Race Report: Marine Corps Marathon - 4:48:53 (PR)

This report has been sitting as a draft for weeks. What you'll read is a report from a ten-day-later perspective, not a month-later perspective. Sorry to keep you waiting.

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Pre-race

Well, it's a full ten days since the Marine Corps Marathon, and I'm just now getting around to writing a report. The result was great - sub-4:49, which is a lot faster than my previous PR of 5:31. I reached my sub-5 A-Goal so strongly that I wonder if I didn't set it too modestly. The race just went really well, so well in fact that I find myself reluctant to write about it - there just seems so much more to write about in a mediocre result, where I can address topics such as what happened? What didn't work? What can I do better? However, in this case - where a race works itself out almost perfectly, I really have little to say. I guess all I could do is play-by-play? And when I have a successful race, anything I find to complain about just seems to be hunting and pecking. Nitpicking.
That was a long paragraph to say.. this will be short. So let's just do the Play-by-Play.

• I ran the entire first mile - keeps the streak alive.
• I quickly started walking after the first mile, in the sometimes steep hills of Rosslyn.
• The "Jog-a-mile, walk a minute or two" plan worked nicely with the early hills, provided I was flexible on the mile part. If a hill happened 0.75 miles after my last walk break, I walked. No big deal.
• There was a long hill around the Georgetown Reservoir that I probably walked for 3-4 consecutive minutes. Again, no big deal.

At this point I'd like to reiterate what I said in the "Stating My Intentions" post - sub-5, which is about 11:30 per mile. Plan for a positive split, aiming for 10:45 miles in the first half-marathon. Then ease off a bit, and hang on to that sub-11:30 pace as long and as late as I can.

• My average pace through the first half was right where I said it would be - eleven of the first thirteen miles were within 20 seconds of 10:30, about half above, half below. The two exceptions were a 10:54 in mile 2 (mostly uphill), and a 9:56 in mile 4 (downhill.)
• I made a conscious effort to ease off at the half-marathon point, and mile splits started varying more widely on the flats of the national mall. Until mile 24, every mile split was within 30 seconds of 11 flat - some were down near 10:30, others were as high as 11:27 - but all were below the 11:30 required for a sub-5. Again, they were evenly distributed within that 60 second range of 11+-30.
• It became obvious to me by "The Bridge" that not only was I going to break 5 hours, I had a shot at 4:45. But when we got to the very crowded out-and-back portion in Crystal City, I knew that I was starting to slow down more dramatically.
• Mile 24, on the way back to the Pentagon, was my first mile below 11:30 - it was 11:54. Mile 25 was 11:38, and mile 26 was my slowest at 12:11. Good enough though! Can't complain about that!

So that's how it played out. Pretty much as good as it gets for me. I was able to just zone out and run without issues. I would have preferred not to drop off my pace so much in the last 5K - but, like I said - that's just hunting and pecking.

Post-race, with a PR and a smile.

On Big City Marathons

No doubt about it, MCM is a popular race - to the point that it's crowded. I've heard people talk about this before. There were always people around. 20-30 within a 20-30 foot radius of me - constantly. And, in the last ten miles as people started struggling - slowing down, walking - there was a lot of jockying for position and weaving my way through the groups who were sometimes moving 5-6 abreast. It got really bad in Crystal City with the two-way traffic. I know this reads like I'm complaining and I guess I am, but to complaint is really not my intention. I just feel like it's important to point out - the course and field is such that a mid-pack runner will have a lot of company at MCM.

These are some tough MoFos, who did the entire marathon with these packs. Notice the crowds  - this was at mile 5.

But also, that's one of the draws of these races. I had not run a big-city marathon in a couple of years. Big City Marathons (BCMs?) are .. a pain in the ass, but a worthy pain in the ass. Logistically, they're a nightmare. Took us three hours to get back to our car after the race. You have to deal with hotels, and expos, and a million people.. Plus they're expensive.. It's just so much easier and more pleasant to run on the trails, or to run a small low-key event. But there's something about a BCM that I crave.. to the extent that I start to feel a void if I go long enough without one. Taken in moderation, the crowds are exhilarating. The crowd support at MCM in particular is really good - more so than Chicago. There were people lining the course pretty about 80% the entire race after Rosslyn. And they were all cheering and holding up signs and having a good time.. I really llike that.

In an uncharacteristically non--crowded moment. of the race.. What a course! 

But, like I said, it's just too much effort to do that all the time. It's been two years since my last BCM, and that is probably a good interval. So far, among the BCMs, I've done Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, and now Washington DC. My next BCM will likely be NYC in 2013.. which is perfectly timed for that two-year interval.

Awesome medal! Maybe second-best after Big Sur!

Splits:
05K 0:33:26 33:26
10K 1:06:22 32:56
15K 1:39:17 32:55
20K 2:12:22 33:05
25K 2:46:46 34:24
30K 3:21:46 35:00
35K 3:56:50 35:04
40K 4:32:39 35:49

Stating My Intentions: The Marine Corps Marathon

My "A" goal for this race is sub-5 hours. That's very aggressive, as my current marathon PR stands at about 5:30. I can run all day long averaging 15 minutes per mile, but maintaining an average of 11:30 for 26.2 miles (pace for sub-5), is a much different story.

