trumpdabeast.com

The other day I shared the story of the how I won an awesome Camaro to drive for five days…. and take to my marathon! But that wasn’t the only reason this past weekend was awesome. I also had an excellent marathon performance!

I can’t say it was the biggest race I’ve ever run, or that it was the best I’ve ever run, but it was certainly my proudest finish!

ONE DAY OUT

The day before the race, I woke up and went to the park for a quick light run. I can’t break the runstreak after all! I only did two miles, but felt great and ready to run. After that Kendall and I got ready to leave town and took my dog to my parent’s house for the weekend. Then it was off the St. Louis in the Camaro (yes, I really do have to mention that again). Along the way we got lunch at the ultimate in fast food, Jimmy Johns! Nothing beats Jimmy Johns for pre-race fuel, as far as I’m concerned.

The drive down wasn’t bad, nor was traffic, I was definitely expecting worse. However parking at the expo was HELL. Apparently we were one of the lasts ones let into the parking garage before it closed. Due mostly to people who can’t navigate a parking garage, it took us 35 minutes to park. Most of that time was spent sitting.

Once we got to the expo, we got our packets and wandered the packed expo hall. Interestingly, there was no chip verification, which sucks since it turns out my chip was actually no good! Of course, I wouldn’t find this out until after my race. Then I followed around the tightly packed expo while she burned the mom dollars. I’m not much of an expo shopper, but the three women in that family are apparently professionals. Mostly I think I spent my time dreaming of Jimmy Johns and the Camaro.

After the expo, we wandered the nearby areas a bit and stopped for Quiznos. Sure I had just had a sub 3 hours ago, and Quiznos wasn’t in the pre-race fuel plan, but I figured a sandwich couldn’t hurt me. Then we met some dailymile and twitter folks at Citygarden for a bit before heading back to the parking garage. Our hotel was only 15 minutes away, but I pretty much just wanted to have some dinner and RELAX before the race.

Around 5 we went back out for my traditional pre-race/pre-long run/I run because I eat meal, Jimmy Johns (yes, twice in one day). This time I went with the #2 and a loaf of day-old bread. Why day-old bread? Because it’s absolutely amazing and full of carbs. Yes, I eat the bread, plain, like a giant breadstick. I’m pretty sure this has been the source of all of my running awesomeness for the past several months. AND it’s less than 50 cents. Although Jimmy Johns doesn’t pay me to tell you about their amazing day-old bread, they probably should, because I love it that much.

Dinner of Champions

That night in the hotel, I mentioned to Kendall how I’d never felt more prepared for a race. My training was rock solid. I was confident that I was eating the right things the day before, and definitely knew I’d have my fueling during the race down. Despite the fact that 26.2 miles were looming ahead of me, less than 12 hours away, I really wasn’t nervous. I knew that I could run the distance, and I knew I could run the pace. It felt a bit weird to think about my goal, but I knew that once I crossed the start line and let my legs feel the speed again, I would be alright.

RACE DAY!

This was it, the big day. In October 2010, I tried to get a 3:10 Boston Qualifier at Chicago and missed it by almost nine minutes with a 3:18:43 finish. Then in April 2011, after gaining some weight and not training nearly enough, I went out at BQ pace in the Illinois Marathon and hit the wall at 14 miles and finished in 3:43. Now, 30 lbs. lighter and with hundreds more miles under my belt, not qualifying for Boston wasn’t an option. I didn’t want to just qualify at the new standard (3:05), I wanted to crush it. I wanted to run under 2:55.

I really don’t feel like I was as nervous as I should have been before the race. My goal time would be a 23 minute PR. I expected to PR. I expected to qualify for Boston. Even if I had a bad race, I didn’t think I would come in over 3:05.

My biggest concern going in to the race was probably the course. The full marathon course has somewhere in the area of 61 turns. I say “somewhere in the area of” because there are a lot of curves, bends, and kinda-sorta turns. And then there are sharp turns, lots of turns in series, etc. My focus during the race was going to be to look ahead from every turn, and try to take the shortest path to the next turn. There were also a few hills, some of them coming late in the race. Despite all this, my plan was to shoot for my goal 6:40 pace, no matter what.

Getting to the race was no problem, and after spending some time sitting in the park near the start, I lined up in Corral 1, right behind the elite runners. At the time it was pretty empty, so I sat down on the pavement in a spot about 10 ft. back from the front of the corral. I really don’t like to stretch/jump around much in the corral, I feel like it only makes me nervous, so I just sat and noticed all the people staring at my shoes. Before long the corral was full. The Elites moved into their corral, it turns out there were only about 10, and they let Corral 1 line up on the starting line right behind them.

The gun fired and we were off. I thought the start of the rice might be a bit fast, considering I was mixed in with half-marathon runners. The original plan was to go out at about 6:35 pace, to give myself some breathing room from the 6:40 target. Sure enough, the first mile was fast, starting around 6:20 pace. I managed to pull myself in enough for a 6:33 1st mile. A 6:38 2nd mile put me right on pace. The 3rd mile was the first decent hill, and I think I was energized by passing people. It’s a heck of a lot easier running up hills in minimalist shoes, and I’m strong on hills from my training, so I came through at 6:16 for the 3rd mile.

At this point I was definitely starting out a bit stronger than needed, so I started going over my race plan in my head. Instead of telling myself to stick to the plan of going out at 6:35 for the first 16-18 miles, I got caught up in the moment. Instead of slowing down, I told myself that I’ve trained hard, and now I was going to race hard. I wanted to reach the finish line exhausted. I wanted the last few miles to be a battle. I wanted to hurt at the end. After all, if it’s easy, that means I didn’t give it my all.

