It's been a good year for running part 1

Came back from Europe and had the small matter of dealing with my Permanent Resident Card. After two years you apply to get the conditions removed so we filed the paperwork/fees and I went for more fingerprints just to check I'm the same person and we're still in a valid marriage! Hopefully that will come through okay anytime soon.

Fine tuned my marathon training. The long runs finishing with marathon pace went well, I was managing 6.50-odd for the last 7M of the last key session and 7.46 for the lat 20M run.

I then had to decide on a race pace strategy. For this I was peer pressured into pushing myself!
The guys and girls around me on the Tuesday speed sessions ran 2.53, 3.01 and 3.03 in the Chicago and NYC marathons in the previous couple of weeks. So in theory I should be around the 3 hour mark too!

Everything was great in Philly. The weather was cold but sunny and good for running. Our AirBnB place was 0.5M from the start/finish and less than 15mins walk from the race expo.

First race I've done where I stood in the coral in warm clothing (and with handwarmers inside my gloves) that I could throw off just before the start.

I was able to get into my own race pace very quickly, none of the shuffling and jumping about to avoid other runners that I had feared given the 30,000 entrants and combined half marathon race.

I knew 6.52 pace was the three hour time but as they had 10K, 13.1M and 30K splits (timing mats) I tried to remember that 42.40, 1.30 and 2.08 were my guiding times rather than obsessing over every mile split especially as there were a couple of short moderate inclines and descents along the way.

I stayed relaxed and well in control. Went through 10K in 43.12 and reached the turn off at halfway in 1.30.47. I knew the last few miles were mildly downhill and also remembered a good quote/advice I'd read before my marathon debut that 20M should be considered halfway in a marathon, not 13.1M.

I was through 30K in 2.08.57 so roughly guessed I'd need 10secs under the 6.52's for the last 10K+. There was a run out to a township at about 19.5M then a turn around and after a slight downhill, a good run all the way to the finish so I picked it up after the turn. 6.38, 6.37, 6.29, feeling good, reeling in a lot of runners.
6.35, 6.29, I knew I had this when they had a clock with 2 miles to go and I had 15mins to play with even with a .2 after that!
A 6.27 last mile meant I covered the last 12K in just over 50mins and I crossed the line elated with my 2.59.09 (6.49 average pace). 280th position and 23rd in my age group for what it's worth AND a high-five from the Philly Mayor who was waiting on the finish line.

It was only the last mile when I really went for it that my body just wanted it to be all over.
But when I crossed the line and stopped running I was both so cold and ached all over. My calves and quads were the worst but even my biceps and back were aching.
Most pain passed and I was just left with really tight calves and sore quads for a week or so.

But I had that sub-3 glow!

A good meeting place

Best medal EVER

Eurotrip

Beginning of October I headed back to Scotland for the first time since moving over here!
We only had one day in Aberdeen before heading over to Prague for a few days then over to Amsterdam for another few days.

38.58, not bad for a belly full of dumplings

Singing to our section

Sightseeing, U2 in concert and a night time 10K in Prague along with a major amount of walking.
I won't go into everything we did but all photos are here and over on Instagram.

Back to Scotland and up to Inverness where we had birthday fun and I did my first Parkrun 5K. In trying to not lose too much fitness I then proceeded to do my 20M run. I'd average close to 50M a week since starting my marathon plan but dropped to 20-ish for the three weeks we were away.

Then we spent a few days touring the West of Scotland, particularly the area around Skye, my family and Heather's mum and sister along for the Scottish part of our trip.

Fairy Pools!

AKA, the Harry Potter train

Over the sea to....

As far as marathon training goes, I jumped straight back into it the week we got home and things have been going really well. The marginally cooler weather, still in shorts (just), and final 5 weeks of training left has seen my fitness improve dramatically.

3.15 is actually my age group qualifying time for the Boston Marathon. I don't have the pull to do Boston that everyone else seems to but it seemed an achievable goal when I started training especially as my first last year was 3.24-something.
I hesitate to say I'm now looking to maybe duck under 3.10 when I line up on November 22nd assuming the weather on  the day isn't too bad and these last 5 weeks go well.

