My realistic goal was 2:03 (2hrs 3min), my stretch goal was 1:59:59 – I did it in 1:58:53! But I almost crashed and burned 100 yards from the finish line.
Great day, great weather, great crowd. I met some interesting people including a young woman (Melanie Peters) who sat next to me on the bus who runs for the purse money on weekends to make her rent. Apparently she has some speed and unabashedly tells me that she might as well use it for something (she is also a nurse…) I also ran into runners that I’ve met at other events, one in particular that I’ll mention in a bit. The temperature was around 65deg F at the start, and quickly rose to 80deg+ as the sun came up.
I tried to start slow and steady, but my splits show that I was somewhat aggressive and was not holding back too much. The thing is, I was feeling strong and I was just running at a comfortable pace. I knew that I could run faster, so I figured that I was “reigning it in” some. But it almost did me in.
At mile 3 I was ahead of my planned pace of 9:30min/mile by almost a minute which meant that I was running at about a 9:15 pace. I was comfortable at that pace, so I tried to keep it. However, by the time I hit mile 6, I realized that I had sped up some, inching towards a 9:00m/m pace. A little too fast, a little too soon. My plan was to do Goo at mile 4 and 8, and to walk through the Gatorade/water stations at miles 4, 6, 9, 10, and 12. The intent there was to give me time to actually drink at least 1/3 of the cup of liquids without spilling most of it (which is what happens when you try to drink from a paper cup while running). That sort of worked. At a couple of stations I also grabbed water and poured it over my head (good to be bald!).
By mile 8 I was 3 minutes ahead of my pace and while elated at the strength of my run, I was definitely concerned about going the distance. We still had the mile long climb from the river up to the finish line. So I tried to ease up some – but again, I was so comfortable with my pace and I had such a good rhythm going that I pretty much just kept moving along….
As the sun was getting higher that the temperature was climbing, runners started to tend towards the “shady” side of the road. On one particular long curving bend to the right I was running with 3 other guys on the right side of the road and we noticed that everyone was suddenly jumping to the shady left side of the road. One of the guys asked how come we were running in the sun, to which the rest of us replied “because its shorter”…. (we were running on the inside of the curve – ok, it’s not a whole lot shorter, but every curve or bend that you can take on a tangent shortens the distance from the starting line to the finish line!) It was funny at the time – you had to be there…
Just before mile 12 I came upon a guy that I met at a recent 10K race. He is a bit younger than me (maybe by 10 years) and a bull of a runner. At the 10K race he worked hard to make sure that he stayed in front of me and would always speed up if I got close. But towards the close of that 10K race I found a bit of juice and passed him easily – we spoke after that race and he joked about being in front of me the whole time and then I took him out. Well, here he was again and as I passed him he says “ah shit, you again?!!”, We laughed, I slowed down a bit to talk to him and then continued on. I was actually thinking that he would join me for the climb up the hill, but he didn’t seem up to it – he probably would have beat me if he had!The picture here was taken around mile 11 or so. Credit needs to go to runphotos.com. For what it's worth, I have my sunglasses perched on my forehead because they were fogging up on me and I couldn't read my watch. So whenever I needed to take a note of my time I'd have to slide them up.
The last mile climb from the Huron River to the finish line was a real strain. I was wanting to have a strong finish, but I was running out of gas. At mile 12 I was 2 minutes ahead of my planned pace to break 1:59:59 so I walked through the last water station and then trudged on as hard as I could up to the finish line. It was sooooo hard and I was beginning to cramp. I kept fighting it off and then just 100 yards short of the finish line, my left thigh cramped up so tight that I almost fell. Spectators jumped out to catch me, but I managed to stay on my feet. I was at a dead halt, in pain, and panicked about meeting my goal. I remember trying to calculate if I could crawl to the finish line in less than the 1minute 30 seconds I had left. But the good news is that I was able to get through the cramp and limp over the finish line and beat my stretch goal. But I was so done, that I couldn’t even feel good about it. There were other people that I had previously met all mingling at the finish line area that wanted to chat, but I was in no shape for conversation – I was dizzy, nauseous, and incredibly thirsty.
This picture is as I was just crossing the finish line - I'm not sure exactly how it is that I look so composed, because I didn't feel that way (picture credits need to go to runphoto.com). It took me an hour to get over the cramps enough to be able to drive home. I had brought more Gatorade, water, and protein bars in my truck and I just worked on those until the cramps subsided. Next time I’ll bring a cooler of ice. Ice would have helped a great deal. Another lesson learned is that I probably need to take in more fluids than the 1/3 or 1/2 cup of water/Gatorade every couple of miles, so I’m going to start running with my camel back fluid pouch. I’ll probably use it on the 10M race in a couple of weeks in Northville.All in all, it was a great run – I thoroughly enjoyed myself (except for that last bit). I felt that I ran strong and solid and learned how to get a bit better. In my age group (50-54) I wound up coming in 80th out of a field of 164, right smack in the middle of the pack. Much better than last year where 84% of the field was ahead of me. Overall, I placed 1244 out a total field of 3136 - just ahead of mid-pack, and another reason to feel good.
By the way, the girl I met on the bus, Melanie, she placed 3rd and got a share of the purse (I don’t know how much, probably around $300). ! The leader in my age group did it in 1:26:14 (that’s a 6:30 m/m pace, compared to my 9:05 pace). The outright winner did it in 1:07:18 (that’s an incredible 5:08 pace!) – he took home $1,000.
Next up: The Solstice 10M event in Northville. Then the Milford 18M in Sept. And finally the Chicago Marathon on Oct 9. I might pick up another event or two if they fit in my training schedule – we’ll see. I need to start working on the big miles now in prep for Chicago. I want to be strong and as conditioned as I can get. 18 weeks to Chicago!
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