Grand Rapids Marathon Race Report

I debated on even writing this as the actual race blew up in my face and I considered bagging it even before the 20 mile mark. The long and short of it is that I got sick about 3 weeks before the event. It was a stomach infection that lasted close to two weeks. I was eating solid foods about 7 days before the race, and normal foods about 3-4 days before the race. I convinced myself to trust my training and run as I originally planned, which was a sub 4 hour pace.

The weather was perfect to start. Probably around 50 degrees.

I was able to line up at the start with the 3:56 pace group. This is a solid 9:00 minute mile group that my training led me to prepare for. When I would run MP runs in training, I could run a 9:00 pace for about ten miles with a heart rate around 156-158. My concern is always that my HR starts to steadily climb around that 9-10 mile mark and I'll often times start hitting 164-166 around mile 16-18. I should have realized right away at the marathon that I needed to slow down and just forget about going sub 4 and enjoy the run. But I was stubborn.

Anyways, the sub 4 group for some reason took off way too fast out of the gate. I ran a 9:09 mile and they got way ahead of me. I finally caught up to them between mile 6 and 7. I knew I was going to fast, but I thought the group would be my lifeline for any chance at sub 4.

Mile 1 - 9:06 - 167
Mile 2 - 8:42 - 165
Mile 3 - 8:30 - 169
Mile 4 - 8:22 - 172
Mile 5 - 8:32 - 173
Mile 6 - 8:53 - 172
Mile 7 - 8:50 - 172

You can see there that my HR was over 170 the whole time. Even when I ran a 10 mile race in August and pushed 8:00 miles, I was not topping 166. It was this point I realized I probably should slow down, but I am just stubborn.

Mile 8 - 9:09 - 170
Mile 9 - 9:24 - 169
Mile 10 -8:54 - 171

What was interesting after that 10th mile, I realized that the sub 4 pacing group had left me. I thought I could keep my current pace and hit the half sub 2:00 and grab one small victory for the race, then i would slow down and try to enjoy the rest of the race.

Mile 11 -9:28 - 171
Mile 12 -9:26 - 172
Mile 13 -9:48 - 171

Half - 1:58:11

The half split was great, but I was now in total panic. Not only was I slowing down, My heart rate was still high but was all over the place. And I was experiencing stomach pain that was just like I was sick all over again. I had a water belt on with gatorade. I figured if I needed water I'd hit the water stations. The problem was as I drank gatorade, my stomach would convulse and I'd wretch the drink up. Water went down just fine. But gatorade felt like it hurt my stomach. The cramping was all over my stomach. My mindset is now in protect my body mode and just thinking of how I could even finish this thing.

Mile 14 -10:02 - 170
Mile 15 -10:17 - 167

Those last two miles were really the last miles I remember thinking "weren't bad". I was hoping to get in a rhythm of knocking out miles at a 10:20ish pace, but the darn heart rate was still up and I was hurting.

Mile 16 -10:37 - 165
Mile 17 -11:24 - 162
Mile 18 -11:24 - 162

Cramping was still bad. My chest was starting to hurt, but what was strange was the way my muscles were locking up. I was worried it was a result of dehydration, but I couldn't get htem to loosen up at all. I even hurt to the touch. Was quite strange. I started looking for a cart, cause I was thinking of calling it quits. Figure I'd give it to mile 20 and if I didn't feel better, I was done. I even stopped and pulled my cell phone to call my wife to warn her I was going to be real late at the finish line. She made me carry it because she was worried after my sickness I was going to have problems.

Mile 19 -11:57 - 156
Mile 20 - 11:56 -158
Mile 21 - 12:22 -155

It was at this point I wasn't even looking at my watch. I was hurting where I just wanted to be done with everything. I stopped for a second to offer a hand to someone who fell. Another runner who was a doctor had everything under control.

Mile 22 - 12:30 -155
Mile 23 - 12:24 -152
Mile 24 - 12:25 -153

Still plodding away, I was convinced not to start walking. I was worried I would not finish at all if I stopped. I also realized at this point I had stopped sweating. I was bone dry. Salt all over my face and hair, but I was not really wet anywhere.

Mile 25 - 12:58 -161
Mile 26 - 13:04 -160

My watch was all screwy from mile 23 on really. It didn't register some of my slow paces when I dipped, so I think it said I was going faster than I really was.

I was very happy to finish. My wife, in-laws, and kids were there to cheer me to the finish. I finished in 4:39, which was still a PR.

So, in the end, I'm not sure if I should have even run the race. If I could go back, I'd just tell myself to run a slow pace similar to my long training runs. Shoot, a slow 10:00 pace would have gotten me in at 4:22. I would have at least enjoyed the run.

Post sick, pre marathon run

Even though I'm in the tapering period of my training, I wanted to maintain some good mileage before resting the week of the marathon. Since my recent illness didn't allow that, I was able to finally run yesterday with only 4 days left until the big day. I am very disappointed with how sore I feel today. I am still considering running again today, only running an even slower pace. Getting sick right before the marathon has almost destroyed my psyche going into this run.

I'm really trying to take a step back and look at the big picture. Two years ago, I ran my first marathon. Last year, I suffered a knee injury and had to cancel my run less then one month away from the race. This year my illness has jeopardized my goal time of 4 hours. BUT - I am still running. Kalamazoo has their inaugural marathon run next May. If it isn't the same day, 5/3rd has the River Bank run, and after both of those races, Traverse City has the Bayshore Marathon end of may. I could run one of those events and hopefully get myself back on track for a 3:45 or even a 3:30 run at Grand Rapids in October.

I have started asking myself the question of just how many people simply train for a marathon, then look for an event to run when they feel ready? I think I now understand why so many people travel all over looking for races.

Sickness during my taper

The original plan after completing my 20 mile training run left me 3 weeks to taper.

Which meant the following schedule.

Week 1
M - rest
T - rest
W - 3 miles
R - 4 miles
F - 3 miles
S - 8 - 10 miles
S - rest

Week 2
M - 3 miles
T - 4 miles
W - 3 miles
R - rest
F - 3 miles
S - 8 miles
S - rest

Week 3 - Marathon week
M - 3 miles
T - 2 miles
W - rest
R - rest
F - 2 miles
S - 2 miles
S - Marathon!

Well, I got sick. I ran the training run sick but that wasn't as bad as what was to come. First, the head cold/chest stuff got super bad, so I figured I'd rest right through to Thursday of that week 1 schedule, and start running again on Friday. I knew full well that those extra couple day off and meant no harm to my training. But Thursday night I started what I found out to be a stomach infection. The rest of Week 1 and until Saturday of week 2 was fighting that infection. It is now Wednesday of Marathon week, and I'll be doing a short run at lunch to work at getting my feet back under me. I'm not letting this setback change my goals, but I will be more aware of my "vitals" throughout Sunday, and if I have to slow down or even take a break I will to get through it. My hope is that I did enough training to get me to that finish line in under four hours, but the realist in my is thinking a fallback of 4:15-4:30 may happen as well.

20 mile training run done

Well, the 20 mile training run did go as planned. I woke up sick and for a minute considered skipping it. However, I knew I had to go and run it or risk jeopardizing all my training.

I averaged a very consistent 9:40 pace throughout. Even as I started to tire around mile 17-20, i was very consistent around 9:40. I did push a couple early miles to get my legs under me. I think I had a couple miles that were around 9:20.

The tapering has begun!