The Big Endurance Challenge

The North Face Endurance Challenge Marathon at Bear Mountain. Big title, big race.

This is what I'd been training for through winter and what I'd nervously been looking forward to for the last couple of weeks ever since I'd started to taper down and have that tired feeling where you just want to do the race and not carry on the training.

This was the info from the course guide I'd been looking at all week.

Trying to plan out my fueling strategy and still trying to get into my head how the hell I was going to pace this.
From last year's results I thought maybe a finish time between 4.15 and 4.30 and somewhere around 10min miles would be good enough with a bit of luck to get close to the age group awards.

We left just after 6am and the roads were nice and quiet. As it started an hour later (9am) than the half marathon version I'd done the previous two years the sun was already out and heating things up nicely.

Partly having the confidence of a solid training schedule behind me where I barely missed a session and a love of getting back onto some proper trails meant I was really looking forward to this one.
We also took two friends along to keep Heather occupied while I disappeared for the 4 and a half hours!

Here's me smiling at the relaxed start of the race and an example of the mixed terrain that lay ahead.
There were regular marked trails, unmarked little trails and rocky stretches that they tried to guide you through rather than following any actual path.
There were a couple of real boulder scrambles where I had a little smile to myself when I looked up ahead and seen this was where the little coloured flags were directing us to go.
There were a few moments like that. Is it left? Is it right? No. It's straight ahead off the path and up through the trees. Of course it is!
There was even a 1/4 mile of Tour De France alpine road climbing with an aid station right at the top. At least I managed to get down to 6.40min mile pace coming down the other side, which considering I'd done 15miles at that point tells you how steep it was.

Back to the start. The first 4 and a bit miles to the first aid station were the same as the half marathon I have done the last two years. I really tried to go slower than my body wanted to knowing there was so far to go and so much climbing to be done.
They had a timing mat here and I found out afterwards I was through here in 19th place averaging 8.50 pace.

I had my shorts with their little hip holster pockets containing one gel flask with 3 gels mixed with water and a little soft flask with water. The plan was to take these if needed and consume the water and hydration drink at the aid station combined with trying to take a gel from my flask or the aid table every 30-40 mins depending on where I was on the course.
They had a volunteer stationed like a 1/4 mile away ringing a bell or shouting that the next aid station was coming up which was really useful.

It's getting hot out here

It didn't take long to heat up and despite being in the trees for most of the course the sun got through very easily. It got up to around 20 degrees which wouldn't be so bad were it not for the fact that I'd just trained through the winter for this and it had only really been this warm for like three days this year so far.

I used my Garmin to gauge the distance run but that's all really. All the training and knowing your own pace and effort helps as I would look at the watch to see 9min something pace one minute then 11min plus the next so it really helped that I was semi-comfortable knowing what effort I could sustain even though it was going to be an hour longer than I'd ever run before!
At the start the starter asked how many people were running their first ever marathon and there were way too many shouts of 'yes', I would've been really worried if that was my first marathon.

What path?

As I kind of suspected the race settled down after a few miles and as happens to me quite often I ended up running mile 6 to mile 12 all on my own with nobody in sight whatsoever!
I was alone in the woods, just running along following the little coloured flags thinking my thoughts.

There were a few stretches where I ran and ran and then checked my watch only to see a mile had gone by and I was barely at half way. 13M still to go?!

The mixed terrain and not knowing the course kept me going and also I started to run into the back end of the 50K field, maybe even the 50M competitors? I seemed to be flying compared to them of course.

At the 14M aid station I was up to 12th although as I say I didn't know this at the time.

The next aid station was just after 20M and Heather had agreed to be there to cheer me on. I've never down a race before where I felt I needed any kind of cheering on or support to help me through the race but on this one I was really looking forward to seeing someone I knew. I didn't really need a cheer just a little break and like a mini reward along with the hydration and gel!

Pour that water in my cap

Hey, posing mid race, a novelty!

Okay, better get going.

