This will be my first race report since I joined Team Z (
www.triteamz.com) back in May 2008.
I dream of ski slopes, underwater experiences, flying, bungee jumping, speed, adrenaline rushes! I can’t say I have dreamt of running races, triathlons, etc… It is for me a culture shock, but it is a challenge and I am not one to back down from one.
I had run a couple marathon back in 2002, 2003 (both in Chicago), and a ½ marathon in New Orleans in 2004, so I kind of knew what to expect.
I initially wanted to run Myrtle Beach but because of a planned business trip to Barcelona, Spain from 02/07th through 02/13th, I could not be back in time for the expo to pick up the race packet. So my second choice had been Austin… Well, the flight schedule would not leave me enough time padding to make it to the packet pick up in case there was a delay in the trip… That left the GW Birthday Marathon with a packet pick up the same morning as the race, a late start and within driving distance… So I registered with no idea whatsoever on the course difficulty. Somehow I am glad I did not look or I would have probably found a reason to bail out!
I had kept pretty well to the training schedule although missing some of the weekly runs, trying to make up by combining time and/or distance in one day. I had been missing the Monday runs due to work and combined Monday and Tuesday together, most of the time by having my wife dropping off at work on Tuesday morning and having but no choice than to run back home the some 8 miles… The toughest challenge in the training has been so far to combine work schedule with the training required and helping my daughter though some of her key homework. It’s been a juggling act, which required me to mostly to wake up around 4 am to train before the family was out of their jammies... I also missed most of the spin session and replaced them by runs locally around the house late at night. I hate running in the dark! I have been so much looking for the week end runs during the daylight hours, no matter whether it was running, cold, or whatever as long as I had daylight!
So last week in Barcelona was great, all day long on my feet during a tradeshow, a quick run upon the return at the hotel, a quick leg dip in the outdoor, 13th floor, hotel pool at 47˚F to take care of the shins and other feet pains, then back out until wee hours of the night entertaining customers and attempting to keep the drinking under control… As you’ve noticed, I said attempting… Had to have some of these great Spanish wines, Licor de Herbias and other adult beverages, combined with definitely too much food! Flew back Friday and started a crash body cleaning by sleeping as much as possible and drinking as much water as possible.
So Sunday 02/15th, race day’s here. While the family remained home, sick in bed, I hauled out around 8 am from the house. Got to the youth center and saw some of you: Marlene, JR, Jay, Luke, Leighton, Keri, some new Zers. The crowd although small was quite impressive as you could clearly see it was made of long time runners, ultra runners, etc… The ambience was cheerful despite the outside cold. The weather was gorgeous, high 30s, lower 40s with the perspective of mid to high 40s, perfect running weather! The race start was planned for 10:30 am, so at 10:15, we started moving towards the starting line a few blocks away. After a few words from the race director, the start was given and I started hanging back not letting myself by dragged by the clearly much faster runners. The course was shaped as a lollipop with 3 x 7.5 miles loops Up a small hill, then down a long hill, I started worrying as I realized that this was the way we had to come back and finish, the road flattened somewhat to start climbing slightly again, then we were off to the loop. I had decided to follow a run/walk strategy (run 11 mn/walk 1mn) and to attempt to keep a 10 minutes/mile average pace. The first two loops went without a hitch averaging a 9:42mn/mile pace, despite the constant up and down hills. This is quite a challenging course! So many short steep hills followed by short descents which kill the quads, alternating with few flats and mostly slow up hills. Yet I was quite happy. At each round of the loop, in the relay area, the always very welcome cheering Team Z was there under the tent! You guys were awesome! Loved the noisy cheers!
I saw many of our Zers fly by me on the relay teams.
I feel I hydrated and ate adequately, drinking Gatorade at each station, and eating a Hammer Gel every 50 minutes. I had reserved a Cliff gel with caffeine for the last push beyond the mile 20 marker as I had guess I would struggle. Well I struggled. Mile 20 passed.
Two individuals kept me going at pace.
The first one was my 13 y.o. daughter with whom I had shared the day before the fact I was stressing. To which, she had answered me the most naturedly: “why daddy? You will finish!” There was no doubt in her mind. Why should there be one in mine?? I replayed that sequence over and over in my mind’s eye every time I was feeling pains and wanted to stop, dropped a couple sentimental tears and went on.
The second one was a younger runner I came across, Brian Eckart, who was also following a run/walk strategy. We were feeding of each other, keeping ourselves going. In the last hill of the loop, as I was falling behind, he provided words of encouragement that got me through the hill. It was then all downhill (literally!!!) from there. Picked up the pace, passed Brian again, I could hear his footsteps behind me and then onto the dreaded last climb! (I’d actually like to see a rating of that one, although it may have appeared so tough because placed at mile 25 for what? Some ¾ miles???).
Anyway, I finally made it up through a combination of run/walk, and started to run downhill to the finish line. When I smelled, more than saw the finish line, I found a few strength left for a sprint, although afterwards that sprinting decision seemed quite stupid, and most likely the reason I walk today like a 90 y.o. with straight sticks instead of articulated legs…
Zers were there cheering, clapping, and screaming… with the team cooler and beer… After passing the finish line, a hug, handshakes, high fives, and a beer I started feeling good again. Thank you all for being there. All of you who passed me early or late on in the race were fantastic with your words of encouragement, asking if I needed something, etc…
Thank you Ed & coaches for the training and constant reinforcement of following the training, Z2 and all the rest. It does work. I PRed at 4:26:16 (10mn 9 s/mile) improving my last marathon time back in 2003, by 11+ minutes on a challenging course. Pretty close to what my goal was.
I’d like to get sub 4 one day.
