This is going to be another long post since I just finished my first marathon (sort of). I only ran a half marathon (a.k.a. 13.1 miles) in
San Diego on Sunday but heck, it is still one tenth of a mile farther than I have ever ran. It has been quite some time since I broke out the old ‘Personal Distance Record’ and it feels good to have it flying high over this post once again.
Let’s get the raw details out of the way. I know you are all asking one question … which
shorts did the Marathon Ninja wear during the race? No? You want to know my time? OK.
According to my watch 1:57:38 is a new PR!
(The mileage is wrong, I ran 13.1 miles
not 12.99)
I ran the half marathon in one hour, fifty-seven minutes, and thirty-eight seconds. That is an 8:59 minute mile pace over the entire race. That is nearly 3 minutes faster than my all time
favorite movie.
We flew into San Diego on Friday and stayed with some friends near
Torrey Pines. I played golf on Sunday at the Torrey Pines Municipal Golf Course (which happens to be the site of the 2008
US Open) with my Dad and brother-in-law. Shot a 96 with a 48 on the front and 48 on the back and only lost one ball. But I digress – this is a running blog.
We spent Saturday night at our condo overlooking
Mission Bay just adjacent to
Mission Beach which is on the
Pacific Ocean. After making the trip down to the zoo that was the race expo and picking up our packets, we hit the
supermarket and went back to our own private pasta party. After stuffing ourselves silly with salad, bread, and bowtie pasta with marinara everyone made it to bed early.
Wakeup time the day of the race was an oh-my-God-this-is-early 4 A.M. I stumbled around the bedroom in a daze and managed to put on the clothes, shoes, GPS, and race bib I had laid out the night before. Breakfast consisted of a little
coffee, some water, and a Peanut Butter Cliff Bar. The conversation was light as we piled into the car to head for the race at 5. While I was getting a little nervous I felt good and was waking up quickly.
The drive to the race was quiet but we did hit traffic which we can only assume was the result of other marathon participants due to the early hour. We parked and walked to the start area where we hit gear check (we left things like cell phones, extra shirt, jacket, etc. there) and the port-o-potties. Since (last I checked) I am a dude, I opted for the mother nature solution and found the nearest tree in lieu of the long line at the bathroom. The females in the group were not so lucky.
All of a sudden the
national anthem was playing and the race was about to start. I put on as much sunscreen as my body could handle and we dashed to the starting corrals. I was in corral #7 (of 22 or so) which was for those hoping to run a four-hour marathon.
The gun went off and we started the old shuffle into a trot into a run transition that all big races seem to begin with. We were looking to stick close to 9 minute miles which would mean a sub 2 hour half marathon for me. There was a pacer all
decked out with balloons and a big 4:00 sign that we were trying to stay close to. It was basically her job to run exactly a 4 hour marathon while holding a stick with balloons and making a LOUD announcement every mile that went something like this “Runners! According to my watch we have passed the 4 mile mark at exactly 36 minutes! This is a 9 minute mile pace!” While it sounds like I’m making fun (and I am) it’s a pretty cool thing for someone to help pace a group of people shooting for a specific time. Technically you wouldn’t need a watch if you stuck close to the pacer of your choice.
We rattled off mile one in about 9:30 which was slower than our overall pace should be but not bad considering the amount of jostling / running around people you end up doing at the start of a big race. Miles 2 and 3 were faster – closer to 9 minute miles. Between mile 3 and mile 5 we had 2 sweet miles of downhill. Here we were running under 9 minute miles – probably around an 8:25 or 8:30.
At mile 4 another friend jumped into the race to run with us for a while. He was shirtless to avoid being spotted and tacked as a bandit. It was nice to have him run with us for about half a mile or so and give us the scoop on our other friends running the race. We later found out he skipped over some mile in the course and jumped in with the elite runners for a bit. In his words “I got up front with the Kenyans for a while and lasted about a quarter of a mile before I had to slow down.” Considering those guys run SUB 5 MINUTE MILES for the ENTIRE marathon, that is no sleight on him.
