Wilmington Marathon

It is *so* nice being in sufficient running shape that I can just jump on the opportunity to pace a marathon less than a week in advance. 3:25 was the goal -- certainly well within my wheelhouse. (It still amazes me that I can make that claim. I've come a LONG way since my first body-crushing marathon in 2003.) And I'm even happier that I made the decision to cover the 3:25 (which had been vacant) rather than double up on the 3:35 spot -- there were at least one or two people who commented on wanting 3:20,  but being fine with 3:25.

[photo: KEN BLEVINS/STARNEWS]

The morning was beautiful, having a nice beach sunrise to greet us all, temps about 50F for the entire race, partly cloudy, but with a persistent headwind no matter what direction we were running. Briefly met up with several fellow Marathon Maniacs for the traditional pre-race photo. (Will edit this to include it once I find a copy of it.) It was marathon #250 for one of the ladies in the group -- amazing!

For my fellow 3:25 groupies, I started out with a group of probably near a dozen, despite only about 5 or 6 having made any comments or introductions prior to the race or shortly after beginning. While most who answered the question of how many marathons they'd done before, everyone was impressed by the triathlete who was finally undertaking the marathon distance for the first time -- heck of a goal time for a first marathon.

The race did a very good job of placing TONS of cones on the course to properly close off our lane from traffic, and signs and taped arrows to separate the out-and-back directions from each other, too. But with 800 registered (and only 595 finishers), the marathon field size was really quite small. Really short aid stations -- thankfully I don't typically need them, as I carry my own.

On-course action shot during one of the downhill portions (looks like the off-ramp from the MLK Pkwy before getting into the Downtown portion).

Garmin was extremely funky yesterday, as it was perpetually all over the place with showing me what my present pace was within each mile. Thankfully it worked out well enough, especially having started out tacking in a 30-second buffer, so the true goal for the day was actually 3:24:30.

Part of my pace group outbound around the lake at the bottom of the course, around Mile 17.

Most of the group broke forward of me gradually throughout the race and stayed there. Above three were the ones who stayed with me the longest. The two ladies stayed through the finish line. The gentleman (who is the triathlete mentioned before) dropped back just after the sharp turnaround after Mile 19, ultimately finishing aound 3:36 -- a damn good 1st marathon, regardless.

In the finish chute - less than .2 miles to go! The last of my pace group (below) pulled ahead and was finishing right about this moment.

Chip Time 3:24:15

Overall place 107 / 595

Male place 88 / 378

M 45-49 13 / 47

Despite the tasty offerings after the finish line (including a Waffle House sausage biscuit -- so good at that point after all the sugar I'd ingested), I had to get my burger. Always the biggest craving post-marathon. And I happened to stumble upon what seems like the most happening burger joint in Wilmington -- it took an hour to get my burger, there were so many orders, and that's a typical Saturday lunch hour, apparently. 

That Samburger really hit the spot. While intellectually I don't think it was quite worth an hour long wait, given I was really pleased with the burger and not upset about being delayed from getting back on the road by that extra hour, I guess it WAS worth it, after all. Cheddar cheeseburger with bacon, caramelized onions, onion straws, and their mess sauce (adding some garlic and horseradish flavor). And typical tater tots and root beer finished it off nicely.

Marathon #54 in the books. #55 (with another sub-3 attempt) in 3 weeks!

Prepping for the marathon

Given other commitments that were made and my late volunteering, rather than being given the 4-hour pace group, I'll actually have the 3:25 pace group. Nice! Definitely gets me much closer to the pace that I was originally planning on doing for my 21-mile long run on Sunday. 

This is going to be the fastest turnaround for a marathon that I've done yet. It'll take about 6 hours to drive down, get to the expo (where I may hang out for a little while before checking in and heading to dinner) and relax for the evening. The marathon starts at 7:10am, so I should cross the finish line by 10:35am. Once I finish up at the finish area, head back to the hotel to shower and change, I should be checked out by about noon. Head out to a hopefully good burger (The Smashburger at Mess Hall sounds pretty good) and then head on back home.

Impromptu marathon?

I wasn't expecting to be running another marathon prior to Shamrock in a month, but it looks like I just might be doing so this coming Saturday. I saw an urgent request for pacers, and while not THAT close, it's close enough so that I only need to spend one night in a hotel the night before. My training schedule calls for running 21 miles on Sunday, so the additional distance on Saturday instead isn't so bad. I've volunteered to be the 4-hour pacer. Should be eminently doable. It's considerably slower than the pace I'm supposed to be running for my long run, but I think it'll be fine by doing most of the other runs at near my expected paces.

