7/28/2009 - SF Marathon 2009: 2:50.06

Saturday night, the night before the race I went to bed at around 8:30pm. I had been going to bed around 8:45-9:30pm that entire week, and had been getting up around 5:30-6am. Thank god the Tour de France was on TV in the mornings, otherwise I would have had nothing to do that early in the morning. Saturday morning, the day before the race, I got up at 5:30 and went to the Campo track. I ran one mile easy, followed by some dynamic stretches, followed by about 250 meters as fast as I could, followed by 1 mile easy. You may ask why I would do such a thing the day before the race. Studies have shown that a short burst at well over VO2 max 24 hours before a race can help your body store substantially more glycogen. Not only that, it got the blood flowing, and woke me up early in the morning, which made it that much easier to fall asleep that night. Being that it was only a minute and a half sprint, I wasn't worried at all about it affecting me negatively for the race.

I spent most of Saturday setting everything out for the next day. I clipped/shaved down any parts of my body that I thought might chafe during the race. I shaved by legs, and applied a kinesthetic tape over my right knee which had been causing problems in the previous few weeks. I ate alot of carbs throughout the day, but stopped eating at about 6pm, just to give everything a chance to digest. I put my bib on my jersey, set out what I was going to wear for the race, and for the morning when I was warming up. I put out my breakfast, and my gels for the race. I basically set everything out so that in the morning I would have as little to do as possible.

Sunday morning, I woke up at 3:30. I applied bandaids over my nipples and applied bodyglide to prevent chafing. I ate a light breakfast, which was a banana and a high sugar, high carbohydrate energy bar. I drove to SF, and I got there around 4:15am. My heat started at 5:30am, so I had plenty of time to warmup. I ran 1 mile really easy, probably around 9 minute pace. I did a dynamic warmup, and then ran/walked another mile or so. I then went to the bathroom and cleared out my stomach. This is something that every runner worries about. There is no worse feeling that not being able to go to the bathroom before a long race. I was able to, which definately calmed me down. At this time, I met my Mom, brother, and a close family friend who had come to watch the race. It was around 5:15, and I was surprisingly calm. I debated whether or not to wear my arm warmers, but it was pretty cold, so I decided to wear them. I was planning on pulling them down somewhere in the middle of the race, but I ended up wearing them throughout the race so that was a good decision.

I started the race with the 3 hour pace group, and ran the first mile in 6:46. This was a little faster than I had originally planned, but I felt comfortable so I went with it. The next mile was 6:52, and the following was 6:45. After that I missed a couple mile markers, but I could feel myself picking up the pace. I got to the Golden Gate Bridge at mile 5, and I felt extremely comfortable. The wind really picked up on the bridge, so I tried to run closely behind the people around me. Unfortunately, at this point of the race, the runners were pretty diluted. Running with a pack in windy conditions can decrease effort by 3-5%. Carried over a few miles, this can add up to over a minute. I tried to follow the runners in front of me, and let them fight the wind, but this idea failed because they were all just a little bit too slow. I decided to just go for it, and took off by myself. I was surprised how fast the race was going, and once I got to the end of the bridge, I couldn't believe that I was only 3 miles to half way. The night before I had written on my hand where the hills were along the course, so I had a good idea of what to expect as I was running it. I knew that there was a huge downhill after the bridge, so I began to pick up the pace.

At half way, my time was 1:27.12 which was a 6:40 pace. This was about 5-10 seconds per mile under what I had originally planned. The 2nd half of the SF Marathon is substantially easier than the first half. The course is almost all downhill on the 2nd half except for one 2 mile hill from mile 14.5-16.5. Based on how I felt at half way, and my time, I knew that I had a chance to post a really fast time. At mile 15, my family was waiting for me, and seeing them was a boost of energy. My brother and friend ran about 200 meters alongside me at mile 15, and it was just what I needed at that time. At mile 20, I was at 2:12.01, and had dropped my average overall pace to 6:37. I was feeling really good at this point, and was starting to shift to a more anaerobic effort. I began to calculate in my head what I needed to do to break 2:50, and I knew that it was going to be really close. I took my last gel pack at mile 21. Miles 21-24 were probably the worst miles of my race. If anywhere in the race, this is where I missed the opportunity to make up some time. At mile 24, I knew that I was going to need to average about 6 minute miles the rest of the way to break 2:50. I pretty began to sprint and I got a boost of energy from somwhere. I ran mile 24 in 6:06, and mile 25 in 6:11. The last 1.2 miles were pretty much an all out sprint, and although I don't know how fast I was going, I would guess around 5:45 pace. As nice as it was to finish strong, at the same time it almost made me think that I should have gone faster earlier. As I was sprinting down the home stretch, I could see the clock and I knew I just missed breaking 2:50. I finished with a time of 2:50.06, but was not dissapointed at all. That time was much faster than anything I had planned on running before the race, and I was so proud of my accomplishment. I finished with an average of 6:30 per mile.

My Dad ran the 5k race, and coincidentally, finished his race at almost the same time I finished mine. Both races finish in the same location, and it was cool to see him almost immediately after I crossed the finish line. As soon as I stopped running, my calves cramped up and turned into rocks. I probably shouldn't have come to an immediate stop right after the race, but I didn't really care at that point. I had accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. There is no better feeling that seeing your hard work pay off. The pain that I was feeling in my calves, and the rest of my body was just a reinforcement to myself that I had just accomplished a tremendous physical effort. Before the race, I had basically convinced myself that this was probably going to be my fastest marathon ever. I just did not see myself putting in another trianing cycle as serious as this one. However, once I crossed the finish line, I knew I had more in me, and although I am going to take a few weeks off, I will eventually start putting some more miles into my shoes. Last year I missed qualifying for Boston by about 4 minutes, and it was my motivation for this years race. This year, I have that picture stuck in my head of the clock going from 2:49.59 to 2:50.00 before I could cross the finish line. My goal last year was to drop 4 minutes, and I dropped almost 25. My goal now is only to drop another 7 seconds.

It is weird to think that after spending my entire life as a swimmer, I might be a better runner than I ever was a swimmer. I have only been running for 2 years, and have ran a total of only 4 races in my life. The biggest thing about running these races for me is not just the time, or the accomplishment. It is the feeling of pushing myself to the absolute physical limit. It is about finding what my mind and body are capable of. It is about getting to that point where every part of my body is telling me to stop, and then going even faster. After reaching such physical limits, it makes everything else in life seem easy. One of my favorite athletes of all time, Steve Prefontaine, once said: "A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more."

Writing down my thoughts in this blog throughout my training has really helped me. It has forced me to be accountable, and has helped me track the good and bad parts of my training. I know that years from now, reading over these logs will be a huge motivating factor for me in whatever I am doing at the time. I hope that those of you that have been following my blog have found some inspiration as well.