Record finally falls!

Well, it was bound to happen eventually... Records are made to be broken, after all.

My record for the fastest marathon dressed as a super villain (male) (3:02:02), which I set at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in October 2019 was broken at the Sydney Marathon earlier this month. 5 years holding a record - not too shabby

Congratulations to Tim Shakespeare with a great time of 3:00:12. And on a really difficult course. He also dressed as the Riddler for the attempt. How evil of you. :-)

Fully recovered already

Wow, I'm pleasantly surprised that I seem to be fully recovered from the Air Force Marathon, just four days ago. Using my Normatec boots every day afterwards, getting a massage on Sunday after I got back home and not doing any workout that day, going on the elliptical Monday and Tuesday all had me in good enough stead for me to do a comfortable 8-mile run at 7.5 mph today.

Currently in a holding pattern simply maintaining fitness for my upcoming marathons that I'm pacing for prior to the beginning of my next training cycle: Atlantic City, MCM, and Harrisburg. Shortly after Harrisburg, I'll be in full swing to train for Little Rock -- my main attempt at improving on my BQ for 2026. And hopefully the additional three marathons that I will be pacing in between (one each in December, January, and February) won't take me out of training too much on those weeks. With the way these four days worked, I think it'll be fine.

Phew! Squeaked In!

Phew! My qualifying time is 7:36 underneath my 2025 BQ standard of 3:25:00. The cutoff this year was 6:51, in large part because there was an increase in accepted runners by about 2,000 spaces, to just over 24,000 of the 30,000 total. 

Not sure how they came to that decision, but I'm thrilled they did. If it weren't for that decision, it is likely that the cut-off time would have been closer to 8 minutes which, obviously, would have shut me out.

Now that my 9th consecutive Boston is all arranged, I need to make sure to improve my now-2:36 buffer for 2026 to 5 minutes or more (i.e., 3:15:00 or better finishing time) to be reasonably confident that I can get into my 10th consecutive Boston and become a Boston Streaker -- only needing to hit a BQ and not need a buffer.

Excitement and Anxiety - Dueling Emotions for an Upcoming Record Attempt

Last Friday, I finally received a response back from Guinness that they have accepted my application for a world record attempt. <cue the excitement!> They provided me with their general guidelines as well as some specific guidelines related to my proposal: fastest marathon run on a ship (male). <cue the anxiety>

When I went on my first cruise in 2023, I made sure to run every morning on the outdoor track atop the ship. The first day we were at sea, going at a reasonable clip (about 20 knots), the movement of the ship was very noticeable on the track -- I could barely stand upright at first. It took a little bit to get my sea legs and figure out the best way to get around the curves at either end of the track without feeling like I would fall over the side and down a few decks. It was a lot of fun; I was chuckling the whole way.

Having previously set a Guinness World Record in October 2019 (for fastest marathon dressed as a super villain (male)), this experience sparked an interest in seeing if Guinness would be amenable to this particular record attempt -- and they accepted the application! But some of the guidelines that need to be followed to enable their verification of the attempt are rather difficult, and where I need assistance. Would you be interest in helping with any of the following? (NOTE: I'm not offering to pay for you coming on the cruise; that's a bit too rich for me.)

1) Timekeeper: Since this requires having an accurate measurement of the time it takes to complete the full distance, they want a "qualified" timekeeper. Certain professions that they gave as examples include professionals from local athletics clubs, referees, sports coaches, and PE teachers. I would hope that anyone who proctors exams would also qualify, but I'll cross that bridge if/when I come to it. (I've got a couple of questions outstanding with them on this requirement.) Minimum of two needed.

2) Witnesses: These typically must be distinct from the timekeepers. (Again, more questions.) They need to view the entirety of the attempt (maximum of 4 hours, at which point others would need to be witnesses), keep a detailed log book about what happened, and provide a written affidavit in their own words about what they witnessed. Minimum of two needed (for any 4 hour stretch). Might want to have someone keeping track via tick marks on a small hand-held white board of each lap (visible on video being made) to document - and for me to know contemporaneously - when I have hit the final distance.

