Early this year, after hearing my stories and my regrets of my 2001 marathon attempt, my fiancee Deb (now wife) kept encouraging me to run the marathon again. After some haggling, we decided to challenge each other. I would run the marathon, if she ran the half. I dug up my old training program from 2001 and modified it quite a bit to fit my current fitness level (which was not even close to what it was back then). I looked up a good one for Deb, since she'd never run more than 5 miles before that point, she followed Hal Higdon's Novice Half Marathon training program.
We both followed the programs as best we could, as we had many big things planned for the summer... the two biggest were our wedding, and honeymoon. (Both were awesome btw.)
At the Big E this year, we found the Timex counter in the CT building, and bought ourselves a couple of GPS heart rate watches. I'd never really paid much attention to my heart rate, and on my first run with it, I couldn't believe the number. I was running pretty easy with Greg, at about 7:30 pace and my heart rate was at 190. I picked it up to 6:50 pace for the last mile, and it shot up to 200. I was still able to hold a conversation with Greg, and I had some kind of sinus infection at the time, so I shrugged it off as just being sick. After a few more runs with it though, I really thought something might be wrong.
This entire year of training, I thought I was sweating much much more than I used to. It could have been hotter, I'm not sure... I could be getting older... or I really might be working harder than I feel like I am. I did some reading and looked into heart rate and metabolism. What I found is that I could be operating in my higher end all the time, and since I never really trained in the lower end, I trained my body to work hard all the time. Not enough of an aerobic base. As soon as I start an 8:00/mi jog, my heart rate jumps to 176+. My last long run before the marathon just reinforced this theory I had, as I completely ran out of gas at 17 miles. This is when I decided to use my two week taper period for a last minute aerobic base training period.
It was extremely difficult for me to keep my heart rate down, but I really wanted to finish the marathon this time. I ran for two weeks at no more than 151bpm, and I noticed an improvement from my initial 10:47 pace down to 9:07 pace two weeks later at the same average heart rate. I also noticed that on my 4miler two days before the marathon, that my heart rate was down by about 13bpm than what it used to be at the same pace I ran before the aerobic base training. I thought this was good, and it might help... but it could also have been too little too late.
Oct 13th 2007
I have 3 main goals for this day:
* Finish
* Don't walk too much
* Beat my previous marathon time of 4:16
My secondary goals were:
* Finish under 3:30
* Finish under 3:10 to qualify for Boston
As you can see, I set myself up to make at least a couple of the goals, so I could go home happier than last time. Deb's goal was to run around 11 minute pace, and to finish the whole half marathon.
We drove into Hartford for 7am, promptly found some parking, and headed over to the Civic Center to pick up our bibs. We didn't have time to pick them up before hand... but when we saw the line wrapping all the way around the room, we wished we had. We looked up out bib numbers, and found the end of the line. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes, we had our stuff. We then hopped into the t-shirt line and waited another 10 minutes to find out they were all out. We took a packet and ran out. We've got 10 minutes to get to the start.
We take off our sweats, put our numbers on, and give our bags to the baggage area. Said a quick good luck to each other, kissed, and then scrambled to find a spot in the crowd. I couldn't find anything close to 3:30, so I just decided to go to the back... when I couldn't find the back, I squeezed in at the intersection next to the Bushnell. It took me about 4:30 to get to the starting line after the gun.
I weaved around the crowds for the first 3 miles or so, before I was able to settle into a nice 7:15 pace. I kept an eye on my hrm, but I didn't want to limit myself unless it was getting way up there. I took in Ultima at every water stop, walking through if I needed to. I picked off the 4:45, 4:30, and 4:15 pace runners in the 3rd mile. It took me till about mile 5 where I picked off the 4:00 pace runner, and the 3:45 pace runner came at mile 6.
Just after mile 7, I began to notice a blister forming on my right foot's big toe. Then I saw the 3:30 pace runner. I knew that my friend Greg's brother Mike, was going to be trying to stay with him... and he was there. I said hi... he said he was having a bit of a problem with his hamstring, and he wasn't sure about the pace. We conversed for about 2 minutes before I said good luck and went ahead.
Just after the 9 mile marker, it dawned on me why my toe was blistering up... my shoe wasn't as tight as it should be, because I tied the chip in too loose. I stopped on the side of the road for about 20 seconds and retied it. I then boosted my pace to about 6:40 for the remainder of the mile to make up for the deficit.
Miles 10-13 blurred by, it was at this time where everything felt easy, and I was still cruising nicely at 7:15ish pace. I've never felt like this in a race before. I think I may have even smiled a bit when I got to the 13.1 mark at the gun time of about 1:43. I knew I was about 4:30 ahead of that time, and was half way there! I got so excited that I picked it up without realizing it, and ran a 6:54 for mile 14. I forced myself to calm down a bit for mile 15... the tough parts were coming soon.
