For Whom the Dogs Bark

55F, 70% humidity, nice crisp morning for a slow jog.  Ran 5.0 at low heart rate and regular shoes, very early in the morning, then got on a plane and came to Portland for a couple of days' worth of meetings.  Plan to go running along the river in the morning, should be a lot of fun if there is enough light to see.  Very tired tonight from traveling and meeting, ate at a nice seafood place called Jakes.

Had a whole houseful of people over for the weekend, all my kids, friends and girlfriends, watched LDS conference on TV and had dinner for 18, very nice weekend, ended too quickly.

Portland, OR.  48F, 88% humidity, wind N 3 mph.  Great running weather out here in the Northwest.  Got up raring to go, assembled my gear:  heart rate monitor, shorts, shirt, shoes, Garmin, but no socks!  They call this run the dress rehearsal and I wasn't quite dressed, so I put on my leftover "dress" socks from yesterday and I was on my way, thankfully it was still dark.  Left the hotel and ran along the river, 6.02 miles in 58:17, flat shoes.  Warmed up for 3 miles, 10:301 9:57, 10:00 all low heart rate, then near-marathon pace for 2 miles, 8:44, 8:47 then 1 mile cooldown at low heart rate, 10:05.  The marathon pace miles felt good, modest effort but sustainable I think.  We will see soon enough.

This is a pretty superior running city.  Very nice, long trail along the Willamette River, I left the hotel going north and eventually had to cross over to the east side heading back south where I reached the end of the trail at about 3 miles.  I didn't explore to the south on this side of the bank so I don't know how long it is total, but it was covered with runners.  Lots of old guys laying down 7s, good runners here.  I clerked here for one summer during law school but haven't been back since.  Easy to see why they love it here.

48F, 85% humidity, calm and clear.   Weather off the charts great this morning.  Ran 4.11 miles in 40:49, average pace 9:55 per mile, low heart rate and brand new flat shoes.  Splits were 9:58, 9:31, 10:14 and 10:00.  I was quite excited about my fast pace at low heart rate, then re-pulled my right groin muscle right after finishing mile 2, just as I was congraatulating myself on a 30-second PR.  I really shouldn't have to deal with a groin pull at low heart rate speeds but there it was.  I slowed down then gradually sped up to about a 10:00 pace.  It felt a little better but not great, it stopped hurting as soon as I stopped running.  I have ice on it now.  Obviously if I can't run fast I can't get a BQ in 2 days.  I think the cool weather left me not quite loosened up.  Crossing my fingers and toes and thinking of braiding my hair.  My sister is sending me some stretches, am in emergency mode here.

Not a typo, hard to know what to say, everything fell apart to the maximum degree possible, not really a good explanation.  I am very sorry to all who have shown an interest in my running, things didn’t just partially fail for this race, it was a big-time crash.

I can name 4 or 5 factors but nothing that would explain the greater than one-hour difference with my last marathon time.  Just got out my Garmin for the first time since the race and it is showing something interesting, 7:19 for the first mile I measured, which is about the second or third mile in.  Not sure if that is correct, I do recall seeing some early spot paces in the mid-5s, but that is not a possible speed for me.  The Garmin wasn’t working for the first while and I ended up turning if off and re-setting it.  With that caveat, here are some of the earlier splits and heart rates:

7:19 (168)  I think this is mile 2 or 3, but I really don’t believe the time.  My Garmin was just booting up.  If this is correct then I probably ran the first two or three miles at 10K pace, but I don’t think I did.  I practiced a lot of marathon paces in the last few weeks and I think I have a pretty good feel for the correct pace.  The heart rate would indicate a fast pace.  But it didn’t slow down for the later measured miles so I doubt this speed.

8:26 (165)  About right.

8:22 (166)

8:15 (168)

8:19 (169)  Right about here I passed my wife standing in front of the hotel and told her I felt great, my groin was working fine and never seemed like it was a factor, although I think it changed my gait somewhat because my right hip became sore during and after.

8:21 (167)

8:24 (169)

8:26 (167)

8:39 (168)  Stop to re-fill my water bottle

8:28 (170)

8:35 (169)

8:34 (170)

8:25 (169)

8:33 (173)

8:44 (173)  Beginning of the end

8:53 (172)

8:51 (169)

9:39 (163)

11:18 (155)

And spiraling on down from there.  After about mile 22 I was walking, ran a little bit in mile 23 and never ran again, walked all the way in, couldn’t even run down the finish chute.  At mile 22 I threw up all my liquids.  It was a nice effort, a five-er.  Felt much better but totally helpless.  I was weaving on the road a little.  An officer offered an ambulance or a ride to the finish.  Really, a DNF was the only logical thing to do at this point.  I wouldn’t feel any worse sitting here with a DNF than reporting on my third 5-hour plus marathon but I stubbornly walked it out, not sure then or now if there was much point to it.  Anyway, my sister flew out from Spokane for moral support, found me out on the course at about this point and walked me in, very kind of her to do that.  She is recovering well from injuries and surgery and should be logging some more BQs soon.

Post mortem:  The bad things that happened were:

(1)        Groin injury from two days ago.  I almost didn’t start but thought I could get away with it if I warmed up a little bit at the beginning.  After running about a mile at a very slow rate I tried a couple of gentle stride-outs and they hurt a lot.  I seriously considered bagging it, going back to the hotel and driving out to look at the fall colors.  Out of habit more than anything I fell in at the end of the pack and was even a little teary as I crossed the start mat but by the 10K mark I wasn’t feeling any problems in the groin, though it might have changed my stride a little because my hip hurt and it usually doesn’t do that.  Groin is definitely not feeling good today.

(2)        Temperature.  57F to start, 65F at end, according to an announcement I heard at the race.  Not outrageous but I wouldn’t have travelled to Hartford for an ending temperature of 65.  I can get that in Houston, which by the way was sporting a cool 48F on Saturday.

(3)        Course.  Not flat but rolling, at least as rolling as the top half of Ogden if not more, complete with a long overpass at mile 25, just like UVM, not that it mattered by then.  I remember very few completely flat miles, I guess there aren’t many flat marathon courses.

(4)        Heart rate.  At those speeds my heart rate should never have been so high.  I have heard the lore about ignoring your heart rate in a race because it automatically goes up from the excitement and stress.  Not sure what made it go up but a high heart rate is a high heart rate and I am picking this as the main culprit.  I can’t run 26 miles with a heart rate of 165 to 170, no matter the reason and no matter how good I feel.  15 but not 26.  I just ran a 9:30 mile two days ago with a heart rate of 128.  I should have been at 150 or lower for the first half, not sure how to correct that.

(5)        Lingering cold.  I felt OK during the race, but my normal post-race chills stayed with me throughout the day and suppressed my appetite, and I went to bed with a fever.  Possibly induced by the race but more likely already there.  My ears on the plane coming in were uncomfortable and for me that is an indication that I have a cold even if I don't have other symptoms.

The best explanation I have gotten came from my son.  He said the 5:11 is irrelevant.  The factors above each played their part in the crash, I didn’t have enough conditioning to overcome them all at once.  I didn’t pull back when I started to fail, so when I did crash it was in little pieces spread over several square miles. Once I crashed to this extent the rest of the race didn’t matter.

I promised myself out on the course that I would quit, that it isn't worth the effort to keep at this, but I'm already re-considering.  There is a marathon in Richmond, VA in 5 weeks where my brother lives, and another brother is going to run it.  Maybe a do-over?  If I do, somebody has to check out the course for me.  It has to be flat.