel no wind at all. It was like running in a sauna. I started taking walk breaks. Then I started taking longer breaks.

15. 7:55
16. 9:29
17. 8:12
18. 8:34

Now, there was no backup plan. The plan was simply to finish. Another runner pulled up beside me and told me his day was ruined and he was just hoping to finish under 3:30. Not long after that, the 3:30 pace team passed us.

19. 9:04
20. 10:13
21. 11:15

Could it get any worse? Soon I was passed by the 3:35 pace team. I tried to stay with them for a while, then let them go.

22. 9:34
23. 9:15
24. 11:39

Finally the 3:40 pace team pulled up behind me. Surely I could stay with them, right? There was only one runner still in the group, a woman running her planned 3:40 pace, about 8:23 per mile. I resolved to stay with the pace team all the way to the finish, and somehow I did. The woman was running her first marathon, and it was amazing to see her pull it off as she had planned. I ran across the line just behind her, with an official chip time of 3:39:09, or not much better than I had done at Thunder Road for my "easy training run."

Here's the picture Bobby snapped of me just after I crossed the line:

I'd say this photo just about sums up the day.

And here's a photo of the two of us with our medals:

Don't we look lovely?

Bobby fared a little better than I did, finishing in 3:19 and just out of the age-group awards.

At the airport a woman saw the two of us waiting for our flight and correctly guessed that we had run the marathon. "Did you think the heat slowed you down?" She asked.

We assented, then learned that though she was the second overall woman, with a time of 2:52, she was still quite disappointed because she was shooting for a 2:46. No matter your pace, the marathon is still a very tough race. Not tough enough? Just try to run it a little bit faster, and it'll get plenty tough.

My race didn't go as planned, but if they always did, there wouldn't be much reason to run them, would there? Next marathon: Boston. Maybe I'll be able to do a little better there.

Details of Saturday's marathon are below.

Carbo loading, again

Another race, another carbo-loading regime. The goal is to consume 4.5 grams of carbs for every pound of body weight. I had been hoping to get down to 175 for this race, but as of now I weigh 185, so that's 832 grams of carbs, or 3,330 calories in carbs per 24 hours.

I'm going to follow last year's plan of carbo loading for only 48 hours.

Here's the plan:

Thursday:

First breakfast: Bagel/Cream Cheese (60 g)

Second breakfast: Cereal (80 g), milk (24 g), V8 (10 g)

Lunch: Bagel sandwich w/pb/j (2) (140 g)

Snacks: Apple (29), banana (27), raisins (66), granola bar (17).

Dinner: Spaghetti (1/2-pound uncooked = 160 g carbs), sauce (26), salad (1), bread (40)

That is still only 720 grams!

Extra carbs come from regular coke -- 117 grams in 3 cans.

Total: 837 g

Friday:

First breakfast: Cereal (80 g), milk (24 g), V8 (10 g)

Second breakfast: Scone (59 g), coffee.

Lunch: Bagel w /pb/j (70)

Dinner: Pre-race pasta dinner (180).

Snacks: 2 apples (58), raisins (66), granola bars (48), banana (27).

Drinks: 3 cans of Coke (117 g)

That wasn't so bad -- 817 grams. The Coke really helps.

Finally, on Saturday morning I will have a light snack when I wake up at 6.

Saturday:

Breakfast: Granola bar (24). Honey Stinger Waffle (21). Possibly a half-banana (28).

Pre-race: 1 vanilla GU at 15 minutes prior to start (25)

During race: 5 to 6 GUs (one every 4 miles, with mile 24 optional) (125-150)


A similar regimen was effective at Richmond last year, so I'm not changing much this time around.

As usual this week, here's the weather update:

Remember, this graph charts the predicted weather for December 8, not the actual conditions on that day. I'd really prefer for these numbers to go down, but I ran in similar weather this morning and it's not too bad.

Just three more days to the race!

