I try and do this race every year. It's a fairly fast course with usually good weather for running. The last two years the organization has been lacking however as the RD dropped the professional timing/organizing company for a local middle school principal. They do their best, but it's not the same.
Anyway for background I've been doing mostly easy runs since the marathon a couple weeks ago. I have done a couple trail/hill runs though, and have averaged about 50 miles per week since the marathon. My goal for the Fall City Days race was primarily for it to be a training stimulus speed workout. I figured I'd be in maybe low 38 minute shape, but didn't really know. Since I hadn't tapered for the race and I've been dealing with some pretty severe patellofemoral syndrome pain in my knees I wasn't even sure of that goal.
Race day weather was in the mid to upper 50s with occasional very light liquid fog - not bad racing weather! I warmed up with around 4 miles of easy running followed by 3 or 4 accelerations. The race started nearly on time this year which is always a plus! I tried to hold back a little bit the first mile as I always go out too fast. Also I had my GPS watch set to HR display and tried not to look at it during the race.
About one half mile in I was behind a young woman who herself was behind but on the shoulder of a young guy. The guy had headphones on. He turned and without looking launched a glob of spit over his shoulder and directly in to the face of the young woman. She was exceedingly displeased by this gesture, and I'm not even sure the dope who did it even knew. What a tool.
I followed a group of people for the next couple miles. There were no mile markers on the course, and even at the 10k turnaround cone there was no course worker - I guess they were operating on the honor system! Shortly after the turn-around I began overtaking the group ahead of me one by one. After the 4 mile point I had no one in front of me that was within reach. On straight stretches I could just see a bright jersey maybe 800 to 1000 meters ahead of me. Then I hit the 5k walkers. No longer could I run the tangents of the course, and I spent the last 1.5 miles or so weaving in and around them. I finished strong but could not see a finish line clock. I stopped my watch at the finish line matt and finally looked at it as a race volunteer cut the timing chip from my shoe. My watch said 36:58, but I was sure it said 38:something as there's no way I could have run that fast! That would have been almost a full minute PR from last fall when I was just finishing up a great training cycle. Then I looked for the water that is always at the end of a race. There wasn't any! All they had was some cans of something called Neve. It turned out to be an undrinkable heavily carbonated water beverage. Nasty.
After a 1.5 mile cool down I cycled back to see if the results were posted. The results listed my time as 37:00, which must be the 'gun' time - so I guess somehow I did run that fast. It's still tough to figure out where an improvement that big came from though.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Newport Marathon 2010 Report
My wife, Cherie, and I ran the Newport, OR marathon Saturday. It was sort of local (a 6 hour drive), inexpensive, and had a great reputation - plus it was at the beach!
This is the first marathon I've run (of 7) that I didn't follow any training plan for, didn't have a time goal for, and didn't stress about. I've been pretty much doing base building this year, have averaged ~50 mpw this year, and have been doing lots of mountain/trail runs to try to prepare for my first ultra next month. I decided to run this race solely by HR - 5 bpm less than my marathon PR HR from last December - and hoped to have the will power to stick to that plan. I don't want to lose too much training time to recovery and hoped that running at marathon HR - 5 would be the ticket.
After literally months of rain and 40* weather for my training runs, race day arrived with a starting temperature in the upper 50*s and bright sun. By the finish the temperature was well in to the 60*s. This was the hottest temperature I've run any marathon so far (and I know it's not that hot!).
Anyway I was able to stick to my HR plan for the most part. After 18 miles and in the direct sun my HR did begin to creep a bit - and my pace creeped the opposite direction. I'd hoped running slower than marathon HR would make this easier than it felt the last few miles. I did finish strong and felt great afterward (and today) with only a little soreness. The best part is my time was only 2.5 minutes off my PR from December. I'm a little surprised that running 'easier' than max effort (lower HR) on no training plan, no tempo runs, no marathon pace runs (except for a half marathon 4 weeks ago), and no sustained weekly 'high' mileage led to this result. I'd have to say the strength I must have gained from the difficult trail running has been the difference I guess.
My worst injury today seems to be my inverse-singlet sunburn, which is quite impressive. After I finished I went back up the course and cheered the other runners on for 1.5 hours with no sunscreen. Stupid is as stupid does as they say.
Results:
Avg. HR: 171
Gun time: 3:01:05
Watch time: 3:01:01
First 13.1 ~1:29:30
16th OA
5th AG (the #2, 3, and 4 runners were 47 years old and ran 2:45, 2:46, and 2:47 respectively)
Cherie's results:
I can't get her to write a RR. Briefly this was her second marathon. She had some injury issues in the buildup, but did average more miles than for her first marathon. I set the 'virtual partner' on her Garmin to 9:00 mpm pace for her, but she ran the first 8 or 9 miles at nearly her 10k pace. She gutted it out though and set a 17+ minute PR finishing in 4:06:28. I'm very proud of her but did tell her she deserved a spanking for not paying attention to her watch and going out so fast.
__________________
This is the first marathon I've run (of 7) that I didn't follow any training plan for, didn't have a time goal for, and didn't stress about. I've been pretty much doing base building this year, have averaged ~50 mpw this year, and have been doing lots of mountain/trail runs to try to prepare for my first ultra next month. I decided to run this race solely by HR - 5 bpm less than my marathon PR HR from last December - and hoped to have the will power to stick to that plan. I don't want to lose too much training time to recovery and hoped that running at marathon HR - 5 would be the ticket.
After literally months of rain and 40* weather for my training runs, race day arrived with a starting temperature in the upper 50*s and bright sun. By the finish the temperature was well in to the 60*s. This was the hottest temperature I've run any marathon so far (and I know it's not that hot!).
Anyway I was able to stick to my HR plan for the most part. After 18 miles and in the direct sun my HR did begin to creep a bit - and my pace creeped the opposite direction. I'd hoped running slower than marathon HR would make this easier than it felt the last few miles. I did finish strong and felt great afterward (and today) with only a little soreness. The best part is my time was only 2.5 minutes off my PR from December. I'm a little surprised that running 'easier' than max effort (lower HR) on no training plan, no tempo runs, no marathon pace runs (except for a half marathon 4 weeks ago), and no sustained weekly 'high' mileage led to this result. I'd have to say the strength I must have gained from the difficult trail running has been the difference I guess.
My worst injury today seems to be my inverse-singlet sunburn, which is quite impressive. After I finished I went back up the course and cheered the other runners on for 1.5 hours with no sunscreen. Stupid is as stupid does as they say.
Results:
Avg. HR: 171
Gun time: 3:01:05
Watch time: 3:01:01
First 13.1 ~1:29:30
16th OA
5th AG (the #2, 3, and 4 runners were 47 years old and ran 2:45, 2:46, and 2:47 respectively)
Cherie's results:
I can't get her to write a RR. Briefly this was her second marathon. She had some injury issues in the buildup, but did average more miles than for her first marathon. I set the 'virtual partner' on her Garmin to 9:00 mpm pace for her, but she ran the first 8 or 9 miles at nearly her 10k pace. She gutted it out though and set a 17+ minute PR finishing in 4:06:28. I'm very proud of her but did tell her she deserved a spanking for not paying attention to her watch and going out so fast.
__________________
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