The B'ham marathon was my 2nd marathon post 50, and I ran it on Feb 12, 2012, and it was my 5th marathon overall.
Lots and lots of things to say about this run.
Rest. I followed the tapering article here and didn't run at all 3-days before the race. Further, I only ran 8 miles in the 10 days before the marathon. My body was itching to run!
The hall of fame. One of things I've enjoyed about training is to be able to know what I've run over the last several weeks leading up to a race. For that I'd highly recommend an app that logs your runs automatically while you run. Being able to look back at a training log is extremely valuable and if you've prepared properly, followed a plan, it visualizes that for you and further prepares you mentally that you are indeed ready!
The day before. I did hydrate most of the day and ate well, but I didn't carb up for dinner - I couldn't find a convenient location for a past dinner - instead I settled on a great cheeseburger at a fancy burger joint - I was careful not to over eat. Latter I went to a movie and hate a small amount of popcorn.
Sleep. For whatever reason I really had trouble sleeping. I think I fell to sleep around 1am or so, and my alarm was set for 5:30 since it was a 7am race, so I really didn't get much sleep. But, fortunately, as all the training info out there says, the most important sleep is during the nights leading up to the night before - thank goodness.
Temp. Oh my goodness, it was cold. At race time it was 24F, fortunately there was just a little wind. Before the start, my hands were really really cold, and that's with gloves on, but after about 30 minutes into the run, I was sufficiently warm.
The marker runners. Letting these runner pace me was great. I started out following the 4:45 runner - easy to do since they ran with a sign. But about 7 or 8 miles in, I passed this marker and found the 4:30 runner. Keeping up with the 4:30 runner really allowed me to focus on a good pace.
Final code cracking - my toes. I saw a sign along the route - "toe nails are so over rated". Believe me, I got it! Fortunately, this race proved to be me best long run yet relative to my outside small toes. For this race I made a slight modification to my toe technology. I had been running with silicon in between my two outside toes, but for the race I added a small piece of cloth tape around the toes to keep the silicone from "squishing" out during the run - it worked!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had only a small amount of blistering and no bleeding, this was awesome!!
Water and Gu. I took water every time it was offered, about every 2 miles. Sometimes I didn't drink much, but always a little. I also ate a Gu pack every 30 minutes, and later in the race began to eat some bananas and orange slices that were being offered.
Clothes. Since the temp only rose by 10 degrees F during the entire run, my clothes, long running pants and two layers on the upper body worked out very well - with no shucking. I took off my gloves at about mile 18 or 20 and my face wrap - all was well.
Blue skies. It really helped, since it was so cold, that the sky was blue and sunny. That's always a lift!
Mile 18. Things went beautifully until then. At that point, my right calve began to tighten just a bit. I experimented with my pace and it seemed to be held at bay. Fortunately it didn't cramp!
Mile 23. At mile 23, all was still well. I was on a 10:15 - 10:20 pace. But, at mile 24, I really really slowed down. I knew I only had 2 miles to go, but I guess all parts of me were ready for the run to be over. My pace jetted down to 11:30 or so. But I kept moving, and clicked through my playlist to find some rock to keep me going. I was still talking to my fellow runners a bit, but I really had to put my head down.
Mile 26. Linda met me at 26, and ran the 0.2 miles with me to finish the race. I wasn't saying much at all, and thought I was running like mollasses , but she seemed to think I looked good - and that was good.
Summary. I met both of my goals for this race, break 5 hours and no walking. In fact, I ran it in 4:34. That breaks my prior training time of 5:01 by almost 30 minutes, and it broke my 2003 race time of 5:10 by even more. Incredible run, incredible weather and conditions, and my engine ran perfectly. Next stop, either a training marathon in March, or the Jackson TN Marathon.
Lots and lots of things to say about this run.
Rest. I followed the tapering article here and didn't run at all 3-days before the race. Further, I only ran 8 miles in the 10 days before the marathon. My body was itching to run!
The hall of fame. One of things I've enjoyed about training is to be able to know what I've run over the last several weeks leading up to a race. For that I'd highly recommend an app that logs your runs automatically while you run. Being able to look back at a training log is extremely valuable and if you've prepared properly, followed a plan, it visualizes that for you and further prepares you mentally that you are indeed ready!
The day before. I did hydrate most of the day and ate well, but I didn't carb up for dinner - I couldn't find a convenient location for a past dinner - instead I settled on a great cheeseburger at a fancy burger joint - I was careful not to over eat. Latter I went to a movie and hate a small amount of popcorn.
Sleep. For whatever reason I really had trouble sleeping. I think I fell to sleep around 1am or so, and my alarm was set for 5:30 since it was a 7am race, so I really didn't get much sleep. But, fortunately, as all the training info out there says, the most important sleep is during the nights leading up to the night before - thank goodness.
Temp. Oh my goodness, it was cold. At race time it was 24F, fortunately there was just a little wind. Before the start, my hands were really really cold, and that's with gloves on, but after about 30 minutes into the run, I was sufficiently warm.
The marker runners. Letting these runner pace me was great. I started out following the 4:45 runner - easy to do since they ran with a sign. But about 7 or 8 miles in, I passed this marker and found the 4:30 runner. Keeping up with the 4:30 runner really allowed me to focus on a good pace.
Final code cracking - my toes. I saw a sign along the route - "toe nails are so over rated". Believe me, I got it! Fortunately, this race proved to be me best long run yet relative to my outside small toes. For this race I made a slight modification to my toe technology. I had been running with silicon in between my two outside toes, but for the race I added a small piece of cloth tape around the toes to keep the silicone from "squishing" out during the run - it worked!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had only a small amount of blistering and no bleeding, this was awesome!!
Water and Gu. I took water every time it was offered, about every 2 miles. Sometimes I didn't drink much, but always a little. I also ate a Gu pack every 30 minutes, and later in the race began to eat some bananas and orange slices that were being offered.
Clothes. Since the temp only rose by 10 degrees F during the entire run, my clothes, long running pants and two layers on the upper body worked out very well - with no shucking. I took off my gloves at about mile 18 or 20 and my face wrap - all was well.
Blue skies. It really helped, since it was so cold, that the sky was blue and sunny. That's always a lift!
Mile 18. Things went beautifully until then. At that point, my right calve began to tighten just a bit. I experimented with my pace and it seemed to be held at bay. Fortunately it didn't cramp!
Mile 23. At mile 23, all was still well. I was on a 10:15 - 10:20 pace. But, at mile 24, I really really slowed down. I knew I only had 2 miles to go, but I guess all parts of me were ready for the run to be over. My pace jetted down to 11:30 or so. But I kept moving, and clicked through my playlist to find some rock to keep me going. I was still talking to my fellow runners a bit, but I really had to put my head down.
Mile 26. Linda met me at 26, and ran the 0.2 miles with me to finish the race. I wasn't saying much at all, and thought I was running like mollasses , but she seemed to think I looked good - and that was good.
Summary. I met both of my goals for this race, break 5 hours and no walking. In fact, I ran it in 4:34. That breaks my prior training time of 5:01 by almost 30 minutes, and it broke my 2003 race time of 5:10 by even more. Incredible run, incredible weather and conditions, and my engine ran perfectly. Next stop, either a training marathon in March, or the Jackson TN Marathon.