To be able to randomly decide to run a marathon is such a nice position to be in. Hopefully there will be a decent-sized group looking to break this milestone time goal. It's a great feeling being able to bring someone across the line in their goal time. While I've never run this particular race before, it looks like it should be relatively straightforward.

Mesa Marathon, Day 2 - Race Day!

So, I made it to the bus early enough that I was on one of the first few that set out for the race start. Good thing, too, because it took a good 40 minutes or so to get there, given some of the slow, winding roads that we needed to drive on. Given the set-up, we had the option of staying on the bus as long as we wanted until 6am (when the gear check truck leaves and they start getting people into the corrals).

There was a long line of heat lamps in the middle of the roadway, with a decent stretch of portapotties opposite them. Plenty to accommodate the 2500 runners expected for the race. (And their heat lamps were working, unlike Disney's from several years ago that wound up merely decorative.) In the distance in the photo below are the buses that dropped us off, and behind me are several more heat lamps before getting to the start line. And, boy, those heat lamps were needed. While it was supposedly 47F, it felt a lot colder.

A first for me at any of the races I've done:

As I remarked at one point early on, it was kinda neat seeing the large variety of cacti that were out. I know they're expected for the Arizona desert, but they're still somewhat novel for me.

Given I was wearing one of my standard outfits, very quickly I met up with other Marathon Maniacs. We discussed taking the traditional pre-start photo, and got the announcers to make an impromptu announcement so that we could get as many maniacs up front for the photo. We broke right as one last person was arriving, so we had a second smaller-group photo taken:

Start time was fast approaching, so I dutifully lined up where the 3-hour pace banner was located. One guy (Jason, in the light green singlet in the photos below) quickly struck up a conversation, also disappointed that there was no official pacer. This was his 2nd marathon (his 1st having done a 3:20) and he was very much hoping to rely on the pacer. I gave him the strategy that I learned at the expo, and we decided to run together.

The first four miles are a nice downhill (though there are a couple of brief uphill blips that I wasn't expecting) where it is WAY too easy to fly exceedingly fast. While it certainly feels good, it's also expending extra energy that's needed for the back "half" of the race. (That being the last 6.2 miles, actually. "Half" meaning effort-wise.) So, my goal for the downhill was approximately 6:40/mile. There were a couple of times when we hit 6:30 pace, and I made sure we pulled back to 6:40.

So, we lost more time than desired on the two miles uphill, but knew we had plenty of time to make it back up. But without a pace band, it was a little tricky trying to figure out where we were against goal. The one absolute was going to be at the half-way mark. According to my watch, we were about 27-28 seconds AHEAD of pace at the half mark.

The official site showed this for our splits during the first half of the race:

			Course				Interval				Chip Time Place
	Time		Distance	Time	Pace		Distance	Time	Pace		Overall	Sex	Age
Start	6:30:09AM		0.0	00:00			0.0				262	158 M	18 M45-49
Mile 1	6:36:49AM		1.0	06:40	6:40		1.0	06:40	6:40		106	93 M	6 M45-49
First Quarter	7:15:38AM		6.55	45:29	6:56		5.55	38:49	6:59		191	163 M	13 M45-49
Half Way	7:59:42AM		13.1	1:29:33	6:50		6.55	44:03	6:43		166	143 M	11 M45-49

And from my Garmin:

Laps	Time	Cumulative Time	Distance	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Max HR	Total Ascent	Total Descent	Avg Run Cadence	Avg Stride Length	Calories	Best Pace	Max Run Cadence	Moving Time	Avg Moving Pace
1	6:37.1	6:37.1	1.00	6:37	115	123	--	124	181	1.34	83	6:05	200	6:37	6:37
2	6:31.1	13:08	1.00	6:34	127	132	--	122	182	1.36	95	6:22	189	6:31	6:31
3	6:46.7	19:55	1.00	6:38	134	156	--	62	179	1.33	106	6:29	187	6:46.7	6:47
4	6:40.8	26:36	1.00	6:39	135	138	--	111	178	1.36	104	6:33	183	6:40.8	6:41
5	7:18.3	33:54	1.00	6:53	140	145	55	19	176	1.25	118	6:34	183	7:17	7:17
6	7:43.5	41:38	1.00	6:56	144	149	131	--	175	1.19	128	6:53	181	7:43.5	7:43
7	6:43.8	48:21	1.00	6:54	137	142	--	152	177	1.35	101	6:28	185	6:43.8	6:44
8	6:44.3	55:06	1.00	6:53	139	145	--	88	177	1.35	102	6:28	185	6:44	6:44
9	6:51.1	1:01:57	1.00	6:51	144	152	--	33	176	1.33	110	6:31	183	6:51	6:51
10	6:37.6	1:08:34	1.00	6:51	141	146	--	86	177	1.37	102	6:28	185	6:37.6	6:38
11	6:47.8	1:15:22	1.00	6:51	146	150	5	1	177	1.34	113	6:41	187	6:47.8	6:48
12	6:42.2	1:22:04	1.00	6:50	142	149	--	69	176	1.36	102	6:32	187	6:42	6:42
13	6:45.6	1:28:50	1.00	6:50	145	149	--	20	176	1.35	108	6:36	187	6:45.6	6:46
13.1	N/A