I ran off up to the t-junction, the tape was on the left corner and after 21M you're pretty tired so my head was down going up the short climb. I turned left and ran about 50m then thought, oh oh, this doesn't seem right as I couldn't see any more tape up ahead.
Just then, two runners came round the top corner and were saying that wasn't the right way. Just then we looked back to see another runner run straight across the road and up through the trees.
Of course it was straight up the hill.
The other two runners took off and disappeared out of sight, the other guy I slowly caught and passed which kept me going for that couple of miles!

With a few miles to go we met the 10K course which I remembered from the half last year. This time it was the marathon relay that were using the 10K for their loops. I sped past a couple of them and was feeling good knowing I only had around 2 miles to go.
Then I was thrown off slightly as the marathon course deviated up and over another rocky little climb, I was cursing the organisers at this point, what the hell.

We rejoined the 10K course and there were a couple of slight rocky little uphills on this never ending course. These last 3 or so miles really were the longest 3 miles of my life.

I felt good coming through to the finish but I knew I was totally done. As soon as I stopped, I downed some water and found Heather sitting on the hill.
I collapsed on the ground and my leg muscles were so tired. I've never felt my legs so tired before, like a weird pain where you can't sit still, I probably shouldn't have been sitting that was the problem!

I barefooted it down to the ice bath and sat for a few minutes and rubbed the cold sponge on my calves. We got some free food but after a bite of hot dog I decided I didn't really feel like eating that kind of food right now, I did down the entire cold Diet Pepsi though.

As we got ready to leave I went to check the results and was really pleased to see I had come in 8th overall and had secured 1st place in the 40-44 age group.

Look at the winner's pace, ridiculous!

The prize was pretty poor, a buff and a couple of gel blocks (ha ha) but after thinking back and despite not having any time reference to go off unlike a road marathon I felt this was the most proud I've been of how a race has gone for a long long time.

This event was tough. The terrain was unforgiving, very little flat or sections to relax on, total concentration required (I did trip 7 times!) and with the sunny weather and thre fueling needed to run for an hour longer than I've ever run before. I overheard some people say the 50K was one of the hardest 50K's you can do.
After the last couple of weeks though, I definitely prefer the trails and am going to pick out some more events like this in the future.

Interestingly my legs got rid of the soreness pretty quickly and I look forward to seeing how they feel when I bike to work during the week as it's Bike To Work month here in NYC.

Onto the next one, I have the Brooklyn Half Marathon on the 16th so we'll see how my legs feel when I actually try to run!

Mission Accomplished

Subtitle: It's not like that in training!

Warning: This might be a long and rambling post.
Got the bus down to DC on Friday morning. It was also our first try of AirBnB, the house rental site. It turned out to be a great location, 5 minute walk to the Metro which was about 4 or 5 stops from the marathon start. Good food and the iconic sights of DC within walking distance too. I've been there a couple of times before and I forget everything is so much closer in DC... and so much quieter than NY too, road traffic AND people. An awful lot of homeless people though.

The apartment was great. But it was a little weird that they didn't move ANY of their stuff. So it just looked like you had walked into someone's place and started staying there. Food in the fridge, no wardrobe or dresser space as it was full of their clothes, pictures on the wall, bathroom stuff out, etc. We were only there two nights and there was plenty space to leave our stuff in the living room etc but I kept saying to Heather, "It totally doesn't bother me.... but don't you think it's weird that....".
I'd totally stay there again though :-)

We hit the marathon expo late afternoon before it got too busy with after work people and I'm guessing Saturday was pretty busy. So there was no line at all to get in or get your number, they were queuing out the door to get in (through security) when we left. It was at the DC Armory, everything military has security.

Then we dropped close to $200 on some Brooks MCM gear t-shirts and glasses and some gels and little things. For a change the free race t-shirt you got was a Brooks thick winter mock neck top.... in brown. Good logos though.

Pizza and cheesecake for dinner. District of Pi pizza in DC serves really good pizza btw.

Saturday morning we did a very light 1.5M jog/walk to Wholefoods for breakfast.
Then we went to the National Archives Museum for a t-shirt for Heather's dad.

Once we found out it was free we had a little wander and got to see an exhibition based around autographs so lots of famous presidents and celebrity signatures on original letters to the President at the time. Then we fought past the numerous schoolchildren to get a glimpse of the Constitution, Bill Of Rights and Declaration of Independence.

