As some of you may already know, I'm a regular poster in the 30-somethings group on the Kickrunners website. One thing I've always liked about this group is that after each race we run, it's tradition to write a race report - sort of a summary of the race as it's happening from the runner's perspective. Anyway, I managed to locate my race report from my very first marathon (Wineglass Marathon '06) this afternoon, so here it is - unchanged from the original post:
Official Connecticut Wineglass Marathon Report
I’ll apologize for the length up front. You can skip down the bold “bottom line” paragraph to skip the boring stuff.
I’m not sure that I can add much more to what has already been said about the pre-race festivities. In fact, DrChris accurately captures the essence of upstate New York in his race report – if you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend that you do so now.
However, there are a few additional things that I thought I’d point out:
1. Maria’s room made me very jealous. Instead of a wall separating the bathroom and sleeping areas of her room, she had a ginormous hot tub. That’s right folks – if you were lying on bed you could simply look to your right and see your SO sitting on the can.
2. The good Doctor also sang a rousing rendition of “Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy” at the karaoke bar. I also know for a fact that there is photographic proof of this event.
3. Nobody has mentioned yet that we also went to see a band named the Upstate Funk Machine at the world-famous FatsCats night club in beautiful downtown Corning, New York. I don’t think there are any photos of the band, but if there was I’d say that they were much better than what you’d expect at first sight.
4. It was great see Maria and Chris again and to meet Norah, Myron and Michelle (CR name = TrailOBite) as well as Maria, Michelle and Norah’s SOs who were all great (and very lucky) guys.
OK, the race report:
This was my first marathon and I was happy that I ran it close to my childhood home for no reason other than this is the part of New York where I started running in junior high school (I grew up an hour northeast of Corning) – so it was a returning to your roots kind of thing for me.
I was quite nervous the night before the race, so I was surprised that I slept so well that night. I woke up around 6:30, drank a liter of water and checked the weather – 55 degrees and overcast. Perfect. After a quick shower, I put on my race gear and ventured over to the hotel’s continental breakfast in search of bagels and bananas. I had what I thought was a plain bagel with peanut butter – it turns out that it was actually an onion bagel – not the best flavor combination, but I was too tired to make another so I ate it anyway. After breakfast I met up with Maria and we walked over to the bus that took us to the starting line.
We met up with Chris at the bus stop and found Myron already on the bus. The trip to the starting line took us about 30 minutes. All I could think at this point was that I had to RUN the entire way back. This caused my most severe panic attack I’ve ever had re: running. Fortunately for me, Myron was waxing poetic about the state of the adult book/video store industry in the state of Pennsylvania and this managed to calm me down somewhat.
Once there, the three of us found Maria and Norah and, after a few pre-race pictures and several port-a-potty stops, we were off.
The first mile felt slow, but when I looked at my watch it was a 7:27. The next mile was roughly a 7:10. Then a 6:50? (Myron has the splits, I think) followed by an uphill 7:00. After that we slowed down to roughly 7:05-7:10 pace and maintained that for a while. At this point, I knew that there was going to be an extra hurting in store for me down the road, but it was a little too late to worry about that – I’d just revise my race strategy on the fly. Around mile 5 Myron and I are joined by a young local kid named Andy. He was a pretty decent miler in high school from what I understand and he tells us that this is also his first marathon. Andy, since he’s a local guy, has friends all over the course. I’m now thinking that Andy can hang with us for as long as he wants so that we can feed of all of his crowd support.
Around mile 6 the three of us pass a couple of Canadian 40-somethings. Myron hears them talking trash (“We’ll see you guys again at mile 22…”). We laugh. They pass us a mile or two later and ask us rather condescendingly what our goals are. I tell them that I’m just looking to finish. Myron tells them that we’re really hoping for a 3:15:59. Andy says something about how he has no idea what a BQ time is. They respond with something smug in Canadian and move on. I don’t like them very much.
