I knew it was going to be a long day on Sunday when I left the house to head out to the race at 6am. The one good thing is that I was able to sleep in my own bed the night before since the race was only 30 miles west of where I live. The bad thing is that it was 72 degrees when I left the house and 74 degrees by the time I got there, and this was 45 minutes before the race even started. I’m not even sure that the heat itself was so bad in the end, but it was more the humidity that did everyone in. It was just so sticky, it was terrible.
I did take the weather conditions quite serious after the email from the race director about requiring water bottles and the potential to pull runners if they seem dehydrated. Read on, because I don’t actually think that was possible. Anyway, I did everything I could to stay hydrated well before the race. I drank plenty of fluids overnight and into the morning (you know, stopping to “go” every half hour or so) .. and even right before the race I downed a 32oz gatorade to ensure my electrolytes were up prior to starting. I actually carried a Fuel Belt for the first time, I just don’t know if there was too much more I could have done ..
anyway, on to the race report:
- The start to Mile 4
For whatever reason, the race ended up starting late, by at least 5 minutes due to the normal pre-race comments from the race director. Most of us just wanted to get moving because we were standing in the burning sun … I was already breaking a sweat just standing there in anticipation of the race starting. Then finally the gun went off and we headed down the narrow trail into the woods.. yeah, it was pretty narrow and quite dangerous due to the amount of people running. Eventually it did break up, but it took about a mile until people fell into their pace.
The first 4 miles were pretty uneventful except for the fact that I was unable to even get into my goal pace of 9:05-9:10. One thing I found with using my Garmin watch is that I kept losing the GPS signal in the woods, so my splits were off slightly and then it would show my pace to be slower than it actually was. Well, lesson learned on that, but too late to do anything about it.
I was soaked with sweat by mile 2 and decided to take my singlet off .. As far as hydration went up until this point, I was doing okay and made it a point to hit EVERY water stop on the course, and each time I went by I grabbed a cup of Gatorade and a cup of water and downed them. It worked pretty good as we were still in the shade of the woods and the course was pretty flat .. I was keeping about a 9:25 pace (slightly slower than planned), but I knew I had to slow it down to stay alive in this race.
So the race people continued to reinforce the fact that this course was mainly flat, and I assure you, it was NOT flat as we headed into mile 4. I’m glad again that i did the trail run last weekend just to prep myself for the rolling hills of a trail…
- Miles 4-8
This part of the course was unique as we headed out of the woods and through a farmers field full of half grown corn stalks that was FULL of rolling hills. Yes, hills. It was an out and back part of the course and although the hills weren’t really expected, the fact we spent about 35 minutes in the blazing sun doing this portion, was really the highlight. I think this was the point that I really started to feel myself dehydrate. I started using the water in my fuel belt (although it was warm from the heat) and it hit the spot until I was able to make it back to the next water stop.
- Mile 8-13
Thankfully we headed back down the same course into the woods again at mile 8, and it was SO MUCH cooler out of that blazing sun, but some of the damage had already been done. These miles were some of my best because I think they were slightly downhill. Despite using my water bottle and taking double doses of water at every stop, I was falling behind in my hydration, I was starting to feeling flushed at this point. I swallowed down my first gel at around mile 10 as we passed the starting point and headed out on the second out and back portion of the course. The gel went down good, washed it down with some water and I went on my way. I felt my pace dropping to almost 9:45, despite my efforts to keep it up, I just couldn’t due to the heat.
We got to just past mile 11, which was the turnaround point for the half marathoners and the last chance to pull out of the marathon before we headed out far into the woods. I saw a lot of people turning around just past this point … meaning they were marathoners who decided to do the half, which is okay in these conditions I think (because I thought about it myself).
It really struck me when I saw the 23 mile marker coming the other way when I was crossing mile 13. I felt myself falling apart from dehydration despite all the attempts I made to stay ahead of it and I thought to myself that its going to be a tough run from here on out.
- Miles 13-18
At this point the field of runners had dropped down significantly and much of the time I found myself running alone, really alone. It had me concerned somewhat that there was nobody out on the course checking on runners (like bike patrols) or not once did I even see an ambulance or medical tent. From mile 13 on, it was runners and volunteers at water stops, which makes me chuckle that they stated “we have the right to check you for dehydration”… who would do that??? There was nobody out there.
