2016 Erie Marathon
Driving around on Saturday to packet pickup etc. the outside temperature in the truck was reading at 88 degrees. There was an 'emergency alert' that came through on the radio warning of bad storms before 10pm but the sky was blue. It was windy, so you could tell something was coming, but nothing immediate. Eventually, around 7pm or so when I was at the grocery store getting some snacks to fuel before the race the sky opened up and the downpour was incredible. I haven't seen rain like that in a long time. I wound up driving in the middle of the storm and the visibility was almost as bad as a strong snow storm. There were multiple warnings from the race director that they would not hold the race for late arrivals like they did in 2015, so I knew I wanted to get there early.
Sunday morning I woke up at 3:45am, which was 15 minutes before my alarm was going to go off. Instead of obsessing over race gear in the hotel room, I figured it was better to get onto Presque Isle and then deal with everything there. I got to the park a few minutes before 5am and when looking for parking managed to miss the turn to the parking lot. Oh well, there was plenty of time to loop back around. When I did get into the correct parking lot there were about 10 cars there already, nobody directing traffic and standing water everywhere. All of this was to be expected, I was there stupid early after a huge rain storm. I messed with gear and then walked over to the race start to finish race prep there.
One of the benefits to being early was that I could get a seat at the limited number of picnic tables in the main pavilion. I sat down with a few other runners and just tried to relax. I was in a weird funk. Usually by race day I'm excited and having fun chatting with everyone around me. I normally find it liberating to be at the race. By that point, the hay is in the barn, all the work is done and it is just time to see what the day brings. My kids make fun of me for making a new friend at every race I go to. Sunday morning though, I didn't want to deal with anybody so I just sat there being antisocial as the crowd filled in. Eventually, I taped up my heels to prevent new/worsening blisters got everything situated and hit the bag drop. By this point it was 6:40ish and the perfect time to do a warm up.
I did some light jogging from the start line and back for about 1/3 of a mile or so. It felt OK, but I was still feeling a little bit off. I'm used to feeling a little uncomfortable at the beginning but this was something more. My lower back was starting to hurt from side to side which was weird. I did the same back/forth a second time with 3 strides mixed in and now my back was completely seizing up. It felt like someone had beaten the crap out of me and I had a hard time standing up. I walked over, grabbed one of the crowd control barricades and squatted down to try and stretch out my back. That was a big mistake. It was now getting worse. All I could think was what the F is wrong with me? A few minutes and a lot of shallow breathing later and my back started to let go. For lack of a better way to put it, I think I was having some kind of adrenaline reaction to the stress of racing. This was the kind of thing that has hit me a couple of times in life after a stressful event, but not before. Weird.
By 6:54am my back was fine and I lined up a few rows deep for the start. The temperature when I left the truck ~90 minutes earlier read 68F and the weather app on my phone said 87% humidity but it really felt much better than that. There was a very strong cross wind blowing that made it feel pretty comfortable. We went off at 7am and now it was time to execute. The plan was to run 7:10ish miles for the first half and then assess from there and adjust for the second half. I was hoping to pull off a slight negative split. I've never negative split a race. The crowd was a little thick for the first few miles. There were a couple of people getting on my nerves, but the worst was a guy that would wait for me to pass him then speed up significantly to get back in front where he would proceed to shift over directly in front of me and slow down. He must have done this 4-5 times in the first 2 miles before deciding to run next to me and ask, "What pace are you shooting for?" My answer was, "7:10ish". His response, "No, I mean what time do you want to finish in?" Me, "Oh, 3:10ish" to which he responds with, "I'm going to break 3 hours!" All I could think was, not if you keep running like this, but I kept my snarky thoughts to myself and wished him well. Those first 3 miles were 7:06, 7:13 and 7:11. I was working those first three miles, but not very hard so my sense was that the plan was going well. I checked HR and saw that I was at 165 current, with 164 average so far. That's a little high. If I'm going to go all out and try to PR then I'd expect to see those numbers closer to the half way mark. Clearly it was weather related and I thought about ignoring it but decided that the real goal was a BQ so time to pull back and be cautious. The plan from here out was going to be to ignore pace and run 160-162 for the current HR for the rest of the first half and then reassess. For the rest of the first half, I felt comfortable and when the lap times popped up they were consistently between 7:16 to 7:22. I only needed to average 7:45ish to BQ so things were going well.
