Quick report - got to hurry to get on the plane. 2:30:32, 10th place, $250 (elite athlete coordinator told me at first I was 9th, but I checked the results and they say 10th). Head wind made it slower between 14 and 19. I got left alone there. There was headwind earlier, but I was working with two guys (US), so it was much better. First half in 1:12:43, then they dropped me, one came back on the last mile. Field loaded with Kenyans and Ethiopians, but they kept dropping out like flies. I was in 16th place at the half. The highlight of the day was running an FRB commercial on the last mile passing two guys, one of them Joseph Sitinei (they could see the back of my shirt with the FRB logo), moved into the money. More detailed version. Writing this at the airport waiting to board, so this will be incremental. Warmed up a mile from Comfort Inn on Front Street (will put a plug for it, they provided free elite runner lodging, and I was pleased that the room did not smell like smoke at all even though this was one of the most smoking states in the US). Did the ritual, saw MickeyB, handed him my stuff, it was now time to race. The elite area was full of Kenyan and Ethiopian runners, and all in the marathon, since the half was offering no prize money. A few US guys as well. They did a wave start with the elites starting 1 minute ahead of the first wave, which would have contained the half-marathoners I could have possibly used to draft off. This is a bad idea, I will write the race director discouraging that practice. Wave start is a good idea, but declared elites should not be separated from the guys who think they can or actually can run the elite pace. The throat irritation was still an issue. I felt I could run a half losing no more than 30 seconds, but I was not sure about the full marathon. Even minor respiratory infections can cause serious dehydration in the second half, as well as fuel issues with the body redirecting the energy you would normally use for running into fighting the infection. I did my best to sedate it with garlic, and it did keep it from developing into a full-blown cold, but it was still not good enough for a top marathon performance.
I tried to run as close to the back of the pack as possible. First mile was 5:39, followed by a 5:18 slight downhill mile. I hooked up with Dewayne Miner from Birmingham, AL and Brendon Moody from Van Wert, OH. We were going around 5:30 pace. It felt a tiny bit fast, but with the headwind from mile 5 to mile 8 I did not want to run alone. I did not bring Garmin on purpose. I realized that I spend a lot of mental energy guessing if they splits I get from Garmin are accurate. So we traded leads once a minute. 5 miles in 27:05, 34:16 at 10 K, 51:34 at 15 K (17:18 5 K), 55:21 at 10 miles. Still working together, picking up a fallen Kenyan here and there. Got passed by a half-marathoner, and another guy that I think was a half-marathoner as well. Around 11 miles I knew that I needed to back off and run my own pace, even if that means battling the headwind between 14 and 19 miles alone. The pain signal was coming from vastus medialis - the inner quad muscle - on both legs. That muscle was fatiguing fast. The rest of the quad was fine. Probably from the rollers. The course has no monster hills, but there were hardly any stretches that were flat. Most of the time you were running either up or down about 1% grade. My legs were not trained for that, next time need to make sure to train on rollers if I come back. 20 K in 1:08:57 (17:23 5 K). Brendon and Dewayne are gradually pulling away. Half in 1:12:43. Around 14 MickeyB reported I was in 16th place. Only one struggling Kenyan in view, Brendon and Dewayne are almost out of sight. Well, a hungry lion will eat a small sick antelope for lunch when that is all he can get his paws on. Reeled him in, as soon as I got close enough for him to hear me, he dropped out. 15th place now, 5 more to go to the money. I noticed that the Powerade at the aid stations was very diluted, and they were filling up the cups only about a quarter full. So after about 10 I was doing Powerade religiously, and making sure I've got it all in me. I knew that I was under high risk of dehydration, electrolyte loss, and glycogen depletion already from the throat infection and travelling. Hit the 15th mile in 6:03. It was a slight uphill and into a head wind, about 6 mph. The wind would not have been a big factor in a pack, but being alone made a difference. Probably 10 seconds a mile. 1:23:54 at 15 miles, last 5 in 28:33. Not bad, but that 6:03 mile gave me some serious concerns. Nevertheless, I was able to regroup and keep it slightly under 6:00 from then on. 1:27:07 at 25K, last 5 K in 18:10. No victims for the next 5 miles, keeping a steady sub-6:00. Not great, but with the wind it could be good enough to make my way into top 10, and with the throat infection it could be a lot worse, so I should be thankful I am still going. 1:45:38 at 30 K, last 5 K in 18:31. That ended up being my slowest 5 K in the race. 1:53:34 at 20 miles, last 5 in 29:40. Still gapping the 6:00 guy, that's good. Saw a victim at 20 miles - a white guy, DNF, on the side of the road talking to the volunteers. That puts me in 14th place. 4 more to go.
Still sub-6:00 consistently. Now a slight down, and a tailwind. Saw a jogging Ethiopian - Titus Mitunda. Passed him, now 13th. Another jogging/walking Kenyan at around 23. Now 12th. 2 more to go. Nobody for a while. Trial of faith. Around 24 saw two victims, one black and one white. At first they looked too far away, like they were unreachable. But I have run enough marathons to know that the looks at that point are very deceptive. If you did not see somebody, and now you see them all of a sudden, that is a very bad sign for them, and a very good sign for you. As they approached, I saw it was Dewayne Miner and Joseph Sitinei. 2:22:29 at 40 K, last 10 K in 36:51, 2:23:23 at 25 miles, last 5 miles in 29:49. Pulling out Abraham's knife getting ready to sacrifice the rams in caught the thicket of the marathon wall. Some history behind this metaphor. Abraham and Isaac in the Old Testament went to the land of Moriah. Abraham thought he was going to sacrifice Isaac, his faith being tested, when in fact they were only going to sacrifice a ram. At one point, Isaac said: "Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?", to which Abraham replied, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering". Abraham passed the test of faith, and indeed a sacrificial animal was provided - a ram caught in the thicket. For some odd reason I find a parallel between that experience, and what happens when you are in the last 10 K of a marathon, you are out of money position, and for a long time there is nobody ahead of you in sight. Then all of a sudden you see somebody to pass and move into the money. The poor fellow is like that ram in the thicket. There is nothing he can do to stay in the money. And just like with Abraham, your faith has been rewarded, you kept going, you did not give up the chase even though you could not see who you were chasing, and now you are going to get some cash for it. I call it "the ram in the thicket experience". In the history of the bloggers I can recall several "ram in the thicket" experiences. TOU 2001 - me chasing Joe Wilson, 2002 TOU - me chasing Paul Petersen, 2004 - Steve Ashbaker chasing Demetrio Cabanillas Jr (money upgrade), 2005 Ogden - Paul Petersen chasing me, 2007 SLC - Steve Ashbaker chasing Dave Danley, and now one more in this race for me, this time a double , moving from 12th to 10th in a mile. I've never sacrificed two rams before. Sprinted to the finish to discourage the rams from thoughts of resurrection. 2:30:32, 5:54 pace on the last mile. This completed a year of 5 marathons all under 2:33. I've never done this before, my previous record was last year with all 5 under 2:36, but one of those (Moab) was non-competitive, I did it as a training run in 2:35:20 (the highlight of the day on that one was getting lost on the last quarter and then crawling under a barbed wire to get to the finish line, very fitting for April Fool's Day). After the finish there was a lot of soreness in vastus medialis, to the point where I could not squat. I stretched, and it was gone. I was able to run back to the hotel, about 0.75.
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