The other thing Heather wanted to see was the new Martin Luther King memorial. Unfortunately this was all the way at the other end of the Mall and the weather was a lot sunnier then expected. Oh dear, sore feet already!

As there was no real public transport back to our flat we ended up walking the couple of miles back via the White House where I managed to get a photo off before everyone was shouted at to leave the area at the fence as it was now closed. You can almost make out the line up of black SUV's outside, maybe someone important was coming or going?

I'd kind of carbo loaded during the week. Not really anything different as I enjoy pasta anyway, but I had a couple of pasta dishes midweek. So Saturday night we had a spring roll, lettuce wraps, steak and chips with a side of mac n cheese, brussels sprouts and then a chocolate brownie sundae.

Probably my only bad decision of the weekend was to wear older trainers that have support and I left old Superfeet in them. Combined with the unexpected amount of walking we did I don't know if this was a factor in my calves being pretty tight that night. I was rubbing them against the restaurant chair and moaning how tight they were.

Onto the big day.
Up at 5am with the aim of leaving at 6am. Public transport to races here is funny as it's how most people get there I'm guessing. The stop after ours the train really filled up and by the time we got out at the Pentagon stop the platform and stairs were jammed. A slight flaw in the system as you have to swipe your card on exit in order for it to deduct the right amount in DC so there's a delay as everyone has to swipe through the barriers.

Then there was a 1/2 mile walk to the baggage area as the sun began to rise. We were both desperate for the toilet by now and then just as we caught sight of the port-a-loos we then saw the lines to get through security!

Everybody doing the I need to pee dance

By this time it was 7.30 and they were telling you that if you planned to run 3.30 or below you should really begin making your way to the start. So I had a little bit of a stressful time as after queuing to get into a toilet I had to strip off and arm myself with my gel flasks etc.

Of course, the start was another 1/2M up the road so I started jogging. Luckily it is on both sides of a freeway so there was plenty room on one side and actually plenty space to get into where you wanted.
Interestingly, maybe because they call this "the people's marathon" there is no pre-assigned corals, you can just go where you want. I think most people in a marathon are more honest with their abilities than say a 10K but I lined up ahead of the 3.25 pacer just to be sure of not getting caught up behind slow starters.

I ended up with nearly 10 minutes to calm myself down and watch the parachutists, with the largest American flag ever displayed in a parachute drop or something and then a quick flyover to get the patriotism bubbling over, ha ha.

This was the course profile and route. Everyone kept mentioning the hill at 26 miles up to the finish line at the Iwo Jima memorial!

I had plans to take a couple of scoofs of gel from my bottles roughly every 30 minutes as hopefully this would line up with the water stations so I could get some water to wash it down.
This worked out well enough for me and I encountered no problems whatsoever with energy. At nearly all the fluid stations I stopped and, well I didn't even walk, I stood still for 5seconds and drank gatorade then jogged forward and did the same for the water. I started pouring some in my cap towards the end. It started off around 12 degrees and got up to about 17. I read some people saying it was a lot warmer than expected but after training here through Summer I found it perfect.

Dodging a few people for the first mile and scared to go off too quickly I started with an 8.18 then the uphill lead to an 8.28. I decided I needed to quicken up so a combination of stopping for a pee (at the side of the road) but having some downhill lead to a 7.56. Uphill over the bridge 8.02, then with the 3.25 pacer and his balloons in the distance and a flatter course I settled down to the race proper.

7.49, 7.32, 7,46, 7.37, 7.39 (inc my second and final roadside pee-stop!), 7.35, 7.37, 7.50, 7.50 for a 1.42.44 half.
I missed about 6 of the mile markers along the whole way so my numbers might be slightly out.

In the areas where there wasn't much crowd like the little peninsula area through 9M, they had lots of roadside signs. Lots of humour that gave me something to read during this stretch.
I wish I could remember them all. Along with those and the supporter held ones there was at least 5 "If this was easy it would be called your mom" signs. "You're running better than congress" and a few references to runners stamina. Oh, and "1 in 4 runners poop themselves, are you the 1?".

