2010 Eastern States 20-miler Preview

This is the time of year where we start seeing signs of spring.  Some days bring May-like temperatures, others reminding us that winter hasn't quite left yet.  It's been a strange series of weather patterns even for this time of year and this weekend only emphasizes that.  however, all this teaches me one important lesson.

When running outdoors in a New England spring, be prepared for any weather.

As of now the Eastern Sates 20-miler, which starts in Kittery and ends at the border of Massachusetts, will have overcast skies and mid-40s temperatures.  I will have prepared clothing in case it's sunny and above 50, or rainy and below 40.  Until the morning of the race, it'll hard to tell what the weather of a very early spring will bring.

As evidenced by the map, the long road skirts the Atlantic Ocean and its often unforgiving March winds.  This year, repairs to the Seabrook Bridge has diverted the path of the course for 2010, hooking miles 13-18 inland.  The elevation doesn't change a lot - this was the transition from rough cliffs to sandy beaches along the coast - but the small rolling hills are more drawn-out.  The end of the race also changes this year as the last mile no longer reaches Salisbury but ends in Hampton Beach, just short of the Massachusetts border.  It's a bit disappointing that it won't be a 3-state run this year but thankfully my goals have nothing to do with the geography.

Speaking of goals, some of you are probably wondering what they are.  To be quite honest, I have nothing definite.  I would like to set a PR for the distance and get myself below the 2 hour, 25 minute mark, but I have no definite gauge of how I'll do after the bump in the road that was Hyannis.  Mileage has been a little low for the last 4 weeks and the only race I had was the 5K in Portland. (The Kerrymen 5K was postponed due to weather and slated for this Sunday, a day in which I obviously can't run it.)  It's tough to say if my legs will feel good enough to hold 7-minute miles consistently or if I'll feel well enough to finish strong in the last few miles.

There's only one way to find out....run it.

The March Laundry List

Today's Run:  7.07 miles through Bath (Work)
Total Time:  55 minutes, 55 seconds (7 minutes, 55 seconds per mile)
Type of run:  Easy
Total Miles this week:  27.35

It's been a quiet work week as far as running goes.  The times of my easy runs are back to normal.  The weather is calm and pleasant, averaging in the upper 40s.  Everything feels good and ready for the 5K this weekend.

The planning and scheduling phase, however, is far from quiet.  Here's my to-do list for the month of March:

Recover from Hyannis.  After the monkey wrench in my Marathon goal, the objective was to just make sure there were no lasting effects from the race.  After a week of very sluggish running and a respectable 5K, I seem to have returned to normal.  In essence, this objective is complete, but I still want to pay attention to muscle aches in my body and not push too far in my non-race runs for another week.

Run a race PR in the Irish Road Rover 5K.  I didn't really have any particular goal set - I just had two benchmarks to see how well I would recover from Hyannis:  beat 21:29 and get as close to 20 minutes as possible.  The former was reached, the latter was a bit unrealistic.  All in all, mission accomplished.

Register for the Eastern States 20-miler.  Done today.  It wasn't really a high priority to register right away but I wanted to make sure I got that done so I didn't have to worry about it.

Register for the Beach to Beacon 10K.  Today is open registration for Cape Elizabeth residents (of which I am not).  Tomorrow morning at 8AM is when official registration begins.  4,000 open slots to grab.  Last year it took 2 hours to fill 6,000 which makes it extremely important that I register as soon as the site goes up.

Run a race PR and beat 20 minutes in the Kerrymen 5K.  The PR time to beat is 20:20.

Run a 20-mile PR in the Eastern States race.  Sunday, March 28.  This is the important big race in between Hyannis and Sugarloaf.  The closer to 2 hours, 20 minutes I get in the race, the better.  Some changes are taking place in the race due to construction, so I'll keep a close eye on things and plan my strategy accordingly.


Then it's on to April!

Breaking Through - Irish Road Rover 5K Results

Total Time:  21:12 (6 minutes, 51 seconds per mile)
Overall Finish:  65th (out of 715)
Age Group Finish (30-39):  16th (out of 111)
Mile Splits (approximate):  7:30, 6:45, 6:17, :33

This was probably the best weather I could have asked for in early march - sunny, no wind, temps in the upper 40s and rising.  It made the race itself feel more leisurely and, after running a Marathon the week before, much easier to get through.  5 kilometers?  Sheeyeah, bring it.

One thing that I always forget, however, is how narrow Fore Street is in Portland when you're trying to cram 750 running people through it.  As usual I placed myself conservatively at the middle of the pack to make sure I gradually get to my ideal pace.  What ended up happening was me getting caught behind people for most of the first mile.  As I scaled the steep hill leading to the eastern promenade, I was already over 7 minutes.  I knew I was going slow because I was just beginning to lengthen my stride as I leap-frogged the runners as they slowed down on the climb.

Mile markers were absent again this year - or at least I couldn't see them - and made timing the mile splits and tracking my pace difficult.  Once I got to the top I just kept myself steady at about what I figured was a 6:40-6:50 pace.  I came back down the hill about 14-15 minutes into the run and held myself back a little bit.  Once the course angled to India street, then to Middle street, I took off and ran at a increasingly reckless pace to the finish.  If I had to make a guess, I'd say I ran the last half mile of the race under a 6-minute per mile pace, which felt really good.

