Race Report: Erie Marathon (aka. Taking Care of Unfinished Business...)

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

Race Report: Rev3 Cedar Pont Full Rev

I've had a few days to recover from my first full-Ironman distance triathlon on 9/11 and just now I'm finally feeling up to the task of reflecting back on the race and posting a race report.  Overall, I am incredibly pleased to have completed the grueling 140.6 mile course on my first attempt!  Finishing was my #1 goal, and I achieved it.  However, I am left feeling like I have a little bit of "unfinished business" with this particular distance.  Read on to find out why...

I arrived in Sandusky, OH on Saturday afternoon and checked in at the Breakers Hotel inside Cedar Point Amusement Park.  It turned out the be a great place to stay because the Lake Erie beach and the swim start were literally just steps down the hall from my room, so it was very convenient on race day for both me and my cheering section (Jess, Mom, and Dad).  The race expo was average...nothing too exciting about it...but I wasn't really interested in walking around the expo.  Registration and bike check-in were uneventful.  It was a nice touch by the Rev3 people to have personalized race numbers and bike rack plates.  They also took a picture of me at check-in which they later displayed on the big screen when I crossed the finish line.  I had registered for this race fairly early, so I had a good race number (57) and therefore was on the first row for the transition bags and the first row for the bike rack.  It made it easy to find my stuff during the race.  After checking in my bike and dropping off my transition bags, I headed back to the hotel and we ate dinner at the TGI Friday's inside the hotel.  I then headed up to the room to turn in for the night at about 8:00 PM.  I really didn't sleep much that night (as I had expected), but when the alarm went off at 4:00 AM, I felt refreshed and ready to go.

I ate breakfast when I woke up and then headed back to transition to top off the air in the tires.  I then headed back to the Breakers Hotel and got dressed for the race and walked down to the beach.  I put my wetsuit on, swam a few strokes in the lake to make sure everything felt right, and then lined up on the beach for my 7:05 AM start.  The age grouper wave started 10:00 behind the male pros and 5:00 behind the female pros.

SWIM:  1:16:12

When the air horn blew and I was running into the water, I think my heart rate instantly shot up to 180 bpm...at least if felt like it!  After all the anticipation, it was finally here!  The swim was pretty uneventful and I stuck to my plan of swimming a bit out to the left of the counter-clockwise triangular course to avoid the traffic.  This was my first big mass swim start, so I got a little bit stressed with all the kicking and jockeying for position, but by the first turn buoy, things started to settle down and I was able to settle into my pacing strategy.  My plan had been to swim very comfortably (~2:00 /100m) and come out of the water feeling fresh.  Swimming is by far my slowest event and I knew that it would be a long day and I hoped to have plenty of time to make up ground on the bike and the run.  When I got out of the water and my watch read about 75 minutes, I was thrilled.  I ran up the beach about 100 m to transition and got ready to head out on the bike.  At this point I was 87th age grouper.

T1:  4:08

BIKE:  5:07:24

I had trained HARD for the bike leg of this race and I had a feeling this would be my strongest event on the day.  In training, I had managed to finally bring my functional threshold power (FTP) over the 4 W/kg barrier and planned to ride the 112 miles at a very conservative intensity factor (IF) of 0.68.  IF is the normalized power (NP) divided by FTP.  I started off on the bike course right on my target watts and kept the power variability low on the few inclines that I encountered on the coure.  It was pretty flat for the most part.  With all the excitement, riding at an IF of 0.68 felt VERY slow and easy and many people blew by me in the first 20-30 miles, but I kept telling myself, "it's a long day, I'll see the later on the course".  I stuck to my plan and continued to crank out the miles.  After about mile 30, my slow and steady pace started to overtake some riders.  I went through the 56 mile marker at 2:34:00 feeling great.  By mile 80, I was passing many more riders.  The sun was out now and what was supposed to be an overcast, rainy day, had turned into a very sunny, hot day and the temperature slowly crept to 90 degrees F as I neared the end of the ride.  I continued to take in a lot of water and calories.  In the end, I think my nutrition and hydration strategies were executed perfectly.  I arrived to T2 feeling great and as I was dismounting by bike I heard somebody yell "11th age grouper".  11th place!?  I was very pleased to have passed 76 riders out on the bike and was feeling fantastic.  My IF for the whole ride was exactly 1 W above my planned target of 0.68 and my variability index (VI), which is the NP/%FTP, was only a 1.03, meaning I had ridden at an extremely steady power output.

T2:  4:13

RUN:  4:31:01 (insert sad face)

I left T2 with all the confidence in the world.  My run training had been solid and I knew that all I had to do at this point was hang on for about 3.5 hours and I would meet my goal of a sub-10 hour Ironman.  The first 5 miles were a breeze.  I was taking in plenty of calories and water at the aid stations every mile.  I went through the 5 mile mark right on target:  39:31.  I continued through the next 5 miles almost perfectly:  1:19:55 at the 10 mile marker.  "I am going to nail this thing!", I thought.  As I headed back to transition and the turn-around point at 13.1 miles, my legs started to feel heavy.  I very quickly became aware of the 90 degree sun beating down on me.  As I rounded the half-marathon and grabbed my special needs bag, I tried to guzzle some of the Red Bull I had packed in there.  I hoped this would help.  As I approached the 14 mile aid station I glanced down at my watch and realized my pace had dropped significantly.  My heart rate was under control and I wasn't dehydrated, but my legs were simply just feeling incredibly fatigued.  I felt like every foot strike was heavy and painful.  I made the decision to walk through the aid station and try to get some extra calories in.  Unfortunately, it all went downhill from there.  When I tried to run again, it was essentially just a pitiful shuffle.  The lengths of my walks through the aid stations each mile began to get longer and longer.  It was everything I could do to just keep moving forward.  Around mile 15, I started to drink the flat Coke.  I was dumping ice and water over my head every mile.  I continued in this manner until about mile 23, when I the draw of the finish line helped me to "run" it in the last 3.2 miles.  By mile 25 I actually felt like a was starting to get my running legs back and was able to post a sub-8:00 mile.  Unfortunately, I finished the marathon almost exactly 1 whole hour slower than I had planned, but I was incredibly happy to cross the finish line of my first 140.6.

TIME:  11:02:57, 49th overall, 9th M 25-29

In retrospect, I don't really have an answer for what went wrong during the run.  I don't think that it was nutrition or hydration; I believe that my strategies on both the bike and the run were appropriate.  I wasn't "bonking" or having GI issues.  I simply had incredibly tired and painful legs.  I was also extremely hot.  Is this something that I should just chalk up to a lack of experience?  I'm not really sure.  Maybe if I had just taken one longer break when I started to slow down on the run to take in some calories, stretch my legs, and cool down, I could have gotten back on track with my planned pace.  I don't think that I slacked on the run training.  I feel like I had it in me to run a sub-3:30 marathon, but just didn't execute.  Needless to say, I really feel like I have some unfinished business with the marthon distance and the 140.6...