By the second half the sun was out but fortunately the shade of the course mitigated the burning orb in the sky pretty well. The strong cross winds were still blowing and kept things relatively pleasant as well. I thought about starting to push the pace and couldn't shake the thought of 'Why bother?' I wasn't going to PR, the BQ was looking pretty safe so I just didn't have it in me to suffer more than necessary. I decided to keep shooting for a 160-162 HR in the second half which meant that I was just planning to coast. If I was running even effort by HR then I should have been shooting for 167-170 in the second half, especially on a warm day when cardiac drift would likely be more pronounced. But again I thought, 'Why bother?' From mile 14 (7:28) through mile 24 (8:32) the splits slowed down pretty consistently a few seconds each mile. I was regularly checking actuals against needed and knew that as long as I didn't walk a BQ should be safe. I was hurting through this time and really just didn't want to run harder. Somewhere along the way, my right foot started to get sore and then went completely numb. This is the foot that I haven't had any issues with this year. I really started to focus on it with about 10k to go but I'm not sure when it really came on. It didn't worry me, but it was annoying. I had the same problem happen 3 years ago when I tried to transition to custom orthotics too quickly. When I was nursing the missing skin on my heel for most of the last month I had not been wearing the orthotics. For the race, and a couple of runs leading up to the race, I had the orthotics back in. Oops. Also, in that last 10km there were a couple of times when I was in full sun and the wind machine suddenly stopped blowing for a minute. It got uncomfortable quick when that happened. Like usual, the last few miles there were a number of people walking. I just kept focusing on not joining them and plodded through to the finish. I had about 10 people pass me in the last couple hundred yards. Meh.
Once I stopped, then it hit me that I wasn't just slacking but was actually in worse shape than I realized. My head, face, legs and arms all had that 'pins and needles' feeling that comes when a limb 'falls asleep'. I was pretty light headed. I stumbled around a bit and at the medical tent saw that the beds were full, which was fine because I probably didn't need one but something wasn't right. I got a mylar sheet from the people at the med tent and lay down on the ground immediately next to the tent. I wanted to be close by just in case I did pass out or have something bad happen. After what I think was 30-40 minutes, the 'pins and needles' was getting better and it was time to try and stand up. One of the medics came over and got me off the ground, I'm not sure I could have done it alone. Once I was walking back to the parking lot, everything was hurting but I wasn't concerned about passing out so it was time to stumble on home. A quick change of clothes and a stop by Krispy Kreme to get donuts for the kids and I was on the expressway. I'm not sure exactly when, but sometime after getting back into New York State the 'pins and needles' were finally 100% gone. My arms were the last to recover at least 90+ minutes after the finish.
Reflecting on the experience, it seems clear that the sufferfest at Boston this year took a lot out of me. I remember during the long walk to downtown on Patriot's Day starting to hate the 26.2 mile distance and I think memories of that day were related to the issues yesterday from before the start of the race. I love the training but haven't raced much this year and it takes practice to get through race efforts well.
The official finish time was 3:20:42 so I'll register for Boston next week. Getting an extra 10 minutes now that I'm in a newer, older, old guy group came in really helpful.
Sunday morning I woke up at 3:45am, which was 15 minutes before my alarm was going to go off. Instead of obsessing over race gear in the hotel room, I figured it was better to get onto Presque Isle and then deal with everything there. I got to the park a few minutes before 5am and when looking for parking managed to miss the turn to the parking lot. Oh well, there was plenty of time to loop back around. When I did get into the correct parking lot there were about 10 cars there already, nobody directing traffic and standing water everywhere. All of this was to be expected, I was there stupid early after a huge rain storm. I messed with gear and then walked over to the race start to finish race prep there.
One of the benefits to being early was that I could get a seat at the limited number of picnic tables in the main pavilion. I sat down with a few other runners and just tried to relax. I was in a weird funk. Usually by race day I'm excited and having fun chatting with everyone around me. I normally find it liberating to be at the race. By that point, the hay is in the barn, all the work is done and it is just time to see what the day brings. My kids make fun of me for making a new friend at every race I go to. Sunday morning though, I didn't want to deal with anybody so I just sat there being antisocial as the crowd filled in. Eventually, I taped up my heels to prevent new/worsening blisters got everything situated and hit the bag drop. By this point it was 6:40ish and the perfect time to do a warm up.
I did some light jogging from the start line and back for about 1/3 of a mile or so. It felt OK, but I was still feeling a little bit off. I'm used to feeling a little uncomfortable at the beginning but this was something more. My lower back was starting to hurt from side to side which was weird. I did the same back/forth a second time with 3 strides mixed in and now my back was completely seizing up. It felt like someone had beaten the crap out of me and I had a hard time standing up. I walked over, grabbed one of the crowd control barricades and squatted down to try and stretch out my back. That was a big mistake. It was now getting worse. All I could think was what the F is wrong with me? A few minutes and a lot of shallow breathing later and my back started to let go. For lack of a better way to put it, I think I was having some kind of adrenaline reaction to the stress of racing. This was the kind of thing that has hit me a couple of times in life after a stressful event, but not before. Weird.