3) Independent surveyor: A qualified surveyor to measure the track and certify that distance. After all, they need to know that I have actually run the appropriate distance. The fun bit is that I will likely need to run nearly an extra lap to be considered complete, because if the full distance is hit after a fraction of a lap is completed, I need to complete the lap I'm in before the clock is stopped. I've got a question about whether official documentation from the cruise line about the measurement of the track will suffice -- time will tell.

Along with the above, I'll need to video the entire attempt, as well as some of the prep and post-run celebration, and include an introduction of the various people supporting the attempt. Intermittent photos should be taken as well.

If you're interested in any of the above, please contact me at boxmaster@alumni.williams.edu. The cruise that I'm looking to undertake this record attempt is Virgin Voyages' Valiant Lady cruise to the Caribbean Dec 20-26, 2024. I can't adjust the timing, given other factors at play, and recognize that some people who might otherwise be interested won't be able to assist because of Christmas; that's a risk I'm willing to take.

Thanks in advance for considering this!

Armed Forces Challenge, Race #2: Air Force Marathon 2024 (part two)

With the sizable number of pacers staying over at the house, all of the women were upstairs (plenty of bedrooms, since it's a family with four children, all of whom are adults who are out of the house) and the men were downstairs (three of us on air mattresses, and one on a bed in a room that could be sequestered from the rest).

With a 5:30am departure, I made sure to get up at 4:30am. And rather than potentially wake the others earlier than they wanted or be in the basement bathroom too long, I used the one on the main floor, had my usual pre-race breakfast (banana and granola bar), and finished getting ready. One by one, the others emerged, ready to go. 5:20 rolls around, and the question arises: Where's Alex? We thought he had gotten up, but it turns out he was still snug as a bug in a rug. Paul poked him and told him it was time to get up. Alex thought it was only approaching 4:30am, and his alarm hadn't gone off yet -- turns out his watch was still on Central Time! Somehow, in less than five minutes, he was upstairs, ready to head out.

We split up into four cars to caravan. Certain people, including the pacers, were able to get parking passes that enabled them to park MUCH closer to the start line than the generic parking made available at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. We were the third in line (Paul driving), with Diane driving the lead car (with Alex as "navigator").

As we were driving, Paul was telling "the other Paul" and me about the sizable traffic delays they had last year when they departed at 6am, hence the decision to leave at 5:30am this year. Soon enough we get to the exit that I know they are supposed to take, confirmed by his GPS display, and neither of the 1st two cars took it. Paul continued the caravan. "What's going on? That was our exit." I said. We eventually took a different exit (not making a U-turn back to what we should have taken) and strangely made our way to the entrance to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. "What the heck is going on? We're not supposed to be here." As we are approaching, I see the 100% ID Check sign, and start to get my ID out. (I always carry my ID, credit card, and insurance card, in case something goes horribly awry during a race.) We ask Paul in the back seat if he has his ID. "What? No." We start quipping about him getting out and jumping in the trunk. It didn't matter, because the guard at the gate pinned on the map in a phone in the lead car specifically where we need to go, so the rest of us were now tethered.

As we were approaching the exit back to the highway, our GPS was saying to turn left, but the caravan was turning right, so we followed suit. Paul pointed out how the map was showing a road closure and, sure enough, our way was shortly stymied by a police blockade (since the marathon would be running there later), and we were turned away. Amusingly enough, several twists and turns later, we finally made our way to a road that had a sign that mentioned Marathon Parking Right Lane. But it wasn't clear that those in the right lane would be FORCED into the parking lot. After all, we had another 2-3 miles to go to get where we wanted via driving. Well, we were in the right lane, so we were stuck... parking in the main area with everyone else, despite our parking pass that would have let us park MUCH closer to the start. C'est la vie. We were there, albeit later than planned -- the rest of the pace team had to be wondering what was happening. While I was very much spun up through the whole adventure (clear in our group text chat with a few messages I sent asking what was going on), this was fodder for lots of joking later in the evening. (Unfortunately, a fair bit of it at Alex's expense -- good thing he was as good a sport as he was.)

