Apologies for the lapse in entries, but 2018 was a busy year for me. Jen and I got married in August and racing took a back seat to life for a bit.
But, like last year I signed up for the Seattle Marathon. Thankfully, everyone in my family is in good health and I was able to make it down to Seattle for the race.
Jen and I drove down Saturday morning and went straight to the expo. It was extremely well organized and we were in and out in under an hour.
We checked into the hotel and spent the rest of the day relaxing and prepping.
I woke up early after a great sleep and began to get ready. I had been wearing what I wanted to wear on race day during training, but I was worried about how cold it was. I went outside just to see how bad it was. Turns out, what I was planning to wear was good. I went back inside to get Jen and we made our way to the start line.
As we arrived at the start line, we watched as the early start athletes took off. After cheering them on, I did some stretching and warmed up.
It was soon time to line up. There were no corrals, just a mass start. I was surprised to see that Seattle was a much smaller race than BMO. Then again, running a marathon in May does sound better than running a marathon in late November.
Soon after we were off. I started my watch as I passed over the timing mat. There was no going back now.
I'm going to go off on a small tangent here about my goals. I have run 4 marathons* previous to this one (and the last being 4 years ago), but all of them were over 6 hours. If my goal is to do an Ironman by 2020, I want to get my marathon time under 6 hours. With my best time being about 6:24, it was a tall order. I knew this was going to be a mental challenge more than anything.
My coach recommended that I put 'Average Pace' as one of the read outs on my watch. As long as I kept an average pace under 8:30 minutes per kilometer, I would come in just under 6 hours.
A course preview was posted online that came in very useful for visualizing my race day.
Ok now back to the race.
As we ran through Seattle, the streets were lined with spectators and half marathon runners on their way to the start.
Around 2k, the course began to climb. I passed a larger runner who seemed to be struggling up the hill. I told him to keep it steady. "All the runners who started off to fast will drop off toward the end." He smiled and I continued on.
The course then went into a freeway tunnel for the next few kilometers. It was a good break from the cold, but it was also reeking havoc on my GPS. I had to run by feel.
As we came out of the tunnel, the course began to climb as we continued on the freeway.
A police car and a police motorcycle passed us and I knew the first of the half marathoners were about to catch us.
Once over the bridge at around 8k, the course got very crowded. Half marathon pacers and their entourage took over the roadway.
Once off the bridge, the course split. I joked with the volunteers that this is where I regret my decision as I kept left for the Full Marathon distance.
The course then became a long out-and-back along the Burke Gilman Trail. The trail was littered with city share bikes. It was so tempting to just hop on one. But of course I did not.
Around 10k, we passed the University of Washington's Husky Stadium. It was very impressive.
The Burke Gilman Trail is a very nice, paved bike/pedestrian walkway, but I opted to run along the side on the soft gravel. It did not feel that much softer, but I knew that over the distance I had to cover, it would help.
Soon, the first of the marathoners were making their way back. At first it was cool to see them running toward us, until the pace groups started coming back too. They took up the whole path. Good thing I was already running off to the side.
Around 17k, the view opened up and we could see Lake Washington and the snow capped mountains beyond.
Then we were at the turn around point. Soon after I was at the halfway point. I used one of my walk breaks to upload a video to facebook. In the video, I explained that I was at the halfway point and feeling good. My average pace was 7:30 min/k. Well under the 8:30 I needed to finish on time. It gave me some extra wiggle room for when I would inevitably slow down toward the end.
I was getting tired, but was determined to get sub-6. I kept envisioning what my finish pose would be. I thought it would be funny to cross with my watch to my hear, as if it was broken. Showing how 'surprised' I would be to get my sub 6.
As I continued back along the trail, runners (not in the race) and cyclists cheered me on. I saw the big guy from earlier and was sure to cheer him on as well.
I was soon under the bridge where the marathon and half marathon split. I knew from studying the course that I had an out-and-back again before heading up onto another bridge.
This part of the course felt much longer than how it looked on the map, but I pushed on. My average pace was dropping, but I was still on track.
But I soon began to lose steam. My run intervals got shorter as my walk intervals got longer. I pushed as much as I could to keep pace and keep to my run/walk timing, but it was getting difficult.
At 36k no matter how hard I pushed both mentally and physically, my walk intervals became longer than my run intervals.