At this point we’ve left the town of Bath behind and are now running through the countryside. There is little in the way of crowd support around here - unless you count roadkill. At mile nine we see Maria’s smiling face – we are still running well and are probably there a few minutes earlier than Maria was expecting. Andy has supporters everywhere here – “Great job Andy!” “You’re looking smooth Andy!”. I’m now pretending that my name is Andy.
The next few miles were rather unremarkable. I take my first GU at mile 10. At mile 12 I notice that Myron has dropped back. I leave Andy and drop back to see how he’s doing. He sticks with me for a while, but then begins to drop back again. I’m now confronted with a dilemma – Should I stick with Myron? Should I push on ahead? I think about this for a few minutes and I come to the conclusion that I should keep pushing as this is what I’d tell Myron to do if the situation was reversed.
Andy is now roughly a minute ahead of me. I continue on with the pace that I had been running. I’m now thinking that a BQ is a possibility – a thought that, just last night, seemed absurd. My new, on-the-fly race strategy is to hold my current pace through 20 miles. Then, I calculate that I’ll have enough of a cushion such that I could run approximately 9 minute miles over the last 10k and still BQ. I know, I know, but it seemed reasonable at the time. I hit the half at roughly 1:33 – give or take a few seconds either way (Myron?). I believe that Myron’s half split was a PR for him.
At mile 15 I pass one of the two Canadians I mentioned earlier. I tell him as I pass him that this isn’t quite mile 22, but that he won’t be seeing me again. I know that wasn’t very sporting of me but, then again, I’m not always a very sporting guy once someone makes me angry. At mile 16 I begin to feel some twinges in my calves – an ominous sign. I run mile 17-18 with a local kid (a 14 y.o I think) who was running the relay. He was quite friendly, but he kept talking to me which, at this point, was getting harder to do. I appreciated the pacing he was providing, so I humored him anyway. He kicks it in the last quarter-mile before the second relay exchange zone which was a little demoralizing. At the second relay exchange I see Norah and Jason (Maria’s BF). I assume that Andrew (Norah’s BF) is there, but I didn’t see him. Between mile 18 and 19 I pass Andy who is now hurting in a big way. Shortly thereafter I take my second GU. It is chocolate and is thicker than frosting. It just won’t go down. So, I’m stuck with it in my mouth for about a half of a mile. That was not fun.
Mile 19 was my last easy mile. My pace began to slip around mile 18, but I was running fast enough (somewhere in the mid-to-high sevens) to maintain my BQ pace, although I’m now eating into my reserve. Since this is already ridiculously long, I’ll just say that each mile was increasingly difficult through mile 23 (at which point I notice that I'm bleeding from a most unfortunate area). I was now running roughly 8 minutes per mile, but it seemed much slower. I was also stopping to drink at each water station. In addition, both of my calves as well as my left inner thigh felt like they were going to start seizing up at any time.
At mile 23 I hit the wall in a big way. I managed another 8 minute mile to get me through 24 miles in 2:59. This now means that I need to average roughly a 7:45-50 pace over the last 2.2 miles to BQ. Under normal circumstances, this would be a walk in the park for me. Unfortunately, the 24 mile mark of my first marathon does not qualify as a normal circumstance. I knew that I was done. My legs simply would not move. This point was probably the low point of the race for me. In any event, my next mile split – 10:00+ put to rest any thoughts of a BQ. My last 1.2 was equally as miserable. To add insult to injury (or injury to injury) both of my calves as well as that inner thigh muscle all went into full blown seizures during the last mile, so my finish was rather pathetic looking to say the least.
The bottom line?: a 3:22:42 chip time. 70th OA and 9th in my AG. I’m quite pleased with the overall result as I was thinking that a 3:45+ was a realistic time at the starting line. If I hadn’t been so aggressive during the first half of the race, I might have had a shot at a BQ. Oh well, it was a lesson learned for the next time. It think that with: (a) a more consistent running schedule, (b) the re-introduction of strength training, (c) actually following a diet plan and (d) the addition of some speedwork (OK, and maybe the use of a pacer – Chris?) that I can get that BQ next year.
All in all it was a memorable weekend with some good friends – one that I’ll remember for a long time.
