Little Rock Marathon

The long weekend started off quite nicely on Friday with both of my flights arriving early. (Can I get that more often, please?) After my friend picked me up at the airport and we got some pretty good BBQ for lunch, we headed over to the expo, to get that out of the way.

They were definitely enjoying the theme (as you'll see from the medal), since the race was taking place just two days before Fat Tuesday (aka Mardi Gras). We meandered through the expo for a few minutes and wound up talking for a bit with one of the women who was handling one of the therapy dogs -- such a sweet fella and a nice, soft coat. After picking up a bag of intoxicating-smelling cinnamon almonds, we headed out on a bit of a walk to the state capitol for a little sightseeing.

                                            

As I would notice on walking back towards the convention center, the capitol was Mile 14 of the marathon course. (For some reason, I thought it had been Mile 7 when I ran this a few years ago.)

            

The interior of the capitol is nice, and, of course, I had to take the obligatory photo aimed straight up at the inside of the dome.

Given our timing, we managed to make it to the State Treasurer's office a few minutes before they close. And they are the only one that actually allows visitors to go into the back where the safe is and hold a large pile o' cash. That stack? $600,000 of cold, hard highly-rubber-banded cash. How much does it weigh? Apparently 21 pounds. Not too shabby. Unfortunately, I had to hand it back before departing.

            

Outside the capitol, we saw a couple of their monuments. I would wind up seeing a couple of other monuments during the marathon, running around the other side of the building that we didn't see during our walk -- the Little Rock Seven and what would appear to be the Liberty Bell.

Of course, the trip into the city wouldn't be complete without a quick jaunt into Hurts Donuts for a tasty treat. Jesus - that was a good donut. (Don't get offended, now. The name of the donut is Jesus.)

Saturday was a pretty relaxing day. After a really good breakfast at a local franchise of the Black Bear Diner (damn, their biscuits are enormous!), we partook in an escape room that was Potter themed. Cute, though several of the puzzles didn't work quite right (as the magnetic elements are very finicky). Italian for dinner was really good, and they even had a live pianist -- we were able to identify the vast majority of songs that she was playing, thankfully.

Finally, race day arrived. It was COLD in the morning. I was very happy that I had brought my NYC Marathon poncho to wear out the door and to the convention center, and then put that in the gear check to use a fluffy warm blanket outside. But it was definitely ideal running weather. 

That forecast was from a few days earlier. Turns out that it was closer to 38F to start the morning.

First up, we swung by Hurts Donuts. My friend got herself a donut to have after crossing to the convention center, while I got one for her to hold for me in her backpack for after the race. Shortly thereafter, the Marathon Maniacs had the fastest meet-up for a pre-race photo I've been part of yet.

Finally, 7am came and we were off! The first mile was a little slower, not unexpectedly. I chatted briefly with someone who was running side-by-side with me for a bit, and then asked her what time she was shooting for: 3:30. Alas, as I was shooting for 3:15, I needed to break forward of her and try to get onto my pace, but as I was about to do so, I saw the 3:30 pacers right behind her, so I advised her to stick with those pacers -- they'd get her across right on time.

Little Rock is a relatively small field and there are only a few scattered pockets of observers cheering people on, so it's a largely quiet course. While I usually don't like it so quiet (as I like feeding off the energy of the crowds), it really wasn't so bad this time around. And, what's great about this course and my friend who was cheering me on is that there are several spots along the course where a single person can easily walk to while the runner is meandering the extra mileage in between. She wound up cheering me on at Miles 3+, 13+, and the finish line. (Stay tuned -- she may have the opportunity to write an entry on the blog about "how to be a good marathon spectator." There's actually a lot to it if you are supporting a specific runner.)

Little Rock is a hilly course. I knew this from last time. I thought I had done sufficient preparation for the hills. Apparently not. And, what's worse, is I unwittingly went out too fast -- I didn't recognize how much ahead of pace I was at 10k. Apparently my predicted time at that point was 3:09 -- far faster than my plan. And having not recognized it in time, that must have sucked out enough extra energy that I could have really used once I got to the nasty hills later in the course. By half-way, I was only slightly behind my planned pace, so I thought I would have a chance to make it up and hit my desired 3:15 or faster.

