The season is definitely over, a point marked enthusiastically by the smothered pair of chicken burritos I had at lunch today. Good times!
Yesterday was the Denver Marathon. Many of you know of the stressful times I've been experiencing at work. As a result, my post-Canada training has been less than what I hoped and planned. I made all my long runs but missed a lot of training over the past few weeks. So I went into Sunday with a goal time in the range of 3:45 to 3:59:59. Just wanted to crack 4 hours for the first time in my 4th marathon, but only my second stand-alone race. Marathoning is definitely different without the 2.4 mile swim/112 mile bike warm-up. My best prior marathon was 4:10 a couple of years ago on this course.
So the runup to the race wasn't particularly encouraging. Zero workouts on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and not a single run since last Sunday. Not the ideal taper. Saturday night, I fell asleep in the boys' room during their bedtime for what amounted to a 90 minute nap ending at 1000pm. I didn't fall asleep for the night until about 100am. My alarm rudely went off at 430am to give me time to eat and be on the road with Bill and Doug by 520am. Aside from a very encouraging training run with my stud-friend Whitney last Sunday, all indicators were pointing to a bad race.
But once I shook off the sleepys and ate my oatmeal, I was feeling good on race morning; confident that I could put a good day together. We caught some good luck on the weather and I started the race at 700a in shorts and a running-tee with temps in the mid-'50s. Of course, I was still complaining about the cold but I warmed up to a comfortable temp within the first mile or so. 8,000 people at this race but under 2,000 marathoners. The rest raced the half-marathon or on a relay, but the start was very crowded. I was a bit more than halfway back in the chute and it took 5 minutes from the gun to reach the starting line. The race is chip timed so no one loses time getting to the line.
The first mile is always tough because I'm weaving forward through the crowd while trying to establish a realistic pace. Felt relaxed and came past the marker in 8:45. Perfect. Next mile was about the same. Next mile too. Good start. Ran very consistent miles (splits were within about 10 seconds of each other) for the entire first part of the race. Finally caught up with the 4-hour pace group at mile 12 (they probably had a 3 minute head-start on me and were on pace for about a 3:55 finish) but had to pee so I made a quick trip to the porta-potty which cost me about a minute. Caught the 4-hour group again by mile 15 and I was feeling pretty good. Was still on 3:50 pace including the potty stop and everything was going according to plan. Picked up the pace a bit and decided to try to push the last 10 miles a bit. After about 3 miles, I realized that I wasn't going to have the juice to hold that faster pace to the finish (but hadn't done much damage) so I dialed it back to my earlier pace. Came through mile 20 at 2:55 and did a little mental math about how fact I could 10k home. Sub-3:50 seemed pretty reasonable but I know how difficult those last miles can be.
Saw the first chink in the armor at about mile 22--just over 9 minute pace. I was starting to hurt but cadence and form were still good. Tried to push through but mile 23 was about the same and I was feeling pretty spent at the 24 mile marker. If I had stopped to walk for even a moment, I was sure I wouldn't be able to start running again. So I pushed on thinking some adrenaline would kick in as I neared the finish. No such luck but my worst mile was just over 10 minutes, nothing to be too embarrassed about. Wouldn't say I had a big kick to the line but was running pretty strong as I came across in 3:54:58 (8:58 pace)--a 15 minute PR. That was good for a top third age-group and overall finish.
I'm pretty pleased with this result. If I could find a 24 mile marathon course, that would be great... Given my current fitness and training, this was pretty close to the best day I could have hoped for. I know I have faster marathons in me so that's nice motivation for the next one. But now, I have some beers to drink, Halloween candy to eat, and college football watching to take care of. Happy off-season!
Cheers.
