Marathon Mania, After Action Report

Well, I crossed the finish line of my fourth 26.2 mile race, and it was my toughest one yet.  I hit the midway point at 2:11 which was exactly 10 minute miles.  If I could have sustained that, I'd have beaten my personal record by over 12 minutes.  Alas, I could not.  On the back half I ran out of gas, as had been my problem in my long runs throughout my training.  Clearly my time goals were overambitious in comparison to my actual fitness.  In fact, it was a struggle even to keep running on the back half and that leads to my next point.

On the positive side, I received enormous support all throughout the race from many friends in Team Hammerheads, Team FDC and others, and my wife and boys were there, as always for this race, at the finish line.

In the end, I finished in 5:08 and change, where I'd finished all three of my prior ones under 4:40.

BUT, every race has three goals - hit your time target, finish, and stay uninjured.  I managed to achieve that finish, and that back half was an exercise in mental toughness which I will NEED come NOVEMBER, so onward and upward!

Lessons learned - your target pace in a marathon has to be relatively easy for you.  You can't run 26.2 miles at any pace that you have to push.  If I want to run 9 minute miles, I need to heart rate train until I can run that pace for a long run and feel comfortable the whole way. 

What did I do right - more strength training, more weekday consistency, more speedwork.

Next up, a sprint, 2575, in early March.  That'll be a different feel from the Marathon, and a re-entry to triathlon-land.  750m swim, 20k bike, 5k run It will be over in less than an hour and a half.  Just redline it the whole way - a speed workout under race conditions.  Then Nautica in April - an Olympic.  That'll take around three hours, an endurance challenge I consider more than a half marathon and less than a marathon, in running terms.  Those two lead up to IM 70.3 FL in May, my next biggie (A race).  A half iron is both harder and easier than a marathon.  Harder in that it takes longer, and you're in more physical pain on the run.  BUT, there is something uniquely hard about running 26.2 that is not present in even a half iron.

As for that half, it is a ways out.  I have 16 weeks (and two tune up races) to act on the lessons learned yesterday and hopefully achieve a realistic time goal and personal record. Also, time to dust off the bike and swim goggles!  (I've been swimming and biking, just not much).