OBX Recap 11.08.09

Running a marathon is not like running a shorter distances races. No marathon is has a lot more to do with the management of two things: energy and pain.

From an energy perspective, you have to go fast enough to stay on target for your goal yet slow enough, that you don’t burn off your reserves and hit the wall. Certainly, this is a lesson many people learn all too well somewhere between 18 and 22 miles of a marathon.

From a pain perspective, you go into a marathon knowing that it is going hurt. You muscles are going to tighten to the point that they will not want to move. All along they will be sending messages to your brain saying slow down or even stop. This is part of pain management that many people struggle with.

Today, I tried to manage both and I give me self a B+. Mainly, I give myself a B+ rather than an A because I didn’t achieve my goal of a sub 2:40.

But like Jay said in his CRC “Weekly Runner”, the marathon is a fickle creature. Not only are you competing against other runners but in many respects you are competing against the course and the weather.

The marathon is a long race and can encompass huge variations in course elevation and road surfaces from dirt to concert. And unlike a 5k or 10k where the temperature may rise a degree or two over the course of a race, during the course of a marathon the temperature can raise any number of degrees.

For me the day started little before 4 AM with a prerace snack, dressing in my race gear, packing my drop bag, and using body glide in all of the right places.

Also I inserted into my compression tights my 4 Power Gels that I would be consuming along the race course at 6, 11, 16, and 21 miles.

At 5:30 we were out the door to catch the shuttle buses to the marathon start. The buses were scheduled to pull out at 6 AM on the dot so we really don’t want to be late.

Our van was driven by Emily. She was a 20 something and clearly on a caffeine high. She was enjoying the some good music and bouncing in seat on the way to the start.

We did get to meet two Kenyan runners who joined us for the ride over to the start. In talking with them, they had not previewed the course beforehand and seemed troubled by my comments related the trail section.

For those interested, Megan, Mike, and Ben as well as I were the only other ones in the shuttle when it pulled out.

Just before the race start I spotted Alejandro and Steve Ahrens so I took a quick second to say high. Alejandro ran well for the ½ marathon but judging by his finish time he hit the wall really hard. Steve on the other hand had a great race and finished in the top 3 for the USA T&F NC Masters Championship.

With the starting gun sounding, we were off in waves with the 5 to 7 minute runners off first.

Megan, Mike, and I quickly joined up in the first couple miles before I surged up to the group in front of us. There were two guys in this group: Michael Combs and Jonathan Kinsey. Both were arming for a 2:40 and agreed to work with me for the next 20 miles. Remember my blogs concerning pre race strategy; sometimes you just have to wing it and hope for the best. Today, it worked out okay.

We went through ten miles in 60 minutes and with the trail section from 10 to 13.1. We ended up running just barely under 1:20.

Around 16 miles Michael started to fade back. Jon and I continued work together. We caught David Biko around 17 miles. About 18 miles, I noticed that Jon was no longer running just a step in front of me, but rather he was starting to run a step behind me.

As the race was developing, I targeted 20 miles to see what I could do. So I didn’t push the pace but Jon and David both dropped off.
From 18 to 20 I just focused on staying relaxed and running even pace. After 20 I tried to pick it up but nothing really happened. I ran something like 6:02 to 6:15 for miles 20, 21, 22. Then, I hit the bridge at 23 with a 6:51, and followed it with 6:40 and 6:39. So the 23 mile was my slowest race.

As opposed to last year the temperature this year at the start were much higher at 55 degrees and the humidity made it feel like 66 and the temperatures went up, up, up as the race progressed. Add to this a wind coming out of the South south-west direction, on a north to south bound course, you have a tough race.

It got especially tough on the long stretches of 158.

In all honesty, I was extremely appreciative of Jon and Michael to run with for 18 miles. It would have been really tough to run those miles solo.

Again this year, the crowd support is sparse in some sections. But in the sections where there was support, it is very enthusiastic and loud. And it is a great to see them dressed up in pirate outfits.

Another Kudo needs to go out to the volunteers along the course. While no race could survive without volunteers, OBX has some of greatest volunteers. Many of them, I am sure, were out early on a Sunday morning and continue working for the next 10 hours handing out hammer gels, water, and Gatorade to the runners.

One of the other things, I like about OBX is the finish medal. In the Dare county tradition, it always has a pirate flair for both the ½ and the full marathons.

At the finish, you can even have your marathon photo taken with the pirate.

One of the things OBX race organizers are very efficient at doing is handing out awards. They always seem to start on time and quickly disperse the awards. More races could follow there example.

I was very fortunate this year to place 7th overall with a 2:43:45. For this finish time, I finished 3rd in the USAT&F Open males, 1st for the USAT&F NC Masters Men, and 1st RRCA NC Masters Men.

Although, I didn’t get my sub 2:40 today and I am happy with race. I ran a better race than last year and given the trail section, temperatures, and the wind, I probably got the most out today that I could have.

My time was a little slower than last year, but when I looked at the overall times between last year and this year, I see the same slippage. So it leads credence to my opinion that the weather conditions today had a larger effect on our running. Also, my Garmin reported the distance at 26.5 miles. In looking at the distance from the race last year, I saw it was 26.48. So either it is a little long or I am not very efficient at running the tangent. I like to think that I am pretty efficient. And let’s be very honest here, there are some sections during the latter half of the marathon where it is just not possible to run the tangent. The reason why is there are so many ½ marathoner walking 3 or 4 abreast.

More credence could be found in Megan and Mike’s times. They are in better shape than they showed today. I know it from our workouts and races together. Hopefully, they will bounce back quickly from a tough today. Ben situation was a little different in that his Achilles tightened up during the race. This was an old injury that has affected Ben during other long runs and this old injury decided for whatever reason remind him of it today. Outwardly, he did say much about his disappointment, I suspect it was tougher on him than he showed. But I have my suspicions that he will bounce back just fine. He seems to have that type of personality.

After the race, we caught the shuttle back to the parking lot, picked up our car, made a stop for more food before heading back to the house.

I put some food in my system, rested for about an hour before heading over to the ocean for a little ice bath. The cold ocean salt water has healing effects on tired muscle but let me assure you of something. The water was exceptionally cold. I wanted to stay in the water for 20 minutes but it was probably more like 10 to 15 minutes.

We finished off the day with some pizza and games.

Lights were out by 9pm. I am still up only because I wanted to start working this blog post tonight.

One final note before I end. After the race, I received many post and emails with congratulations and I want to thanks to all of you for your best wishes both before the race with my quad injury and today.

Also I wanted to thank the CRC group for allowing me to tag along on their workouts and pulling me along when I didn’t feel like.

I want to especially single out Ben, Megan, Mike, and Nathan for sharing so many long runs, tempo, and speed sessions. They pushed and pulled me through and hopefully, I pushed and pull them through when they were having a tough day. Guys, I couldn’t have done it without you.


Thanks,

Bill