First light approaching the starting area

We handed out the pacer sticks to everyone, had our group photo in front of the finisher bell, and had a quick team meeting with some last minute advice dispensed, before we all went our separate ways (last minute prep, porta-potties, and into the corrals by 7:15am to gather up people who would be running with us).

After a brief pit stop (the lines never seem to move well, and there is no pre-set etiquette about how many porta-potties any one line goes to), I got my water bottle* and made my way into corral A, and lined up between the 3:40 and 3:55 pacer. After a couple of minutes trying to see who in my vicinity would be joining the group, I realized that where I should have had two water bottles (one in my hand and one in the back of my hydration belt), I wasn't actually holding a water bottle yet. Dammit! 12 minutes before race start -- no chance there's sufficient time to make my way to our tent to retrieve and get back in time. Sure, if there were nothing in the way, it would take less than 5 minutes, but I was taking no chances. OK, I'd have to deal with just the one -- either by taking cups to drink at some point on the course or refilling my bottle en route; play it by ear. The blessing about that, though, was that I wouldn't have the bottle bouncing on my backside for 13 miles. (And I would be 18 ounces lighter, too. Every bit helps.)

Soon enough, we were off! Temperature at the start was about 70F. Plan for the race was to take the uphills slower and make up the time on the downhills. Most of the course was either flat or small rolling hills, where we would aim for the average. The biggest thing I impressed incessantly on my group was that they need to not only make sure to drink at every water stop, but douse themselves with at least a couple of cups of water. I was highly impressed by the organizers making sure to set up several extra water stations (that contained solely water), presumably with the expectation that lots of the water at all of the stations would be used for dousing, given the conditions.

I was really happy with my group of about 8-10 people. They were responsive to my questions at the beginning, seemed to enjoy some of my anecdotes, and got comfortable enough with me and the others in the group to kick off some of the conversational topics themselves. I had many people who were running their very first marathon, and a couple of grizzled marathon veterans, including a Marathon Maniac who was running his 527th marathon. (It took him about 40 years to get that many under his belt.) 

Finally in the lead-up to about Mile 14, I let my group know that I would be stopping for a little longer at the water station to fill up my bottle, but that they should keep on going on pace and I would catch up to them pretty quickly. By the time I caught up, I noticed that the group had actually split into two: the lead group was being headed up by the Maniac (who runs faster when he talks) and a trailing group (which may have fallen off pace by just a small touch). I caught the trailing group and pointed out that I would like us to be able to slowly but surely catch the lead group and re-form. As I did that, and made sure that my pace wasn't anything excessive compared to what the average should be, it seemed like most of the trailing group couldn't keep up, unfortunately. I caught up to the lead group shortly before we arrived at the Fly Zone -- one of few areas that had lots of spectators cheering. (Air Force Marathon provides a shuttle service between the start/finish line and the Fly Zone to give people an opportunity to see their runners at both locations, and it bolsters some of the restaurants and other businesses in the area as a nice side effect.) 

On the initial leg of the Fly Zone, there was the overwhelming smell of bacon. Oh, scrumptious! I figured it was simply a tease from bacon being cooked in one of the nearby restaurants. Not so. In short order, I saw several signs exclaiming "BACON!" on the other side of the course, and people handing out cooked strips of bacon. "I am coming for you!" I screamed at the people manning that station.

A little over a mile or so, and many turns through the neighborhoods, later we arrived at the Bacon stop. I wasn't risking the "party foul" of missing the hand-off and dropping the bacon on the ground. I walked the stop like the water stops. OMG! While many people avoided it (it violates the cardinal rule of "nothing new on race day", and it's also inherently greasy -- not something that's advisable during a race) it was glorious. It was such a good relief from the sweet of the Shot Bloks that I use for my fueling. I only took one piece, despite being offered (and wanting) a second. It took a while to manage to chew the first half to then get to the second half -- I needed to be careful not to choke on the bacon "crumbs" that I was naturally creating while chewing. It's not something that one typically thinks about when eating bacon under normal circumstances, but when running a marathon at full pace, it's a very important thing to work through.