Those two miles definitely took back more time than we "banked" in the early going. But I was being as disciplined as possible to run an even effort - no need to be "heroic" by going fast uphill.

One of the additional points on the route I did a comparison was at the 2-hour mark. If I was running a flat average pace, I should be 17.5 miles in at that point. We were a little off that mark, but pretty close. If we were to keep hitting 6:50 or better, we should be fine. But at this point in the race, there were no more substantive downhill portions to help us out. It was even more vital now to pay attention to not going any faster than strictly needed.

Having reined Jason in at about 3 different spots along the course, we finally hit Mile 20. This time, when he started to drift ahead of me, I stayed silent and let him go. He conserved enough of his energy, this was a natural spot for him to start pushing. Thankfully, I also made sure NOT to try to catch him -- I needed all of my reserves to hit my goal. If I had tried to catch him, I might have been able to keep up for a little while, but it would have been at the detriment of the rest of the race.

Those last 6.2 miles were TOUGH. There were many points in time when the pace on my watch was saying 7:20 (or worse), at which point I would kick it up a bit. The actual pace for each of those miles wound up being closer to the 6:52 that I needed, but that wasn't really registering at the time. I kept on doing the math of how much time I had left to hit 3 hours, and was continually seeing that it was actually still possible.

Keep on pushing. Keep on dousing with water when possible at the really short aid stations. Keep the nearest person in front of me at equal or shortened distance. (Reel 'em in!)

Mile 25 marker, and I see that I'm at just under 2:52:00. At this point in time in the race, simple math is VERY difficult. How much time should .2 miles take at my desired pace? Can I still do this? It's going to be close!

I got to the peak of a hill and had a nice long (¼ mile?) downhill stretch. "PUSH IT! Make up more time here while you can!" One left turn, and I know I'm in the vicinity of the finish line. Not just because of the mile marker, but because of recognizing the area. I can all but taste the finish.

Mile 26 marker. I've got about 90 seconds left to hit my goal. I turn the last curve and see the split of half-marathon to the left and 10k and marathon to the right.

I can see the finish line arch, but am can't fully read the clock, but I know it still has a "2" in front. As I get closer, I can finally see what the time is.

"Do it!"

"Faster!"

"You've got this!"

"Go! Go! GO!!!"

My legs were going so fast at that point (where the hell did THAT energy come from to sprint this so fast?) that I felt like I was going fall flat on my face about 20 feet in FRONT of the finish line.

I corrected myself slightly to make sure I didn't fall.

2:59:59 on the clock.

One last step ON the finish mat. Where was I compared to 3 hours? Don't look at the watch or try to stop it. Run through the finish line first to pull up.

NOW stop the watch and look at it.

2:59:59

OMG! I did it!

Then a part of my brain kicked in with doubts. "Wait, it's possible that you pressed the button a drop late at the start line and a drop early at the finish. Those fractions could kick you over 3 hours."

I knew there was a results tent, but before I got there, I had to get some of my post-race food and drink, and get the massage available from one of the sponsors. I still figured that I made it by approximately 1-2 seconds.

Finally, I got to the results tent. The lady typed in my bib number, printed out my official card, and handed it and a BOS luggage tag (since my time was a Boston Qualifying time, too, regardless of what it was precisely).

I looked at the card and started blubbering more this time than:

--Finishing my first marathon

--Breaking 4 hours for the first time

--Qualifying for Boston for the first time

--Setting a GWR in Toronto in October 2019, which would be my PR up until this day

Official time: 2:59:55. (Of course, I had a few extra seconds given it took a few seconds after the gun when off before I crossed the start line.)