Nope, that wasn't in the cards. I had a couple of people who were in front of me by a good 25 to 50 yards who I was trying to use as rabbits for quite a long time. And, while it was working up through about Mile 19 or so, they slowly but surely drifted further away from me. My split times and their pulling away was what cemented my realization that my desired time would not happen. I was hopeful that I could at least place in my age group (as a consolation prize of sorts) given what last year's results were.

Then I got to about Mile 24/25, and it was another nasty hill. I knew I would not be able to handle running it - I just didn't have it in me. So, I walked the hill, and then was in a position to run the remainder. Ever closer to the finish, I switched the screen on my Garmin to the one that shows predicted finish time, and saw that I was ever so close to finishing just under 3:20. (A BQ, but not an improvement on the one I already have for 2026 that I wanted to beat.) Finally, I pushed through the end and finished in 3:19:44.

You can't necessarily tell from this shot, but this medal is HUGE. It is about the size of a dinner plate, and it weighs in at just under three pounds!

While my legs were actually doing fairly well, despite the hard course profile, my post-race recovery did NOT go smoothly. I picked up all the post-race food (they've got a decent assortment) and relatively quickly made it out to the reunion area, met up with my friend, and got to a table. 

While I slowly went through some of the goodies, I started to recognize some never-fun symptoms. My face was starting to tingle a little bit (and I was ever-so-slightly lightheaded) and my hands were also tingling (actually, more than my face). And, apparently my pausing and concentrating on what my symptoms were caused my friend (in her third year of medical school, mind you) a bit of concern -- especially since it seemed like I was also losing some color in my face. And by this point in time, I was getting cold (having lost my body heat from lack of movement and the table we sat at was close to the open back door) so I donned my poncho. But everything combined in such a way that Jess sought out someone from the medical team to come over to assess me. While she was doing so, I slowly continued to consume some more food and drink (by this time, finally getting to the banana and orange juice). When she came back, she had three of the medical personnel in tow. (Apparently it was a slow day for the medical volunteers, since there weren't any heat-related problems.) They made sure I elevated my legs and covered up a bit more. By the time they had arrived, the carbs I had just consumed had already started to work to some extent. After a few minutes, they returned to the med tent, noting that if needed, they could come back.

As time progressed and I couldn't converse smoothly because I was still breathing as heavily as I was, my friend sought them out again, noting that they might bring over a wheelchair to get me back to their medical area if they needed to use any equipment (stethoscope, pulse ox, etc.) since I was still tentative enough about standing up at that point. Again, three people came over, and the one new person in the group was doing a more in-depth assessment. She was talking with me, asking me various questions (effectively making sure I was lucid, etc.) while ostensibly taking my pulse (though, in earnestness, she was more likely counting my breaths per minute). I was fine other than the fact that I still couldn't fully catch my breath, even though it was over an hour since I had finished the race. While I wasn't huffing and puffing, it was still enough that (in hindsight) it could actually have been classified as hyperventilating. It took a fair bit of concentration to actually take deep breaths to try to slow down my breathing.

After an abnormally long post-race recovery time (90 minutes), I was finally in sufficient condition that I could stand up and start walking away. After a brief pit stop, we made our way back to the car and to the house. 

After showering, changing, and lounging about for a little while, we made it out for dinner for my standard bacon cheeseburger. (Having had a decent bit of food/drink after the race, we skipped lunch, which worked out well for me given some of my other issues that I've had in the past.) And we went to the perfect place for a Williams College alum:

The burger and sweet potato fries were quite tasty, and the milkshake was HUGE. (This is one of those places that pours the milkshake into a nice glass and also gives you the container that it was mixed in so that you can pour the rest once your first glass is drained. There was enough for nearly three glasses full. Oy!)

Monday was a nice relaxing day with only one thing on the agenda: going to a float spa. Ooh, that was relaxing. We each had a large pod to go into that had about 10 inches of water in it but so much epsom salts dissolved in it, that we were floating effortlessly. And they have it set up so that you can have lights on inside (or not) and soft music playing (or not). I chose to have the lights off but the music on. One hour in pitch darkness, floating, having no awareness of the passage of time. I just may add this into my routine. While I hadn't experienced any soreness beforehand (that usually sets in two days post race), I certainly haven't experienced any in the few days since, either. There's a place not too far from me where it's actually 90-minute sessions, and the prices are actually pretty reasonable, all things considered. I definitely recommend doing it at least once.