Unfortunately, within a few miles more, slowly but surely everyone in this remaining part of the group dropped off, including the Maniac who was at the front of the above video. I was barely holding it together through about Mile 20 or 21, before which I was solo. At this point, it was mostly a matter of making sure I finished healthy and tried to minimize the amount of overage, and all the better if I could manage to help out others on the way.

At about this time I picked up another runner (on his first marathon) who had fallen off whatever pace he had been doing. He got energized when I started passing him, and he stayed with me. I advised him that I was more likely in the 3:55 to 4:00 range, and he was completely fine with that: "I'm sticking with you." When we got to the next hill (which was a fair bit earlier than I expected), I told him I was going to walk up the hill -- worked for him. At the top, there was a medical tent where we each got a full bottle of very cold water. Oh, that felt so good pouring a fair bit over my head at that point, and even drinking some of it (as my water bottle was finished by that point).

Along the way, I kept on encouraging people who looked like they were struggling, but also making sure they knew the reality of the situation with me passing, that I was closer to 4-hour pace than 3:50 like the sign said.

As we approached ever closer, I tried to figure out what the likely time would be, but never saw a Mile 25 marker to help figure things out. (Apparently no one saw a marker for that point.) I knew I'd be under 4 hours, but would I be under 3:55, at least? I had run about an extra 1/4 mile across the length of the course (which equates to about 2 minutes), so without knowing what the mark was for Mile 25, there was no telling. After all, how much further off on distance was I, too? And there wasn't a Mile 26 marker either. So, even though I recognized that I was in the vicinity of the finish line, I didn't really know just how much further was with each of the next few turns until I entered the straightaway with the finish line in front of me and a 13 Mile flag for the half-marathon (which finish line coincided with ours).

I likely killed a couple of extra seconds doing a little playful posing for the camera before doing a finish line jump, which they didn't quite capture.

It took a bit to cross the start line, so the tale isn't *quite* as bad as the time above my head would imply. But not all that much better. My official splits:

Boy, howdy, what a HARD day. Totally spent. Shortly after getting the medal and photo, I walked through a nice mist shower and collected my post-race food and drink. Thankfully the food was pre-set inside of easily carried boxes.

As much as I wanted to get out to the finish line to cheer on finishers, I needed to take care of myself first. My vision was slightly affected -- not quite dizziness or blurriness. Hard to describe accurately, but something I am accustomed to when truly spent after a hard run, and thoroughly symptomatic of being dehydrated. I chugged down a couple of bottles of water, and slowly went through some of the food, even though some of it was not overly palatable to me at the time -- I desperately needed to make sure I got some more calories and salt into my system. Gradually my vision returned to normal and I started feeling fairly decent, though obviously still tired.

Good timing, too. Because just around then, one of the guards came by with a Boston Dynamics robot dog.

One of the Galloway pacers' young (pre-teen) daughters was in the tent with us asking why kids her age weren't allowed to run or pace, and saying what she would be able to do. (Based on what I was inferring from the father, it sounded like she was not yet running, that most of this was just talk.) There isn't anything to stop her from getting into running and training up, eventually running in the races she's old enough to enter. And, once she has enough of that under her belt, she'll be able to look into pacing. Hopefully she took to heart some of what I was saying.

More and more pacers arrived in the tent, some who had hit their marks, others who were over by larger margins than I was. The last of our group of pacers arrived, and shortly thereafter a few of us took the golf bag with all of the pacer sticks back to the house for eventual shipping back to On Pace Race.

Showered and human again, I donned my Normatec boots to help speed along my recovery (and hopefully encourage some of the others to take advantage of them). Two of the other pacers plus one other person there took advantage of seeing what it was like to use these. They seemed favorably impressed with what their legs felt like afterward.

We had a late lunch of burgers, hot dogs, and chicken, and some traditional fixin's, sat around and chatted - some about the day just run, and plenty else. We did eventually have a repeat of the pasta dinner, took advantage of the hot tub, and dessert of s'mores around the fire pit, during which time Paul recounted his vantage point of the morning snafu of missing the exit and my reactions, and our mutual "blaming" it on Alex, dozing off as navigator right beforehand (where it was apparently dueling GPS systems saying different things for the same point in time). The way everyone's vantage points were explained led to much laughter - no recriminations anywhere around that fire pit.

