A new addition

Jonah was born March 1st at 12:41 AM

7 lbs 10 oz

20 inches

I'm moving

It's time for a change.



I've been writing on this blog for 2 years now. It has been enjoyable and I have even gotten to know some people who I would now consider friends. Something is still missing. I started the blog as a source of motivation/inspiration, both to myself and hopefully to others. I do not feel that that is here anymore. While I read all of the blogs listed to the left, I rarely comment. In return, I rarely receive comments.



I am moving over to the fastrunningblog. Things are different there. It is a community of runners working to help each other get better. While there is plenty of generic back patting, there is also plenty of helpful advice, constructive criticism, advice, etc. As Duncan frequently points out, blogging is often a "me me me" activity. Fastrunningblog is more of a "we we we" thing. There are at least a dozen sub 2:30 marathoners on the site, many of whom are improving rapidly, at least partly due to the support system of the blog.



The site is run by Sasha, a 2:24 downhill marathon specialist. Years ago he was one of my training partners. He has been running a free online training log for at least 10 years. He added the blogging feature about 18 months ago. He tried to get me to convert a while ago, but I stayed with this format. He has since added many useful features to the site including an ego free (not letsrun) discussion board. It is time to move.



I will keep this site up and possible post the occasional race report or whatever else might be interesting. I will continue to read your blogs. Hopefully me training and results will improve.

Recovery

Because of the slow marathon pace, recovery was rather quick this time around.

Monday, Tuesday off
2 miles Wednesday
4 miles Thursday
Friday off
8 miles today at a 6:30 pace, last mile in 5:58.

Each run this week brought back the marathon soreness by the end of the run.

A graph tells a thousand words

Mile by mile pace in the marathon.

Also I finished in 2468 place. That is probably more people that have beaten me in all of the other races of my life combined.

More analysis

Thomas asked a very important question. Why didn't my body absorb the liquids that I was drinking. I have a couple theories.

Theory #1: I don't do a lot of drinking during my normal runs. I do even less drinking when running harder training runs. My body may not have been used to running hard with a full stomach and it may not have handled it very well.

Theory #2: I am a very bad breakfast eater. I usually don't eat breakfast, and hardly ever eat a full breakfast. I just don't have any hunger in the morning. I never have. I think this may result in my stomach being somewhat asleep when I run in the morning.

I don't know if either of the theories are valid, but I am going to try to drink more on my runs and I definitely need to change my breakfast habits.

Analysis and Aftermath

First of all, I ran so amazingly slow that I do not feel bad about the race. It was a learning experience, and in retrospect it was fun. It was definitely memorable.

I made several errors. The biggest error was a lack of respect for the weather. I only thought that the heat would slow me down by a couple of minutes. Looking over other peoples results it looks like 5 minutes was a minimum, with 10 minutes being more realistic. When I went out at 6 minute pace for the first 4 miles I really wore myself out. I think from that point on I was overheated and my stomach quit absorbing liquids. If I had aimed for a 2:45 finish from the start I might have succeeded.

In retrospect it was a bad idea doing the metabolic test 2 days before before the race. It didn't seem like that bad of an idea at the time, but I suppose that running at 8 MPH at a 14% incline is not exactly a good way to rest before a marathon. This probably contributed to the unexpected soreness I felt on race day.

I severely over tapered. Final 3 weeks of 60, 30, and 20 miles. A couple bad weeks before those also. The quality was also gone. I will partly blame this on 3 weeks of the night shift during the 6 weeks preceding the race. Partly on burnout. Not only did I feel stale on race day, I tapered so much that I think that I actually lost fitness.

The Aftermath:
Between about mile 6 and about 3:00 PM I was pretty sure that I was never going to run again. I think I feel this way during every marathon, but it usually only lasts for the final hour of the race. Once I finally managed to keep some liquids down I felt much better.

Since I ran so amazingly slow, I actually feel pretty good today. For some strange reason my shoulders hurt more than my legs. Possibly from holding an ice bag on my head and neck over the last few miles. Normally I am forced to take several days off after a marathon, today I feel like I could run 5 miles if I needed to. I'm still taking at least a few days off.

I really should have just dropped out of the race. My stubbornness won out. I did not want a DNF. My wife was understandably upset at my poor decision making ability. She was left at the finish line for 80 minutes wondering if I was dead. She thought that I had probably dropped out. She was wrong. I am not that smart.

Chicago Marathon - The Gory Details

Things went relative good leading up to the race. I felt good. If not for the weather I would have been in perfect spirits. By the start it was 75 and humid. By the end it was close to 90, sunny and shadeless.

Spent about 30 minutes in the start corral which gave me plenty of time to ponder the intelligence of running a massive race. A lot of energy is wasted just getting to the start. I did a couple miles of walking before the race began. When I set my PR at the Boise Marathon I probably walked 100 meters to get to the start.

I made my way fairly close to the front. I crossed the starting line 8 seconds after the gun.

Mile 1: I thought that I was gong pretty slow. Mostly because everyone around me was going slow. I felt pretty good. Happy to see mile 1 come by in 5:53.

Mile 2: The last mile was probably too fast. I slowed down a little. I started getting hot. About 1.5 mile in I passed a female runner with an artificial leg. I couldn't believe she was running that fast. (She eventually came by me again in the final miles). 6:11.