This led to a series of very fast splits, and a lot of passing. I can’t say I remember a ton of the early parts of the course, since I was so focused on where I was going to make my next turn. I was definitely in the zone.

Around Mile 8-9, the course splits and the half-marathoners disappear from the course. I think finally being able to see who I was racing against gave me more energy, especially since a lot of them were fading back a bit at this point. I was feeling strong, and the course was relatively straight and flat compared to the rest of the race. Once I get my momentum going, I really run strong, and that’s definitely what happened over the next several miles.

See that? Yep, I ran some fast splits. Honestly, at the time, they felt great. I was cruising along. I think after Mile 17 my average pace was 6:19… crazy fast and quite a bit ahead of my goal. I thought it might even be possible to be under 2:50. Not even breathing hard. I was even fueling on the run with Powerbar Energy Blasts. I practiced carrying a small bag of them during my long runs and it worked out well for me since I can eat one every 1.5-2 miles, and slow down on them if I’m not feeling well. This fueling strategy definitely helped me stay strong up to this point in the race…. and then other things happened.

First of all, we hit Carondelet Park. It’s a great place to run, sure, but definitely a slight momentum killer for me. The problem was, once my momentum died it never really seemed to come back. The roads I got on once outside of the park weren’t the most barefoot friendly. Eighteen miles into the race, this was wearing on me. My Zemgear 360s are great, but let’s be honest, they’re one step above socks. My feet were feeling it. Still, I reminded myself that I had trained for this, barefoot even, and I could do it. Whatever pain and suffering I went through during the race would be worth it.

“Is he wearing socks?!?” – heard that at least five times

The spectators, bands, and cheer squads were really making the run awesome. Even though there were not huge crowds, and sometimes there were big gaps between the spectators, everyone was full of energy. It was especially awesome since I was pretty much running alone, so knowing that everyone is cheering for you is pretty awesome. And they were VERY enthusiastic. I felt like a rockstar. I even had a guy tell me I was in 23rd place, which was AWESOME to hear as I had no idea but the idea of being in the Top 25 (not that I get an award or anything) was very cool.

Around nineteen my right leg was starting to cramp a bit. I didn’t think it was a fueling issue, so I was happy to see salt packets at the next aid station. It seemed to help my leg for a bit, but not so much my energy level. I was starting to get the battle that I had hoped for early on in the race.

After Mile 19, I just couldn’t hold my pace. There was no way. I had worn myself out already, and I had to slow it down. Still, I figured that I could run a 7:30 pace or so and still make it in under 2:55. My new goal was every mile under 7:30. If I stuck to this, I’d be happy with my race.

Another problem I had late in the race… hills, hills, and lots of hills. If you look at the course map on the site, it seems like it’s not too bad, with a big hill between 17-19, but they have a nice way of making everything look very smooth and gradual. My Garmin (and my legs) seemed to disagree.

I would have to say those pictures tell two different stories…. oh the joys of scaling and using a big thick line for your graph. Needless to say, this was a bit of a surprise for me. Still, I toughed it out and stuck to my plan, no matter how bad it hurt, to keep splits under 7:30.

The last three miles or so, I was just so excited to finish. I definitely felt like I was going to make it. I rejoined the half marathon course and heard someone say, “10 miles… that means we have 3 more,” in a dreadful voice. In my head I was thinking, “ONLY THREE MILES TO GO!!!” I came up on the guy in 23rd place and told him nice job as I passed. He seemed to be hurting worse than me so I figured I would not see him again. Around one mile left I got passed by someone who looked to be doing much better than me, so I had no plans of sticking with him.

this is pretty much how I felt at the end of the race
I don’t know what’s wrong with my hand

All I remember for the last mile or two was going up and down, turn after turn, and thinking “Where the hell is this finish?!” It seemed like it would never arrive. Finally, I hit the last turn and could see the finish. I knew I would be under 2:55, but definitely didn’t have it in me to finish hard. I guess I picked it up a little bit, but it still felt slow. I finished in 2:54:11, a PR by over 24 minutes from my 3:18:43 in Chicago, and a Boston Qualifier by over 10 minutes.

I finished right where I wanted to and everything went according to plan. This was especially great since apparently my chip was bad, there was no text tracking, and had I finished any slower my girlfriend probably would have assumed I was passed out or dead on the side of the road. Fortunately it was fairly easy to get this fixed before heading to the car. I imagine for someone who took longer to finish, it could have been a humungous headache.

After ensuring that my Boston Qualifier was actually going to be recorded, I hobbled my way towards the car. About halfway there, I scored some free Red Bull, which did NOT give me wings, so I continued to hobble towards the car. Once we made it we set off towards Pi Squared in Kirkwood, MO for a victory celebration! I’d been planning this for at least a week. I wanted pizza.

I thought I would finish this in one sitting. Didn’t happen.

I guess the craziest part of my awesome race is that it never FELT as awesome as I thought it should, and I’m not sure it will. Yeah, I PR’ed by 24 minutes, which is f’ing huge. Yeah, I went from missing the old BQ standard by 8 minute a year ago to crushing the new standard by 10 this year. But the thing is, with as hard as I had trained for this, I expected to run a 2:55 in St. Louis, despite the crazy course and unexpected hills. Yes, it was tough, and I was a bit nervous to try to run this so much faster than I had in Chicago, but I kept reminding myself of how hard I had worked to get there and how well prepared I was going into the race.

So it doesn’t feel as exciting as I expected to say it, but I’m going to have to say it anyways:

I QUALIFIED FOR BOSTON 2013!!!