That was it for me. Once we hit the sack, everyone thoroughly spent, I had a somewhat restless night's sleep, partly worried about whether the Uber I had ordered would actually arrive at the stupid-early 4:30am pickup I needed for my 6am flight. They were all likely still asleep when I walked in my front door at 7:30am, and were all set to have a pancake breakfast. (Darn, that would have been nice to be around for. There were 5 packages of bacon defrosting on the counter when I left. Oh, that smell would have been divine.)

Looking forward to pacing with these peeps again. While Air Force may not happen again given other races on the schedule, I don't doubt I'll cross paths with many of them on other pacing gigs.

Armed Forces Challenge, Race #2: Air Force Marathon 2024 (part one)

Where I had done the Coast Guard Marathon several months ago for two purposes (try to get a useable BQ and kick off the Armed Forces Challenge), this time in continuing the challenge I was running the race as a pacer, not seeking a time for myself, but to "bring home" people in my group in 3:50. 

Several weeks ago, the owners of the pacing company that we're running for sent out a note to all of their pacers for the weekend that, once again, the team would be hosted at the home of the parents of one of the pacers. Despite not knowing any of the pacers, let alone our hosts, I RSVP'd that I would join in and canceled my hotel reservation. I am SO happy that I did, because it was a lovely time - whereas the other way around I would have merely been sitting in my hotel and maybe doing a little walking around in Dayton on Friday. Diane and Charles were totally gracious hosts.

I arrived mid-day on Thursday. Alas, there wasn't all that much for me to do while Diane continued her food prep (for some of the later meals she would be serving). We chit-chatted a fair bit, and I did a little bit of stuff on my cell phone and enjoyed petting their Yorkipoo, Hazel, who was happy to have the extra attention, of course.

One of the things that I did wind up doing was move boxes of Mush into the garage and then I unloaded them into one of the refrigerators. Mush is the pacing company's (On Pace Race) sponsor for Air Force Marathon. They provided the jerseys/tank tops that we were wearing as pace team members, and in return we brought two coolers filled with their product to the expo to give out to the attendees. We had 5 flavors of overnight oats: apple cinnamon, blueberry, peanut butter, and vanilla bean, as well as 1 flavor of their newer product Mushkins (oatmeal smoothie): strawberry banana. (There was supposed to be a second flavor (Apple Dreams), but that didn't get delivered until after we returned from the expo on Friday.) The product went pretty well. I had never had it before and wound up eating one of the apple cinnamon when somebody asked what were they like. Since I had no clue, I figured I should give a taste -- it was quite good. As odd as cold oatmeal sounds, it was really very tasty. And it's even gluten free and vegan, to boot.

 

A little later, we got a separate delivery -- the large golf bag that contained all of the pacer materials: pacer packets and the pacing sticks. My task was to take out the packets for those pacers who would be staying at the house, as well as add in jerseys to the packets for those male pacers who still needed one. And then pack everything back into the bag to be brought to the expo on Friday.

Diane made a nice meal for the two of us (as none of the other pacers had yet arrived), and a few hours later Paul Addicott, after a long pair of flights from the UK. And after his having some dinner and the three of us chatting, Diane's daughter, Bekah, finally arrived, right before we were all about to hit the hay.

Friday rolled around and after breakfast, it was time to load up the car with the various materials bound for the expo and head on out. The four of us arrived just after the start of the expo at 11am.

We were there until about 3pm when one of the other pacers relieved us to take the next shift. We had plenty of people stopping by asking us questions, ranging from whether we have a pacer for a certain time they were shooting for, to race day strategy, what the course was like, the weather, etc. 

The biggest piece of advice I gave to everyone who stopped by was for them to *not* attempt anything that they considered to be a stretch goal, rather that they should start with a pace group at least one group further back -- the temperatures were going to be far too high to expect to be able to push harder than they knew they could reasonably comfortably achieve.

Considering the size of the weekend's events, the expo was pretty good. There were two things in particular that we took advantage of:

Several us got a customized bobblehead from the State Farm Insurance booth.