Mile 3: I increased the effort a little. Despite the heat I still felt like a 2:40 would be possible. Unfortunately I was not feeling too good. Aside from the heat, my legs were feeling stiff and did not have the energy that I thought they should have had. The crowds were finally starting to thin out enough to make it possible to join a group. However, I never did find a group that wasn't going faster or slower than me. 5:56.

Mile 4: Not feeling so great. Pushed it pretty hard to put in a 6:04 mile.

Mile 5: Feeling the effects of 4 miles which were done at a good pace for perfect conditions, but way too fast for current the conditions. 6:18.

Mile 6: I think this is where I gave up. That last 6:18 mile hurt. I knew I wasn't going to go any faster. A little math showed me that a 2:45 was the best I could possible hope for. Somewhere around here Greg came flying by on his way to a 2:44 and top 75 run. 6:23.

Mile 7: 6:33. Now I am thinking that I will just treat this like a training run and finish in a respectable 2:50.

Mile 8: It is hot. 6:36.

Mile 9: It is hot 6:41.

Mile 10: It is hot. 6:49. 1:03:25 total. 2:50 still seems feasible, although I was too tired to do the math which would have shown that I was already going to slow.

Mile 11: Decided to take off my shirt. I felt bad about this because I am kinda sponsored by a Running store and I feel an obligation to display their logo. Heat won over guilt and I took it off anyway. I undid the pins to my number and reattached it to my shorts. The whole process took about half a mile. It it not easy to mes with safety pins while running, especially with a brain that is only functioning at about 50%. 6:50.

Mile 12: 6:52. I am running slower than a standard long run and I am feeling absolutely horrible. My thought are fluctuating between quitting and just jogging in to the finish. I did not want to take a DNF so I continued on.

Mile 13: 6:58. I was thinking that a 3 hour finish is still possible. It was not. The temperature is not getting much worse. We are out of the shaded city and away from the cooling lake. Halfway point in just under 1:25.

Mile 14: The warm weather did lead to big crowds, but they are thinned out in the second half of the race. 7:10.

Mile 15: I am going really slow and this really hurts. 7:17

Mile 16: 7:35. At least there is only 10 miles left.

Mile 17: Things are looking really bad. 7:53. People have been passing me the entire race, but not there are a lot more flying by. There is a lot of carnage on the side of the road. Some people look really bad.

Mile 18: Starting walking at the water stations so I could take in more fluids. 8:10. I am hoping to finish with a 3:10 and at least put in a Boston qualifier.

Mile 19: 8:21. These 8 minute miles really, really hurt. It is not muscle soreness, but a deep fatigue. It is not the wall, it is too early. The answer will come soon.

Mile 20. 8:44. 2:19:16 total. Holding this pace would just barely get me under a BQ time, that isn't going to happen.

Mile 21: 9:03. In case you haven't noticed every mile since #3 has been about 10 seconds slower than the previous. This trend will end.

Mile 22: 9:11

Mile 23: Right after the 22 mile mark I stopped to walk a the aid station to drink some water. Instead I got nauseous. A couple minutes spent bent over a trash can answered the question of why I beft so bad. It was clear that none of the liquids that I was taking were getting absorbed. It was now all in the the can. I was really dehydrated. Enough now to make me really nauseous. I walked through the rest of the aid station and drank a little water. A guy just past the aid station gave me some ice which I rubbed over my body and actually made me feel a little better. I made the poor decision to start running again. 13:55.

Mile 24: Right after the 23 mile mark I stopped to walk at the next aid station to get some liquids. Instead, within a few seconds I was on my hands and knees losing more liquid than I drank at the last aid station. This time I was quickly greeted by the medical crew. They tried to convince me that I was looking really bad. I declined an IV. I declined an ambulance. I did happily accept the ice pack that the were rubbing all over me. I also took a cup of Gatorade that they fetched me. One of the people even yelled at me for refusing medical attention. Quickly all but one of them left me alone when another guy showed up in much worse shape than me. After about 10 minutes on the curb I convinced my remaining helper that I was good enough to go on. I walked for a while and did a little jogging. I was still carrying the ice pack and holding it on whatever part of me felt hottest. Mile time: 20:48.

Mile 25. I pretty much gave up on doing anything faster than a slow walk. I was getting too much sun, so I tried to put my shirt back on. That took me quite a while. I think that my brain was only functioning at about 10% by that point and most of that was the stupid gene at work. I knew things were really bad when the walking was wearing me out and I had to lean over and rest for a while. Most of this time I was slowly sipping from a cup of water provided from an unofficial aid station. (Apparently many of the aid stations eventually ran out of water and these bystanders provided much of the support for the slower runners.) Mile time: 22:22

Mile 26: A mile of walking left me feeling a little better and I started alternating minutes of walking/jogging. The last half mile I jogged, probably not a good idea, but I did it anyway. Mile time: 13:02. Then the 0.2 in 2:02.

Finish time. 3:49:43.

Analysis and aftermath to come in a later post.

Congrats to Sasha, Mike, Thomas, and Greg who all put in respectable runs this weekend. Extra congratulations to Dirtrunner who got a top 10 finish in a 100 miler.

Worst Case Scenario

3:49:44. Not a typo. It would have been better to quit. Details later, maybe.