It's
taken me way too long to write my birthday marathon race report, life has been
very hectic. However, I always say better late than never though. So here goes...
Not
only was I running a fall marathon for my birthday again, this time at the
Wineglass Marathon, but I was also trying to break three hours. I have never
raced with a plan. I usually just try to run smart and give it my all, but this
time I opted to follow my coach's advice. He decided I should try the 10-10-10
approach. I would run the first 10 miles five seconds slower than my marathon
goal pace of 6:52 min/mile, then run the next 10 miles at marathon goal pace,
and finish off running the final 10k five seconds faster than marathon goal
pace. It's a solid plan. One that I knew would help me break three hours, but
also a daunting task. I needed to hold back in the beginning, which is quite
hard for me as I have a habit of going out too fast. Then, I would have
to have enough gas left in the tank in order to gun it at the end, a time when
I usually slow down a bit. The whole concept made me nervous. On top of that,
my stomach wasn't cooperating with me so I wasn't sure how my gels would go
down and if my fueling would be impacted. Oh, and the weather decided not to
cooperate. It was a cloudy damp day, but the temperature was in the low-mid
60's with 94% humidity. I'm sure I've already mentioned how I don't run very
well when it's warm out. The temperature wasn't really the problem, when I
started it felt perfect, but I think over time, the humidity took its toll on
my ability to oxygenate my muscles.
At
the start, I positioned myself close to the line, sizing up my competition. I
secretly wanted to place in the top three. There were two other women who
looked quite fierce, likely elite women. That got in my head a bit as I knew
there was no way I could beat them. After the gun went off, I barreled down the
street, quickly realizing I was running too fast and having to work to slow
myself down as we descended a small hill. Wineglass is known for being a fast
marathon, with a relatively flat course and a net downhill. It can be quite
hard to hold yourself back in the beginning of a marathon especially when it's
downhill, however, I kept my coach's instructions in my head and slowed it
down. The two fierce women were far ahead. I settle into an average 6:55
min/mile pace. At mile three, I was passed by a female, dropping me into fourth
place. It was all I could do to not kick it into high gear. I looked at
her and thought, "she doesn't seem like she will be able to hold that
pace". This gave me solace and comfort in sticking to my plan. I reminded
myself that a sub-three was the main goal, placing would just be icing on my
birthday cake.
I slowed
down a bit at mile five and six due to a small hill, but was able to settle
back into my pace. Around that time, I was passed by yet another female. She
was running with a couple of guys at what appeared to be my marathon pace. It
hit me hard as I wanted to pick it up, but I told myself to just stick behind
them because in a few miles I could pick it up and work to pass them. I, again,
reminded myself it wasn't time to run that fast yet. So I held onto the my
coach's prescribed pace. Eventually they caught the first female who had passed
me at mile three. She appeared to be struggling a bit and slowing down. I
thought to myself, "I knew you went out too fast", and was thankful I
was working on a well strategized plan to hopefully prevent this from happening
to me later in the race. I was maybe 400 meters behind them and was able to
quickly pass her as well.
At
mile ten I picked it up to run my goal marathon pace. As I got closer, nearing
mile thirteen, I positioned myself right behind this male-female trio. I stayed
behind them for a couple of miles in order to block the head wind. As usual
though, I became frustrated because I wasn't able to open up my
stride from the crowding, so I slowly moved next to them and then in front of
them. I continued to maintain my pace, always knowing how close they were by
the cheering of the crowd as we passed.
As
I ran, people in the crowd would call out my position among the females.
However,I was confused from the beginning, not truly knowing where I stood in
the lineup. They at first said I was second, then when the first female passed
me, I was third, and finally, I fell into fourth. Now I had moved back into
second place. I kept wondering what happened to the two elite women at the
start. Was there only one? Was the crowd wrong? At this point it didn't matter,
I just knew I needed to hold onto my positioning from here on out so I
could make the podium. If I was second or third, it didn't matter,
just as long as I held on.
At
mile twenty, there was another small hill that slowed me a bit, but I was
ready to give it my all for the final 10k. I slowly increased the gap between
the trio and myself. As we passed the crowds and they yelled out our positions,
I would listen to hear how long it was before they told the other female she
was in third place. Gradually that comment came later and later, so I knew
I was getting ahead. Just what I wanted and needed to happen if I was
to maintain my place.
I remembered
the course from running it in 2011, so I knew what was coming ahead. There
would be a good number of turns, a small bottleneck, then an opening onto
the bridge prior to hitting downtown Corning for the straight away to the
finish. I tried to hug all the tangents as much as possible. With about three
miles to go, I started running into the half marathoners, having to run around
them, which perturbed me. Then a male course marshal/escort approached me
on his bike asking, "Do you know you're the second female?" I
told him I did through heavy breathing and asked where the third place
female was. He responded, "I don't know". that frustrated me and my
immediate thought was, "What use are you then?". He continued on to
say, "I saw how fast you went out and didn't think you would hold that
pace." For anyone who knows me well, they will know just how much this angered
me. I knew the sentiment came from the fact that I don't look like your typical
fast endurance athlete. I have curves. I have thick muscles. But, you can't
judge a book by it's cover. I'm strong. I'm speedy. I just preserve my sexy. I
was more than happy when he pedaled ahead and I was left to continue with my
own thoughts. He made my blood boil, but it just gave me fuel to keep pushing
hard at a time when all I wanted was to be done. I kept telling myself I just
had to hold on as I was almost there.
At this
point, I knew I wouldn't break three hours. I calculated my splits according to
the race clock and my Garmin. I wasn't running as fast as I needed to for this
final 10k and hadn't run all the tangents well due to weaving on portions of
the course, so I had added unnecessary distance. Normally this would
frustrate me to no avail and I would start giving up on the push, but I was the
second female in a marathon. There was no stopping now. My spirits were also
lifted by seeing one of my coach's cheering away, which was a
complete surprise. I knew I was tiring and looked like crap, but
seeing him gave me more energy to push the last two miles to the finish.
As
I went around some of the corners, I looked back to see how far behind the
other female was. As far as I could estimate, she was about 400 meters, so I
knew I had to keep pushing, and that is exactly what I did. I pushed and
pushed, sprinting as hard as I could across the finish line, crowds cheering. I
still wondered about the other elite female, and of course no one could tell me
if I was actually second or third. I had to wait for the results. In the
meantime I got something to drink and walked towards the baggage
claim. The other female and her male companions approached me, congratulating
me on my race. This is what I love about smaller
racers. The camaraderie. I did the same. It really was a great race
even. I didn't meet my goal, or even get a PR, but I knew I had raced as hard
as I could given the weather. I had given it my all and followed my coach's
plan. I knew he would be proud.
In
the end, I was the second female, with a time of 3:02:08, winning myself a
large carafe trophy, some champagne, and a little birthday money. I celebrated
with friends from my old team, many who also brought home prizes. It was a
fabulous day for a birthday!
No comments:
Post a Comment