Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Huntsville Marathon


After completing my first marathon, the challenge had been laid down to get a Boston Qualifier.  I fell  8 minutes short during the Knoxville Marathon.  I love living in Tennessee but in the eastern portion of the state it is hard to find a marathon course that is considered flat and fast.  My search for the perfect course led me to enter the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville Alabama.  This is roughly a 4 hour drive from my home and is relatively flat.  It also would give a good opportunity to take my daughter to the space center for a small family outing.  Training for this race took on a very obsessive nature.  Getting under 3:10:59 became my thought day and night.  In order to accomplish this feat I would have to run 26.2 miles in an average pace of 7:15 per mile to reach my goal.  During my preparation I had taken note of what did and did not work for my last training plan.  Some things right off the bat were to wear compression shorts instead of the regular shorty shorts to prevent chaffing and save the muscles from damage incurred from the thigh rubbing.  Also I needed to make sure and keep an intake of fuel every 5 miles to keep the wall at bay as long as possible.  I also took a more strict approach to higher volumes of speed work  in the use of the Yasso 800’s.  The formula is simple; pick your goal marathon pace (3hours 10minutes) and run 800 meters at that time in minutes (3minutes 10seconds) and do a recovery lap.  To make it simple, run 2 laps under 3:10 and jog 1 lap then repeat.  I had built up to doing 12 sets in preparation for this race.  I had also performed a few extra runs over the 20 mile threshold and even did a weekly spin class.   Not surprisingly, my other short race times even improved.  My 5k dropped to sub 18:30 and my half marathon went down to 1:26.

 

Everything was on track except for 1 major turning point in the race.  At the start line they announced that ipods were forbidden.  If a person was caught wearing headphones, they would be disqualified.  This was a major blow to my running.   I had never run a long distance without music as a motivator.  My set list was all picked out with music playing at the exact beat for my pace.  This seems like a small matter now but back then, it was like being told that I would have to run barefoot.  It is very important to practice the way you play and this was not in the game plan.  I handed my ipod to my wife with panic and defeat in my attitude and got one last good luck kiss before approaching the start line.  Once the gun went off, it was as if muscle memory took over and I began a run in the light rain with a little headwind.  The course was very flat and felt pretty fast especially after the turnaround when the wind shifted to my back.  My pace was a solid 7:05 per mile as I got around to mile 18.  Then, the inevitable wall crept up on me as expected with my calves cramping and the legs slowing.  I approached the 20 mile mark with a slower pace and a nauseating feeling in my gut when I remembered a quote from marathon runner, Ryan Hall.  He had said “run the first 20 miles with your head and the last 6.2 with your heart”.  I had worked too hard and sacrificed so much to get this and could not let pain and fatigue stop me.  For the last several months I had missed out on so much family time and pushed all other activities aside for this one goal.  I wanted to get a BQ more than I wanted anything else.  At mile 22 I looked up to see my wife and daughter standing on a street corner smiling and cheering for me as I passed them I looked at my watch and remember telling them that I was going to make it and would see them at the finish line.  The next 4 miles were extremely difficult but thankfully were flat, my pace continued to slow and my average dropped to 7:08 per mile.  As I neared the 26 mile mark, everything in my body wanted to stop and walk and then like something out of a story I saw my wife and daughter again waiting at the last corner at the 26 mile marker.  They had been standing there going back and forth to look at the race clock.  I was going to be cutting it close when my daughter ran out and started yelling and running beside me words of love and encouragement.  She ran beside me all the way to the finish coral and her last words were “I love you daddy”.  This set me over the edge as I crossed the finish line and immediately started sobbing uncontrollably.  I grabbed and hugged the first volunteer that came up to give me a medal and Mylar blanket.  I then stumbled into the recovery area and sat down in the corner and continued to cry letting all of the emotion pour out.  My wife and daughter found me and wrapped their arms around my body in its fragile state in a warm silent embrace.  No words were spoken for a while because the actions and accomplishment said it all.  On December 12, 2009 against all probability I had gotten my BQ in a time of 3:08:34 and finished 72 overall out of 1257 runners.  Later that evening my joy turned to frustration when I learned that even though I ran a qualifying time, Boston registration had already filled up and I would not be running it in the spring.  Now it is back to the drawing board and finding another marathon to keep up my qualification standard.  Looks like life has taken another unexpected turn....

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