By 6:54am my back was fine and I lined up a few rows deep for the start. The temperature when I left the truck ~90 minutes earlier read 68F and the weather app on my phone said 87% humidity but it really felt much better than that. There was a very strong cross wind blowing that made it feel pretty comfortable. We went off at 7am and now it was time to execute. The plan was to run 7:10ish miles for the first half and then assess from there and adjust for the second half. I was hoping to pull off a slight negative split. I've never negative split a race. The crowd was a little thick for the first few miles. There were a couple of people getting on my nerves, but the worst was a guy that would wait for me to pass him then speed up significantly to get back in front where he would proceed to shift over directly in front of me and slow down. He must have done this 4-5 times in the first 2 miles before deciding to run next to me and ask, "What pace are you shooting for?" My answer was, "7:10ish". His response, "No, I mean what time do you want to finish in?" Me, "Oh, 3:10ish" to which he responds with, "I'm going to break 3 hours!" All I could think was, not if you keep running like this, but I kept my snarky thoughts to myself and wished him well. Those first 3 miles were 7:06, 7:13 and 7:11. I was working those first three miles, but not very hard so my sense was that the plan was going well. I checked HR and saw that I was at 165 current, with 164 average so far. That's a little high. If I'm going to go all out and try to PR then I'd expect to see those numbers closer to the half way mark. Clearly it was weather related and I thought about ignoring it but decided that the real goal was a BQ so time to pull back and be cautious. The plan from here out was going to be to ignore pace and run 160-162 for the current HR for the rest of the first half and then reassess. For the rest of the first half, I felt comfortable and when the lap times popped up they were consistently between 7:16 to 7:22. I only needed to average 7:45ish to BQ so things were going well.
By the second half the sun was out but fortunately the shade of the course mitigated the burning orb in the sky pretty well. The strong cross winds were still blowing and kept things relatively pleasant as well. I thought about starting to push the pace and couldn't shake the thought of 'Why bother?' I wasn't going to PR, the BQ was looking pretty safe so I just didn't have it in me to suffer more than necessary. I decided to keep shooting for a 160-162 HR in the second half which meant that I was just planning to coast. If I was running even effort by HR then I should have been shooting for 167-170 in the second half, especially on a warm day when cardiac drift would likely be more pronounced. But again I thought, 'Why bother?' From mile 14 (7:28) through mile 24 (8:32) the splits slowed down pretty consistently a few seconds each mile. I was regularly checking actuals against needed and knew that as long as I didn't walk a BQ should be safe. I was hurting through this time and really just didn't want to run harder. Somewhere along the way, my right foot started to get sore and then went completely numb. This is the foot that I haven't had any issues with this year. I really started to focus on it with about 10k to go but I'm not sure when it really came on. It didn't worry me, but it was annoying. I had the same problem happen 3 years ago when I tried to transition to custom orthotics too quickly. When I was nursing the missing skin on my heel for most of the last month I had not been wearing the orthotics. For the race, and a couple of runs leading up to the race, I had the orthotics back in. Oops. Also, in that last 10km there were a couple of times when I was in full sun and the wind machine suddenly stopped blowing for a minute. It got uncomfortable quick when that happened. Like usual, the last few miles there were a number of people walking. I just kept focusing on not joining them and plodded through to the finish. I had about 10 people pass me in the last couple hundred yards. Meh.
Once I stopped, then it hit me that I wasn't just slacking but was actually in worse shape than I realized. My head, face, legs and arms all had that 'pins and needles' feeling that comes when a limb 'falls asleep'. I was pretty light headed. I stumbled around a bit and at the medical tent saw that the beds were full, which was fine because I probably didn't need one but something wasn't right. I got a mylar sheet from the people at the med tent and lay down on the ground immediately next to the tent. I wanted to be close by just in case I did pass out or have something bad happen. After what I think was 30-40 minutes, the 'pins and needles' was getting better and it was time to try and stand up. One of the medics came over and got me off the ground, I'm not sure I could have done it alone. Once I was walking back to the parking lot, everything was hurting but I wasn't concerned about passing out so it was time to stumble on home. A quick change of clothes and a stop by Krispy Kreme to get donuts for the kids and I was on the expressway. I'm not sure exactly when, but sometime after getting back into New York State the 'pins and needles' were finally 100% gone. My arms were the last to recover at least 90+ minutes after the finish.
Reflecting on the experience, it seems clear that the sufferfest at Boston this year took a lot out of me. I remember during the long walk to downtown on Patriot's Day starting to hate the 26.2 mile distance and I think memories of that day were related to the issues yesterday from before the start of the race. I love the training but haven't raced much this year and it takes practice to get through race efforts well.
The official finish time was 3:20:42 so I'll register for Boston next week. Getting an extra 10 minutes now that I'm in a newer, older, old guy group came in really helpful.