I’m sorry for the book. I’ll catch up on all the other race reports in the morning, I promise. From everything I’ve heard, our weekend racers were quite impressive.
Good runs to all.
Trevor
Official Connecticut Wineglass Marathon Report
I’ll apologize for the length up front. You can skip down the bold “bottom line” paragraph to skip the boring stuff.
I’m not sure that I can add much more to what has already been said about the pre-race festivities. In fact, DrChris accurately captures the essence of upstate New York in his race report – if you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend that you do so now.
However, there are a few additional things that I thought I’d point out:
1. Maria’s room made me very jealous. Instead of a wall separating the bathroom and sleeping areas of her room, she had a ginormous hot tub. That’s right folks – if you were lying on bed you could simply look to your right and see your SO sitting on the can.
2. The good Doctor also sang a rousing rendition of “Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy” at the karaoke bar. I also know for a fact that there is photographic proof of this event.
3. Nobody has mentioned yet that we also went to see a band named the Upstate Funk Machine at the world-famous FatsCats night club in beautiful downtown Corning, New York. I don’t think there are any photos of the band, but if there was I’d say that they were much better than what you’d expect at first sight.
4. It was great see Maria and Chris again and to meet Norah, Myron and Michelle (CR name = TrailOBite) as well as Maria, Michelle and Norah’s SOs who were all great (and very lucky) guys.
OK, the race report:
This was my first marathon and I was happy that I ran it close to my childhood home for no reason other than this is the part of New York where I started running in junior high school (I grew up an hour northeast of Corning) – so it was a returning to your roots kind of thing for me.
I was quite nervous the night before the race, so I was surprised that I slept so well that night. I woke up around 6:30, drank a liter of water and checked the weather – 55 degrees and overcast. Perfect. After a quick shower, I put on my race gear and ventured over to the hotel’s continental breakfast in search of bagels and bananas. I had what I thought was a plain bagel with peanut butter – it turns out that it was actually an onion bagel – not the best flavor combination, but I was too tired to make another so I ate it anyway. After breakfast I met up with Maria and we walked over to the bus that took us to the starting line.
We met up with Chris at the bus stop and found Myron already on the bus. The trip to the starting line took us about 30 minutes. All I could think at this point was that I had to RUN the entire way back. This caused my most severe panic attack I’ve ever had re: running. Fortunately for me, Myron was waxing poetic about the state of the adult book/video store industry in the state of Pennsylvania and this managed to calm me down somewhat.
Once there, the three of us found Maria and Norah and, after a few pre-race pictures and several port-a-potty stops, we were off.
The first mile felt slow, but when I looked at my watch it was a 7:27. The next mile was roughly a 7:10. Then a 6:50? (Myron has the splits, I think) followed by an uphill 7:00. After that we slowed down to roughly 7:05-7:10 pace and maintained that for a while. At this point, I knew that there was going to be an extra hurting in store for me down the road, but it was a little too late to worry about that – I’d just revise my race strategy on the fly. Around mile 5 Myron and I are joined by a young local kid named Andy. He was a pretty decent miler in high school from what I understand and he tells us that this is also his first marathon. Andy, since he’s a local guy, has friends all over the course. I’m now thinking that Andy can hang with us for as long as he wants so that we can feed of all of his crowd support.
Around mile 6 the three of us pass a couple of Canadian 40-somethings. Myron hears them talking trash (“We’ll see you guys again at mile 22…”). We laugh. They pass us a mile or two later and ask us rather condescendingly what our goals are. I tell them that I’m just looking to finish. Myron tells them that we’re really hoping for a 3:15:59. Andy says something about how he has no idea what a BQ time is. They respond with something smug in Canadian and move on. I don’t like them very much.
At this point we’ve left the town of Bath behind and are now running through the countryside. There is little in the way of crowd support around here - unless you count roadkill. At mile nine we see Maria’s smiling face – we are still running well and are probably there a few minutes earlier than Maria was expecting. Andy has supporters everywhere here – “Great job Andy!” “You’re looking smooth Andy!”. I’m now pretending that my name is Andy.
