Back to the Drawing Board!!

Well, this past Sunday was my marathon... yeah I was supposed to use this as a "tuneup" marathon, but I hate the fact that I still got work to do to get to Boston... I wanted THIS marathon to be the one! I still have one in 7 weeks called the California International Marathon in Sacramento. Its supposed to be a kinda fast course. I'll be the judge of that. I have been overly confident these past couple of months, I was getting personal bests at every race I did... even the dreaded Brooksie Way Half Marathon (I crushed my last year time by 5 minutes).  I slacked off BIG TIME the last 6 weeks or so, I must admit. I felt good... I think I may have peaked a little too early for my marathon. 

This was the Grand Rapids Marathon. It was supposed to be flat and fast. The first half of this marathon was all but flat! The second half was very flat but seemed a net uphill. I did everything wrong leading up to it for the last 3 days. Didnt "carb load", and I felt kinda sluggish. I tried a 3 miler really slow the day before, because I was not "feeling it". Still no good. Race day, still not "feeling it".  I had a small portion of Chinese Food the day before. The morning I had 2 fake french toasts from the hotel and some coffee. I wasn't hungry at all. Really didnt drink much either. But I was thirsty at the start and they started the race 10 minutes early, so I couldnt get to a faucet. But it was very cold, so it didnt bother me too much... 35 degrees at 8am.

The start was 10 minutes early, so I couldnt get to my pace group. I started off at a 8minute per mile pace for .75 mile. It seemed like i was kinda working, not hard, but definitely working to keep pace. The miles were not "easy" like my previous few races. I had 5 Gu's stashed in my sleeve under my wristband and pocket. At the first water station, I spilled water on my hand and it soaked my glove... needless to say I was miserable for over 2 hours due to not being able to feel my hands. This made it very difficult to get to my Gu (more on that later). Mile 4 or 5 was a very large hill and the recovery was quick. A lot of rollers. Didnt even see the Gu station at mile 8, and I was looking for it. Get to mile 10 in 1:14:xx kinda where I wanted to be, but it was not "easy". I get to the half at 1:37:xx PERFECT SPLIT.

Oh, I did take a Gu at mile 8. So mile 15 I start to struggle a bit, my pace was dropping dramatically. I started getting nervous "Why am I slowing down"!! I tried everything to pick it back up... nogo!! So we hit our "turnaround" at mile 18, and I'm like at a 7:44 / mile pace. At that time, I knew qualifying for Boston was out! So I adjusted my finish to 3:20:xx... then low and behold I had an idea... why dont I try and take a Gu now. It was stashed in my right wrist and my left hand was still totally numb. So I had to use my teeth to pull my sleeve back and get the Gu from under the wristband and open with my teeth using only my right hand! I was kinda scared that I had gotten frostbitten. So I get to mile 20 and it was a wrap then!! I hadnt felt so bad in my entire life!! I was there around 2:34:xx... depression set in. It was actually PAINFUL to run. I was really bonked by then... I slowed down to a 8:15 - 8:30 per mile pace. But I still could make 3:25:xx... It just got too painful, so I did this technique called Gallowalking...

Ran mile 20-22, then walked for like half mile, then ran again to mile 24, walked half mile, then waddled the rest of the way!! Just seeing the finish was anguish!! I wanted to DNF soooooo bad!! Now I saw the 3:29:xx pace group pass me on the 25th mile, so I was like, I know good and well I aint gonna not break 3:30:xx... I tried and tried... nothing left. At like 200 meters to go, I usually try to sprint in, not happening!! Some guy from the crowd got all in my face and was screaming "PICK IT UP, YOU CAN BREAK 3:30!!!" It didnt work, I still waddled on!

So I cross the mat, and the Race Director (Don Kern) was there and congratulated me! That was cool, b/c I was sooooo not feelin like being bothered, but he was the big fish of the race acknowleging me. So I down like 5 cups of gatorade and water, eat 2 hotdogs and chili and innumerable number of orange wedges at the finish!!  My final time was.... 3:30:01... can u believe it??? 1 second?? Serves me right!! BTW... around mile 18, I started getting those fantom hunger pains. Well I probably WAS hungry based on my breakfast and it was like 10:30 now. Although I didnt fuel up like I was supposed to, the one thing I made sure was that I got 2 drinks at the aid stations! LOL.

Lessons learned...
1) U cant run a marathon on 2 Gu's
2) Carb load!!!!
3) Eat a good breakfast and hydrate before the race
4) Any given Sunday can be your worst!!
5) Dont ever walk again... I dont care what the pain is!
6) The marathon is not 2 half marathons!
7) If you start to fade early again, guess what... it could be that you didnt Gu up!!
8) Run faster
9) Run more mileage!!
10) Pain is temporary
11) Being undernourished for a marathon WILL cause you to fade, regardless of your fitness or confidence
12) Read 1-11

My Garmin was off a lil bit, but here were its splits:

7:24 / 7:22 / 7:24 / 7:17 / 7:21
7:27 / 7:30 / 7:24 / 7:30 / 7:10
7:26 / 7:32 / 7:42 / 7:46 / 7:48 (here comes the fade... mile 15)
8:03 / 8:00 / 8:05 / 8:15 / 8:28 (the mile 20 monkey)
8:33 / 8:29 / 8:37 / 9:01 / 8:56 (this Gallowalking is FUN *not*)
8:59 / last .2 miles unaccounted for due to Garmin screwup.

So now its back the to drawing board... I'm doing all long runs for here on out minimum 14 miles each and 20 every Saturday until CIM. I need the endurance!! Well I'll stop the higher mileage 2 weeks before ther Dec 7th race, so until then, I run on...