For Whom the Dogs Bark

Texas Marathon

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Location:

Cypress,TX,

Member Since:

Oct 10, 2009

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

5K: 24:22 (March 2010); 22:33 (October 2010); 20:47 (May 2011); 21:05 (May 2012); 21:33 (September 2012); 21:23 (November, 2013); 22:31 (September 2014)

5M: 39:22 (November, 2012); 35:54 (November, 2013); 36:03 (March, 2015)

10K: 44:08 (November, 2010); 49:20 (July, 2013); 44:07 (April, 2015)

12K: 56:03 (December, 2013); 58:58 (December, 2014)

10M: 1:11:58 (October, 2012); 1:15:24 (October, 2014)

Half Marathon: 1:53:xx (London's Run 2010); 2:05:21 (Cowtown 2010); 1:37:04 (Gusher 2011); 1:42:19 (Huntsville 2011); 1:33:47 (Baytown Jailbreak 2012); 1:33:50 (The Woodlands 2012); 1:42:52 (Texas 2015); 1:49:17 (Jailbreak 2015); 1:38:34 (The Woodlands 2015)

25K: 2:01:47 (Fifth Third River Bank, May 2014)

Marathon: 5:51:35 (Texas Marathon 2009); 6:21:36 (Ogden 2009); 4:58:29 (St. George 2009); 4:13:45 (Texas Marathon 2010); 4:04:12 (Utah Valley Marathon, 2010); 5:11:14 (Hartford ING, 2010); 3:41:43 (Richmond SunTrust, 2010); 3:39:27 (Texas Marathon 2011); 3:41:46 (Utah Valley Marathon, 2011); 3:30:35 (St. George 2011); 3:41:51 (Richmond 2012); 3:49:15 (Texas 2013); 3:46:59 (Paavo Nurmi, 2013); 3:34:04 (St. George 2013); 3:49:51 (Texas 2014); 3:31:59 (Richmond 2014); 3:28:34 (Boston 2015)

Short-Term Running Goals:

3:20, 1:30, 0:20

Long-Term Running Goals:

I'm 60, there is no long term.

Personal:

I live, work and run in Houston, Texas. I have run 17 marathons, some good ones and some others. I prefer straight, flat, cold, sea-level marathons, still waiting for my first one. I feel like there are more PRs out there. When I have them, I am told it is time to dial it back, run for healthy reasons. I'm sure that's right, and I'm sure it won't happen.

My wife and I are from the mountains of the west. We have five kids, three granddaughters and three grandsons. The kids and grandkids are native Texans but we are not -- you have to be born here.

As for my blog title: I run most of my miles before sunrise, sometimes hours before. On the back road of my neighborhood two hours before daylight, I can depend on a pack of mutts behind the boundary fence lighting up when they hear my footsteps. I have wondered what they wanted; but according to Hemingway I needn't ask.

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Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	0.00

Wed, Jan 01, 2014

Race: Texas Marathon (26.22 Miles) 03:49:51, Place overall: 33, Place in age division: 5

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
0.00	26.22	0.00	0.00	26.22

47F, 100%, SE 3 mph. Was going to switch to the half because my son (who I planned to pace in a marathon in March) broke his clavicle skiing at Park City yesterday, which meant, assuming he doesn't run, that I could run hard that day instead of today. Training was bad, of course, but race times in earlier races, Turkey Trot (5 miles, 7:05/mile) and 12k (7.5 miles, 7:31/mile) didn't predict todays results. I really have to figure out a way to run faster. Ran at 8:46/mile, 3:49:51, placed 33/305, essentially the same pace as my 23-miler a week ago, which I ran after doing the 12k race the previous Saturday and another 23-miler two days before. I feel like I could go out and duplicate this race this morning, three days later, with no trouble, but apparently I am delusionary. Ran with my watch in my pocket, but I knew what was happening anyway, because I got a read-out every loop. The overall splits for this four-loop course were 53:02, 54:20, 58:31 and 1:04:15. First two laps were close to goal pace, then had some 10s in the last lap, but never had to walk. Overall heart rate was 160, max 169 -- I have averaged 169 for a marathon before. It was just a gradual fail, no heavy legs, no bonk, no explanation. But it was a definite fail. Dizzy and extremely fatigued at the end, dried salt on my face, but no results to show for all the effort. Qne no explanation: The taper might not have been long enough (had no choice under the circumstances), but that would have been the difference between 3:30 and 3:35, not a 20-minute miss. A little warm at the end, close to 60, but again that is an incremental difference, not an explantion for these results. We always say it was just one of those days, but this is a physical event, an explanation exists.