Geeking out on the Rocket City Marathon

In four days, with any luck, I will have just finished the Rocket City Marathon. It's pretty clear to me that the folks putting this race on are serious running geeks. Case in point: The official course map. Here it is:

As you can see, there's tons of information here. Not only is there a detailed elevation profile, but the key high- and low-points are marked with exact figures. It's pretty clear from the map that Mile 8 and Mile 17 are the toughest, but overall these hills are pretty small compared to what I'm used to running. As a point of comparison, the biggest hill in the race stretches from Mile 16-17, with a total climb of 88 feet. You'd be hard pressed to find any two-mile stretch in the Thunder Road Marathon with less than 88 feet of climbing. My standard 6-mile run with DART has only one two-mile section with less climbing.

20 of the 26 miles at Rocket City have 25 feet or less of climbing, which is less than any of the miles on the DART loop.

None of this is to say that Rocket City will be easy — you can always make a race harder just by running faster. But it is to say that when I do a training run at marathon pace here in Davidson, it's a harder run than what I'll be facing at Rocket City.

Further geekiness: A mile-by-mile charting of the climbs in the race:

The big climbs are in Mile 1, 8, 17, 21, and 23. I think Mile 21 might be the toughest in the race — it's after Mile 20 and it can be demoralizing to have a significant hill at that point. But again, all these hills are small enough that they won't last long. If I can just maintain an equal effort — maybe run these miles at a 7:30 pace instead of the planned 7:15 for the race, they shouldn't pose too much of a problem. For me, the temperature is a bigger concern.

Which reminds me: Here's my updated temperature graph:

As a reminder, this graph charts the forecast for December 8 on a given day, not the actual weather on that day. Today's forecast is similar to the past two days, so the weather pattern may be stabilizing. Looks like I need to be preparing for a race that will mostly be in the high 50s and low 60s.

Weather Update, 5 days out

We're now just five days away from Rocket City, and the weather forecast has taken a fairly dramatic change. The forecast high has gone from 53 to 68, and the predicted low is now just 1 degree less than the predicted high two days ago!

The chance of rain has also gone down significantly, from 60 percent to 30 percent.

Presumably as we get closer to race day the forecast is getting more accurate, so I need to start thinking about racing in temperatures that are 10+ degrees warmer than what I'd prefer.

Remember, this graph represents the predictions for December 8 put out on a given date, not the weather on that date.

On the plus side, we've now reached the point where the National Weather Service has predicted hourly temperatures, so we can make some guesses as to how this prediction will pan out in terms of actual temperatures during the race:

The red line represents the temperature and the green line is the dew point. At the 8 am start, the NWS is predicting a temperature of around 53, rising to 61 around the time I'll be finishing -- with any luck that will be about 11:10 a.m.

61 is a lot better than 68. It's still a little warmer than my ideal temperature, which is probably around 45-50 degrees, but there's no point in drastically altering my race strategy yet. I'll keep my obsessive runner's eye focused on the race day weather all week.

In other news, yesterday's long run revealed yet another thing to worry about as the race approaches. As I got ready for the run, I noticed that the battery on my GPS was dead, despite the fact that I had placed it in the charging cradle the night before. Garmin claims that the cradle for the 910XT is secure, but I've experienced this problem several times. If the unit is not seated properly in the cradle not only will the watch not charge, it will drain the battery. Argh!

My plan for the race is to simply not charge the unit the night before. It's got a 20-hour battery life, so if I have it charged before I leave for Huntsville and leave it turned off until race morning, I should have plenty of juice for the race.

Otherwise, tapering has been going well. I'm decreasing the mileage on my daily runs, but trying to include at least a couple miles each day at race pace of 7:15 per mile. This is helping me dial in to the pace I'll be running on race day. Details of this morning's workout are below.

Weather update, 8 days out!

We're now just 8 days away from the Rocket City Marathon, and interestingly, the forecast has changed. Yesterday the forecast overnight low on Friday, December 7 was 38, and now it's up to 43. Fortunately, the high temperature for the 8th has only gone up by 1 degree, to 54. Still a 60% chance of showers on race day. Here's your forecast in graphical format. 

Remember, this graph represents the predictions for December 8 put out on a given date, not the weather on that date.

I'm going to try to keep this up all the way to race day, so we can get a sense of how accurate the forecast was at each different amount of time before race day.

