Post Colorado Marathon Post

Well, the big day was yesterday and I survived.  Not only that, but I trimmed my marathon PR by 50 minutes (according to my Garmin anyway).  Here is how the weekend unfolded.

Saturday:
After a busy morning, we headed north to Fort Collins.  We got the Cambria Suites in town, which was a great hotel by the way, and quickly checked in.  After hauling in some luggage, I rushed out to get to the expo and meet some fellow dailymile runners who were running the marathon.  I met David and Sean there and we talked for a little while about the race, running and marathons.  It was great to meet some virtual people (up to that point) in person.  After that, I headed into the expo and picked up my race packet.  I have to say, the expo at this marathon is pretty small.  Having said that though, there are less than 1000 marathon participants, so what do you expect?  While there, I was able to meet Coach Jeff and Coach Diane from PRS Fit.

(Photo of Coach Jeff and I talking race strategy...taken by Diane at PRS Fit)

This is a rare treat as most of their clients will probably never meet them in person.  Both Jeff and Diane were great and we discussed my plan for Sunday.  They've been very helpful the last two weeks...I just wish I would have signed on with them earlier.  Regardless, we set a plan for me to run 8:35 minute miles for the entirety of the race.  While this was a lofty goal (finish time of 3:45) I felt I was ready to push myself.

After a nice talk with the coaches for a bit, I finally headed back to the hotel to pick up Teresa and Seth.  Teresa was excited to go to the kitchen store downtown before getting dinner at Canino's.  Luckily for me, the kitchen store has a nice comfortable chair where Seth and I relaxed while Teresa shopped.  I was desperately trying to stay off of my feet as much as possible and this was perfect.  We then had a great dinner with my Mom at Canino's...me carbo loading, but only a little.  I didn't want to be weighed down in the morning.  After getting back to the hotel, I gathered all my necessities for the run and headed to bed.  This is a requirement for me as I knew I wouldn't be thinking clearly at 3:00 a.m.  I finally when to bed and I think I fell asleep around 10.

Surprisingly, I actually slept well for the first 3 hours or so.  This is rare for me in a hotel and especially before a big event.  Well, once 1:30 a.m. rolled around, my mind apparently thought I had slept long enough, which was untrue by the way.  I fought that battle for about 50 minutes, but eventually lost.  At 2:20, I finally decided to crawl out of bed and get ready.  We had a king-suite room with Seth sleeping in the "living room" area.  Unfortunately for me, that meant I was getting ready in the bathroom to avoid waking him up.  This included drinking a couple cups of coffee and downing a bagel, yogurt and GoodBelly.  I don't usually recommend ingesting pre-race breakfast in the bathroom, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.  It worked out anyway, and Seth stayed asleep...can't say the same for Teresa though.  I felt bad that she woke up, but I could only be so quiet.

I left the room about 3:20 and headed down to the lobby to catch the shuttle to the race busing area.  I can't thank the general manager, Scott, at the hotel enough for running about 8 of us to the busing area.  Obviously, he wasn't required to be there at 3:30 in the morning, but he went WAY out of his way to make sure we all got to the buses on time.  He and the rest of the staff at the hotel were GREAT!  It was also good to talk to the others on the shuttle.  I was the only Colorado Marathon veteran so a lot of questions were thrown my way and of course I was happy to answer them.  There was a lot of nervous, but positive energy in shuttle so it was fun.

The bus ride to the start was less exciting.  I made every attempt to get little cat naps but I wasn't very successful.  I was done eating before the race, sticking to a 2 hour no eating zone, but I did continue with hydrating.  The bus got to the start around 5:00...one hour before race start.  I prefer to get to the start early, get ready, use the port-a-potty (before there is a long line) and mentally prepare for the run.  The photo below is from the picnic bench I sat at while waiting for the start.  The photo does not do it justice.

Sure I shivered sitting at a picnic table for 30 minutes, but to me, that's better than feeling rushed.  The sky was clear and moon was beautiful.  It was relaxing to sit and enjoy the beauty of the area before the start.  About 15 minutes before go-time, I shed the light jacket and running pants that were just barely keeping me from going into hypothermia.  I'm not usually cold, but sitting, waiting and being nervous for the race, I was chilled.  Stripped down to my thin t-shirt and shorts...I was downright cold.  I checked my bag and headed to the starting area.  Of course, I had to make one more nature call, but, being a guy...that was easy with all the trees around.

I lined up at the start..about midway through the pack.  Somehow a buddy of mine, Adam, found me there so we got the chance to talk a little before the starting siren.  The nerves were not as bad as I thought they would be and I was ready to get rolling.  I didn't have to wait long and we were off.

Just before the start!

