The marathon can humble you ~ Bill Rodgers
Remind me... what's that story where after three months of training for and discussing how they were going to qualify for the Boston marathon, the two protagonists fell short of their goal and then had to blog about it?
In all honesty though, this isn't nearly as difficult to write as I thought it might be.
I am proud to have achieved the accomplishment of completing a marathon. There is no minimizing that. Reflecting that as recent as four months ago I had yet to race even a half marathon, there is a great feeling of athletic achievement and success in finishing a distance event of 26 miles, 385 yards. For the last three months I had been so focused on qualifying for Boston, that I think I lost sight of the overall challenge. Running a marathon is really tough to do.
I made a conscious decision not to dwell on what went wrong immediately following the race. There would be a lot of time to reflect, and I wanted to remember the experience as a positive one and appropriately celebrate our accomplishment. The best moment for me was watching Christine cross the finish line and embracing her at the finish line. I couldn't have been more proud of her. It was a long Summer...Both crossing that finishing line, despite a time which we were not happy with, was well worth all of the sacrifices.
So what happened?
Honestly, I'm still not sure. I came through the half at 1:32; felt great through mile 16, and was near goal pace until mile 18 or 19. I suspect it was a combination of not taking in enough fluids early on (completely avoidable) and fatigue (a result of being under trained). I don't think I "bonked" in the true sense of the word. There was no hitting the wall; just a decline in my ability to run at any sort of respectable pace. That extra gear wasn't there when I needed it.
I think the absence of long run fast finish workouts was what had the most effect. I knew it might going in; but I thought that pushing through the pain as one might in mile 3 of a 5K race, may help in the last 10k - 12k of a marathon. But there wasn't pain to try and push through, which I wasn't expecting. I thought I could will myself to maintain goal pace. Instead, I had nothing left with 7 miles to go.
Reviewing my splits, I don't think I was overly aggressive the first half. At most, I was ~65 seconds under total time. Maybe that had a bigger effect that I think?
Here were the splits:
Mile 1: 7:11
Mile 2: 7:13
Mile 3: 6:54
Mile 4: 6:48
Mile 5: 6:54
Mile 6: 6:50
Mile 7: 6:44
Mile 8: 7:06
Mile 9: 7:15
Mile 10: 6:58
Mile 11: 7:11
Mile 12: 6:59
Mile 13: 6:59
Mile 14: 6:58
Mile 15: 6:53
Mile 16: 7:08
Mile 17: 7:28
Mile 18: 7:52
Mile 19: 8:27
Mile 20: 9:17
Mile 21: 10:07
Mile 22: 11:44
Mile 23: 12:53
Mile 24: 12:52
Mile 25: 14:43
Mile 26: 14:45
Overall: 3:49:27
Those last miles are painful to look at. Clearly something happened before mile 20. By mile 23; running turned more into shuffling.
At the start, temperatures were in the low 50s. The conditions were perfect. I think my sweat rate tricked me somewhat in thinking I didn't need as much fluid as I really required. Rather than walk through aid stations and ensuring I got in at least 4 ounces, against my own advice I ran through them, slowing down for most, but probably not getting half as much fluid as I needed to. If this were the sole culprit for what happened, I would feel pretty bad knowing it was completely avoidable. But I don't think it was.
I took my chews at 3.75, 8.5, 12.75, and 16.5 but missed the aid station at the last one which left me without fluid for 4 miles. Around mile 22 I tried stopping to stretch where my hamstring completely seized up on me and almost caused me to fall down. From there until the finish seemed like an eternity. While I was in the top 30 for first three quarters of the race, I got passed by runners who came through the half some 20 minutes behind me.
Despite all of this, I was still able to make it to the finish line, cross with a smile, and proudly receive my medal.
The marathon can indeed humble you.
-J
Taking place in Las Vegas on April 29, 2017, the inaugural race in 2016 was the fastest in the country this year (so far). The net drop is 5,200 feet; with a downhill gradient seemingly less severe than other REVEL courses. This year saw a BQ qualifying percentage of 40%, second only to the US Olympic Marathon Trials.