Tuesday, I managed to get onto an earlier flight than what I had booked -- there were nasty thunderstorms and possible tornadoes that were going to hit by the time of my originally scheduled flight, so I wanted out, and thankfully I got the last assigned seat for that earlier flight. And, what's more, I managed to get onto an earlier connecting flight, too. And, just like with the outbound flights, both of these flights arrived well ahead of schedule.

Next up? Boston. And this year's twist will be the costume that I run in, in honor of the 250th anniversary of Patriots Day. Stay tuned for that.

Slight nerves for upcoming race

The goal for next week in Little Rock is to break 3:15 (preferably breaking 3:13, even). I've been using the training plan that I used for when I broke 3:00 a few years ago. There have been a number of days when my results on the day were not what they should have been per that plan -- slowed down for bits, maybe even a brief walk break a la water stops. 

Certainly I'm not trained for sub-3:00, but I'm hopeful that I've done enough combined across all of the workouts, both those that worked perfectly and those that were suboptimal, that I can hit my goals.

Mercifully, the forecast has improved of late. I can only hope that this one stays as is. If so, I won't have anything to worry about on race other than me -- the only thing that I can control.

Fingers crossed!

Balancing Desires

As of a couple of days ago, the greater DC area was hearing forecasts for later this week of snow -- anywhere from about 5 inches all the way up to 17 or more inches. Wonderful!

As I thought about the possibility (however remote) of getting more than a foot of snow by me, I contemplated the fact that there would be no realistic chance of getting to the gym for at least 1-2 days. And on days that I was not set to have a rest day.

Well, as of earlier today, that dissonance was completely removed. The storm appears to be shifting far enough to the east off the coast that we will get NO snow.

Grrr... Well, at least I'll be getting to the gym as appropriately scheduled.

Miami Marathon

Originally, I was figuring that I would drive down to Miami -- it's only an hour from where I was staying with my snowbird mom. However, the more I thought about it, the more I disliked that plan. Instead, I decided to ride the Brightline. For those used to Amtrak, it's essentially that (actually, slightly better, IMO), where they also have your bags go through an X-ray machine and the passengers go through a metal detector to get into the station. The Boca Raton station was pretty comfortable, and the doors to the platform opened maybe 5 minutes before the train arrived.

We arrived in Miami 5 minutes early - astounding to me.

And the Brightline station was only two blocks away from where the pacing team was staying, at the Gale Hotel Downtown.

We definitely had a nice room, with balcony and a reasonable view, including being able to watch the ballet of a skyscraper being built right next door.

I was able to check in and fully unpack prior to my friend Ryan (whom I hadn't seen in 10+ years)  driving down with his young son. It took us a while to drive out to Miami Beach to grab lunch, given the expectedly hideous traffic. But it was a good time, and it was nice to finally meet Sammy, who I've seen only in Facebook posts previously. (I'm not so sure he was all that interested, but he was very well-behaved and is clearly a very smart kid.)

After lunch, we walked over to to the convention center where the expo was being held. And they escorted me in to drop me off at the MarathonPacing.com booth. That is, they would have if I had gotten the row correct. We were off by one, and given how crazy crowded it was, the better part of valor for them was to head on out to finish up their day at Miami Beach while I figured out where I was supposed to be.

I finally found the booth, late for my shift, changed into the shirt we were given for working the booth and donned the Shokz headset (around my neck), gifted to all of the pacers. I need to figure out what I'm going to do with my pair, since I never listen to music while running. I enjoyed talking with all of the runners who came over asking various questions about the race, our respective strategies for running it, etc. Especially with the forecast on tap.

                                                                

I left the expo shortly after 5pm and walked down to the bus stop, hoping to grab the next bus that would go to within a few blocks of my hotel, figuring I could get there about 6pm or so, and start setting up my gear before heading out to the pacer team. Ha! After waiting over 45 minutes, a few of us were griping, and one of the others decided to order up an Uber, and he offered the other two of us a lift. While the traffic sucked beyond belief, I still arrived faster than I would have waiting who knows how much more for the bus. (No idea why it never arrived.) And we ended up a few blocks closer to the restaurant than if I had gone to my hotel, so it worked out well.

