Well, its been about a year since my last update! Since then I got engaged to the WAGF (yay), earning her the distinction of the WAF! Somewhere in there I also finished a masters degree.
I also ran the Hartford Marathon in October in just under 3:28, a nominal improvement over the DC performance recounted below. For that race I went down solo the morning of the race (4:30 am wake-up time, ouch!). More recently I ran the New Bedford half in 1:35, despite digestive problems messing up the last 3-4 miles.
Coming up is the New Jersey marathon on 5/2, a breakthrough performance still seems possible based on recent races/workouts! 20 mile run went down smoothly last weekend, a 23 needs to happen in the next couple of weeks.
And only 2.5 months until the wedding! yayyyyyy.
2010-04-06
2009-04-06
FINALLY.. The much-anticipated Marathon re-cap!!!
So, two weeks or so ago I ran in the SunTrust national marathon! The wicked awesome GF and I flew down on Friday and made it to the race expo to pick up my number without any problems, and then hit up Bertucci's for dinner at around 6 for my final pre-race carbo-loading meal (about 13 hours before the race start).
After going to bed nice and early, we awoke at 5:00 AM or so and proceeded to the start area at RFK stadium while it was still dark (and cold!). Conveniently the DC armory was open for runners to hang out and warm up in!! Also there were huge lines for the bathrooms in there as well as the port-a-potties outside, but I snuck up the second floor (not sure if we were really allowed to go up there or not) where I found a totally empty bathroom. It was actually a women's and I couldn't find the corresponding men's room, so I just hit it up anyway since it was an individual unit! I was pretty psyched to not have to stand in line for twenty minutes!
After some stretching inside I went out to the starting line just before 7AM as it was getting light! At the last minute I decided to keep my long sleeve running shirt as well as my gloves on, and attempt to hand them off to the WAGF at around the halfway point (it was a nice shirt so I didn't want to just drop it on the course!).
So, the gun went off and away we went! It was quite crowded, but still a reasonably organized start! The first half of the race was very busy, as there were about 5000 half-marathoners running with us then, along with only 2000 marathoners. At the halfway point I was nice and warm and successfully handed off my long sleeved shirt and gloves to my shorty, and then proceeded into the second half (my half split was around 1:38:50). I was pretty much cruising from there til the 20-mile mark which I reached in about 2:32. At that point I was rolling with the 3:20 pace group, but a strong headwind while we were running along the Anacostia river started to slow me down! Mile 21 was a good split, 7:16, but I followed this up with about a 7:50 as I dropped behind the pace group slowly. After that I pretty much hit the wall and died! About 9:30 or so was my average speed from 22-26, and I crossed the finish in just over 3:29! My PR stands at around 3:18:30, so I was 10:30 slower than that this time. I am already thinking about returning to da Hartford Marathon next fall (October 10th) however and crushing that time!!!
Right after the race was over, my legs were quite sore, particularly my calves. Later tendonitis set in in both knees. Next time I should probably plan on doing some immediate icing as that might've prevented the tendonitis flare up. Still my legs were back to feeling more or less ok after a couple days and I was able to comfortably rock out a few miles the Wednesday after the race. This past Saturday (two weeks after the race) I did an easy 10 mile run without any problems, so I think its safe to say that the recovery is going well!!
Anyway, there is your race report!!! What worked very well this time and that I need to remember, is the timing of dinner the night before. 13 hours before the race I carbo-loaded, and my next food was the pre-race energy bar 45 mins before the start. But YET AGAIN I was not able to take any energy gel thingies during the race! I tried to take one from a volunteer at the 7-mile mark, and it slipped out of my hand! Woops. Those 100 or so calories might have bought me another minute or two off my time!
Anyways, special thanks to my WAGF for coming with me to DC and for all of her awesome support!! yay! =P
RESULTS
After going to bed nice and early, we awoke at 5:00 AM or so and proceeded to the start area at RFK stadium while it was still dark (and cold!). Conveniently the DC armory was open for runners to hang out and warm up in!! Also there were huge lines for the bathrooms in there as well as the port-a-potties outside, but I snuck up the second floor (not sure if we were really allowed to go up there or not) where I found a totally empty bathroom. It was actually a women's and I couldn't find the corresponding men's room, so I just hit it up anyway since it was an individual unit! I was pretty psyched to not have to stand in line for twenty minutes!
After some stretching inside I went out to the starting line just before 7AM as it was getting light! At the last minute I decided to keep my long sleeve running shirt as well as my gloves on, and attempt to hand them off to the WAGF at around the halfway point (it was a nice shirt so I didn't want to just drop it on the course!).
So, the gun went off and away we went! It was quite crowded, but still a reasonably organized start! The first half of the race was very busy, as there were about 5000 half-marathoners running with us then, along with only 2000 marathoners. At the halfway point I was nice and warm and successfully handed off my long sleeved shirt and gloves to my shorty, and then proceeded into the second half (my half split was around 1:38:50). I was pretty much cruising from there til the 20-mile mark which I reached in about 2:32. At that point I was rolling with the 3:20 pace group, but a strong headwind while we were running along the Anacostia river started to slow me down! Mile 21 was a good split, 7:16, but I followed this up with about a 7:50 as I dropped behind the pace group slowly. After that I pretty much hit the wall and died! About 9:30 or so was my average speed from 22-26, and I crossed the finish in just over 3:29! My PR stands at around 3:18:30, so I was 10:30 slower than that this time. I am already thinking about returning to da Hartford Marathon next fall (October 10th) however and crushing that time!!!
Right after the race was over, my legs were quite sore, particularly my calves. Later tendonitis set in in both knees. Next time I should probably plan on doing some immediate icing as that might've prevented the tendonitis flare up. Still my legs were back to feeling more or less ok after a couple days and I was able to comfortably rock out a few miles the Wednesday after the race. This past Saturday (two weeks after the race) I did an easy 10 mile run without any problems, so I think its safe to say that the recovery is going well!!
Anyway, there is your race report!!! What worked very well this time and that I need to remember, is the timing of dinner the night before. 13 hours before the race I carbo-loaded, and my next food was the pre-race energy bar 45 mins before the start. But YET AGAIN I was not able to take any energy gel thingies during the race! I tried to take one from a volunteer at the 7-mile mark, and it slipped out of my hand! Woops. Those 100 or so calories might have bought me another minute or two off my time!
Anyways, special thanks to my WAGF for coming with me to DC and for all of her awesome support!! yay! =P
RESULTS
2009-03-09
11 days til marathon day!!
Oh my. It's getting close! Long cardio workout tonight. The current forecast for DC says that it will be a low of 32 the night before, and a high of 54 that day, which would mean a start-time temperature around 40 probably. Not too bad. I will keep monitoring the forecast to see how much it changes between now and then...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)