 posted Dec-08-2007 10:13 PM
  
So I had finally talked myself into doing the Charlotte Thunder Road Marathon again. It was my first marathon when I attempted it last year. I was totally unprepared for that race and as it turns out I did not have luck on my side. I broke my foot in half(3rd metatarsal) at the 5 mile mark and I suffered from severe dehydration at mile 22 in the 22 degree dry weather.This year promised to be different! I have taken almost 1 minute off of my 5K, 10K, and 10 mile times. I have been doing almost the same amount of training that I did last year except I have concentrated much more on my nutrition and hydration. I completed a 23 mile training run two weeks ago on a HILLY course in 2:55 so I decided to go for Broke! My plan was to attempt to qualify for the Boston marathon in 3:10:59 or less. So my wife and I drive down to Charlotte NC from our home 170 miles away in Raleigh NC. There was almost no traffic so the drive only took about 3 hours. Ironically, that was just about the amount of time I was planning to run the 26.2 in! As luck would have it both my wife and I had come down with colds two days before. My cold was getting worse but it was manageable. However, my wife was in dire straights. She toughed it out but she was suffering mightily with a sinus infection and a pretty massive fever. We got to Charlotte and decided that some Sushi for me and hot Japanese soup for my wife would be the best choice. I woofed down about 16 pieces of sushi and we headed back to our hotel room. My wife was done and she desperately needed sleep. I on the other hand was simply just too nervous to sleep. I kept going over the course, comparing the elevations to other courses, checking the split times I would need to BQ, and all of the other things a paranoid runner does. In the end my internet connection stopped working so I decided to turn the computer off and hit the hay at 8:00 PM. I thought to myself “There are going to be some up hills, some downhills, and some flat sections in-between but in the end the race is still just 26.2+ miles. If I am ready for it then I will do well. If I have not prepared enough then I will Bonk like I had last year. With that thought I was able to fall asleep. I got up the next morning and hurried through my pre-race checklist. Water, check, Gels check, shoes check, shirt check, and shorts check. Ready to go! I hurried out the door and down to the start line outside the hotel because there were only 15 minutes till start time. When I finally got there I realized I had forgotten my Garmin GPS watch. Since there was no 3:10 pace group I was going to struggle to not go out too fast. I decided to fly back to the room to get the Garmin. I raced through the hotel and got the watch. However, by that time it was less than 5 minutes before the start. I could see everyone lined up through the windows. I could hear the starter talking. I was trying to find my way out of the hotel. Nothing was working! Every time I rounded a corner I couldn’t go anywhere. I heard the starter say runners set…..Go! I panicked. I couldn’t believe I had missed the start of the RACE! Then I woke up! My worst nightmare had turned out to be just that. A nightmare. I was soooo nervous about the race that I just couldn’t keep my mind from racing. I also was starting to feel the affects of being sick. I was running a fever, although I did not let my wife know that. She would not have let me run if she had known how sick I really was. Hey I ran 21.2 miles with a shattered foot last year. I wasn’t going to let a little fever stop me! So I finally woke up “For real” the next morning and got ready. I made it out to the race start with time to spare. The weather was simply perfect. Mid 40’s to start warming up into the 60’s with a few clouds but no chance of rain. We all lined up and I chatted with some of the other runners and a friend from our NCRC club. The time was finally here. I had the chance to prove that I could actually run the marathon and not die halfway through. I had lined up near the 3:15 pace guy thinking that I would just stay with them for 1 mile to keep myself under control on the steap first downhills. After that I would settle into my 7:15/mile pace and just hang on to it as long as I could. We all started off and I noticed that the 3:15 pace guy had gone out of the gate like his pants were on fire! He took off in a dead sprint with 15 runners trying to keep up. I thought what the H$LL is that guy doing. He is going to kill those poor people. It was a steap downhill at first but it did not warrant that pace. I was trying to hold back but I found myself getting out of the chute a little quick also. The first mile went passed in 6:38. That sounds like a suicidal pace but trust me I was holding back on that mile. I felt like I was right where I wanted to be. The 3:15 group on the other hand had reeled off a nice 6 flat mile. God, they must have been hurting! I knew to let them all go. I just ran my own pace that felt comfortable. I was feeling strong and the miles were ticking away. 2 at 7:07, 3 at 6:53, 4 at 7:06. And so on. I was staying right around a 7:05 average for the first 8 miles. That was the half marathon pace I had selected and I was holding it. At mile 9 I decided to accept a reload of water bottles from my father who had driven out to that point to cheer me on. I had gone through about 30 ounces of water already so the extra water was a welcome site. The miles kept ticking away but I was fading back towards that magic 7:15 pace now. The 10 mile mark came up at 1:11:17. Damn that was 6 seconds off of my 10 mile PR and I didn’t sprint at all. I was running strong now. I crossed an major intersection that was backed up for miles and a guy about 3 cars back was honking his horn constantly. The police officer just stood there like a statue. He wasn’t letting anybody go through. As I passed the cop I said “Why don’t you just Taze him”. The police officer just smirked. They really do a good job of directing traffic at the Thunder Road marathon. There is a police officer at every single intersection. The half marathon mark was coming up and I remember thinking “Boy wouldn’t it be great to be sprinting to the finish line right now?”