Rocket City Marathon – 12 December 2009

This was my first marathon in over 2 years and overall I really enjoyed the whole experience. I haven’t really run that much over the last couple of years and had really gotten out of shape and put on a pretty good bit of weight. I had signed up for the Rocket City marathon in 2008 but with the work load I had I didn’t run much at all and skipped the race. This was a race I had heard great things about and wanted to run so I signed up again this year.

Training:
Training went great for the most part. I went in to training with very little base. I had been dealing with PF since February, tried to run through it, and ended up taking the whole month of June off. I started my training in July and quickly built a base. I was more aggressive than planned in mileage build up because it was going so well. My plan was to build mileage and then slowly add speed work in to the mix. I never quite got the part of adding the speed work but wasn’t too worried about it. I was enjoying the training and wanted to keep it going. One thing I did this go around was add biking in to the training. While training for a marathon in 2005 I added in a cycling class once per week but this time I added in 3-4 days of biking which gave me 30-40 miles of biking along with the running mileage I did. I really think this helped me stay injury free through out the process. I was having some motivation problems the last 3 weeks or so of the program but figured I would be ok. I was always tired and just wanted to rest so that’s what I did.

Friday:
I arrived in Huntsville on Friday around noon and just kind of hung out until late afternoon. I went over to the expo to get a couple of things and my packet. Bart Yasso was the guest speaker at the carbo dinner that night- what a great guy and speaker. I really enjoyed his speech and am enjoying his book.

Race:
Saturday morning’s weather was a little less than desirable but not as bad as I thought it was going to be. We had 33* temps and 13 mph winds. The starting gun was a musket rifle that they fired. After 3 obligatory start/stops we were off. The first mile was a little slower than what I wanted but not bad. I hit stride during mile 2 and within the next couple of miles hit my stride and was on pace for a 3:50. I zoned out and the miles seemed to click off pretty effortlessly. A guy started running with me somewhere around mile 5 and talked nonstop. This quickly brought me out of my “zone”. I didn’t want to be rude but I really wanted to just zone out and run. Finally at mile 10 I wished him luck, excused myself as we came up to a porto-john and I stepped inside and let him get ahead. Miles 9-15 were along a long road with very little turns…. and into the head winds. Every so often we would get a break from the wind as it swirled but it was doing its damage. I felt a couple of twinges in my hamstrings during this stretch but nothing I was too worried about. Then around mile 15 I had a strong twinge- right after that the cramps started. I wanted to make it to at least mile 20 before I did any walking so I slowed my pace but the cramps got bad enough that I started walking some at mile 19. I added more walking breaks between miles 21-24. I saw the guy that had run with me earlier and he was cramping pretty badly also. I also walked with a marathon maniac for a while that was cramping pretty badly- interesting guy!
I was able to run the final 2.2 miles of the race - I guess the succeed tablet, the gels, and the powerade finally replenished me enough or I was just really ready for this to be over with and willed my way through it.

As I came to the finish line my friend that had made the trip with me cheered me on and yelled to push the rest of the way… what he didn’t understand was I was pushing it and every step my hamstrings and calves in both legs had the feel that they were going to cramp- I was just praying that they didn’t cramp right there in front of everyone.

After crossing the finish the volunteers do a great job of keeping you moving. All I wanted to do was stop but they keep you moving toward the door and in to the warm hotel.

I ended up with a time of 4:11:11 so I didn’t hit the 3:50 I wanted but those are just numbers. Looking back- this whole training and race was a success…. I got back in to a little better shape- lost some of the weight I put on…. and proved to myself that I can still train and run this distance.

Splits:
1- 9:08
2- 8:58
3- 8:44
4- 8:43
5- 8:46
6- 8:51
7- 8:59
8- 9:00
9- 8:55
10- 9:41 (porto john stop)
11- 8:53
12- 9:00
13- 8:59
14- 9:10
15- 9:05
16- 9:27 (slowed pace)
17- 9:21
18- 9:29
19- 9:57
20- 9:57
21- 10:29 (extended walk breaks)
22- 10:14 (extended walk breaks)
23- 12:26 (extended walk breaks)
24- 11:56 (extended walk breaks)
25- 10:39
26- 10:02
.2- 2.10 (9.52 avg)

Total time: 4:11:11
Placement:
Overall – 690/1254
Division – 103/154