Miles 15-20 went by pretty much as well as all the previous miles, blurring by, still cruising. I took a slightly longer break on mile 19 to grab my 3rd Gu20 of the race. I couldn't tell if they were helping, but I knew I was going to run out of gas soon. I passed the 20 mile at 2:29:49 (chip time)... only 6 more miles to go! At this point I thought if I could keep this up, I would run about 3:14 or so. This made me very happy, and carried me through mile 21.
Miles 22 and 23 were a bit more hilly (slight inclines now and then) and I was beginning to feel like I wasn't going to make it. On the larger overpass hill I felt too fatigued to run up, so I walked. At about 23.5 miles my left calf stopped working completely up a very small hill. I said to myself, ok, I'll walk now. Over the crest of the hill, I started running again. I tried to keep 7:30 pace but it was tiring me out too quick.
Over miles 24 and 25, I would run for about 4 minutes, and one part of either of my legs would just pull so hard I had to stop... like a charlie horse. Then I would walk for about 30-90 seconds, and pick up running again. I continued this process for 20 minutes, and walked about a total of 6 minutes.
As I passed the end of mile 25, the 3:30 pace runner passed me, and I stuck with him as long as I could. I one of the last straights, with about .4mi to go (I think) somewhere over the bridge, my right quad locked up tight and stopped me dead. A spectator saw this happen to me and offered to rub it out for me. I thought that was very nice, but I decided I was going to keep running.
I saw the arch, and I was not happy. There was a hill, and a very sharp left turn into a downhill for the finish. I was very worried that I was going to cramp up again up the little hill. I took it slow, went around the corner, and saw the crowd. I had mixed feelings here, I couldn't smile, I could barely run, and some guy was screaming behind me. It turns out that this guy was screaming because he had a lot left in him, and was sprinting through the finish.
I ran through the finish, and didn't run another step. I walked into the 'chute', which was nice and wide, and I had a nice guy greet me with one of those foil blankets they give you. It turns out that this nice guy was Marty. I told him my legs were cramping up like crazy, and he looked at me and asked me if I wanted to go to the med tent. I felt ok, so I opted to go get some food. Just then my wife ran up to me and gave me a big hug and kiss. This makes a man happy. I was extremely happy to see her, although I couldn't express it. The nice people at the finish took off my chip, because I couldn't do it (I had originally asked my wife to do it, but she knew what I was supposed to do) Deb let me lean on her as we searched for food.
I am so happy with my performance, that I am probably going to do this again. Maybe I can find out why I ran out of gas, and prevent it from happening next time. Deb met her goals as well, she ran the whole half with minimal walk breaks, at about 11:00 pace. She wants to do the full marathon next year. Woohoo!
My chip time was 3:25:42. Here are my splits:
| Mile | Time | Split | HR |
| 3 | 0:23:43 | 0:23:43 | 178 |
| 4 | 0:31:12 | 0:07:29 | 179 |
| 5 | 0:38:35 | 0:07:23 | 184 |
| 6 | 0:46:02 | 0:07:27 | 184 |
| 7 | 0:53:17 | 0:07:15 | 184 |
| 8 | 1:00:31 | 0:07:14 | 183 |
| 9 | 1:07:58 | 0:07:27 | 182 |
| 10 | 1:15:23 | 0:07:25 | 183 |
| 11 | 1:22:49 | 0:07:26 | 184 |
| 12 | 1:30:17 | 0:07:28 | 185 |
| 13 | 1:37:41 | 0:07:24 | 188 |
| 14 | 1:44:35 | 0:06:54 | 188 |
| 15 | 1:51:49 | 0:07:14 | 188 |
| 16 | 1:59:15 | 0:07:26 | 188 |
| 17 | 2:06:44 | 0:07:29 | 189 |
| 18 | 2:14:09 | 0:07:25 | 191 |
| 19 | 2:22:05 | 0:07:56 | 188 |
| 20 | 2:29:49 | 0:07:44 | 189 |
| 21 | 2:37:26 | 0:07:37 | 190 |
| 22 | 2:45:36 | 0:08:10 | 189 |
| 23 | 2:54:30 | 0:08:54 | 181 |
| 24 | 3:05:00 | 0:10:30 | 173 |
| 25 | 3:15:14 | 0:10:14 | 174 |
| 26 | 3:23:52 | 0:08:38 | 181 |
| 26.2 | 3:25:42 | 0:01:50 | 187 |
I had a ton of salt on my face
Congrats Deb!
