Marathon #2: BayState (Lowell, MA)

TLDR: I ran the BayState marathon in 3:36:03. I'm starting to get the hang of this, but need more experience.

(Also, this post is a bit old now... The race was on Oct 21st. But hey, I've been pretty busy lately...)

The Plan

Empty spectator spots near the finish. Day before.

 As I mentioned before, the plan for this race was to do a 3:30 finish. Training had been going fairly well (minus a minor injury 2-3 weeks before), with me doing a 4:45 min / km pace over long-ish runs. That's why I was set on a race pace of 5:00 min / km, which meant the 3:30 finish. The grand plan was to maintain that for the first ~15km, then step up a notch for the next 10 with about 4:45, building up a cushion, and finish up the last 17 km in the 5:00-5:10 range. That was presumably my best shot at a balanced race at this stage.

I was thinking about this plan while driving up to Lowell to pick up my bib on the day before the race. I was supposed to go with a friend doing the half, but he got down with a cold or something and decided against running, so it was me, myself, and a pretty terrible rental Toyota. Oh well, at least Massachusetts is pretty beautiful in the fall, so lots of scenery to look at.

The Start

... was rather late (8 am) for this type of event. Which was a good thing, since it wasn't absolutely freezing during the race. Nothing exceptional related to the start, though -- the local high school was a keep-warm area, with quite a few serious-looking runners crammed in there. The race wasn't big enough for a corralled start, and my assumed 3:30 finish time put me near the front quarter of the pack. A quick adrenaline rush, the gunshot, an off we went...

Run, Forest, run! Credit: Capstone.

So, I was about to stick with my 5:00 pace plan after a couple quick laps to break out of the main pack, which was presumably rather slow. The only issue with that plan was, the pack was actually rather fast. In fact, I was doing 4:40-s in the very beginning (pace chart at the bottom as usual) and people were literally passing me left and right all the time. Apparently, this wasn't the typical big-city-marathon crowd, but people who seemed (unlike me) to know what they were doing. I didn't want to slow down even further -- everyone passing by isn't exactly a great morale booster -- and eventually settled on a 4:50 pace. I was telling myself this would give me enough cushion for the second half. A stupid decision, but it sounded reasonable at my pumped-up state at the time...

In these early stages I was worried about an injury in what Wikipedia tells me is called the tibals anterior muscle. I had ramped down training in the last two-three weeks because of that, but it hadn't completely gone away. From training I knew that 12-13 km with additional pressure on the heels would get rid of it, but my calves were going to take a beating from that. Both were correct predictions, as it turned out, so no huge muscle drama after the first quarter.

There was nothing out of the ordinary for the rest of the first half. The stream of people passing by eventually stopped (one thought that never occurred to me at the time was that a lot of them must have been doing the half) and I was enjoying myself, keeping up the 4:50 pace and looking at the scenery. It was slightly past prime fall season in New England, but the trees were still quite beautiful. Most of the race was a rather large loop, so I could look around as much as I wanted now, and focus on running the second time around.

The Second Half

Reaching the half (after about 1:42), I was still feeling very strong, but could sense fatigue building up. Right after the 21 km mark, I slowed down to a 5:00 min / km pace. My average so far was 4:50, so I could afford doing 5:10 and still finish in three and a half hours.

Speaking of pace control, I was able to achieve that much easier than before. I finally chipped in to get a Garmin just 10 days before the race, which meant I had only done 2-3 training runs with it. I was hesitant about changing something so close to a race, but relying on my phone really didn't cut it -- its GPS would constantly lose signal (this is just one example) to the point where all it was useful for was a rather bulky stopwatch. In any case, I've been really happy with the Garmin -- especially because I was able to look at my pace all the time with just a quick glance and adjust accordingly.

Back to the race. After 30-something km, I started getting quite a few "looking strong"-s from the crowd. I appreciated the hypocrisy, but knew very well I was not -- it was time to pay for that fast first half. Nothing was exceptionally bad, no spasms, cramps or broken toenails, just the regular fatigue. Around this time, I started grabbing electrolyte more frequently at aid stations, and actually slowing down for them. I also did several 20-second walking breaks when keeping pace was getting too hard. The result of that are the seven laps completely out of pace that you can see in the pace chart below.

Obligatory medal photo. Credit: random stranger.

The "looking strong"-s remind me, this is probably a good moment to acknowledge the crowd. There were fewer people than on a high-key event and they were mostly concentrated in a few areas. They compensated with enthusiasm, though -- lots of cheers, cowbells, and, of course, signs. My favorite ones were "Naked cheerleaders next mile" (such a lie, I checked), "<Insert motivational sign>" (creative, isn't it) and "Keep off the grass" (held by a grumpy-looking old man). The volunteers were also quite awesome -- they all seemed to be local high-school kids and each aid station was from a different school. The kids looked quite excited -- some were even wearing Halloween costumes -- and were, of course, helpful with shoving water and electrolyte in our faces.

At this point, I knew I would miss the 3:30 target by several minutes. This calmed me down a bit and I stopped checking my watch every 5 seconds to monitor pace. The last kilometer was a bit annoying -- there was a lot of weaving around, and I was expecting to see the final stretch at every corner. It finally did appear, I went for a half-hearted sprint... and crossed the line. The official time was 3:36:06.

Post-race activities included eating anything that crossed my eyesight, a quick robotics meeting and heading to the lab to work on whatever deadline we were shooting for at the time. That last part didn't exactly work out (who would have thought that tons of food and a race would make you sleepy), but hey, at least I tried...

 Lessons Learned

As I was saying, I'm starting to get the hang of this. This was closer to a drama-free race, but the fast first half wasn't a particularly smart idea, and I did pay for it near the end. The plan to do a Boston qualifier some time next year is becoming a bit of a stretch, though -- in the month since this race work has been particularly crazy and I've stopped training for several weeks. Next race is in Austin in February (better start catching up for that quickly), and then I have some unfinished business in Western Mass. in May. So, my next chance for a  fast course is at some point over the summer, but it's a bit too early to make plans for that. In any case, West-coast suggestions are more than welcome...

Pace at every kilometer. You can see this was definitely not a well-balanced race.