We Did It!

In 2004 I trained for my first marathon. Originally the goal was just to finish, but as I realized how fit I was it continued to get progressively more ambitious—first to break 4:00, then 3:30, and by the end to qualify for the Boston Marathon, which would have meant 3:10 or better. Well my training was ultimately inadequate and I failed to respect the distance, and after running the first half in 1:35 I hit the wall hard and limped home to a 3:25:52. Ever since then my goal has been to qualify for Boston, and last weekend I finally achieved it at the 2021 Chicago Marathon, my fifth marathon and 17 years after my first.

Going into the race I felt very confident. My training had gone exceedingly well and I was 100% injury free. My only concern was the weather forecast—mid-60s at the start with a forecasted high for the day in the low 80s. That said, I knew there was nothing I could do about it and just focused on controlling what I could control. I arrived in Grant Park about an hour before the race, had a light breakfast, hit the bathroom twice, and headed for the starting line.

I hit the first mile in 7:35, which I could not have been more pleased with. After a quicker than I would have liked second mile I settled in to keeping every mile in the 7:30-7:40 range. I also made sure to hit every water stop, during which I would pour one cup over my head and drink the second. I was surprised by the number of people I was passing throughout the first half of the marathon, including several that were already walking. I guess the first sign the weather conditions were impacting me was when I hit the halfway mark in 1:39:15, my second slowest first half of the marathon split ever. In addition to the heat and humidity, the wind was blowing pretty strongly. That said, given the fact I knew I was as fit as I had ever been, I was still reasonably optimistic.

I continued to focus on banging out 7:30-7:40 miles, which I was able to do pretty consistently until the 30K mark. That is when I had my only major setback of the race. As I toed the starting line I really needed to go the bathroom (I drank a 20-ounce bottle of Gatorade during breakfast, as I was really nervous about getting dehydrated). I was hoping I could hold it until I finished, but it was getting more and more difficult with each passing mile. I finally could not take it anymore and hit a porta potty right after mile 19. Given all of the fluids I had taken in it was not a quick stop by any stretch of the imagination.

Once I got out of the porta potty I was laser focused on not stopping again or walking at all and finishing strong. I was definitely starting to slow down, but was not falling apart. Eventually I started counting down in my head the number of minutes I still had to run based on the mile and kilometer markers, a tactic I employed many times during my training runs. I was still passing a ton of runners, more and more of which were walking or trying to work out cramps by stretching on the side of the road. Before I knew it the final hill approached. The first two times I ran the Chicago Marathon I walked up most of the hill, and had promised my coach I would run up it if it was the last thing I did. I then pushed through the final few hundred meters before crossing the finish line in 3:23:50. I had stopped my watch when I went to the bathroom to keep accurate mile splits, and my bathroom break cost me almost exactly two minutes.

I have to admit that although I had comfortably qualified for Boston I was initially upset that I had missed my "A" goal of breaking 3:20. But the more I learned about how the conditions had affected everyone, the better I felt about my performance. For example, only the top three men's finishers broke 2:08, and only the top five broke 2:10. And the top woman faded from a 1:07 first half to a 1:15 second half. So I feel like it is a reasonable assumption that with better conditions I would have finished several minutes faster, although this is obviously just conjecture.

After taking Monday completely off I rode my bike on Tuesday and eased back into running on Wednesday. I am not sure what the future holds for my “running career,” but I can finally say I am a Boston Marathon qualifier, and I have to admit that feels darn good. Thanks for reading!

It All Comes Down To This

Tomorrow morning I will be running in the Chicago Marathon, which will be the culmination of nearly a year and a half of training. This will be my fifth marathon, and quite honestly I have never gone into a marathon feeling so confident. My confidence is based on a simple fact: I have never prepared so well for a marathon, not even close. With the exception of the cut back weeks I consistently put in 55-60 miles a week, including running six days a week, a weekly speed workout, and a weekly long run. Three of my long runs were 20+ miles, and I had a handful in the 18-19 mile range as well. I am also 100% healthy--no "niggles" whatsoever. Oh, and I ran 69:47 in a ten mile race and 1:31:42 in a half marathon. So it's just a question of executing tomorrow. We will see how it goes, but at the end of the day I know with 100% certainty I am as well prepared as I possibly can be, and there is a level of solace in that fact alone.

What A Difference 11 Months Makes

So I recently posted on a triathlon forum for the first time in years and realized my auto signature refers to this blog. Thus, I thought it might not be a bad idea to have at least one semi-recent post for anyone with the misfortune of stumbling upon it. What a difference 11 months makes! The last time I posted here I was excited about running for a fifth time in a week and averaging 7:19 pace for five miles. This morning I capped off my sixth straight day of running this week (48+ miles in total) with seven miles at 7:12 pace, which did not feel particularly difficult (a few weeks ago I did the same distance in 6:59 pace).

It is amazing what a year of consistent running can do for you. As of right now I am registered for the Chicago Marathon in October, and am cautiously optimistic it will actually happen as the COVID-19 vaccine rollout progresses. Will try and squeeze in the occasional post going forward, but I cannot promise anything.