Unfortunately, as solid as my training has been, I don't think I've had enough long runs to be capable of a negative split, so I intend to plan for a positive split - which means going out a little too fast and banking time. I'm thinking about running 10:45 or so per mile, with a run 10/walk 1 pattern, through the half-marathon point (My half marathon PR's pace is about 10:15, all running), then ease off a bit, perhaps to 11:15, and hang on as long as I can.

At some point - hopefully late in the race - the 5-hour pacing group should catch up to me, moving along at 11:30 per mile. My plan is to let them catch me, then do everything I can to keep up with them through the end.

So that's my plan. My twitter account should actually be updated automatically when I cross 10K, 20K, 30K, and 40K - so you can follow me there (@stevetursi) on sunday morning and get up-to-the-minute updates. No matter what happens, come back next week for an exciting report!

Race Report: REACH 5K Mahwah: 25:48 (PR)

There are two 5K races within 5K of my house, both run by the REACH foundation. One in Hillburn (next to Suffern), and the other across the NJ border in Mahwah (but, also next to Suffern). I've done the Hillburn 5K twice (reports here and here), but never the Mahwah race, until this past Sunday.

The Mahwah race is located in Darlington Park, home of two town lakes for swimming in the summer time and - as far I know - largely vacant the rest of the time. Having never been there, when I saw it was the location for the race, I was surprised to see it even was even big enough for a 5K. It turns out there's a lot more to the park than from what you can see from the road. However, it isn't *that* big, with the 5K course requiring two laps around the entire park.

Driving into the park on the 49ºF overcast morning, I saw that there were hills there, all gentle. Nothing to concern me. Once I was checked in, I found my coworkers (Hertz is one of the event's sponsors) and, after a quick 2/3 mile warmup jog, hung out with them until the race start - by then the sun had come out and temps were on their way to the upper 50s. All in all, a very nice day. I wore a tank top and shorts - though most others had at least long-sleeve shirts.

I set up a playlist for every 5K, and because I go so fast in these races I tend to play it very loud - so if any coworkers tried to talk to me during the race, I had no idea. But I was part of a few of us who managed to stay close together, even leapfrogging each other, such that at least 5 out of 10 of us finished within a minute or two of each other. In fact, I think every one of Hertz's participants ran sub-30! wow!

3 minutes into the race, after I've settled into an 8-minutes-per-mile pace, I was surprised to see everyone turning off the asphalt and running up a very short but steep hill and then across a grassy field. Obviously I am not intimidated by trail-running, but nobody told me this race would be off-road? Anyway, I figured that was probably a race anomaly and charged up the short hill, passing other runners like they weren't moving and catching my breath on the other side. Then, a tenth of a mile later, there was another hill just like it. A quarter later, another hill. I charged them all. And then there was actually a trail section, about a third of a mile long, complete with a couple of mud bogs and a few roots. I was breathing super-hard here, not much over a mile into the race, and worried that I wouldn't be able to sustain a sub-9 pace after a 7:55 first mile. I was running around 8:30 through there and really struggling. I recovered a bit after returning to asphalt and finishing the first lap.

It wasn't long into the second lap when I knew I was clearly redlining, and I started to lose confidence that I would be able to maintain this intensity to the end - trails or not. I tried to back off the pace a bit but for some reason I found that very difficult, probably because I get so caught up in the competition. So I figured I'd just hang on as long as possible and see what happens. At the second mile (8:15 split) I knew I was close to my limit, especially with that trail section coming up. A water stop preceded it, so I grabbed something and didn't even swallow - just swished it around and spit it out - all over my shirt. Laughing at my slobbery tendencies and enjoying the coolness of the water, I momentarily forgot my pain through the first hill and the rooty part. But the bogs came and I just had to stop. At mile 2.5, I took a walk break before the very last of the steep hills.

Taking the walk break was a risky but not uncalculated action. By the 2-mile mark it was clear that my "A" goal for the race - 25 minutes - was not in the cards, but the "C" goal of a new PR (previously 26:49) was easy if I just held it together. And if I really pushed, perhaps I could break 26. So that was on my mind when I took the walk break. I sometimes cannot get back into a groove when resuming, but fortunately, it paid off - I resumed running when we got to the asphalt with a half-mile to go, faster than ever. Passing back many of the people who flew by during my breather, my pace gradually accelerated until I was at nearly a sprint towards the end. My mile 3 split, which included the walk break, was 8:43 - but the last 0.13 miles according to my GPS watch were run at a 6:30 minute per mile pace!!

Anyway, despite missing my "A" goal (and I tend to set them so high I can't remember ever actually achieving an "A" goal), I have to say I'm pleased with this result. I feel like I'm actually starting to graduate into the higher ranks of these local races - my finish was 70th out of about 250 - but tenth in my age group (top 10!). A mere 30 seconds-per-mile faster pace (we're talking 8:18 to about 7:45 here, folks) would have put me in the top 3 and have been sufficient to win an age group medal. Holy crap!

Next up: Marine Corps Marathon, this upcoming weekend.