Race Report
I did Twin Cities back in 2010, running 3:58:54. This time around I knew I was better trained and there was no real doubt in my mind that I would PR, but aside from that I didn’t really have a goal time, not even when I lined up in my corral. All I wanted to do was run a good race. I had decided a few weeks ago that I was going to run by feel, going conservative early on and saving energy for the back end of the course, which features a few hills and a long, 2-mile climb. As you’ll see, the result of this “strategy” is that my splits bounce around a bit because I freely allowed my pace to fall on uphills and cruised the downhills.
As FBG26 mentioned, it was pretty cold with 32 degrees at the 8:00 start. The forecast was for the upper-30s by 10:00 and upper-40s by noon. When I went to bed the night before, I was planning on long sleeves, but I changed my mind in the morning, going with short sleeves instead. I cut the toes out of some old tube socks to use as arm-warmers (this trick is money) and put on some 3-pairs-for-$2 gloves I had picked up at Wal-Mart earlier in the week. I also spit in the face of the running gods by wearing a brand new t-shirt on race day (ZOMG!!1!1!!). Taped up the nips, body glided the thighs, and I was good to go. I also wore a 4:00 pace band, not because I was going to run that pace, but because having the numbers in front of me would make the math of figuring out how I was doing easier.
Miles 1-3 (9:28, 8:46, 8:53) – I lined up in between the 3:45 and 4:00 pace groups, but I was getting passed by pretty much everybody during this segment. This part takes place in downtown Minneapolis, and your garmin is completely unreliable here so I didn’t really know what pace I was running. At one point my 305 said that I was booking along at a 5:00/mi pace, but I think that may have been slightly wrong. Actually, I think that 9:28 first mile is also a little off; the clock at the 1 mile marker had me at 8:40-something, and I was never passed by the 4:00 group. But whatever. I just kept telling myself that it was going to be a lot of fun passing all these people back during the final 6-8 miles.
Miles 4-7 (8:38, 8:45, 8:45, 8:45) – Okay, now we’re out of the downtown area and I’ve got it dialed in.
Miles 8-10 (8:41, 8:44, 8:37) -- Lots of rolling hills here. I remember the first time I ran this thinking that this course is hillier than advertised, but I suspected that I might have been imagining things. Nope, it really is kind of hilly. When you live in a pancake-flat community, you notice this. At mile 10, I did a mental inventory and everything checked out. It felt like I could run indefinitely at this pace, which is what it’s supposed to feel like at this point.
Miles 11-13 (8:40, 8:51, 8:43) – Still cruising along okay with a few more hills. My official 13.1 split was 1:55:24. This was the point where I started to think that 3:50 was a possibility, but a remote one. That was going to require a negative split on a course that is not friendly to negative splits at all. Earlier in this segment, I caught up with a woman who couldn’t have been much over 4’ tall and at least 60 years old. She was listening to music, but kept repeating “keep your pace, keep your pace” out loud constantly. Props to her for being out there, but she was seriously getting on my nerves. And there was obviously no way she was going to hold up for another 15 miles at the pace she had gone out at. Annoyingly, she latched on to me for a while, but I dropped her after half a mile or so.
Miles 14-18 (8:46, 8:38, 8:43, 8:43, 8:47) – This is a relatively flat and easy section of the course. I knew it was here, and my pre-race plan had been to speed up in this area, still being mindful to conserve energy for the back-loaded hills to come. Reviewing it now, I’m unhappy with my splits here. I could have knocked 30-60 seconds off my overall time here pretty easily. I wasn’t tired, so I have to chalk this one up to poor race-day discipline. Starting to pass people here though.
Miles 19-22 (8:51, 8:46, 8:44, 8:48) – Mile 19 features a steep climb to the Franklin Street bridge, which takes you into St. Paul. Then there’s another hill. Then there’s Summit Avenue, which starts off with a continuous two mile climb. I had dropped about 90 seconds on this segment the last time I ran it, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to incorporate many hills into my training, so I was counting on raw volume to make up for it. Nailed it. I know Pfitzinger isn’t writing literature, but he has a nice line about how the last 10K is the part that poorly-prepared runners fear and well-trained marathoners relish. I was definitely loving this part. This is why I was getting up at 3:00 am all summer to get in my MLRs. My training paid off here big time. I was passing people right and left during this part. Quite a few walkers and “stopping to stretch” guys.
Miles 23-25 (8:46, 8:40, 8:41) – Now that the worst hills were behind me, it was time to coast to the finish. At this point, it was like everybody except me was on a conveyor belt that was moving backwards. I kept trying to lasso people and reel them in, but I was passing so many people so fast that I had a hard time finding victims who lasted more than a quarter mile or so. A strange sight at mile 24. Some lady stepped out onto the course to get up in the face of some guy in front of me who had stopped to walk. She literally her finger in the guy’s face and was yelling something like “Hey Number 4321, you put one foot in front of the other and RUN, mister!” There was absolutely no sign that these two people knew one another, and I can’t believe she didn’t get laid out. On the plus side, she’s probably great in the sack.
Mile 26, the next 0.2, and 0.15 of garmin stoppage time (8:25, 1:32, 1:03) – The finish is a huge, steep downhill which I was basically sprinting -- relatively speaking -- with a big assist from gravity. I knew that 3:50 was going to be very, very close, so I had no shame about being “that guy” who was going all-out at the finish. With 30 seconds left to go, I thought I had it, but unfortunately I came up just slightly short.
Official time: 3:50:04 (8:47/mi)
2465 out of 8781 overall
1843 out of 5094 men
308 out of 803 M4044
I’m extremely happy with this. In hindsight, I could have probably gotten another minute or two by running a little faster early on and by watching my pace during the intermediate part of the race. But the important thing is that there was never any time on the course when there was any doubt about being able finish the distance. Covering 26.2 miles by itself was a non-issue, so I was free the whole way to really race this instead of just doing it.
It’s likely going to be a while before I do another marathon, so I’m glad I had a good one yesterday. Also, I’d like add that in 2012 I’ve now set new PRs in the 10K, half, and full, so it goes without saying that I’m very highly motivated for the two 5Ks I’ve got coming up between now and Thanksgiving.
I see Jux is about my height but about 30 pounds lighter. My "size" was another reason I didn't embrace the real long stuff before. Not that I'm big by average Joe standards by any means but before serious traing I was 5'11 and about 180. With all these miles I am weighing in at about 164-167. Even when I was younger I raced at 158-162. I never had the typical long distance build.
Just coming in to hop on the "wish Gru luck" bandwagon. Kill it man!
I see how that could be taken the wrong way. It was self-referential.
When did you realize that you had a real shot at running the BQ or did it come out of nowhere? That was a huge jump in your 3rd marathon.
Very frustrating when they can't get a course set-up right. No excuses for messing that up when people are plunking down cash for an event.
, break 27 for a 5k and not get chic'd by stroller dude. Got there stupid early because, well that's what I do so I had about an hour to kill but some of that time was going to be used up running to the site as I parked about 1 1/2 miles away. So ran over to warm up, finally met up with the folks who had my tag and went to the start. When I first got there, there were people milling about and frankly I was in my own little world so I never realy looked behind me, just wanted to make sure I was up close to the front because of the number of people running. 
The hills I've been running are making me feel better about the 1/2. I've been holding my own on them but haven't really pushed it yet. Next week I have some plans to test my cardio that will tell me where I'm really at, might even start tomorrow.
