Faster as a MASTER: PR at Glass City Marathon!

We flew into Detroit on Friday night and stayed there overnight before driving to Toledo, Ohio in the morning. I found a nearby park for us to do a short shake-out run on Saturday morning before we headed out though.

Atwood Park

The drive to Toledo only took about an hour, and we met up with our teammate Melissa T. and her husband for lunch when we arrived. Then, we headed over to the University of Toledo basketball arena for the race expo. After picking up our packets and checking out the vendors, we walked over to the football stadium where the races would finish the next day.

 

The races finished on the 50-yard line of the football field

After a quick pit stop to check into our hotel, we met up with my Oiselle Volée teammates for pasta dinner at 5th Street Pub in Perrysburg, just south of Toledo. Having teammates all across the country to meet up with when I am traveling for races (or other reasons) is definitely one of my favorite parts of being on this team! Most of the gals were local, so I got some insight into the next day's race (and other area races).

 

After dinner, I finally had some time to settle in at the hotel and get my gear ready for race day while Kurt visited with his family who had come up for the race.

We had an early start on race day to ensure enough time for parking and for Kurt to go through his pre-race routine. We didn't necessarily account for time needed to get ice off the car windshield though! That bode well for the morning temperatures during the first part of the race. Cold is my superpower in running!

After grabbing a couple of pre-race pictures at University Hall near the start line and dropping our gear bag, Kurt and I said our goodbyes and lined up in our respective corrals. I had been thinking about starting with the 2:00 hour half-marathon pace group (since there wasn't a 4:00 hour pace group for the marathon) to keep me from starting out too fast. The half and full courses split off between miles 8-9 so I figured I could re-evaluate my pace from there. There wasn't much space between the 3:55 marathon pace group and 2:00 half-marathon pace group, so I just lined up in between and hoped for the best. Let's just say that I never saw the 2:00 pace group once I crossed the start line. I found the first few miles to be incredibly congested, and I even got tripped up by someone to the point that I could easily have lost my balance and fallen in the first mile or so. That was all the impetus I needed to pick up the pace and get moving!

I knew my Garmin was already slightly off distance since it beeped even before I hit the first mile marker. With that in mind, I wasn't paying much attention to the mile pace as I ran, and I focused instead on calculating overall pace as I passed each mile marker. That gave me a rough idea that I was running just under 9-minute pace until the point that doing the math got too hard for me to calculate. :)

I went into this race feeling confident about my training and my fitness level based on my workout performances and half-marathon times this season (1:56 in Phoenix in January; 1:55 in New Orleans a week later; 1:52 in NYC in March). I have really worked on my mental game too. So, I just kept running a comfortable pace and just kept pushing as the miles ticked off. I knew I was making good time, and I felt GOOD doing it! I went through the half in 1:56, maybe a bit ambitious but still within my fitness level.

It wasn't until I hit the 30k mark that I had the first true feeling that things were starting to get harder. The temperatures were warming up with full sun exposure, and I was definitely getting hot. I had been steadily reeling in the 3:55 pace group, and while that gave me a confidence boost, I think I also let that get into my head mentally (You're not a 3:55 marathoner, what are you doing close to them?). I let them pull away as I walked up a short rise (not even a hill or true incline) just before mile 19. From there, I started walking through most water stops - 1 cup of water to drink, 1 cup to pour over myself, and 1 more to drink before I started running again. I was surprised to see Kurt's sisters around miles 20 and 21 when I was in the park area, which was a nice boost.

Yes, I walked through that water stop

I hit 20 miles in 3:00 hours. I'll be honest, this was the point where I let my mental game go and I lost my sub 4 marathon. I told myself that I needed to run 9-minute miles for the last 10k to come in sub 4, which I convinced myself was impossible at that point. Looking back on it now, I wish I had the wherewithal to tell myself that I could run 9:30 pace and I would still come in sub 4. That might have seemed more manageable and kept me in the hunt during the last 10k rather than simply throwing in the towel the way that I did. Obviously there is still room to improve here.

As I passed the 25-mile marker, a guy said there's only 12 more minutes to go. I responded "That's a PR!" I saw K shortly after that point, and I flashed him a thumbs up sign because I knew that I had a PR in the bag. He told me later that he's never seen me smile at mile 25 of a marathon before.

Unfortunately, we had to essentially pass the football stadium and loop around the outside campus before making our way back to the finish.

Pure focus in the finishing chute

4:02:18 PR!!!!

K met me in the finisher's area then we saw Melissa T. who had finished a few minutes ahead of me, also with a PR in 3:57.

Team Mac in O-H-I-O

Kurt ran 1:21 for 15th overall, 1st AG in the half-marathon

Then, we met up with Kurt's family and a former classmate from his hometown who had paced the 3:20 marathoners in the race.

I had seen these signs around town when we arrived in Toledo the day before. I told Kurt that if I did run better here that I was definitely going to get a picture after the race.

Yes, yes, I did!