The first two miles were dominated by two themes...crowd control and cold.  I was slowly warming up, but my hands and feet were quite chilled.  I knew it was temporary though as we could already see the sun hitting some of the peaks.  Crowd control was a little more difficult.  Starting in about the middle of the pack was fine for me, but obviously, a lot of people who planned on going much slower than I did, decided they needed to be out of the blocks first.  This made it very challenging to run my planned pace for the first couple of miles, when things finally thinned out a little.  I was a little frustrated at times, but decided to let it go...no sense wasting energy on something I couldn't fix, right?

I was doing a great job of holding my planned pace, thanks to my Garmin, and felt great.  My average heart rate was about 147 and I felt strong.  I even had to hold back at times as I just wanted to go faster.  I lost about 30 seconds about 8.5 miles into the race.  Unfortunately, all the pre-race hydration had caught up with me.  This hardly ever happens to me, but I decided it was best to empty the bladder rather than think about it for 18 more miles.  I was quickly back on track though and even ended up catching those I was running with before the pit stop.

Up until about mile 18, I was feeling great and thought I would achieve my lofty 3:45 goal time.  And this is after the course levels off somewhat (still net downhill, but much less so) and even climbs a little towards Ted's Place.  I pushed through miles 17 and 18 to maintain pace and was successful for the most part.  Then came the one hill that amounts to much of anything on this course.  Any other time running this hill, one would hardly pay any attention.  Sure it's a climb, but nothing that would cause lasting damage.  But, when the top is at mile 19 and you've hammered through the previous 18.75 miles...this one is brutal.  I ran about half the hill, but ended up in a walk the second half.  This was the beginning of the end.  That walk really tightened up my legs and the quads were screaming for me to stop.  I walked through the aid station at the top of the hill and then started running again.  Luckily, the course starts downhill right after the climb, so I was back to 9 minute miles quickly.


I was pushing hard though at this point to maintain 9 minute miles, which would've kept me at a sub 4 hour finish.  The legs were still screaming though and I was suffering.  I chose at that point to walk the aid stations.  I didn't have the energy it seemed to drink and run at the same time.  I did this consistently until about mile 23.  After that, I had to do the walk of shame several times.  I hated to do it, but just didn't have it in the legs to continue on running.  Doing so however, I quickly realized I would go over my 4 hour plan...but I was okay with that.  I was doing much better than the 2009 run and I was happy with my performance at that point.

Really suffering now...mile 23. 

In the end, I crossed the finish line running as fast as I could the last 0.2 mile to the finish from the last corner.  Of course, running at that point meant 10 minute per mile pace.  That was all I could muster out of those tired legs.  I crossed the finish line at 4:06:36 according to my Garmin 305 and 4:09 according to my timing chip.  I can only account for about 30 seconds difference between these two times for my pit stop, so I'm choosing to follow Garmin time.

Struggled across, but made it...happily!

I did miss two of the goals I had, but I'm very happy with my results.  I have no room to complain about shaving 50 minutes off of last year's time!  That's an average of almost 2 minutes per mile faster than one year ago!  I'll take it.

Overall, this year's marathon was a great experience and much more rewarding that last year's.  Teresa and Seth continue to support my lack of any common sense to sign up for such a ridiculous activity as this and they were cheering me on at every opportunity during the race.  That by itself is VERY rewarding...I can't explain how good it feels to see you're family cheering you on in such a taxing event.  Without their support (notice I didn't say understanding) I couldn't have finished this race.  I owe another big thanks to all my dailymile friends.  It's such a motivating community of athletes and I'm glad to be a part of it.  Also, a big thanks to Dr. Lloyd at 5280 Chiropractic in Denver.   Without him fixing my IT band issues several weeks ago, I would've been sitting this one out.

More good stuff!  I feel much better today than I did after last year's race.  Oh, I'm sore, don't get me wrong.  Walking down the stairs at this point resembles something like a 100 year old man walking barefoot on broken glass.  I must move very carefully.  My quads are shot and half useless for putting all my weight on one leg at a time.  But, other than that I'm just "normal sore" if that means anything.  My calves feel great which is the exact opposite of last year.  On top of it all, much to Teresa's dismay, I'm already considering signing up for next year's race.  I know, the insanity continues. It's absolutely a ridiculous and crazy event, the marathon, and I can't imagine why anyone would want to train like a mad person for months only to torture themselves on race day just to get a medal at the end.  There isn't any money in it, especially at my pace and age.  I don't get any national recognition or my name on a billboard somewhere...no fame to gain.  My photo won't be on a Wheaties box.  And a week from now, most people I know won't even remember that I did this, unless I'm still hobbling of course, then maybe two weeks.  Maybe I don't need to know why...it's just something I enjoy doing right now and it's a personal thing.  Nothing to hide...just something that makes me feel good...isn't that enough?

Thanks for reading.

- Brian