With some high school bands & other music, there was enough along with the pace checking and looking out for the water stops to make me not miss wearing headphones and listening to music while racing.

Of course there was also a long stretch with fallen marine remembrance pictures and tonnes of military runners from all countries and people running in memory of marines, etc. A very patriotic feeling event for a lot of Americans.

From the pacing advice on the Runner's World marathon forum I was advised to run between 7.50 & 8.00 for 10M then 7.50 for the next 10M. Then drop to 7.45-ish for 3M and give it what you have left for the last 3M. I was advised playing slightly safe with this to avoid completely blowing up and ruining it all, ha ha. It was good that I had simple easy to remember numbers in my head and I appreciated that it was long enough that I could slow down or speed up at points and that I could let the 3.25 pacer get away and that I might catch them up later.

Remember those tight calves? Well, around halfway they totally tightened up. The tightest calf muscles I've ever had. Fortunately they didn't get much worse but they stayed tight the rest of the way. So I'm not sure how that affected my pace, I could keep going, I wasn't in bother aerobically just no sudden movements were possible.... no jumping!

After running a 7.34 at the 14th mile I realised I was going too fast as I was just past halfway and there was a long way to go especially with that unknown last 6M to come. I'd read too many scare stories so I slowed down but still tried to maintain the initial goal pacing: 7.45, 7.45, 8.05, 7.52, 7.45, 7.45 through 20M's.

By this point it really felt like the run to the finish. You leave central DC and the National Mall and all the Smithsonian museums and monuments behind and head away from the crowds out over a big open wide bridge and freeway back into Virginia.
This was the worst part, desolate, like running down the A90 with only runners for company.
It was a little windy and this was the area the wind hit you. Anybody who was struggling was really feeling it now. I was surprised how many people were walking at this point and how many were stopped, mainly stretching their legs on the road barrier.

Apart form my calves, I felt good and the benefit of good pacing meant I was now passing so many people which gave me a boost. I really felt I was running so much faster than nearly everybody else.
I ran a 7.40, 7.36, 7.36 and 7.37 before you round a little area of apartments and shops called Crystal City where there were was a lot of race supporters out and hey, here was the 3.25 balloon guy with his little band of merry men (& women) crowded around him.

I think this picture was near here where I took my last bit of gel, so I am trying to breathe after taking the gel and also I'm knackered!

Catching the pace guy helped keep me going as I breezed past them and rounded the Pentagon and original baggage area heading for home, 7.37, 7.44 and the surprise-ish hill up to the line (1.42). It was actually really short, just 30m or so but it was pretty steep for an end of marathon and would've definitely stopped some people in their tracks despite the crowds lining the entire finish area and all the marines that line up to the finish high5-ing runners.

During the last 2miles I started to be around people who were now running similar paces to me. With the 26M marker in sight I looked at my watch and seen 3.23.50-ish so I gave it my all up the hill and crossed the line in 3.24.30! Overall 7.47 pace and 596th place, 93rd age grouper.

As soon as I stopped, I "walked" up the kerb onto the grass to get my medal. Wow, I could barely walk, my calves and my left hip were so sore and now that I had stopped, my quads joined in with the pain party.

Chunky chunky medals

This was my official timing. I'm super pleased with the way I paced it. When I seen a guy stuck in the middle of the road hands on knees with a 1/2 mile to go I'm so glad I was able to complete it and save the not being able to move properly until after I crossed the line.

I waited in the after race area for Heather and I ate basically everything I had taken and everything they gave out. Sweets, 1/2 bottle dr pepper, a can of cherry cola, a bottle of water, a protein shake, 2 bananas, packets of little snacks, a chocolate bar and probably more.

Then we headed back to the house. We grabbed food for the bus and caught a taxi to the bus station and then endured the ride back with me constantly moving my legs as there was no room to stretch out. One of the biggest hurdles we faced was the step down off the bus onto the pavement when we got back in to NYC. Got home at 11pm and was glad I had taken Monday off work. It took until Thursday before I felt nearly back to full mobility.

kerr-ching