Anyway, I got into a nice pace group with 3 other people for about 2-3 miles as we headed out of the woods and into the sun again. It was hotter now than it was before and I was so much more dehydrated than I was before, I could feel it with every step I took. I knew I had to hold it together somehow, so this pace group helped until we hit a water stop and broke up. I really do need to give a big thanks to all those volunteers at the last few water stops who worked so hard to get us everything we needed. I’ve never had people actually wait on me as good as they did, providing me anything I needed including filling my water bottle for me. It really is appreciated.
Anyway, it started to get even more lonely on the course though as I got to the mile 18 turnaround point and more and more people were walking .. my pace had fallen to about a 10:00/mile at this point as I was struggling to hold it together.
- Mile 18-21
I finally made it to the turnaround point and knew I was on the final stretch, but I knew I still had a long way to go. One of the things that I don’t like about an out and back course is you’ve already seen the course and know what to expect … like the hills. Ever since mile 13 the amount of rolling hills picked up significantly, so I knew where every uphill and downhill was.
The amount of runners really thinned out at this point and I actually got scared that for the condition I was in (and others that looked worse than me), there was NO support out there. If someone really had a health issue, there would be no saving them, i’m just thankful I made it through okay. There were points when I looked behind me, and ahead of me and saw nobody except trees and a thin paved trail .. it was soothing, but scary.
It was about mile 21 when the dehydration beat me and I just couldn’t keep up a running pace. I started run-walking at this point, which was just splitting the miles by running, then walking a short distance. It seems everybody was doing this because for the remainder of the race, I only had 7 people pass me over a 5 mile stretch (and there were a lot of runners out there). I tried to get down my second gel and I think I got about 1/2 of it down and I couldn’t do anymore .. this may have hurt me in the end, but I didn’t want to force it down.
I hadn’t noticed that the sun was hiding behind the clouds and that rain clouds were moving in … maybe it was the dehydration setting in because I was quite foggy at this point in the race ..
- Mile 21 to 26.2
It was somewhere after mile 21 when the rain set in. It started as a slight shower and then almost immediately turned into a complete downpour .. but it felt SO GOOD for the 15 minutes it lasted! I was already soaked from sweat, so the rain actually cooled me down which then caused me to slightly pick up my pace. The unfortunate thing is that we were on trails, which don’t generally have good drainage during a downpour. Instead of just getting wet from the rain coming down from the sky, i was running through HUGE puddles as well.
I felt bad for a woman who missed the course marker to get back on the trail .. oh yeah, that was another thing. We were counting on yellow markers and arrows to find the trail, and if you missed a marker, you ended up running off-course, like this poor woman did. I hadn’t realized where the course turned myself until I watched her running in the distance ahead of me while I was turning on the trail. I imagine she found herself at some point, but its unfortunate because it probably wrecked her time more than the heat did.
So the rain let up and I ran/walked with some guys who were in the same shape I was in .. they just wanted to finish. We were all soaked, dehydrated, dirty but we knew the finish was near. The sun started to come out again and despite the dehydration, I pushed myself to get to the finish. A guy walking the other direction who had just finished told me it was just 100 meters after that next hill, and he was right. Next thing I knew there was the crowd of people at the finish.
One last hill to come up over the bridge and I was there … in the distance, the finish banner.. finally.
My time could be considered disappointing, but I think I did everything I could to prepare. Although the official results aren’t up yet, I finished in 85th place with a 4:40 based on the board they had posted, so I’m thinking there were probably 200 marathoners, so i’m still in the top 50%, we’ll see for sure when they are posted.
I didn’t get any pictures, or anything else, but I did have a great time. The people were nice, the post-race party was awesome (nothing like brautwurst and saurkraut along with sugary baked goods). Thats really what its all about, was having fun. I just wish I was able to get more water at the end of the race .. I had to struggle to find some.
To wrap it all up .. you can say that I struggled yet again in another marathon, its still not enough to deter me from running marathons. Remember that I run them because I like to run them, not because i’m good at them….
Well, off to rest, i’m still beat and have some decent sunburn that needs to heal… i’m going to recover for a few weeks before kicking it back up for the fall marathon season, it’ll be here before I know it.