During the first 5 miles we passed 6 different bands playing everything from blues, to reggae to rock to tribal drums. I particularly enjoyed the blues band playing a song called “I’m a Roadrunner Baby” which helped push us along. Right around mile 5 everyone seemed in high spirits and jokes were being cracked all around.
By mile 6 the course had flattened out some and we passed – in my opinion – the best band on the course (the first half of the course anyway). It was an 80’s band which was finishing up
Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309” and then cranked out an excellent version of
Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl.” Needless to say spirits could not have been higher than at that point.
Shortly after the 80s band we passed the 10K mark which was significant to me in two ways. First, this was the longest distance I’d run in a race in the past 10 years or so and second, we passed the 10K mark at around 56 minutes which was FASTER than I had run my last 10K. Think about that for a second … in a race where I was running nearly twice as far (this half marathon) I ran a 10K PR (in race) that was faster than my previous best by 6 minutes. I was pumped.
Mile 7 meant still more good news (which was to be a bit short lived) as we passed the 4 hour marathon pacer girl as she was making yet another announcement. We were officially under a 9 minute mile and feeling great.
Then we hit the “hill from hell.” Over the next 3 miles we would climb some 266 feet up highway 163. For someone like me – who did 99% of his training in Chicago away from hills – this was a big deal. Thankfully I wasn’t quite sure how long the hill was when we started the climb. Amazingly, our pace stayed right near or just under 9 minutes but the effort level to maintain that pace skyrocketed. We soon started to see some people walking up the hill in groups of two or three. I’m sure this type of thing happens in all marathons – at some point you see people dropping back and walking unless you are an elite or “very near the front starter” – but it is disheartening. Thankfully we soon passed a group of running Elvis’ who were pushing a boombox in a running stroller blasting out old Elvis tunes.
All-in-all we felt good halfway up the hill. After that it got less and less fun. At some point with a mile in front of us my running partner commented “this hill sucks” to which I quickly replied “no s***.” I wouldn’t say that I was proud to be cursing at that point but I couldn’t think of anything else clever to say. I was just trying to hang on long enough to get off this stupid hill.
Great news at the 10 mile mark – we were at the top of the biggest hill on the course and we were still under a 9 minute mile pace. Mile 11 was a steep decent down the other side of the hill which was welcome but also caused the legs to take a pretty good beating. At this point I was feeling good again thinking “I made it over the hill, I’ve got under a 5K left, this thing is in the bag.” That too was a little optimistic. At mile 11.5 we turned west down Friar’s Road and I was convinced the halfway point (13.1 miles) was very, very near. My paced quickened slightly and I kept checking my GPS watch to see how close I might be to the 12 mile marker then the 13 mile marker than the halfway point. It got so bad in the final mile-and-change that I would go step-step-step-step-{check watch}
- step-step-step-step-{check watch}
.
I think because I was running SO much faster for a run of this length than I was used to and because I let myself mentally think “this will be over soon” it made the final mile much harder than it needed to be. At mile 12 I was thinking a combination of ‘I should run this last one faster’ and ‘damn I feel like walking.’ Thankfully I didn’t have to walk and I saw my parents, sister and brother-in-law at mile 12.8 or so. That gave me the final boost to truck the final few tenths of a mile to finish the half marathon in 1:57:38.
As I left the course, I was hot and felt a little faint and dehydrated. For some reason it felt like I needed to pop my ears and when my family was talking to me it sounded as if I was underwater. Luckily the ear issue was temporary and (after almost losing my lunch) I started to feel a bit better after 20 minutes or so. After our other running buddy crossed the half marathon point we loaded up the car and went to McDonalds where we promptly ate the 1,500 calories or so we had just burned off. It was De-licious!
A much needed recovery day on Monday.
I am the pale, hairy bastard on the right.