After the team dinner, I went back to the hotel, set everything up for race morning per usual (to make getting out the door that much easier), and forced myself to get to sleep much earlier than normal. After all, I was going to be waking up at 3:45am for a 4:45am departure. (The pace team was meeting at 5am for the team photo.)

The start line was at the Kaseya Center, which they opened for the runners to be able to go in and use real bathrooms (though they did also have plenty of portapotties).

I was in Corral H at the assigned 5:15am, despite the fact that with a 6am Corral A start, we weren't expected to cross the start line until 6:30am. It was a lot of time answering the same question (yes, we start facing the "wrong" direction before crossing over and walking up to the line) and telling everyone who would be running with me my main strategy other than even splits: walking all of the water stops as a forcing function for everyone (me, included) to both drink something AND throw water over their head.

Finally, after a delayed start, and an extra delay for our corral to make sure that Corral G was far enough separated from us, we made the right hand turn at Mile 0.25 and effectively hit a wall of walking up the up ramp in a very cramped area. (At least I knew about it ahead of time and warned my group, too.) Once we got past that (and lost about 1 minute -- easy to make up over time), it was a straightforward race, despite the high heat and humidity.

I had many first-timers with me (both for the half and full marathon), and they were very engaged and chatty.

The lady in pink in these three photos stayed with me for the entire race! As did the man (above) in the gray.

The man in red next to me below was running his first marathon and, in fact, his longest run ever kicked in once he hit Mile 18. He stuck with me through about Mile 21 when, unfortunately, he fell off pace. But still finished very strong. But the man in gray started to pull away in front of me after Mile 25 - a great spot to do it if you know you have enough left in the tank to stay in front of me and certainly finish well under the posted time.

Given the additional mileage I had run (weaving a little bit, go to/from water stops, not running perfect tangents), looking at one of the data screens on my Garmin during the last mile was very confusing. It was showing me several minutes ahead of pace, which should not have been the case. So, I went more by feel of running the same pace as I had been and hoped that I would get an accurate predicted end time when I hit Mile 26. It showed me about 2 seconds too fast, and I was *not* going to do that again - so I slowed down just a little bit to make sure I hit the assigned sweet spot. And that's where I encouraged the lady in pink to give it everything she had left - finish in front of me. She did so, though with a bit of initial hesitation.

Having looked over my shoulder and seen a few people relatively close behind, I made sure to motion to them to get in front of me and go all out. That also helped me to slow down a little bit, too.

Made it almost exactly on time for being the 4:30 pacer -- 4:29:25.

After crossing the finish line, both of the people from my group who finished in front of me came up to me to get a photo. (My brain fog was enough that I didn't have it taken on my phone, nor did I ask for them to text them to me.)

The immediate post-race food and drink was pretty good and definitely plentiful. And there was enough space to move around before exiting into the chaos of the family reunion area and remainder of the post-race festival area, which had lots of stuff available, some free and some for charge. Thankfully I had my Life Time Fitness membership card in the LTF app on my phone, so I was able to skip the otherwise somewhat lengthy line to get a post-race dynamic stretch.

Here's the official recap video.

After finishing up in the festival, and with being pointed the right way by an official (since there were no signs to the exit or bag check), I made my way towards the bag check area. And passed by a few notables on the way.

And then bag check -- they did a great job with setting this up and having a relatively small number of bags in each of the differently numbered bays, making retrieval really easy.

This seemed to be a rather apt sculpture to pass along the way back to the hotel.

Luckily, I had gotten a late check-out, and wound up using every last minute of it before walking out the door and figuring out what I was going to do for lunch. I left my bag at the hotel, and headed up a few blocks to what appeared online to be an interesting place. I hadn't realized that it was 100% take-out, no indoor seating. But there was sufficient outdoor seating and an umbrella to stay out of the sun.

Unbeknownst to me, they were running a BOGO sale, so, I received two of the bacon cheeseburgers and fries that I ordered. Tempted as I was to eat it all, I knew that would be a bad move. So, I ate just the one of each and, given my suspicion about a couple of the blocks between there and the hotel, I walked down one in particular. Most of the way down, across the street in a stairwell, I saw a homeless man sitting amid a lot of bags. I crossed over and asked him if he would like the burger and fries; he gladly accepted them.

I eventually made my way to the Brightline station to head on back to my mom's for night before heading to Orlando. Flight back was Monday evening.

Definitely a good experience overall. Certainly would consider pacing this one again.