Where No Wolfman Has Gone Before

This is not the race-recap Wolfman needs, but the race-recap Wolfman deserves. 

Coming into my marathon debut at the Rocket City Marathon, coach Brad Hudson had put together a good, conservative plan to give me a shot at the W and, most importantly, a positive first marathon experience. Roughly, the plan was to start at 5:30 pace for 8 miles, drop to 5:2mids till half-way, slowly pick up till 20mi, then hammer home and eat up those who blew up. If the first sentence didn’t give it away, this is not how it played out.

From the gun there was a decent sized pack, maybe 10, and it was clearly slow. I was pumped, thinking it would be a tactical race. I told myself: “I don’t know how to run a marathon, but I know how to race. This is a race, and I will mess people up.” I repeated this many times during the first half or so of the race. However, I am now in a position to realize that knowing how to race on the track or shorter on the road is not the same as knowing how to race a marathon. This is kinda a "duh", but knowing intellectually and knowing form experience are two separate things.

Anywho, we come through the mile at 5:55. Immediately, a couple of guys pick it up, and I go with them. There’s maybe 6 of us now. 5:22. Alright, it’s a bit hot, but whatever, I’m in a pack and they’re blocking the win, so no biggy. (Ya, there was wind. It was ~32 degrees with a cold wind. Oh and it was not as flat as they said. No crazy hills, but lots and lots of rollers.) We keep at the 5:2X range for a bit and it’s down to 4 of us: Stache (65 minute guy debuting, sporting a sweet 80's mustache), Yellow (~2:2low guy in a yellow/blue singlet), and HTH (Home Town Hero, defending champ, 65 and ~2:2low guy).

And then Stache starts pushing the pace. 3 straight miles at 5:19. Now 5:2X’s isn’t that far off what I was supposed to do, but this was a bit much. But man did I feel good. Aerobically I was perfect, chatting a bit, legs smooth, and yea, pretty comfortable. But I knew this may have been a bit much. After the first 5:19 I really, really should have talked to the guys and asked if they wanted to back off a bit. I bet most would have said yes, and then I’d be writing a very different post.

Stache wasn’t done. Mile 8 he surged again, and I finally let him and HTH go. But not enough. Yellow and I still hit 5:11. Not good. Then Stache and HTH came back and we ran 5:15. Some more in that 5:19/20 range dropped Yellow and HTH, and it was just me and Stache by halfway. Aerobically I still felt awesome, but my legs were a bit tight. But not too bad.

We hit halfway at ~1:10:25. My PR is 1:09:33. Until a few months ago, my PR was 1:10:43. So we may have been a bit hot. (And given how slow the first mile was, mile 2-14.1 must have been sub-1:10….) Stache asks how the pace feels, and I tell him okay, that I don't think I could handle any more sub-5:20s for a while. Wish I said that long, long ago.

Things were going alright until mile 16. Went from 5:20 to 5:40, though bounced back with one more 5:21. After that, it was all downhill (metaphorically, not, literally!); every mile was slower than its predecessor. In the middle of mile 18 he started to pull away, and I knew I had to let him go, thinking I could get him later, maybe. That thought quickly disappeared. 

I didn’t really die until mile 20, when I clocked in at just over 6. At that point I realized it was now a matter of trying not to walk and hoping others have blown up even more than I have. Still thought I could rally a bit and get back under 6, but I was way wrong.

By 21 I knew I was in trouble. Here it all starts to blur together, but I got passed somewhere in that 22-24 range, then again maybe a mile later, and my last 3 miles were all over 7. Owch. Finally HTH caught me with less than a mile to go. Like with the others, I wished him well, as aerobically I was still okay (thanks altitude!) but my legs were mad. Very, very mad. The last couple of miles I was just trying to keep moving and not walk. It was a struggle, but no, I did not walk!... woo…

Eventually I crossed the line in ~2:31:20, which as you can easily see means my second half was over 10 minutes slower than my first. Oops.

Stache won in ~2:25. If I did what I was told, I could have won, or at least been close. Again, oops.

But hey, I learned something today. A marathon is unlike shorter races. The way to be brave is not stick on the leader early, but rather to lay off the pace and be smart early, even (especially?) if you’re “letting people go”. 

And most importantly, listen to your coach!

The worst part? Now I have to sign up for another marathon!

Unofficial splits:

5:55

5:22

5:27

5:27

5:23 (27:36 @ 5)

5:19

5:19

5:19

5:11

5:15 (54:02 @ 10) (26:26 last 5)

5:19

5:19

5:14

5:13

5:20 (1:20:30 @ 15) (26:28 last 5)

5:40

5:21

5:40

5:45

5:47 (1:48:45 @ 20) (28:15 last 5)

6:10

6:18

6:57

7:09

7:12 (2:22:34 @ 25) (33:49 last 5)

7:20

1:26

Official splits: 10K: 34:03 - half: 1:10:29 - 30K: 1:40:55