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.
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