HEY HEY HEY! I received my marathon pictures in the ole email box the other day and thought that I would let you have a look see:

Click on the picture to open up a new window and go to the photography website

I thought that it was really cool that I started the race with a slightly overweight Einstein. I thought he was dead, but that’s just a theory I guess.

Terry went down to Georgia, he was looking for a PR to set.
He was in a bind ‘cos he was way behind: he was willin’ to take a bet.

Whether it’s your first, your 10th or your 100th, you will never leave a marathon without learning something. Sometimes it’s about you as a person, sometimes it’s about your running but after 26.2 miles you don’t away with nothing. You also can learn just as much from what you did right as from what you did wrong.

What I did right

Staying on the Plan: I had my plan and stuck to it. Even at the beginning when I wasn’t hitting the 9:00 pace, I didn’t worry and soon enough I was in a 9:15 pace that carried me through the first 20 miles. I didn’t sweat it when I was being passed by runners or I would runners ahead of me that appeared as if they shouldn’t be faster than me. So even though my plan didn’t unfold like I wanted it to, I did not readjust my strategy during the early parts of the race, I let it play out for the first few miles.

Gloves and my form: After I took my gloves off I proceeded to carry them, thinking I might need them again. I did, just not in the fashion that I thought. Towards the last 8 miles, I started to use the gloves as reminders for my form. What I noticed was that when I would carry one in each hand, my shoulders were relaxed. The Rule of Thumb for running form is to pretend you are holding a potato chip between your thumb and index finger. Instead of pretending to have potato chips, I was holding the gloves in this way and that relaxed my shoulders, reducing the tension in my body and helping with keeping my form in the last few miles.

I had been listening to a podcast that was talking about increasing speed during swimming isn’t always about power, it’s about swimming efficiently. The same thing is true for running. Having the right form, even if you are slowing down or hitting the wall, will conserve energy than running with poor form. So, by running with proper form, you can get further than if you ran with poor form.

What I did wrong

Food: I don’t think that I carbo loaded enough during the week and as My Lovely and Talented Wife pointed out, the night before. Also, in the morning I made some oatmeal and a waffle for the trip down. When I finally got off the interstate, I was actually hungry again. I could have eaten alot more oatmeal to keep me full during the trip down. I hadn’t made that long of a trip (1.5 hours) for a race before.

The level of soreness that I had on Sunday and Monday has been very surprising. I am sore, but not to the extent that I have been at other marathons. I have been walking without hobbling, I can walk straight downstairs (although it’s sore). I am very surprised at this because my legs from top to bottom were sore during the later stages of the race AND I sat in the car for 2 hours to drive back.

My conclusion is food related. That I had enough strength in my leg muscles that the distance wasn’t the problem, but that I didn’t have enough fuel in them to last. I only had about 20 miles worth of life in my legs, then managed to get 5 more miles out them, but then it was over. I have run other marathon where I only lasted until mile 16 and then it was a struggle until then.

What I Learned

So even though I didn’t eat enough on race day, I think the oveall change in my diet this year made up some of the difference on Saturday. One key thing to my diet has been drinking a vitamin enriched smoothie every morning consisting of Flax Oil (Omega 3,6&9), Frozen Blueberries, Soy Milk, and the Vitamin Smoothie Powder. Since I have been on the Gluten Free diet, my snacking has dropped some. Where I might have 2 donuts in the morning 2-3 times a week, I don’t do that anymore and some of the gluten food that is here at work are left untouched by me. Don’t get me wrong, I still eat my fair share of candy bars and other taste-good-bad-for-you stuff, it’s just now, I am more conscious about it.

I also added a tweak to my “Marathon Survival Mode.” When my legs start to fatigue to the point that I can’t go on, I stop to do a simple leg stretch that I learned at the 2002 Mardi Gras Marathon. From a standing position, you squat down (as if you were going to lay an egg) and stay there for about 5-10 seconds, then straighten from the waist and move to a position were you are touching your toes (or close to it). Then stand straight up and continue running. The first time that I did this at Chickamauga, I didn’t drop down as far and it felt pretty good. I’m thinking that given my inflexibility there is a threshold for how far I can go to where it changes from stretching the muscles to putting extra tension on the muscles.

Speculation

I went back to my logbook and my average mileage for the last 14 weeks was 18.5 miles with weeks 11 & 12 being the highest at 29.10 and 29.25 miles respectively. This is very good news for me and breaking the 4 hour barrier. If I can run a 4:08 marathon with minimal discomfort (so far I have taken no pain medication) on an average of 18.5 miles a week, if I could train at the proper 30-40 miles per week, I would really do well.

The two questions are How Well? and When?. I’d have to start with When first. I do have to recover from this marathon first, this was not a training run. I did push myself and I am recovering and so I would need at least 4 weeks to fully recover and probably no more than 6 weeks. Now, I wouldn’t be sedentary during this time, I would be on a 4 or 6 week training schedule with another medium to long run (about 16 mile) thrown in there and then a taper. That would put me in Mid December to Late December, maybe even Early January.

Looking in my region, not many races fit in those parameters. 4 weeks out (Dec 8th) are: Huntsville, AL; Kiawah Island, SC; or Charlotte, NC and there is nothing really close anytime soon after that. I’ve decided that since I am prone to pneumonia in the late winter (feb/mar) that I wouldn’t train for a Feb or March marathon. I would participate in one if everything was right, but I’m not going to plan on a late fall/early spring marathon. It wouldn’t be until April or May that I would even look at the schedule for a pre-summer marathon.

Now, how well do I think I could do? I’d have to say around a 3:58. If I was able to get in good training like I have been up to Chickamauga, I’d say around 3:55. I think I could go out a little faster and hang on to the pace longer as well.

So on my quest for 50 States & DC and Boston Qualifying, I completed my 5th State (VA, SC, LA, TN, GA) and I only have to shave 52:39 off my marathon time to qualify for Boston.

Training Motto: Train, Just in Case.
Here is the grade:
Expo/Registration: B ; I didn’t go to the past a dinner or pre-race pickup., I drove down from Knoxville the day of the race. I did have a little trouble getting to the race site. THe directions on the race form and the directions from Mapquest were totally different. Thankfully, I had been there before, so I had some vague idea of where to go… and it paid off. Once I found a place to park, I followed the crowd of people to Packet Pick Up. I never saw any signs on where to go but the crowd of people made it easy. It was packed in the little gym and it took me a second or two before I found the preregistered table.

Race Goody Bag: A ; I haven’t plundered through it all yet, but there are at least 2 SoyJoy bars and 2 bags of Clif Bloks. You can always score high points with free stuff!

Weather: A ; It was in the 40s for most of the race. It started to warm up just a tad toward the end of the race but it still was very comfortable. There was a slight head wind from time to time, but the course layout sheltered us from both the wind and most of the time.

Course: A- ; The course is a very gently rolling course of which about 23 miles of it is inside the Chickamauga Battlefield. The course is protected from mature pine trees that offer ample protection from wind and the sun. Not only does the trees offer protection but provide a very scenic course as you run past countless monuments, canons, and markers in the battlefield. If you have any interest in history, there are markers with descriptions about activities that took place in certain location. There are 1 and 1/2 drawbacks to the course. The full drawback is that there are often a couple of miles between spectators, so you can go for some time without crowd support, but when you do get it, it is very refreshing. The other drawback that’s only a partial drawback is that it loops twice in the park. The bad thing is that you have to do two loops. The good thing is that you have an idea of what to expect in the later races. This way you know when you are going to get aid stations, crowd support, have to face hills, etc.

Volunteers: A ; Volunteers were great on the course. There was plenty of water, powerade, bananas, and other foods. I think the only thing that I had a problem was that would call out “water, powerade”, but you didn’t know which side or what order until you were right there. This is more of a perk than anything else and is more beneficial to faster runners because they don’t have to slow down as much or weave.

Official Course Support: A+ ; Because there were many locations on the course that were pretty far between aid stations, aides on bike patrolled the course. They were constantly around, with big yellow signs on there backs saying “Runners Aid, Ask Me For Help”, you couldn’t miss them.

Finish Line Spread: B ; They were out of pizza when I got finished. I was going to cheat with a piece of gluten (half piece) but I opted for the Southwest Chicken Soup, which was a nice touch. I’m sure there was better food there, but mid/back of the packers just had to deal with the leftovers, which is pretty typical at any longer distance race. They did have plenty of water and powerade at the finishline, which was better than anything.

Shirt/Medal: A- ; The medal is a standard metal medal with the race logo. It’s a decent medal and will go in it’s own shadowbox along with my running bib and finisher’s certificate. The race shirt was totally over the top. Not only was the race shirt a LS tshirt, it was a technical shirt (moisture wicking) as well. Not only was it a technical shirt, but it was a brand name (ASICS) shirt as well. Very, very cool!

My Race: A ; Give how little I had trained for the marathon

I started the race with a hat, gloves, shorts and a long-sleeved shirt for the mid 40s temperature. Something happened at race start that I have never seen before and it was totally awesome. The national anthem was done by bugle, which in itself is pretty cool. Shortly after the bugle started, I hear a murmur in the crowd that became clearer that the runners were singing the national anthem. Typically, you get a few people who sing it, but this was a majority of the runners. The volume never was too loud, it was the most reverent version of the national anthem that I have ever heard.