Though I figured I could have done at least a minute better if I had not positioned myself so far back at the start, I can take some positives from this.  First, 21:12 is my best time for this course (23:00 in 2008, 21:29 in 2009).  Fighting people and that steep hill always knocks me off from running my best 5K time but it's evident that I'm getting stronger with each year.  The other positive is that I did not get passed once in this race - I was passing everyone from the start line to the finish.  I was not concerned about overall finish but there is a little bit of satisfaction when I keep passing clumps of people throughout the entire race.

Next stop:  Kerrymen Pub (5K) in Saco.  Sunday, May 14.

Down With the Sickness - Hyannis Marathon Race Report

Sunday's Run:  26.2 miles through Hyannis, MA
Total Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes, 34 seconds (8 minutes, 37 seconds per mile)
Type of Run:  Race
Splits:  Miles 1-5:  37:28 (7:30 pace)
Miles 6-10:  38:19 (7:40 pace, 1:15:47 overall)
Miles 11-15:  41:26 (8:17 pace, 1:57:13 overall)
Miles 16-20:  50:07  (9:01 pace, 2:47:20 overall)
Miles 21-26.2: 58:14 (9:22 pace, 3:45:34 overall)

I'll shed a little background on the 48 hours leading up to the race.

I had a good run on Friday in what felt like beautiful weather for a February - 45 to 50 degrees, sunny, and a light breeze.  After showering and returning to work, however, my body started to feel weakened - that feeling that washes over your body with the onset of the flu.  I began to worry a lot about what that meant, and as soon as I got the chance, put cold/flu medicine in me.  Saturday morning, the weakness was gone, but fever had set in.  For the entire day my body temperature was elevated and I was constantly tired.  All my body wanted to do was shut down and I had little time to do so.  I got to bed that night and slept nearly 10 hours, and I felt a lot better, so I had thought that maybe I had kicked it enough to not affect me.

Now to the race.

The weather was probably the best of the three years that I have run it - upper 30s to about 40, calm winds, lightly overcast but no precipitation.  The sun even tried to break out in part of it.  It seemed like a good sign and that I would have little problems with nature, contrary to what I thought was going to happen (mid-30s, snow/rain, high winds).

The first 5 miles of the race felt smooth as I started with most of the 8-minute pace people and casually weaved my way forward.  Mile 1 was 8:05 but I chipped away at it until I maintained a steady 7:25-7:30 pace by mile 4 and continued that way through 6.  My strategy at that point was to start accelerating until I could start going at about a 7:10-7:15 pace, then pick it up a little more past 10. 

Remember those last 48 hours?  My body did.

In the space of 5 minutes, my body temperature increased dramatically and my legs were already giving me fatigue signals.  It had already felt like I had run double the length I normally did.  Mile 8 was at 7:45 and 9 was at 7:56 as I started moving slower.  I gritted my teeth and pushed with a bit of effort through mile 13, still staying under the 8-minute per mile mark and 1 hour, 40 minutes through half.

Once I left the rotary after the first loop, my legs and body started to fall apart.  Keeping the sub-8 pace was actually making me breathe heavy and my legs were aching as if I were at 20 already.  I had never experienced these conditions so early in a Marathon before.  By 15, I was worried that I may not finish the race and for the next 6-8 miles, it dominated my thoughts.  This alone suppressed my adrenaline and brought me way below the 9-minute pace mark.  Add to that the suddenly bitter winds that picked up after the 2-hour mark and a sudden temperature drop.  21 and 22 tipped past the 10-minute mark, something I haven't done since Hyannis and Maine in 2008.  I was fatigued, both mentally and physically, my head and legs were aching, my eyes were half closed and I could not get my breath even. I was afraid of not making it to 23.

When I hit Main street on that mile, I tried a psychological trick, something that I could have never done to myself in those early Marathons.  I started picking up my legs as I took each step and told myself that I was guaranteed to finish.  There would be no room for a DNF in my mind.  I had run 6 Marathons before and didn't quit any of those, so there was no way I could possibly stop now.

Amazingly, it worked.  Picking up my legs helped solidify the mental fortitude; I felt like I was gaining speed (and I was).  For the rest of the way I managed to stay under 9 minutes per mile and finished strong.  I crossed the line with the timer at the 3 hour, 46 minute mark, faint, limping, and half-conscious - but I had done it.  I had finished my seventh Marathon, and even sickness could stop me.

I'm not sure what I could have done differently.  I certainly couldn't have done better not being 100% and still in a semi-fever before, during, and after running, but I still wonder if it was the wisest of choices to decide to run it in the first place.  (As a side note I still have a slight fever through today though symptoms haven't worsened at all since the race finished.) Though it probably flies in the face of any medical expert's advice, I'm glad I did run it.  It was partially an exercise in humility. Mostly, though, it was an exercise in psychology - proving to myself that at this point in my running life, the race is just as mental as it is physical.  Even if one isn't working to where it should be, sometimes the other can carry you through.

No BQ for me in this race, but I'm not worried.  5/16 at Sugarloaf is the one that will really count.  This is merely a step closer to that race.