Shamrock Marathon, part 2 - race day!

Race day finally arrived, the temperature was wonderful for walking up to the starting corrals, and there was no appreciable wind. I met up with a former colleague - both of us shooting for a sub-3 marathon on the day.

They put both the full and half marathon starts together, so of the 25,000 people running in all of the weekend's events, there were probably 20,000 people there. I like the big fields, but hate the crush of people when we get underway. (Damned if you do, damned if you don't.) But it was easy enough to keep the 3-hour pacers in sight at a constant distance. No need to be in the tightness of the pack, especially since there was no real need for drafting, given the lack of wind.

The course profile shows that it is a generally downhill course with a minor hill at about Mile 4. But, really, it's a flat course. A total of 60 feet of elevation loss across the entirety of the race, when there is one overpass (on an out-and-back) that likely comprises the vast majority of it does not allow for much variation in effort or temporary increases in speed.

The temperature started close to 60F. By about Mile 4, I was overheating enough that I started dousing myself at the all of the remaining water stations with 1-2 cups of water. The pace group was moving ancreasingly far ahead, but based on where we were compared to my pace band, it looked like they were way ahead of pace, since I was spot-on for my pace band. By about Mile 9, as they drifted even further away, I was able to see that we were slowing compared to the expected pace. Mile 10, a drop worse. By Mile 11, I gave the head's up to my colleague that sub-3 was definitely not happening for me, and that if he wants to break away, that he should do so.

Shortly afterward, he did. And it turned out to be a bad choice. By the point in the course where the half and full split onto separate sides of the course, he missed the signage, and stayed on the side of the course for the half marathon. Once I saw what was happening, I shouted as loudly as I could about 2-3 times to try to get his attention and shift him over. He didn't hear me. I saw him make the turn off. (Oh no!) Nothing I could do at that point other than keep running my race.

He caught back up to me somewhere shortly after Mile 14 (by which point the full marathon was below the finish line on the boardwalk), having mentioned that he actually crossed the finish line and had his name announced. He was worried that he would be DQ'd. (He still may be, who knows?) But he eventually kept going a bit faster and drifted ahead. But given that it sounded like he added some extra distance to get back onto the proper course and then caught me so quickly, he added extra distance and higher speed than he should have done. Soon that would become evident, as I wound up passing him again by about Mile 17.

With the way the course is set up, Miles 18 and 19 are part of an out-and-back where the two markers are almost directly opposite each other on the road. As I was approaching Mile 18, the pace group for 3:00 was approaching Mile 19. And, sure enough, they were pretty close to being on pace. So, while it looked like they went out overly fast, at some point they moderated.

We made our way back to the boardwalk, ran up it for a couple of miles before shifting off by a block to circle back around to meet up from the bottom side with that turn off that my colleague had inadvertently taken earlier. After we made the final turn onto the boardwalk, it was about a half mile straightaway onto the finish, past Poseidon and into the finish line.

My official splits definitely show the ever increasing drop-off of my pace compared to the desired 6:52/mile. The initial 6:55 pace was expected and would have improved had the race gone as planned.

While I'm not so sure that the initial spike in HR recorded by my Garmin is accurate, I think the HR around Mile 10 was likely close to right, given how hard the effort was to keep the pace that I had at that point, and that I knew I needed to dial it back and accept that another sub-3 was certainly not in the cards yet.

Ultimately, the final results for me are decent, though I don't expect they will be good enough to keep me in the Top 65 for my soon-to-be Age Group for Abbott's World Championships qualifiers. If I am doing the calculations correctly, this should garner me 3130 points (out of the maximum 4000), and when added to my points from Mesa, should bring me to 6530 (out of the maximum 8000). Right now, if one were to only add my results in (rather an unfair thing to do) and place me into the next age group that I will enter next month, I would be 3rd in the Age Group. Once everyone else's results are added in up through Shamrock, I will surely be lower on the list than that. And then once you get to adding in all the remaining races for the year, it will be interesting to see where I stack against everyone else who has run at least two Abbott-qualifying races.

While I intend to attempt to beat the above time at Boston (shooting for 3:15 or better there, which is unheard of for me), I still won't have a time anywhere close to what I want. And with my pacing a friend at Marine Corps Marathon and then running in the New York City Marathon the following week (which is *not* the race for me to attempt anything approaching this pace), I need to figure out what other race might fit into my schedule to allow for one more attempt at approaching or even cracking 3 hours this year. St. George (UT) and Tucson (AZ) have courses with 2200 - 2600 feet of total elevation drop across the length of the course (WOW!), and California International Marathon has a modest elevation drop of about 300 feet. By comparison, Mesa Marathon had a total of 1400 feet of elevation drop with a minor amount of uphill gains, too. Hmmm...

Shamrock Marathon, part 1

Every year around St. Patrick's Day, Virginia Beach is home to the Shamrock Marathon weekend of events: a kid's run, 8k, half marathon, and full marathon. This place takes St. Paddy's day very seriously, with lots of green and shamrocks all over the place.

It was a whirlwind visit for me, since I had a massage at 11am, and needed to get down to VB before the 5pm closure of the expo. I got there in plenty of time, at 3:30. They had a really nice-sized space to host their expo, but it was very sparsely populated by booths (and most people had mercifully already been through). Took no time to get in, get my stuff, walk the several aisles, and leave.

Only a brief time of resting at the hotel before I walked up to the restaurant close to the start line. It was CRAZY windy, which had me a little nervous for what race day would have in store. But first, dinner. I was really happy about my choice:

Chicken parmigiana that had Italian sausage, peppers, and onions underneath the mozzarella. Mmmm...

As the restaurant was merely one block away from the boardwalk, which was also part of the marathon course, and I didn't have anything else at all that I needed to do, I took a nice leisurely stroll down the boardwalk and took in some of the sights.