At 38k I looked at my watch. It read 5:08; 6k and 52 minutes to go. I thought to myself, I can run 6k in 50 minutes! That is 8 minutes per kilometer. I started pushing, keeping the dream alive. I felt good until I looked at my watch and realized I could not even get to an 8 minute kilometer, let alone maintain it.
My goal of a sub 6 was gone, but I could still push with what little I had left for a new personal best (PB).
As I looped around, I looked over to see the big guy starting his out-and-back. I gave him thumbs up and a smile. I think we both knew he was going to be very close to the cutoff.
I turned left onto Stone Way to start my climb to the bridge. I ran when I could and for as long as I could and walked the rest.
I got to the bridge and knew I was almost done. The view was great with more snow capped mountains all around. I tried to push more, but found I was pretty much spent.
As I walked across the bridge, I saw 4 large buses. They were there to shuttle those who did not make the cutoff to the finish. Even though I was having a tough time, I found solace in the fact that I would still finish.
As I made my way off the bridge, I thought to myself, "I never want to run ever again!"
We turned right onto Aloha Street and I knew I was almost there. I walked up the final hill, turned left and ran down the hill.
I knew exactly where I was and where the finish line was. This gave me the extra boost I needed to get there. The downhill helped as well.
A block away from the finish, I saw a young man stopped, with his hands on his knees. As I ran to him I started yelling, "You are almost there! No stopping! Run it all the way in with me!"
The finish line was inside Memorial Stadium. As we ran to the entrance I told him, "No one in there saw us suffer, if we finish strong, they will think we kept this up the whole race!"
Jen said I was smiling, but I know I was grimacing. Maybe it was a little of both.
I crossed the finish and stopped my watch. I looked at the time. Although still a PB by about 4 minutes, I was very upset I did not get my sub 6. Jen was there to talk some sense into me.
After a change of clothes and some food, I felt better. A PB is a PB. There will be plenty of other races and opportunities to improve my time.
As I looked over my race day data and collected my thoughts in preparation for writing this report, I made note of several minor mistakes. The more I analyzed these mistakes, the more I realize just how close I was to a sub 6.
First was my heart rate. I am not sure why, but for some reason, my heart rate was very high for this whole race. Maybe it was the pressure I was putting on myself. Maybe it was race day excitement. Maybe it was the temperature. I am not exactly sure, but something to look out for in the future.
Second was my split time. I ran WAY to fast for the half of the marathon. My first half split time was very close to my average half marathon time. It should have been slower. My average pace dropped steadily from about 7:00 min/k to 7:30 min/k in the first half (based on my memory). I figured if it dropped at the same rate, the second half should go from 7:30 min/k to 8:00 min/k, keeping me under my goal average pace. It should have read more like 7:30 min/k to 8:00 min/k in the first half and 8:00 min/k to 8:30 min/k in the second. Again, I attribute this to the pressure I was putting on myself.
Third was nutrition. I had a good nutrition strategy that I had practiced in all my long runs. I have a custom electrolyte blend that I use. However, the taste is not that great, so I add some Gatorade to make it palatable. I have a good Gatorade to mix ratio that I found while training, but since I knew I was going to be out for 6 hours I added more Gatorade. The extra sugar and electrolyte concentrate made it hard to stomach the electrolytes and my gels. Because of this, I didn't take as many gels as I probably needed.
Next race I will not use a concentrate in a camelbak backpack. It may take more time to fill up a bottle and mix in my solution at aid stations, but if it means I won't crash, the time lost may be negligible.
Fourth was training. While my training went well and was consistent, I did not get as many long (over 35k) runs in as I would have liked. As stated before, 2018 was a busy year with a wedding/honeymoon right in the middle of training.
Taking into account these 4 mistake (or learning opportunities if you want to be a little more positive), I feel confident that a sub 6 hour marathon is within my grasp. So much for never wanting to run ever again.
Thank you for taking the time to read my latest race report. Even though the day did not go as planned, I learned what I need to improve on to reach my goals next time.
I am going to be taking it easy over the Holidays with just some fitness maintenance, but keep an eye out for next year. I have some equipment upgrades, some training changes, and some big goals set.
*First marathon
Second marathon
Third marathon
Fourth marathon
