Steamtown Marathon Debacle

Perfect weather, my PR course, lots of training miles in, what could go wrong?  Apparently, lots, as my race turned into a death march.

I ran a 3:19 at Steamtown in 2010, and was excited to return.  I was hoping to get a BQ of under 3:30, hopefully well enough under to actually get in for 2016, as opposed to my BQ-0:23 for 2015.

Steamtown is a downhill race, from Forest City, PA to Scranton.  It drops about 1000 feet, mostly in the first 6 miles.  I looked forward to putting a couple minutes in the bank on those miles, and holding onto 8 minute mile pace or a bit better the rest of the way.  8 minute pace is almost a dead on 3:30.  I felt like I possibly had a 3:25 in me.  I wanted 3:28.

Pre-race, I slept restfully right up to the alarm, had breakfast, found a parking spot close to the finish, and hopped on a bus to the start, where we waited in a warm gym.  Mid 30s for the start, so I wore a throwaway long sleeve shirt over my race clothes.

The race starts, and its clogged early.  I remember this a bit from 2010 when I actually saw a guy in front of me walking in the first 200 yards.  I checked the chip and gun times and 3 of the slowest 10 people started on or near the line, even though they have pace signs for where to line up.  Frustrating, but within 1/4 mile or so I was running pretty free. Mile 2 is a big uphill, but mile 3-6 is a steady drop and I thought I was moving well.  But at mile 3 I was right at 24:00, and at mile 6 I was only about 20 seconds under.  Also, whenever I tossed my long sleeve, I lost my favorite running cap along with it, not noticing until I went to pull it down more to block out the sun and came up empty.  Bummer.

After mile 6, the course flattened out.  As we went over a bridge, a woman I was running near called out "Hole" to warn about a pot hole, and I told her to not call me names.  Somewhere in here I felt a sudden clenching in my innards.  I hated to lose time, but I had to find a portajohn, but it was a couple miles before one came, and there were a couple guys waiting.  I took some advantage of the downtime to fish out an imodium, gel, and electrolyte.  Once I took care of everything, I was about 3 minutes off.  I figured I'd just chip away at it and hope I was back on pace by mile 20, when the toughest part of the course hit.  However, I was barely putting a dent in the time each mile.  Came into the half in 1:47 and a lot of change.

At this point I decided to stop looking at the watch until mile 16 and run by feel, and see where I was at then.  I actually felt pretty good, and thought I'd at least get a minute back.  16 came, and I had lost a few more seconds.  OK, let's check again at 18, while pushing just a bit more.  Over 3 minutes off at 18, and I knew I wasn't coming back.  18-20 was at least respectable, but at 20 I was finished.  Fatigue settled into my hips, my back and knees took turns hurting, while my feet ached full-time.  I started walking some.  Then more than some.  Once things went off the tracks it came crashing down, and with a 50 miler coming 20 days later, I resigned myself to mailing the rest of the race in.  The first of 3 hills hit and I walked it all.  I remember that last time I handled the hills very well, but this time they defeated me.  The 100 mile monster looms in my mind and I wonder if I'll feel like this with 75 miles to go in that race.  On the second bigger hill there was a big neighborhood party going.  I just wanted to stop and join in.  Someone was handing out dixie cups of beer and I took one.  We were running on one side of the road with the other lane open to traffic in both directions, which I couldn't really figure out.  Neither could the pickup truck driver who came cruising down our side, right behind me even though I was off to the side with room to get by.  Finally a volunteer yelled at him to get over.  Pretty sure he knew him by name, assuming his name is Hey Idiot.

A bit later another volunteer told us "There's a light at the end of the tunnel."  I replied "I think it's an oncoming train."  Finally I made the final turn, about a mile left, and I managed to keep moving up the final hill and into the finish.  3:51 something.  Nearly 11 minute mile pace for the last 10K.  Ugh.

Post-race, I walked back to the car and had a beer and then walked back to the lawn by the finish.  Found a bench and chatted a bit with others, and sat back in the sun and napped a bit.  On my way back to the hotel I picked up a pizza and had half of that, and slept more, woke up for awhile, and slept more.  Not sure I've ever been this tired.  I think I just wasn't at full health.  For my stomach issues, I had an instant breakfast drink as part of breakfast, and I think that was too much milk.  I don't know if that ruined my race or just cost me 3 minutes.  I feel like it was more the latter.

What else went wrong?  I'm not trying to make excuses, just trying to figure out why my spring marathon I felt unprepared for went so well (3:29) and this one after a decent summer of training didn't.  I think my lead-up to the race was bad for a goal race.  No, I know it was bad.  Two weeks before I did a 5K on a Friday and a trail marathon on a Saturday.  Didn't race hard, but went harder than intended.  Then the week before I paced a friend for the last 20 miles of a 100 miler.  Lots of walking, but 2 steep 2500 foot climbs and drops.  Usually that doesn't affect me much, but my quads ached for days, and I still felt them as late as Thursday.  By race day they seemed fine but probably weren't all recovered.  A couple days post-Steamtown, and my quads are fine but calves are sore, so go figure.  In any case, I never really did feel a good spring in my legs.
 
Next up:  Mountain Masochist 50 miler on November 1.  I've had two pretty mediocre races here, with rough going for about 15 miles each time, so I'm hoping for some redemption.

Double Training Race Weekend

Sometimes training gets a bit old, and you have to break it up with some races, with the plan to not go all out so you can resume training quickly after the event.  It's not easy to do because others are racing, and you've got both pride and prizes on the line.  I need to get better at holding back, but I combined fun and training this weekend with not one, but two races.

The first one was the Autumn Toast 5K on Friday evening at Barren Ridge Vineyards, part of the Corkscrew series.  I hadn't planned to run it, partly because I think their races are overpriced and mostly because I had a marathon in the morning, but I got a comp entry by responding to a Blue Ridge Life Magazine facebook post.  They are one of the race sponsors.

Beautiful setting, out in the country northwest of Waynesboro, mostly dirt road.  I took off a bit fast, with a 7:04 first mile, and reigned it in a bit until the final half mile when I decided to make a move on a few people.  I stayed out of the "pain cave" but ran fast enough to win my age group.  My prize was a bottle of their wine.



Saturday was the Belmead Trail Fest near Richmond.  I opted for the marathon, which was held along with a 50K and 50M.  I wrote a description of the race itself on the CAT blog.  I had planned to stay slow and steady and hoped to run the last miles around the same speed as the beginning, but I got caught up with a few people on the first loop and went out too fast.  Suffered some as it warmed up and I walked more of the last 10 miles than I'd have liked to, but mostly I just felt tired, not bad.  I did manage to take 5th overall out of 17 and 3rd of 11 men for a $30 gift cert to Lucky Foot in Richmond.  It was a really nice course and a well done race, one I'd like to do again.

Next up this weekend I'll be running as much as 35 miles at Grindstone, pacing Christian Dahlhausen.  I've run a couple times this week but my legs are a bit dead, so other than the pacing I'm tapering down for the Steamtown marathon in Scranton, PA, on October 12.