They had lots of options to choose from, and I opted for the super hero, to act as the counterpoint for my still holding the record for the fastest marathon run dressed as a super villain.

There was also a booth where you could get a 360 video created. We each did solo shots, and did a group pacer jump shot as well.

The two people manning the booth were practically in hysterics with the four of us. We had planned to do a shot of us jumping, and the lack of coordination in our jumping was really very amusing. They were very patient with us. (Thankfully there wasn't a line of people looking to get a photo, so they could take their time.) After flailing a couple of times, we did several practice jumps until everyone was able to get onto the same page as to when to jump: "One, Two, Three, JUMP!" We actually had the brief conversation reminiscent of Lethal Weapon. 

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/6f917ae5-51c5-4147-b3cf-12b37da76754 

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/08ae12f9-2798-45b1-97e0-da83c7cc7877

This was the final result. Seems like I misunderstood just how high we could jump before going out of frame, so while I'm in the air in the shot, not nearly as much as Paul, Paul, and Bekah.

Back at the house that evening, we had a tasty pasta dinner with several additional pacers finally arriving, some in time to eat with the rest of us, some not.

Shortly before all of us hit the hay early at about 10pm (given we needed to be on the road by 5:30am), Paul Lloyd (one of the two Pauls pacing the 4-hour group) and Diane compared directions to the parking lot to make sure they were both on the same page with how to get there, even though the plan was for us to caravan it, anyway.

Dreadful forecast

Oh, boy, is this going to be a doozy of a race on Saturday.

The Air Force Marathon has a decent portion of the course in wide open spaces with zero shade. Not surprising given the portion of it that is run on Wright-Patterson. Given the above forecast, where the morning low is 67F and it just climbs from there (and we start a little *after* sunrise), this is going to be a very hard marathon. Hopefully we pacers will be able to convince the runners who line up with us to move back at least one pace group, to take it slower and finish safely rather than be concerned with finishing in the time that they were originally hoping for if conditions were more optimal.

Not only will it be safer for the runners to take it easier, but it would also be nice to finish with some of our group (ideally with some of the group charging out ahead of us within the last mile to beat the pace group time). It's always depressing when most, if not all, of the pace group falls off of pace and finishes anywhere from a few minutes to even nearly an hour behind the group. Very hot days are the perfect storm for that sort of thing to happen. (That's what happened with my first pacing gig over 5 years ago; while I was smack on time despite brutal heat (and myself having shifted back one pace group time, along with all of the other pacers), my group all fell off by mile 15 - 20.)

Anxiety abounds

Earlier today, BAA announced how many people applied for Boston 2025: Over 36,400 - a sizable increase from last year where the cut-off was -5:29. Simultaneously, they announced that the standards for 206 for all of the age groups under 60 years of age were being tightened by 5 minutes. Clearly, the cut-off for this year is going to be more than 5 minutes. But, the dread comes in not knowing precisely how much, yet.

There are still some people whose times have not yet been verified, and BAA is loathe to send out the acceptances until they have finished that verification process -- at least for those people who would potentially have made the cut.

Scuttlebutt is that they will announce the cut-off, and send acceptance/rejection notifications by mid-week next week.

Will BQ-7:36 be good enough? This is my first time truly feeling like a "squeaker," and it's very tense. I need to get into Boston this year to continue my streak and come that much closer to being part of the group that no longer has to worry about the buffer, rather "merely" meeting the qualifying standard -- for those people who have run Boston 10 consecutive years, they get this privilege. (And running the 2020 COVID virtual counts as part of the streak.) 2026 would be my 10th consecutive year, if all goes well.

And given the tightened standards for 2026, I can't sit on ceremony and expect my time from Erie this year will be good enough for the 2026 application, with it turning into a BQ-2:36. So, I have one or two races next year where I will need to run for time, aiming yet again for a 3:15 or better. Hopefully I can accomplish that in Little Rock so that I don't have to worry about doing it in Erie next year, and I'll be able to run that as a pacer instead.