Throughout the remainder of my time in the finisher's area, taking advantage of what they had available, I went back and forth between being overwhelmed by emotion and being capable of conversation.

So, what did the back half of the race look like?

According to the official website:

			Course				Interval				Chip Time Place
	Time		Distance	Time	Pace		Distance	Time	Pace		Overall	Sex	Age
Mile 14.1	8:06:36AM		14.1	1:36:26	6:50		1.0	06:53	6:53		154	134 M	11 M45-49
5 Miles To Go	8:54:56AM		21.2	2:24:47	6:49		7.1	48:20	6:48		116	101 M	8 M45-49
5K To Go	9:08:33AM		23.1	2:38:24	6:51		1.9	13:36	7:09		118	103 M	8 M45-49
1 Mile To Go	9:23:19AM		25.2	2:53:10	6:52		2.1	14:46	7:02		100	89 M	7 M45-49
Finish	9:30:04AM		26.2	2:59:55	6:52		1.0	06:45	6:45		102	89 M	7 M45-49

And according to my Garmin:

Laps	Time	Cumulative Time	Distance	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Max HR	Total Ascent	Total Descent	Avg Run Cadence	Avg Stride Length	Calories	Best Pace	Max Run Cadence	Moving Time	Avg Moving Pace
14	6:46.9	1:35:37	1.00	6:50	147	151	--	33	177	1.34	109	6:41	187	6:46.9	6:47
15	6:48.8	1:42:26	1.00	6:50	145	149	--	10	176	1.34	104	6:42	181	6:48	6:48
16	6:47.7	1:49:13	1.00	6:50	147	150	--	9	177	1.34	109	6:39	187	6:47.7	6:48
17	6:47.9	1:56:01	1.00	6:49	146	151	--	31	177	1.34	105	6:42	181	6:47.9	6:48
18	6:54.2	2:02:55	1.00	6:50	147	152	--	20	177	1.32	108	6:26	189	6:54	6:54
19	6:48.8	2:09:44	1.00	6:50	152	176	--	7	176	1.34	116	6:39	185	6:48.8	6:49
20	6:50.3	2:16:35	1.00	6:50	153	156	--	10	177	1.33	117	6:45	183	6:50	6:50
21	6:56.0	2:23:30	1.00	6:50	152	155	--	10	177	1.31	117	6:48	183	6:56.0	6:56
22	6:53.0	2:30:23	1.00	6:50	153	156	--	--	177	1.32	118	6:38	183	6:53.0	6:53
23	7:09.8	2:37:33	1.00	6:51	151	156	--	--	176	1.27	118	6:51	181	7:09.8	7:10
24	7:09.4	2:44:43	1.00	6:52	151	155	7	--	176	1.28	118	6:54	192	7:09	7:09
25	7:06.9	2:51:49	1.00	6:52	152	155	--	--	176	1.28	119	6:55	192	7:06.9	7:07
26	6:47.7	2:58:37	1.00	6:52	155	160	--	46	177	1.34	119	6:35	183	6:47.7	6:48
27	1:22.2	2:59:59	0.23	5:59	162	173	--	--	182	1.48	25	5:49	189	1:22	5:58
Summary	2:59:59	2:59:59	26.23	6:52	144	176	198	1,061	177	1.32	3,120	5:49	200	2:59:55	6:52

While I had some time banked prior to Mile 23, I gave back all of it plus a little more. The downhill after Mile 25 allowed me to have my fastest mile split once I hit the flat portion of the race as of Mile 18. And then that last sprint in the final few hundred feet got my a very fast 5:59/mile pace for that 385 yards.

Overall Rank	102 out of 2325
Gender Rank (Male)	89 out of 1322
Age Division Rank (M45-49)	7 out of 190

As I am wont to do, when possible, is to get a burger after I finish a marathon. I found a place called Stufrageous, a couple of miles south of my hotel. So, after I got back, finished soaking, showering, and getting changed, I set off for lunch.

The burger was tasty enough (mac 'n cheese, bacon, and jalapeno), plus the fries and a chocolate shake, but nothing outrageous. But it got the job done.

And then a few hours later, after relaxing for a while with my feet elevated, it was off for some more food. Gus's Fried Chicken looked pretty good online. Again, it was decent, but nothing special.

Sunday arrived, and it was time to go home. But first, one slight detour for some celebratory snacks to bring into the office on Monday morning: