This is now getting into the meaty part of my training program. When I was mapping out my training regimen, I was a little concerned about these back-to-back hard weeks encompassing the BAA Half and leading the 3:40 pace group at the Hartford Marathon. Primarily, I was balancing doing 26 miles on tired legs against doing it at a relatively easy pace. I'm happy to report that my legs recovered relatively quickly (thanks to a relaxing pool run), and I managed to get in a little quality work before the weekend festivities. Here how the week went.
Week in review: 10/8-14
Mon: AM - 30 min. pool run
Tue: AM - 5 miles @ 7:17, PM - 5 miles @ 7:30, 30 min. core work; both runs felt easy, but were actually faster than expected.
Wed: AM - 11 miles including 3x2000m @ 6:20, great morning track workout w/ Anuj
Thu: PM - 30 min. pool run, exhausted from intervals and basketball, so skipped the run
Fri: AM - 3.9 miles @ 8:28, rehearsal run for Hartford just to get a feel for an 8:23 mile
Sat: 27.2 miles - 1 mile w/u, then pacing for Hartford in 3:41:52, beautiful day for a marathon
Sun: 5.4 miles @ 8:14, legs stiff at first, but felt looser by the end.
Total: 56.7 miles
Overall, this was a strong week. I recovered relatively quickly, as the runs on Tuesday ended up being much quicker than expected. It's still hard for me to imagine that sub-7:30s are now a normal training pace for me. The track workout on Wednesday was solid. I wanted to get in a little speedwork, but nothing fast, so I compromised and did 2000s based on my half-marathon pace. It was also good to see my friend Anuj, who had suffered an injury that put his marathon training on hold, running smoothly again. I got a little ambitious and joined my friend for his corporate league game the same evening. As a result, I woke up on Thursday absolutely exhausted and decided a rest day was in the cards. In truth, I probably hadn't completely recovered from the half (its supposed to take at least 13 days), and the hard double Wednesday just pushed me over the edge. Lesson learned! Fortunately, I felt much fresher by Friday.
So you're probably wondering why anyone would volunteer to run a marathon for fun? Well, the seeds of inspiration were planted back in February at the Austin Marathon. If you read my blog entry, you'll see that the pacers played an instrumental role in my BQ (Boston Qualifying) effort. So, this was my way of paying it forward. Still...I had no idea what I was getting into. I also didn't have a good feel for a 8:23-8:24 because all my runs have either been faster than this, or much slower. Do I try to run even splits? What time should I shoot for, 3:40:00 or 3:40:30? These and other questions were eventually answered by the pace group organizer:
"For strategy, the safest bet is to aim for a steady pace throughout. This can be tricky, e.g. the foot traffic is slow at the start of the race, but it's simple to make gentle pace corrections over the duration of the race. Every mile of the course is clearly marked. Runners will ask you whether you're running at "gun time" or "chip time". I find it simplest to aim for 3:40 gun time, so that any discrepancies can only benefit the runner. During the last few miles, the runners in a pace group may grow tired and despair. For those trying for a Boston qualifier, it's handy to remind them that the BAA permits a cushion of 59 seconds over the stated qualifying time. So it's not a bad idea for the pace leader to slow the pace down a bit, in response to runners' pleas. This stratagem usually has the desired effect: the runners discover their second wind and speed up when the finish line approaches. And then you can finish right at 3:40 as advertised."
Armed with these pearls of wisdom, I was ready to lead my 3:40 flock to the promised land of qualifying for Boston. Overall, the course is pretty flat, but I didn't like the look of the hills over the last 6 miles. I didn't get as much as sleep as I would have liked Friday night, as I was helping a friend to prepare for his medical school interview. With an 8AM start and an hour and a half separating Boston and Hartford, I had to make sure I was out the door by 5:45. Ouch! I spent much of the second half of the drive trying to convince myself NOT to pull over and take a quick nap. The volunteer info was great and I was able to find a reasonably priced parking lot quickly. The next 30 minutes were really frenetic. It took me some time to find the convention center, then I saw the long line for number pick and decided to cut by telling a volunteer that I was a pacer and I needed to get my number ASAP. Then, it was a mad dash to the bathroom and on to the start area in Bushnell Park. I was well warmed up by now. When I arrived in the park, there were no signs for baggage check, so it took another 15 minutes before someone pointed me in the direction of the line of UPS trucks. Duh... why didn't I notice them. Finally, I was ready to run (whew!), and I tucked myself between the 3:35 and 3:45 pacers and introduced myself. Even now, I'm still surprised by the look of relief on the faces of runners when I arrived.
It was an absolutely perfect day for a marathon: partly sunny in the high-40s and almost no wind. Prior to the start, I met Rick, who had an interesting story of his own. Chicago was his first marathon, but due to the now infamous debacle, he called it a day at mile 13 and a couple days later, found that he liked the weather forecast for Hartford and signed up. The only other face I had a name for was Dean, who was running in his 20th marathon, 9th of the year! He clearly had a better idea what he was doing than I. I told my group that I was going to shoot for an even pace.. and then we were off! Its amazing even though it was a low key run for me, I still felt the excitement and anticipation as the gun went off.
It was really neat to hear the banter in the group over the early miles. Everyone looked excited, but comfortable through the 1st couple miles. There were the predictable pointed questions, born from uncertainty, like "how many marathons have you done?" and "what's your PR?" Most seemed satisifed with my answers (5 and 3:09.) There was a bizarre moment, shortly after mile 2, during which the 3:45 pace group passed us. This caused some strange looks and a couple concerned comments. I reassured the group that he was running on gun time... and sure enough we passed the group again at mile 5. The first 3-4 miles were a little erratic, but I quickly found my rhythm and we were more consistent from mile 5-12. This section of the course took us through the beautiful suburb of South Windsor. There were plenty of spectators enjoying their breakfast on the lawns. I tried to be conversational early on, but found that when I shifted focus, I also tended to slow down. This happened most dramatically at mile 13, when I ran what was probably the slowest split of the day (8:41), not including the 1st mile and a couple splits where I missed the mile marker. We passed the half marathon point just a shade over 1:50.
I deliberately picked it up over the next mile and hit this split in 7:50. This was probably my most serious mistake of the day, even though it was a mostly downhill mile. I think I may have a lost a couple of my charges over this mile. After this snafu, I mostly kept my mouth shut except to offer time updates and encouragement at the mile markers. I still had a sizeable group at this point, I'd say between 15-20 people. However, the attrition was slow and steady between mile 15 and 20. It mostly occurred at fluid stops, during which runners would slow and then have difficulty catching up. I felt discouraged for the runners. The biggest drop off was probably from before mile 20 until 21. There was long and steady incline up to the Route 2 bridge back into downtown Hartford, and the runners also had to battle a headwind on the bridge. By this point, it was down to Rick and Dean, and I was committed to getting them to the finish line.
These two guys were putting in a herculean effort in spite of the rolling hills at the finish. There also wasn't much crowd support at this point, as the route was taking us through the beautiful (but empty) Riverside Park. I tried my best to slow at the fluid stations, but ultimately, they fell off pace around mile 24. Another runner actually caught up to me at this point, and I told him we were still on pace. I said that if we got to mile 25 at 3:30, then 3:40 would be well in range. Little did I know that there was yet another long hill leading up to mile 25. This last runner was remarkably strong going up the hill, and I sent him off shortly after mile 25 because he was looking to go sub-3:40. At this point, I was alone and in a dilemma: should I hold my pace to the finish line and cross alone, or toss the pace and help some to finish? I searched in vain for someone to help across the finish line (maybe a woman in range of a BQ). When that didn't happen for the next half mile, I decided to wait for Dean or Rick. I spotted Rick with about a half mile left. He was struggling a bit, so I paced him to the finish line.