On my way from the boardwalk to get dessert at Kilwin's (really good ice cream), I passed the National Aviation Monument:

Rejected!

Like the vast majority of people who applied for a spot in the London Marathon -- I got a "not this time" e-mail. Hmph! They're not even offering their commiserations any longer -- which used to be the signature hallmark of their rejection notices.

Oh well. Not exactly surprising. The odds are less than 1% of getting in. Only two realistic ways for me to get in: 1) get a charity bib again (would rather not), or 2) get an Abbott World Marathon Majors Age Championship invite for when the championship is being run in London (I'm trying, but it would be for next year at the earliest).

Accepted!

It took 4 days, but I *finally* got the notification that I have been accepted into this year's New York City Marathon. 

While I was mildly disappointed at this past year's marathon (in comparison to my memory of the first marathon I ever ran), I'm attributing that to COVID restrictions (and fears) keeping people away from the course. We already know that NYRR is returning to a full 50,000+ field of runners. With good fortune, we will have the normal 1 million+ people out lining the course, cheering us along. And giving a huge roar as we exit the 59th St. Bridge into Manhattan.

And hopefully, I'll manage to have a better performance than my continual slowing pace last Nov, as evident from this nifty little graphic:

Majors Excitement

Last night, I found out that the New York City Marathon's time-qualifying window actually goes through races run up to March 8, 2022. It's not just calendar year 2021 times. Sweet! That means that my Mesa Marathon time from last month counts. And if they keep that up for next year, odds are good I'd be able to use it again, though I would like to use a separate qualifying time. But I can register tomorrow for a time-qual spot for a full-field NYCM. Looking forward to it!

Separately, earlier tonight I decided to look at the Athletes' Village on the BAA website to see if they had posted our bib numbers yet.

                                                            

I finally have a red bib! Wave 1, baby! Rarefied air up there! :-D Likely Corral 6 or 7, I suppose. 

Playing the Weather Game

As with all marathons, less than 2 weeks out and looking up the predicted weather starts getting serious. (Granted, that doesn't stop me from wondering what the weather will be like for some of my additional marathons further out than that.)

Shamrock is currently looking like the conditions might be a little too difficult to break 3 hours, despite the overall downhill course. Winds are predicted to be 10-20mph, and there is a decent chance of rain. Ugh. It's bad enough when the rain starts up after the race starts, but it's that much worse if it is raining for an hour or more before the race, where it is far too easy for your sneakers to get soaked through and your socks start out wet, thereby making it much likely for blisters to develop.

Nothing I can do about the weather. Best I can do about standing in soaking wet sneakers is to cover my sneakers in plastic bags until a few minutes before the start of the race.

Wish me luck on having the wet weather merely turn into a light mist (rather than a heavy rain) -- which would be great for keeping me cool without getting me overly wet and without needing to take any water from the aid stations to dump over myself.

Damn it, Newton!

No, not Sir Isaac Newton, rather the Newton Hills. Every time I run the Boston Marathon, I wind up walking at least two of the Newton Hills - it's just too difficult at such a late part of the race to run all of them. So, I've been adding the various uphill portions of Boston's route into my training runs, to include my long runs. Granted, my training is still with speeds to support a sub-3 marathon -- which is what I will be trying for (again) in Virginia Beach in a couple of weeks but NOT in Boston a month later.

Today was a 22-mile run, which would take me through all four Newton Hills were I actually on the course itself. Sure enough, after I finished the first two of those four hills (and pulling back the speed appropriately, but nowhere near dropping to a walk), I hit the mythical Wall -- a little after Mile 18. Garmin said my HR was about 183 (Zone 6). And while it occasionally shows me a HR that is certainly higher than what I'm actually experiencing, it was surely right-on today. So I dropped down to a walking pace. And I never really managed to get my HR down into Zone 3 for a sufficient amount of time to really consider kicking it back up into a running pace.

I'd like to like you, Newton, but keep on cursing you year after year. Hopefully the pace I use in April  (about 1 minute/mile slower than in Virginia Beach -- sub-7:48 downhill, over 8:00 uphill) will enable me to get through you without needing to walk up any of the hills.

Age Championship Calculations

I've been going a little bonkers since I cracked 3 hours at Mesa Marathon waiting to see my results in Abbott's rankings. Given the winner of my age group finished in just under 2:30 (!), I wound up getting 3400 points. Not shabby, but 80 points less than what I was counting on given he beat the platinum time by 4 minutes. With those points, and just one race having been run, I am currently sitting at #109 in the age group. However, I will age up later this year, so that ranking and how it shifts prior to my birthday isn't al that meaningful.

Re-reading what happens for aging up yet again, it's unclear exactly what happens for those of us who age up. Do our points earned in the current age group carry over unadjusted (which would make sense), or are the results recalculated nased on the new age group (which would have me gain about 220 points)? If the former, I would be tied for approximately 93rd place; if the latter, I would jump to 46th place (all else remaining unchanged).

Once I have my second qualifying race in a few weeks, I will jump up the rankings by quite a lot, simply because I will be one of relatively few people who will have two qualifying races finished that early in the season. It'll feel great, but will be temporary as more people get their respective 2nd races, some of which would have totals higher than mine. Ultimately, the goal is to be in the Top 65 for my age-up age group to qualify for next year. While Boston is a qualifying race, there is zero chance that it will be one of the races that I use for my total. As the year comes closer to ending, I will need to take more stock in what my results are at that point in time and determine whether I need to make sure to run another fast race and try to improve my time. (Can I find a race that is possible for me to sub-3 and is a small enough field that the person who wins the age group is likely slower than the platinum time? Hmm...)