I'm in full taper mode for my workouts now. Yesterday due to a misreading of my workout plan I ran 4 X 9-minute tempos instead of the planned workout of 3 X 9-minute tempos. It seemed a little tough for a taper workout, which makes sense since, you know, that wasn't what I'd actually planned.

For most days leading up to the race from here on out I'm just going to put in some easy miles, with 1 or 2 of them at the planned marathon pace, to get used to running at that pace. I haven't done a lot of MP workouts over the past few months, so I still feel like I don't really have a running "groove" at that pace. But during today's 6-mile run I felt like I was starting to get it. Hopefully by race day, I'll be a fine-tuned machine, effortlessly cranking out runs at my desired 7:15 per mile pace.

Details of the last two workouts are below:

Tracking the weather in Huntsville

You know a race really matters when you start checking the weather as soon as it comes into the 10-day window on the weather websites. In 9 days I'll be running the Rocket City Marathon, and I've finally got a forecast for race day. Here it is:

The low temperature is deceiving because on Weather.com the low is forecast for the following night. The overnight low from the night before is currently forecast at 38 degrees, which should be close to the actual temperature when the race starts at 8 am. If everything goes as planned, I should be finishing a little after 11 am, and we shouldn't yet have reached the high for the day. I'd guess the temperature at the end of the race, assuming the forecast holds, would be in the high 40s.

Other than the rain and a light wind, the weather can't get much better than this. Assuming it's not a constant downpour, I'd take this weather for the race. But of course, we'll get a better sense of the weather for the race as race day gets closer.

Race Recap: Charlotte's Thunder Road Marathon

Marathon #6 is in the books, but this one is bittersweet.

On the one hand, there's nothing like running a big race in your home town, especially if you're active in the local running community.

On the other hand, this year, my running buddy Dustin wanted to run his first marathon, and was considering giving it a shot at Charlotte's Thunder Road Marathon. I told him if he'd commit to the race, I'd commit to pacing him, and he decided to go for it.

On the one hand, soon we learned that a half-dozen friends would also be running the race, and that many more friends would be watching from the streets of Charlotte. It would be a fun day!

On the other hand, for this race, I signed up to be a research participant in a study, so I had to take an unknown supplement for a few weeks before the race, then do a couple physiological tests before and after the race.

On the one hand, participating in the race meant my race entry was covered. The supplement (I wasn't sure I was in the placebo group or the test group taking Rhodiola) didn't seem to have any effects, but I duly took my two capsules every day.

On the other hand, the physiological tests weren't a breeze. First, the researchers took blood. Then I was weighed, and finally I had to perform two strength tests: a deadlift pulling against a chain (with a dynamometer to measure force), and a vertical leap test. I've always been rather vertically challenged, so I think I was able to "leap" about 16 inches. Michael Jordan I ain't. On the other other hand, I don't think Jordan has ever run a marathon!

On the one hand, on the morning of the race, I carpooled in to Charlotte with running buddies Robert, Mike, and Dustin, and we parked about a block from the finish line. I was wearing a singlet, cheap gloves, an old long-sleeved cotton T-shirt, shorts, and calf sleeves. The temperature at the start was predicted to be about 38, but it would be warming up to 52 by the finish, so I figured I'd be ditching the gloves and long-sleeved shirt somewhere along the way. No problem!

On the other hand, as soon as we walked outside, we were hit by a bitter wind. 38 degrees feels a lot colder with a stiff wind blowing in your face. Dustin hadn't brought a throw-away shirt, so he was feeling even chillier than I was.

On the one hand, we found a building where we could wait inside before the race, with short bathroom lines, and even encountered fellow DARTer Wayne Eckert. Here's a photo of me, Dustin, and Wayne getting ready for the race:

On the other hand, we soon had to head back out into the cold and get ready to run.

On the one hand, before we knew it the starting gun had sounded and we were off. Once we were running with 4,000 of our best buddies, all thoughts of a chilly morning were banished. I even saw DARTer Marc Hirschfield running the full marathon. I didn't even know he was running this race! The plan was to stick as close as possible to an 8:30 pace for the first 6 miles, then gradually build up pace if Dustin was up for it. The hard part during these early miles is always to keep from overextending yourself, and today was no exception, but it was still a nice problem to have.

