As crazy as it sounds, I ran the Erie Marathon yesterday (9/18). After the disappointing run at Rev3 Cedar Point last week, I was beginning to question my running training leading up to the race. Deep down, I knew that I had trained appropriately, but I had an urge to prove it to myself.
My father-in-law had been training for the Erie Half-Marathon (which is run at the same time as the full-marathon) for the past several months and I originally planned to ride up there with him to be a spectator. By Thursday night, my plans had changed. I didn't do anything at all after the Ironman last week, but on Thursday night while I was laying on the floor stretching out, I realized that my legs actually were feeling really good. I had gotten over almost all of the soreness and fatigue from the race and I began to wonder, would it be crazy to actually enter the marathon? I ultimately decided no, it was not crazy and I decided to register for the race. I thought back to all of the tempo runs and all of the long runs I had completed leading up to Rev3 Cedar Point. I felt like I had really "wasted" them on a 4:30:00 marathon last week.
I arrived in Erie with my father-in-law on Saturday afternoon and picked up my race packet. This was by far the most lacksadaisical I had ever felt for a big race. I had no plans or expectations, I just wanted to go out and run fast. That's it. I didn't even really have any racing clothes with me. Just normal running shorts and a t-shirt. Although, I did make the decision to wear my CEP compression socks (which I had previously only used for recovery) for the race, given my Ironman effort last week. I think this ended up being a great decision because I felt no pain whatsoever in my legs and they actually felt suprisingly fresh during the race. To be honest, I think I may experiement with wearing the compression socks in more racing situations.
The race started at 7:00 AM on a cool morning in Presque Isle State Park. For the entire race, the temperature ranged from 57-63 degrees F. Now that is my kind of racing weather! The course consisted of 2 big loops around the penninsula that juts out into Lake Erie. Each loop was exactly 13.1 miles. Many portions of the course ran alongside the shore of Lake Erie and the cool breeze was very refreshing.
I started off the race very conservatively. My training for Rev3 Cedar Point had been focused around preparing for a 3:00:00 marathon because most of what I had read said that you should plan to run 30 minutes slower in the Ironman marathon than in an open marathon (but, we all know that wasn't true for me last week!). So, I figured that I probably would've had the legs to run about 3:00:00 if I was completely fresh, but I decided to be conservative and shoot for a sub-3:10:00 (which is the Boston Marathon qualifying time for my age group) given the circumstances of last week. I decided that I would run no mile slower than 7:15 and no faster than 7:00 and would just have fun with it.
The first several miles many runners went out very, very fast. I can't seem to understand why this happens in marathons because you would expect the people up front must have at least some experience in long distance running, but it always does. I tried to team up with a couple of groups of runners, but they all began to drop me around the 5-10 mile mark as they were speeding up their paces. I held steady at ~7:05 and cranked through the miles. I was feeling fantastic! I felt like I was just out for an easy weekend long run which I had done so many times over the past several months. They had Gu Electrolyte Brew (one of my favorite electrolyte drinks!) out on the course and I took in 3-4 ounces every aid station. I went through the half-marathon split in 1:31:56. Perfect. I knew that I would come in under 3:10:00 at the finish and continued to run comfortably and have fun. Slowly, many of the runners who had dropped me earlier in the race started to come back to me. I had made mental notes on what a few specific runners were wearing and particularly enjoyed passing by them in the second half of the race (I'm sure you can relate to the feeling!). I continued to run in the low-7:00's and never really had any point in the race where I was running outside of the comfort zone. Before I knew it I was crossing the finish line well under 3:10:00. I was very pleased with the race and felt more confident about my run training given that I could run a Boston qualifier without any major discomfort. Now, I just need to decide this week if I am going to register for Boston!
TIME: 3:06:11, 17th Overall, 8th M 25-29
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