Recovery Going Well

Often when running "for time," it takes multiple days for recovery to be working well. While it may be premature to make that determination, things are going well. I know I didn't take it easy at any point during the marathon -- I put it all out on the course. Soaking in the tub for a bit before my shower, and using my Normatec boots immediately afterward (alas, only for 15 minutes, rather than the desired 30+ minutes) was a good immediate beginning to my recovery. Breaking up my drive in two parts so that I wasn't sitting for an excessively long stretch of time helped, as did using the Normatec boots for a full hour after dinner.

Today, I did some active recovery by going on the elliptical for an hour this afternoon, and will see tomorrow whether a moderate pace on treadmill or another elliptical session is advisable. Definitely need to make sure that I am doing what I can to be running at a pace that will hold me in good stead for my pacing gig in less than 2 weeks.

Erie Marathon - Was It Enough?

The big day finally came. While I drove up from Virginia on Saturday in LOTS of rain bands, that worked its way through and out of the region by early evening Saturday. Race day was gorgeous: Cool throughout (constant mid-50s temp), dry, reasonably low humidity, decent cloud cover (and most of the course is in shade anyway). The only mixed blessing/curse was the wind. It was pretty much steady at 15mph (gust up to 25mph) for the whole race. So, while the wind kept me cool the entire time without need for dousing myself at any of the water stops, it was also more of a net hindrance pace-wise than a help.

I got out the door just before 5:30am and was parked by 5:40am; nice being so close. Given the conditions, I stayed inside the car until 6am and then headed on down the hill to the starting area. Shortly after arriving and chatting briefly with the owner of MarathonPacing.com (for whom I pace a few times per year -- but not today, as I was shooting for my own BQ goal), I crossed paths with one of the people whom I paced in the 3:40 group in Jack & Jill Poconos a few months ago. He recognized me right off. He was shooting for 3:40 again today but hadn't yet found the pacer at that point. We chatter about what his strategy would be if there wasn't a 3:40 pacer -- start slower and break away, chance going on his own at 3:40 pace, or risk going with a faster pace group. Ultimately, I expect that he found the 3:40 pacer when everyone was lining up before race start. Alas, with our respective schedules, I won't be pacing in any of his remaining races this year.

While standing around at the beginning, several of us were chatting about going for 3:15. One person mentioned drafting and I commented that I was never good about that, since I always worried about being too close and kicking or being kicked by the other person. He pointed out that it's not necessary to be as close as you see with cyclists. Rather, being about 3-5 feet away is just fine. OK -- I'll give it a shot.

A guy from Ontario, Canada was interested in pacing with me for 3:15. So, after we got past the initial crush of people, I proposed that we alternate drafting off each other (rather than running side by side). I drafted off him in the first mile, then went in front of him the second. But I wound up pulling away from him (or him dropping back?) in part because my in-mile pace on my Garmin is very wonky, and I can't often tell (at least early) whether I'm seeing accurate times. The next time I saw him was after the turnaround at half-way. At that point, he was about a minute or so behind me. And then, somewhere around Mile 20 or so, he finally caught up to me. He asked what my time was looking like -- at that point it was likely 3:16 - 3:17 -- and he slowly pulled away from me. He was definitely doing well enough to get close to 3:15. He ended up with 3:15:30. (!)

Despite the plan for alternating drafting with him falling through, there were plenty of people in the first half to 2/3 of the race that I was able to draft off of for a bit. Sometimes only a few seconds, sometimes for a minute or longer. Looking at my splits compared to the miles where we had tail or head wind, and the lack of people to draft off of during the second batch of headwinds late in the race, there was certainly a measurable effect. (How much was wind vice how much was just me fading in the last miles of the race, I can't quantify.)

The tail winds were from Miles 4-7 and 17-20 (largely my best splits for each half), and the head winds were from Mile 8-10 and 21-23 (negligible the first lap but highly noticeable the second lap).

Thankfully, I didn't need any of the water stops, since I carry my own and didn't need to douse. The stops left a fair bit to be desired, from what I observed of them. While they were generally highly enthusiastic, there were zero tables -- meaning all of the cups of water were on the ground at the volunteers' feet, so they had to continually bend down to pick them up. (What a pain to do for 6 hours!) And there was no predictable order of Gatorade vice water, nor a different color of cup for one vice the other.