. Instead I had to do another half all over again. I was still going strong though. The half way point came up in 1:34:22! That was a half marry PR by 6 minutes! I thought to myself “I am going to really do this”. The 3:10 is in my grasp. That all started to change over the next 5 miles though. The course got into the meat of the hills and it really started to wear me down. I was slipping back to 7:38, 7:45, 7:55, 7:55, 7:52. I just couldn’t maintain speed up those hills. At mile 18 I realized I was out of water and running low on gels. My wife was supposed to struggle out of bed and walk the 1 block to mile 18 and meet me with a water bottle. If she wasn’t able to make it then I knew I would be doomed. I simply just burn through water to quickly. Without it I knew I was going to cramp. I passed the 18 mile mark and head down the steep hill where she was supposed to be waiting. At first I couldn’t find her. Then I spotted her. I waved my empty bottle to signal that I needed a refill. She showed the white water bottle that was to be my savior. I took the bottle and immediately started to suck it down. The sun was out now and it was starting to get warm. It was close to 60 degrees and most people were in long sleeve shirts and pants. I was smart! I had checked the weather. I knew that being a little cold at the start was going to be worth it in the end. My running shorts and singlet were ideal now. I got to mile 20 and I was slipping fast. I was guzzling water like crazy and my pace had fallen to about 8:00 per mile. I knew that the 3:10 was out of reach now. I tore the 3:10 race splits band off my arm. However, it was not in disgust. I knew it was the right thing to do. I was going to risk not finishing the race if I tried to bring my pace back down now. I knew that I was fading but not as bad as everyone else around me. Actually, I was passing people. Slowly but surely everyone was starting to walk. They weren’t stopping to get water and the heat was taking its toll. I just pressed on and made sure that I didn’t over do it. At 22 miles I was supposed to meet my father for the last two bottles of water. I was totally out of water and I had taken at least 4 gels in the last 10 miles. I needed water and I needed it NOW. I passed the exact tree that I had collapsed on in agony the year before. It was just passed 22 miles. I had full leg cramps then and I tried to stretch them out on that tree to no avail. I thought that I should touch the tree almost to say “I won’t need your help this year”. However, there were already 3 people hanging on it in the exact same pain I was in 1 year ago. Everyone was dropping like flies now. I was passing a lot of people now. Everytime I passed I would look them straight in the eye and say “Don’t give up, you can still do it, try to get some water, it is getting hot now”. It worked for several of them. They started to run again but would fade shortly after that. I remembered the comment that a runner had said to me the year before. A lady said “I sure am glad I didn’t bonk like that guy(Pointing to me as I cuddled my favorite oak tree in pure agony). That comment had stuck with me for a full year. I couldn’t believe how low it made me feel and how it really didn’t help that lady any. I made a commitment to help every single runner I saw make it to the end! I was coming up on the 23 mile mark when I saw my father with the last two water bottles I needed. Man that was a glorious site. I grabbed them at started to recharge for the final push home. At mile 24 there is a stupid crazy hill. It is not long but it is VERY steep. I hadn’t walked to that point so I wasn’t going to walk now. I wasn’t moving that fast but there were several other people who were reduced to walking up that hill. I passed them and gave them some encouragement as I went by. I was on the home stretch now. However, my legs were feeling it. They were on the verge of cramping and I had slowed considerably now. I was in the upper 8’s but I was determined to finish. I sped up a bit at mile 25 but I just could not manage to get any sort of sprint up. As I came up to the line I managed to get down to 7:06 for the final .2 miles but I was in no shape for a proper sprint. I crossed the line in 3:20:40 and collapsed immediately. They picked me up and tried to keep me moving but it was no use. I had cramped as I stepped across the line. I couldn’t take another step. I spent 5-10 minutes in the chute getting rid of the cramps. God that hurts when they just lock up like that. However, it was all worth it. I had missed my goal but I had PR’d by more than 38 minutes! I had also met the 40-45 BQ time. If only I was 10 years older! In the end I felt terrific about the race. I thought I had run a well paced race and I knew I had left nothing out on the course. That was my 100% for today. With a little more training and a flatter course I know I will reach that BQ time in the near future. I also felt good that I had encouraged some people instead of belittling them while they were down. There is just no place for that. Anyway, the race was really well run and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to run a semi-challenging marathon or half marathon. Oh yea, the 3:00 and 3:15 pace guys both hit their times exactly. Too bad they only finished with people who were shooting for much higher times. All of the people who were shooting for 3:00 and 3:15 were spent from the ridiculous first 6 miles those pacers ran. Everyone is still wondering what they were thinking. See you at the races! Here are my splits and my Garmin report.
3:20:40
http://tinyurl.com/3xzoog 1 mile 6:38
2 mile 7:07
3 mile 6:53
4 mile 7:06
5 mile 7:15
6 mile 7:10
7 mile 7:17
8 mile 7:12
9 mile 7:16
10 mile 7:20
11 mile 7:14
12 mile 7:27
13 mile 7:27
13.2 mile 0:53
14 mile 6:47
15 mile 7:38
16 mile 7:45
17 mile 7:55
18 mile 7:55
19 mile 7:52
20 mile 8:08
21 mile 8:15
22 mile 8:23
23 mile 8:23
24 mile 8:39
25 mile 8:38
26 mile 8:18
26.2 mile 1:36
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[This message has been edited by JasonsDrivingForce (edited Dec-08-2007).]
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