On the other hand, by about Mile 4 I was getting warm, and decided to remove and toss out both my shirt and gloves. This is a decision that would come back to bite me later in the race.

On the one hand, soon after this, Robert, who had run ahead, turned around to take a photo of the crowd of runners heading down Providence Road, and managed to catch me in the background (I'd seen his bright yellow DART shirt and was trying to catch his attention):

Who's that wild and crazy runner in a white singlet?

On the other hand, Dustin's knee was beginning to bother him. He had noticed a problem a week ago during his last taper run, and had actually taken the whole week prior to the race off. He had hoped that just resting it would be enough to get him through today's race, but the pain was beginning to get significant. The pain he described sounded like it could be IT band, which also bothers me from time to time, so I told him he could wear my IT strap, since my knee was feeling pretty good. He put it on, but it wasn't helping much. Every mile or so he needed to stop and massage his knee or adjust the strap, but nothing seemed to offer any relief.

On the one hand, we were starting to spot some of our friends along the course. Ron and his brother-in-law Dave were running at nearly the same pace as us (Ron was pacing Dave on his first marathon), and Lori and Ashley popped up as spectators every few miles. Here's a photo Lori took of me and Dustin on the course:

Notice that pretty much everyone is wearing more clothing than me

On the other hand, by now Dustin had decided that he was going to drop out at the halfway point. He turned off at the half-marathon split and limped his way to the finish while I plodded on (not only did I need to complete this run as my final long run in my training for Rocket City, I also had to finish the marathon as a part of the research study I had signed up for).

On the one hand, there was certainly no pressure for me to maintain any sort of pace, but...

On the other hand, the wind was picking up, and I was starting to get cold. The slower I ran, the colder I got. This was exacerbated by the fact that one of my GU packets had sprung a leak, and I got it all over my hands while consuming it. The wind whistling over my GU-ey fingers caused them to cool even more. I finally decided to use the water at an aid station to wash off my fingers instead of to drink. This had the temporary effect of making them even colder, but...

On the one hand, once the water had evaporated, my hands did start to warm up a bit.

On the other hand, we were heading back through downtown Charlotte, and the wind funneled through the city skyscrapers at an obscene velocity, making for tough, cold running.

On the one hand, more friends were beginning to pop up along the course. Lori and Ashley must have been there at four or five different points on the course, and I also saw Stacy, Tara, Phyllis, Allen, and Peter out there.

On the other hand, at around Mile 20, we began a long, 2-mile climb, straight into the wind. It was finally starting to warm a bit, but I struggled during these miles despite running them at an "easy" pace. Even when you're taking it easy, a marathon is still a tough beast to conquer.

On the one hand, at Mile 25, I spotted Lori at a long-enough distance to mug for the camera. A couple weeks ago, my friend Chas had assumed the Mo Farah victory pose at Richmond, so I decided to try my hand at an imitation of Chas / Mo. Who did it best? You decide:

Having fun? Or just delirious?

On the other hand, there was still over a mile to go. Even worse, my GPS was recording the course as slightly long, so it would register 26.62 miles before I was done.

On the one hand, finally, I crossed the finish line. Robert, having finished about 8 minutes before,  managed to get a photo of this as well:

I'm looking a little less than enthusiastic here.

On the other hand, now we had to go to the Appalachian State research tent, get more blood drawn, and do the same physiological tests we had done the day before. As you might guess, doing a deadlift and a vertical-leap test was considerably more difficult right after running a marathon. I'd love to know what the exact difference was!

On the one hand, we were finished! Here's a photo of Robert and me outside the App State tent just after we completed the tests:

Ready for another 26.6?

On the other hand, I had learned some tough lessons: A marathon is a tough distance, no matter how "easy" you're running it. Don't throw away your throwaway clothes too early. And don't take anything for granted; you're only an injury away from not finishing at all. I'm thankful that I've been able to complete six marathons, and I'm looking forward to finishing many more!

My GPS plot of Thunder Road is below.