Most of the other logistics of the race worked pretty well. The course was well enough marked and the instructions for where to be were well-communicated ahead of time.

One thing with my preparation that left a bit to be desired... I totally forgot to put on my band-aids prior to putting on my shirt. (For the uninitiated, the band-aids are to take the place of "nip tape", for placing over ones nipples to prevent chafing and the tell-tale bloody streak if it's bad enough.) For some reason, it took until about Mile 17 for me to realize I had forgotten it -- and I hadn't yet started feeling any chafing. But, by the end, there was a little bit of that tell-tale streak on my right side. (*sigh*) I need to figure out a better way of packing some of my items to make sure I don't forget to don those. While I had them in my bag, they didn't make their way out with the rest of the race items.

In the end, despite the stated goal of 3:15, real goal of 3:16 (going off my predicted BQ-9:00 being needed to register), my final time was 3:17:24 (BQ-7:36). Pretty darn good, and quite possibly good enough to squeak in. Boston registration is this week, and we should find out within a week or so thereafter what the buffer actually was. 

I hung around a little while after the race to chat with the aforementioned Canadian, my MPT hotel roommate (and admin of TONS of FB groups I'm in), and to be at the turnaround point (about .25 miles before the finish line) to cheer on the aforementioned former 3:40 pace group member. (If I'm looking up the right name, it looks like he was JUST over his goal time -- 3:40:20.)

By the time I got back to my hotel room, I had the full additional hour for late checkout. Soak for a little while, shower, change, and used the Normatec boots for about 15 minutes or so. Partway through, though -- a couple of minutes after I got out of the shower but prior to my actually getting any of my clothing on, there was a loud knock on the door. "I have a noon checkout!" I yelled out. A few seconds later, another knock. Relatively quickly, I donned my shorts. Good thing, too, because less than 5 seconds after I  did so, the door was opened -- by the owner who was on his rounds making up the rooms. Apparently, he hadn't been told by the person I had e-mailed that she agreed to my late checkout. All was fine, I was able to continue. I managed to get out at 12:02pm.

I made my way down to a hole-in-the-wall burger joint (housed in a Gulf gas station several miles away) that had gotten good reviews and was on my way home. Alas, they're closed on Sundays. (Would've been nice had the info I saw online indicated that!) Eventually, I found another place less than 2 miles away. The burger was ok, but certainly overcooked. 

I asked for medium well. Likely offended the sensibilities of the chef, who not only cooked it to well done, there was also rather a char on the outside of the burger. Oh well. It was reasonably tasty nonetheless. Crispy bacon, cheddar cheese, and BBQ sauce -- hard to go wrong.

The next few days of recovery will tell the tale about whether I should keep my planned 3:55 pacing in < 2 weeks, or if I should shift up to 3:50 (since the pacer they had for that had to cancel, and they would prefer to have the faster of the two times). Hmm... looking at the early forecast, it's going to be a hot day -- starting at 57F but getting to 81 for the high. Given the race starts at 7:30am, I'll be finishing close to 11:30am -- surely it will be 70 or warmer by then. Oy. Decisions, decisions.

Bring it!

Finally setting out for Erie; it feels like it's been such a long wait to get to this race. After all, I very much want to have a large buffer for my BQ I submit during Boston registration next week.

And it looks like the forecast has held out for us!

Sure, it would be nice if the clouds were covering the sun, but this is just about as good as can be expected. Of the two options I've been contemplating, I'm going for the main goal of 3:15 from the start. I'll consider anything 3:16 or better a win, since I've been figuring since October that BQ-9:00 was needed.

Drum roll, please...

Can we bank on this?

Ooh, lookie here. The temperature is improving vastly for Sunday. Not thrilled with the wind, but if it stays at a crosswind or tailwind, that'll be kinda nice. Unclear just when they're expecting the rain. Hopefully only overnight, and done before we get to the park.

Fingers crossed this keeps on improving, and I have to consider some semblance of warm sheddable clothing before the start.