35F, 85% humidity, wind N 5-10 mph. Great morning for running. Ran 26.22 (Garmin measured long, 26.35) in 3:41:43, average pace 8:25 per mile, flat shoes and closely monitored heart rate, BQ by 12 seconds per mile based on Garmin measurement. Called my wife first, of course, and I think she is more relieved than anything, like a dark cloud has been lifted from over our family. I have only been running for 2-1/2 years, but it seems like it took a long time to reach this milestone -- wouldn’t have been such a big deal if I hadn’t made it into one.
I didn’t really have high expectations for the race. After Hartford and based on my training times I knew that a qualifier might not be in the cards; so the goal was to run based on the heart rate strategy I have been developing the last few weeks, not a typical strategy I know. I did that to some extent but modified it on the fly. If I hadn’t been flexible I wouldn’t have qualified.
I flew to Richmond yesterday afternoon, met my sister Cheryl from Omaha and made contact with other family members. There were three siblings running (me, Cheryl, and Daryl from Utah), one cousin from Chicago, plus a local nephew running the half. Another sister came in from Spokane with her recently returned missionary, a brother from Phoenix, plus I have a brother who lives here with my parents, they are tending to my ailing mother. So six out of ten siblings, lots of company, should have picked this marathon in the first place, but then I wouldn’t have learned everything I learned at Hartford.
The marathon didn’t start until 8:00, so we got up at our leisure and walked two blocks to the starting line, about 10 minutes before the race started. No PoP for us today. The Kenyans were staying at our hotel, those guys are small. Slipped in right between Corral 1 and Corral 2 and that turned out to be just about right, no jostling for running room in the first two miles. Due to the cold I didn’t have a heart rate readout for the first two miles until I worked up a little bit of a sweat. I ran by feel and was happy to see the first mile come in at 8:36. The pace felt easy and effortless. I tried to stay extra relaxed in the early miles so my legs could warm up properly.
Splits and heart rates:
1-5: 8:36, 8:22, 8:31 (158), 8:20 (159), 8:33 (159). I knew my heart rate was higher than I planned, higher than during training at these speeds, but I felt very light on my feet and decided to stay with it. I took EFS (an electrolyte and calorie supplement) at the end of every five miles through mile 15. I did it on a practice marathon two weeks ago and didn’t have any trouble, so I stayed with it. Nothing else but water.
6-10: 8:46 (160), 8:18 (156), 8:45 (160), 8:20 (160), 8:41 (159). This is probably the section where I got my BQ. Despite some hills and despite an early high heart rate, it held steady through here. I felt good and didn’t think I was pressing the issue. The EFS caused a little bit of nausea the second time, but I took extra water soon after and was fine.
11-15: 8:38 (168), 8:29 (163), 8:23 (164), 8:15 (165), 8:09 (166). Heart rate starting to climb -- even on the flat sections it was about 5 bpm higher than I was planning at this point. But I was starting to see possibilities for a qualifier because I still felt good. The half came in at 1:52:21, about a minute under target pace. Not much EFS left, but I downed it on the big bridge across the James River. Not enough left to cause any queasiness. Everybody talked about what a heartbreaker this bridge is because it is uphill and against the prevailing north wind. I didn’t have any trouble, though, other than still being worried about my heart rate.
16-20: 8:33 (168), 8:37 (170), 8:33 (170), 8:15 (170), 8:30 (172). Some more climbing in these sections, but still felt OK, though I was definitely in the later stages. On the other hand, speed was still there, everything was clicking, just working a little harder to make it happen. Not any significant hills after 20, so I had a decision point.
21-26.2: 8:14 (174), 7:53 (176), 8:08 (177), 8:07 (175), 8:42 (174), 8:25 (173) and 2:42 for 0.35 miles (Garmin measured .13 long), 7:40 pace and 172 bpm, steep downhill into the finish line. I had always wanted to actually race the last 10K and I had enough left to do that today. At decision time I decided to go for it, and it was the heart of the race experience.
At mile 22 I passed Cheryl and Daryl, both quite a bit faster than me but having bad days, mainly because they tried to hang with our cousin in the first half but didn’t have enough training to sustain it. They ran a 1:42 first half, 10 minutes faster than me. I tapped them on the shoulder as I passed and they were surprised and elated despite their own miseries because they knew the BQ saga was almost over. Cheryl ran 3:47:52 and Daryl ran 3:51:12, so they weren’t far behind me despite their agonies. My cousin Ronald ran 3:22:27, so we were all 3s today.
My other sister from Spokane (former blogger on FRB) met me with about 2 or 3 miles to go and ran me in, like she did at Hartford. She was trying to get me to go faster, told me I could do anything for half a mile. I said “No I can’t”. I was really feeling those last miles but only missed BQ pace on one of them. She is the one who has been bugging me about getting fuel during a race, so I’m never going to hear the end of it now. I’m stuck with EFS until I die.
Then all of a sudden the race was over. Second half was 1:49:22, so a 3-minute positive split, no stopping or slowing down the entire race. 21-minute PR. By far the fastest I have run, of course, but more importantly I had a strategy that worked today. It felt good to execute a race plan and have it mostly work, then be able to modify it when I needed to. Lots of calf cramping afterwards, time to check into compression socks.
I was emotional at the end. It has been a difficult week workwise, and my church friend’s funeral was on Monday, so I thought a lot about Dian during the race. She is free of cancer at last, and when I felt like I was floating I thought she must be floating too. And when I was no longer floating I knew it was nothing compared to what she did.
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