The New PR

Now that the weather is becoming a bit warmer my training has gotten more consistent. Today I knocked out my fifth run of the week, a quick five miler. I was feeling better than I was expecting early in the run considering this was my fourth run in five days, so I decided to push the pace more than usual. When I hit the 2.5 mile turnaround my average pace was pretty consistent with the 7:25-7:30ish I have been running the last few weeks at this distance, which was a bit disappointing given the fact I felt like I was working harder than usual. But then I knocked out the third mile in 7:17 and the fourth in 7:01–I must have had a headwind as I ran south the first half of the run. I slowed down to 7:28 in the last mile, but the overall pace of 7:19 was my fastest since I started up my training again by 0:04, which was a good feeling. I know I shouldn’t be obsessing about my pace, but I have to admit I was starting to worry a bit about not getting faster as quickly as I would like. I am also on Strava now, so you can follow every one of my workouts on there if you are really interested (or really bored)...

The “PR”

So after running five days the week before last the weather once again took a turn for the worse last week and I didn’t run at all. I could have gutted out one or two runs if I was really motivated, but with highs most days below 40 degrees and no certainty of whether or not the Chicago Marathon will even happen this fall I just didn’t see the point. Yesterday and today the highs were in the 50s and so I started running again. After doing five miles at 7:35 pace yesterday I ran my five mile “PR” today, clocking 7:29 pace, including the last three miles in 7:23, 7:22, and 7:23. Not fast I know, but given how up and down my training has been I’ll certainly take it. It looks like Spring is finally here to stay in Chicago, so I am planning to really try to stick to five runs a week and gradually ramp up the long run a mile a week, including six tomorrow.

Faster

After four consecutive days of running I took two days off. This morning I ran another five miles at by far the fastest pace since I started back up again—7:32. This was a full ten seconds per mile faster than my last two five milers, and I must say was a confidence builder. I know it’s ridiculous to think I could just start where I left off after having not run or worked out at all for three weeks, but for some strange reason I did. There was even a dumb part of me that wondered if the deterioration in my fitness was COVID-19 related. Thus, it feels really good to run two miles longer than I did six days ago at an eight seconds per mile faster pace.

The Comeback (Again)

Today was my third day in a row of running, with a mile added each day. The good news is I ran the five miles at a lightly faster pace (7:42) than yesterday when I ran four miles (7:44) and just a bit slower than the three miles on Sunday (7:41). So I guess that’s progress. It shouldn’t surprise me that I lost so much fitness in three weeks, but I have to admit it kind of does. It’s also amazing to me that this is now the third time since I started training that I had to take a fair amount of time off and nearly “start from Ground Zero” again. It’s also weird doing all this running outside after having gotten so used to treadmill running. The one benefit is all this time off has been GREAT for my left leg—the pain is completely gone.

Starting Over Once Again

Well as everyone that is not living under a rock has figured out, the COVID-19 coronavirus has become a full-blown global pandemic since my last post. As a result, my gyms closed and it became really difficult for me to run. Don’t get me wrong—there has been nothing preventing me from running outside, but given my lack of proper cold weather running gear and my general hatred of cold weather running I took a few weeks off. A couple of weeks ago I bought three pairs of running tights, three long sleeve running tops, a headband, and a windbreaker (which hasn’t arrived yet), so I kind of ran out of excuses.

This afternoon I took my first run since March 15th and boy have I lost fitness! I struggled through three miles at 7:40 pace. I actually feel O.K. with the pace, although I was surprised that three miles felt so hard on me from a cardiovascular perspective. It just kills me that just when I was finally starting to get back to a decent level of fitness the world decided to start coming to an end. Obviously with this pandemic I have to keep things in perspective, but this has just been a really strange last several months. It could all be for naught anyway, as I have no assurances there’s even going to be a marathon in October...

Tic Tac Toe, Three Days In A Row

So needless to say the growing coronavirus epidemic WAY overshadows my marathon training journey, but like they say in the entertainment business, the show must go on. This was an interesting week for me. Most significantly, I ran three consecutive days for the first time in months, and my legs actually felt pretty good afterwards. The last run was the six mile Central Park loop, which was a decent fitness test. I ended up averaging 7:37 pace, which I thought was pretty decent given all of the hills and the fact I made a conscious effort not to push too hard given the prior two days' workouts. Yesterday I did my fast 40-minute tempo run for the week, but decided to stick with 7:13 pace (the same as last week), as I was a bit worried about pushing myself too hard. That pace felt fairly comfortable, and more importantly my legs felt fine afterwards. The only other noteworthy thing is the Shamrock Shuffle was predictably canceled. I am not too broken up about it, as I still need to work on my fitness and the LAST thing I needed was a subpar (by my standards) performance to mess with my confidence...

Time To Start Racing Again (And Ordered My VaporFlys...)

So this morning I realized the Shamrock Shuffle is coming up in two weeks and decided to register for it (I had originally planned on running it and just never got around to signing up). I ran this race once before in 2007 as I was training for the NYC Marathon and posted a 35:12. I am almost 100% certain I am much more fit now and definitely have been running a lot more. We'll see how everything goes, but I think my initial goal is sub-34:00 (I was running sub-6:50 pace in late December before I took several weeks off). Oh, and I ordered my pair of Vaporfly Next%; hopefully they will arrive in time for the race, as I ordered them from a sneakerhead trading site name GOAT, as I couldn't find them in stock anywhere else. Now I just have to hope the coronavirus doesn't end up getting the race canceled...