By the numbers:
4.3 Miles	7:45:20AM	00:38:42	08:54 min/mi
6.7 Miles	8:05:15AM	00:58:36	08:44 min/mi
9.4 Miles	8:29:48AM	01:23:09	08:51 min/mi
12.9 Miles	8:58:12AM	01:51:34	08:37 min/mi
16 Miles	9:27:19AM	02:20:40	08:48 min/mi
20.9 Mile	10:14:18AM	03:07:39	08:59 min/mi
Finish	11:08:56AM	04:02:18	09:15 min/mi

NYC Half...Master's PR!

"In consultation with our NYC agency partners, we are monitoring the weather in advance of Sunday’s United Airlines NYC Half and NYRR Times Square Youth Run at the United Airlines NYC Half. Please check our website and social media channels for updates."

A version of this was posted daily on the race website and social media sites beginning last Monday. Kurt and I had the same immediate reaction: This is going to be Hurricane Sandy all over again when the NYC Marathon was canceled at the last minute as we were making our way from the airport to our hotel. The weather forecast last week was consistently predicting 1-3 inches of snow overnight on Saturday with possible snow/rain showers on Sunday morning. Neither of us were confident that the race was going to happen, and if it did, I was worried about the road conditions. The race day weather forecast didn't actually improve until Saturday morning. When I woke up after a late night arrival and checked the weather that morning, that was the first moment that I actually believed the race would go on as planned. (And, I kind of regretted canceling my pre-race massage the day before!) Off to the Expo we go!

Wall of names at packet pick-up

Washington Square Park after pasta dinner at Mario Batali's Otto Enoteca Pizzeria

The temperature on race morning was quite chilly in the low to mid 30's. I got to the park around 6:30am to allow myself enough time to go through security (with actual metal detectors since it is New York after all) and make my way through Central Park to the start corral (Kurt estimates it was nearly a mile walk). Once I got near my corral, I headed to a sheltered area under a bridge to try to stay warm. I was wearing tights, a long-sleeve top, gloves, hat, and a heavy fleece, and I was so, so cold. I stayed there as long as I could until it was time for the corrals to close. I didn't even bother doing a warm-up because I knew that I would still have 20-30 minutes of a wait in the corral before my wave actually started the race. As I was getting ready to shed my layer and get myself situated to run, I realized that my energy chews that I had planned to use for nutrition during the race were rock solid because they were frozen! Oh, well, guess I'm doing this without fuel.

Since there were about 20,000 runners, the start was organized into 3 waves with multiple corrals in each. I was in the middle of Wave 2 where the 2:00 hour pace group was placed. That didn't seem right to me based on my predicted time (and I later figured out what the snafu was with my seeding-damn NYRR) so I was expecting that I might have to navigate through the crowd more than I wanted...or maybe not. I actually wasn't sure how I was going to feel for the race because I have been sick and taking meds since last Tuesday. I didn't necessarily have a plan going in as a result. I also hadn't tapered down for this race (20-miler the weekend before; 6 sets of 1000/1000's on Tuesday), so I knew that I would be running on tired marathon training legs. Turns out none of that mattered once I crossed the start line.

Shedding my layers in the start corral

The first 10k is in Central Park with a short jaunt into Harlem. Having run NYC Marathon, I was familiar with the hills in the park. The general consensus in terms of race strategy seems to be to respect the hills in the park at the beginning, stay steady in the middle, then let loose after that, so it is a course made for negative splits. I generally tried to stay pretty steady in terms of my effort level. I did have to make my way through a lot of slower-paced runners in the park, but that just gave me a confidence boost since I knew that I was running within myself, even up the hills. I was pretty glad though to get those hills behind me because I knew it was smooth sailing from there. The sun had come out, and I was actually getting fairly warm. I ditched the gloves and actually wished that I was in shorts and a tank (crazy I know, given how cold I was just an hour earlier).

5k: 26:26

10k: 52:37

On the west side of Central Park

Then the fun began. We exited the park and headed straight down Seventh Avenue for Times Square. What a mile! Then, we headed West on 42nd Street for another mile to get on the West Side Highway shortly after mile 8. We got hit with a strong headwind for a short stretch here, but thankfully it was brief. The stretch on the West Side Highway was probably the least interesting and I really had to keep my mental focus here to stay steady. I was looking forward to seeing my Oiselle teammates just past mile 11, so that gave me a target to keep ticking the miles off for.

15k: 1:19:16

After I passed them, I knew there wasn't much more to go. We entered a tunnel just past mile 12 that lasted about a half mile or so.

20k: 1:46:28

We had to climb a short uphill once we exited the tunnel. It wasn't a welcome sight at that point, but it was short and the finish was near! Because of a couple of last-minute turns, you can't see the finish line until you are right there, so best not wait too long to start your final kick with whatever you have left. Thankfully there were 400 meters and 200 meters to go signs, which helped a lot. We finished at Wall Street, and I was incredibly happy with my finish time of 1:52:21. Not an overall PR, but I'm not 29 anymore either. And, who knows, maybe with fresh legs, fueling during the run, and not dealing with illness it could have been? I'll take it as a Master's PR though.

Next up is the big enchilada: Glass City Marathon. That will be the test to see if I can be a "fearless girl."