Course measured short, but that is most likely because the trail was under the trees on a windy path, lots of turns including at least 10 sharp turns on every loop. So splits are slow compared to actual speed, but actual speed was slow enough: 8:43 (151), 8:09 (162), 8:09 (163), 8:00 (160), 8:12 (166), 8:08 (166), 8:09 (165), 8:11 (163), 8:20 (163), 8:22 (161), 8:23 (161), 8:39 (162), 8:42 (161), 8:44 (159), 8:49 (158), 8:50 (159), 8:59 (160), 9:15 (160), 9:16 (161), 9:27 (160), 9:25 (160), 9:49 (158), 10:01 (157), 10:10 (159), 10:26 (158), 10:07 (159).

Comments

From SlowJoe on Sun, Jan 05, 2014 at 14:51:08 from 66.69.93.8

When a marathon goes south, I think the amount of time you missed your goal by is irrelevant, doesn't really tell you anything. In other words, a 20-minute miss is not really any different than a 5-10 minute miss when you're evaluating your fitness. If you had bonked and decided to walk the last 6 miles, and ended up with a 4:49, it doesn't mean you were in 4:49 shape, just the way you reacted to the bonk. You reacted to this one a bit more severely, but it only means that under the conditions (taper/weather/curvy roads/etc) you weren't in 3:30 shape. So I think the smaller things that you identified really are the culprits, and the marathon magnifies those little things when it doesn't go perfectly. That's my theory, hope it made sense.

From flatlander on Mon, Jan 06, 2014 at 08:40:34 from 76.31.9.237

True enough, I ran my first BQ a month after running a 5:15, so anything can happen, no doubt. Just bugs me that I could probably run this race three times in a week with little problem. But on to the next one, thanks for checking in.

From Tom K on Mon, Jan 06, 2014 at 09:48:18 from 174.58.4.250

Sorry about your son's injury. The things that you listed that could have changed your time (sharp tuns, warm at the finish, not the best taper), I think these things have a compounding feature to them. If each one of those features means a 3 minute hit to your time, you could explain away 9 minutes. But I think it works like 3+3+3= something >9, because they build off of each other. It makes it difficult to take something away from the race. Like, "At least I learned to ..." because it was not just one thing. If you didn't get the time you wanted, the first reaction is to figure out what went wrong. When you can't positively ID the culprit, you say "it was just one of those days." But, that still doesn't satisfy the need to take away something positive.

Or you can be like me, and scream at the race director YOUR CLOCK IS BUSTED, MAN!

From I Just Run on Mon, Jan 06, 2014 at 13:58:23 from 67.79.11.242

Sorry it didn't turn out any better Flat. I know how you feel/felt. Been there, done that. Most recently this past Saturday on a 17 mile run. I think mine was because of dehydration, too much salt in my system (I was covered in dried salt when I finished) and just an overall buildup of compounding factors. I can usually tell within the first couple of miles if my run or race is going to go well. Anyway, glad your feeling good so soon after the race!

From flatlander on Wed, Jan 08, 2014 at 13:45:46 from 198.207.244.102

Tom, interesting thought. I was saying the same thing to somebody. It's like aviation accidents I read about -- they rarely occur from one thing but a series of little things building up, then disaster. I guess I'm lucky to be alive! Still working on the clock excuse, I expect to have it perfected by the next race.

Preston, thanks, interesting you had the same salty brow thing on the same day. Helps pad up my weather excuse. I was certainly surprised at how hot I felt as the temperature hit 60, it was like I never ran in the heat before. Should have drank more liquids, but usually I don't process them well when running at race-level effort. Maybe that steady decline was a sign of dehydration more than anything.

From derhammer on Thu, Jan 09, 2014 at 18:50:14 from 162.197.31.29

Hey Flat, congrats on another marathon, even if you didn't feel particularly good about it. It is still something that 99% of the population couldn't do. I mean, you ran 26.2 miles without stopping! I think that's pretty amazing.

I don't think we realize what a drastic affect dehydration can have on the body, especially as it relates to degreased blood volume. Whether it is a marathon or on a 10 mile training run where we haven't been hydrating enough the day before. From the article:

The main reasons dehydration has an adverse effect on exercise performance can be summarized as follows:

• Reduction in blood volume

• Decreased skin blood flow

• Decreased sweat rate

• Decreased heat dissipation

• Increased core temperature

• Increased rate of muscle glycogen use

http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/dehydration-and-its-effects-on-performance

Combine that with any other factors that you mentioned and it certainly would be a good explanation.

From flatlander on Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 08:26:22 from 76.31.9.237

David, thanks for this, I read the whole piece; I know this stuff but sometimes I don't give hydration issues enough credit. I didn't hydrate much at SGM and got away with it because it was so cool. This time it was a little warmer and I think you are right, it got to me, though nothing disatrous. Pretty sure anytime I have salt on my face it is time to pay attention to water and electrolytes. Three sips of gatorade ain't gonna bring it home.

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