Overall, I had a great time pacing. The hardest part was mentally dealing with the attrition. I feel like I really only helped 2 people achieve their time goal. One of them looked very strong at mile 20 and probably could have done it on her own. So, I didn't make my designated time, even though it was perfectly doable. At first, when I crossed the finish line, I thought I had made some rooking pacing mistakes. But, I stuck around to wait for the 3:45 pacer and he crossed solo as well. Was this just a function of the very tough finish? I felt like the course was very unforgiving over the last 5 miles, and not as flat as advertised. I wonder if the course organizers have ever considered reversing the course to get the hilly stuff out of the way at the outset.
Here are the numbers:
| Mile | Split | Lap | Avg. HR | Max HR | Average | |
| 1 | 8:54 | 8:53.5 | 143 | 157 | 8:53.5 | |
| 2 | 16:47 | 7:53.1 | 143 | 154 | 8:23.3 | |
| 3 | 24:56 | 8:09.4 | 142 | 150 | 8:18.7 | |
| 4 | 33:20 | 8:23.6 | 139 | 145 | 8:19.9 | |
| 5 | 42:02 | 8:42.1 | 136 | 141 | 8:24.3 | |
| 6 | 50:29 | 8:27.2 | 140 | 147 | 8:24.8 | |
| 7 | 58:50 | 8:21.5 | 138 | 147 | 8:24.3 | |
| 8 | 1:07:08 | 8:17.2 | 138 | 146 | 8:23.5 | |
| 9 | 1:15:31 | 8:23.6 | 138 | 144 | 8:23.5 | |
| 10 | 1:23:47 | 8:15.8 | 145 | 160 | 8:22.7 | |
| 11 | 1:32:19 | 8:31.8 | 141 | 145 | 8:23.5 | |
| 12 | 1:40:40 | 8:21.0 | 141 | 145 | 8:23.3 | |
| 13 | 1:49:20 | 8:40.6 | 143 | 147 | 8:24.6 | |
| 14 | 1:57:10 | 7:49.5 | 145 | 148 | 8:22.1 | |
| 15 | 2:05:41 | 8:30.8 | 141 | 146 | 8:22.7 | |
| 16 | 2:13:58 | 8:17.3 | 146 | 149 | 8:22.4 | |
| 17 | 2:22:31 | 8:33.3 | 144 | 149 | 8:23.0 | |
| 18 | 2:30:51 | 8:19.2 | 148 | 152 | 8:22.8 | |
| 19 | 2:39:53 | 9:02.5 | 145 | 152 | long | 8:24.9 |
| 20 | 2:47:45 | 7:52.3 | 148 | 156 | 8:23.3 | |
| 21 | 2:56:00 | 8:14.9 | 148 | 155 | 8:22.9 | |
| 22 | 3:04:49 | 8:48.6 | 145 | 150 | long | 8:24.0 |
| 23 | 3:13:14 | 8:25.3 | 144 | 148 | 8:24.1 | |
| 24 | 3:21:52 | 8:37.7 | 147 | 158 | long | 8:24.7 |
| 25 | 3:30:03 | 8:11.4 | 150 | 156 | 8:24.1 | |
| 26 | 3:40:09 | 10:05.4 | 146 | 157 | 8:28.0 | |
| 26.2 | 3:41:57 | 1:48.4 | 149 | 151 | 8:28.3 |
I'm looking forward to a well deserved cut back week. I'm considering doing the Boston Firefighter 10K next weekend. One of my goals this year has been to race to win, and I think last year's results indicate this race is winnable. We'll see.... off to recover!
Plan for Week of 10/15-21:
Mon: pool run and core work
Tue: 10 miles including intervals
Wed: pool run and core
Thu: 11-12 miles, medium long run
Fri: off
Sat: 6 miles easy run
Sun: 10 miles including Boston Firefighter 10K
Total: 38-39 miles
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