The next few miles were rather unremarkable. I take my first GU at mile 10. At mile 12 I notice that Myron has dropped back. I leave Andy and drop back to see how he’s doing. He sticks with me for a while, but then begins to drop back again. I’m now confronted with a dilemma – Should I stick with Myron? Should I push on ahead? I think about this for a few minutes and I come to the conclusion that I should keep pushing as this is what I’d tell Myron to do if the situation was reversed.
Andy is now roughly a minute ahead of me. I continue on with the pace that I had been running. I’m now thinking that a BQ is a possibility – a thought that, just last night, seemed absurd. My new, on-the-fly race strategy is to hold my current pace through 20 miles. Then, I calculate that I’ll have enough of a cushion such that I could run approximately 9 minute miles over the last 10k and still BQ. I know, I know, but it seemed reasonable at the time. I hit the half at roughly 1:33 – give or take a few seconds either way (Myron?). I believe that Myron’s half split was a PR for him.
At mile 15 I pass one of the two Canadians I mentioned earlier. I tell him as I pass him that this isn’t quite mile 22, but that he won’t be seeing me again. I know that wasn’t very sporting of me but, then again, I’m not always a very sporting guy once someone makes me angry. At mile 16 I begin to feel some twinges in my calves – an ominous sign. I run mile 17-18 with a local kid (a 14 y.o I think) who was running the relay. He was quite friendly, but he kept talking to me which, at this point, was getting harder to do. I appreciated the pacing he was providing, so I humored him anyway. He kicks it in the last quarter-mile before the second relay exchange zone which was a little demoralizing. At the second relay exchange I see Norah and Jason (Maria’s BF). I assume that Andrew (Norah’s BF) is there, but I didn’t see him. Between mile 18 and 19 I pass Andy who is now hurting in a big way. Shortly thereafter I take my second GU. It is chocolate and is thicker than frosting. It just won’t go down. So, I’m stuck with it in my mouth for about a half of a mile. That was not fun.
Mile 19 was my last easy mile. My pace began to slip around mile 18, but I was running fast enough (somewhere in the mid-to-high sevens) to maintain my BQ pace, although I’m now eating into my reserve. Since this is already ridiculously long, I’ll just say that each mile was increasingly difficult through mile 23 (at which point I notice that I'm bleeding from a most unfortunate area). I was now running roughly 8 minutes per mile, but it seemed much slower. I was also stopping to drink at each water station. In addition, both of my calves as well as my left inner thigh felt like they were going to start seizing up at any time.
At mile 23 I hit the wall in a big way. I managed another 8 minute mile to get me through 24 miles in 2:59. This now means that I need to average roughly a 7:45-50 pace over the last 2.2 miles to BQ. Under normal circumstances, this would be a walk in the park for me. Unfortunately, the 24 mile mark of my first marathon does not qualify as a normal circumstance. I knew that I was done. My legs simply would not move. This point was probably the low point of the race for me. In any event, my next mile split – 10:00+ put to rest any thoughts of a BQ. My last 1.2 was equally as miserable. To add insult to injury (or injury to injury) both of my calves as well as that inner thigh muscle all went into full blown seizures during the last mile, so my finish was rather pathetic looking to say the least.
The bottom line?: a 3:22:42 chip time. 70th OA and 9th in my AG. I’m quite pleased with the overall result as I was thinking that a 3:45+ was a realistic time at the starting line. If I hadn’t been so aggressive during the first half of the race, I might have had a shot at a BQ. Oh well, it was a lesson learned for the next time. It think that with: (a) a more consistent running schedule, (b) the re-introduction of strength training, (c) actually following a diet plan and (d) the addition of some speedwork (OK, and maybe the use of a pacer – Chris?) that I can get that BQ next year.
All in all it was a memorable weekend with some good friends – one that I’ll remember for a long time.
I’m sorry for the book. I’ll catch up on all the other race reports in the morning, I promise. From everything I’ve heard, our weekend racers were quite impressive.
Good runs to all.
Trevor
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