Miles 1-4 [36:33] For about the first few miles, I was having a hard time (my perception) to find a good pace. The weather was cool and my hamstrings were not warmed up yet. This was the coldest temperature that I had run since the fall and I wasn’t accustom to it. It wasn’t cold enough for me to warrant wearing long pants, especially since it was supposed to get up to the 50s at some point. Both hamstring felt like knots in my legs and I had an idea that by 2-3 miles they would warm up, but they didn’t.

Miles 5-9 [1:22] I’ve found a nice 9:10ish pace for the first 9 miles. I had paced with a few people the first 5 miles as a way to keep me from going out too fast, but by mile 7 my hamstrings were warmed up and I was on my own. At the turn around point at around 9.5, I see that I am about 45sec to 1 min ahead of those that I paced with earlier. I figured that if I were to slow down, that I could pace back with them… like a safety net.

At the aid station at mile 8.5, I did have a gel packet malfunction. I opened the gel, normally, but as I was bringing it up to eat it, I squeezed prematurely and shot a big squirt of gel on my chin neck and some even dribbled down my running bib. I have a picture to include.

Mile 10-13.1 [2:00] By mile 10, I already had my gloves off as I was warm enough, but still needed the hat. The shade of the trees really helped in keeping the runners sheltered from the sun as there were few clouds for protection. Had most of the race been in the sun, I wouldn’t have fared as well. Just after mile 11, I took the hat off but proceeded to carry it with me, I wasn’t sure if I would still need them. The second loop starts at mile 13. My chip time was 2:00:26 and for the first half, I ran a fairly consistent half. I only had to take a pit stop, once at mile 11 which threw off the pacing for that mile, all the others were a low 9 min pace.

Mile 14-20 [3:04] It was about mile 17.5 that I could feel the first permanent fatigue start to set into my legs. It wasn’t bad, but I knew that I was on the other side and that I would eventually hit The Wall sooner, rather than later. After the aid station at mile 18, I had miscalculated the number of gels that I had. I knew that I brought 6 but only remembered eating 5 after the mile 18, but feeling for the gel packets, I couldn’t find any more. This was going to be a slight problem as I would need to scavenge for food at the aid stations. At the 20.5 aid station, they were offering Clif Bloks which I had 2 and felt better very quickly. I finished the first 20 miles in 3:04:14, which was a 9:14 min pace and only 44 seconds off pace of my predicted 4:02:05 finish. It was nice to know that if I missed pace for a mile or two, that I wouldn’t be sunk.

Mile 21-25 [3:56] By now, my legs are hurting, both quad and hamstrings. I’m also getting pains in both shins, something that I hadn’t expected. I imagine that I wasn’t 100% healed from the shin splints before. Then something funny happened, not really believing that I missed calculated my gels, I searched again and found the lost gel. It was wedged in such a fashion that I could not feel it the first time. So after the slower Mile 22, I had a gel for the 23.5 aid station and was able to salvage paces at mile 23 and 24 of around 10:20 pace average. For these last 6 miles, I was unsure if I was going to get a PR or not. I could imagine that I was and I could imagine being really close but not making it. I hadn’t hit The Wall yet, I still had the will and power to move forward, but I could tell that it was coming fast. At Mile 25, I started my marathon survival mode, but I really should have started it earlier.

Finish [4:08] At the 25.2ish point, is when I had to stop again. This time it was That Wall that made me stop, but I didn’t walk. I stopped, stretched and then started to run again. I knew it was going to be like this for the rest of the way, but I wasn’t sure when I would stop again. Just after Mile 26, I had to stop again, this time a little more defeated than before. I knew I was really close not just from the finish line, but also from a PR, yet it was hard to move forward. Then something happened and I had that spark again.

The last 0.1 of a mile is down a different street that the one I stopped on. I had a little way to go before making the final turn to the finishers chute. I’m in a daze when I had stopped and then I’m snapped out of it as a runner that I had been passing each other early passed by me. I figured that if nothing else, I would pace behind her and that would carry me to the finishline. I started following behind her by about 5 feet or so, but then I could feel some strength come back to my legs, then my mind focused again on the PR time and I picked up speed. As I rounded the corner the first thing I saw was the clock reading “4:08″ something and realized that I could still make it.

I ran as fast as I could to get to that finishline. I don’t know if it was a 8:00min pace, a 9:00 min pace or a 10:00min pace. All I know is that it was fastest that I could run and it was enough. My official Gun time was 4:08:53 and my Official Chip time was 4:08:38, a 35 second PR.

The volunteers led me to get my chip off. At this point I was pretty out of it. I knew that someone would take my chip off and that I needed water. Someone gave me a medal and I looked around for some water. I found a water and powerade then found a patch of grass so I could collapse. I sat down, took a drink of the best powerade ever and then laid down on my back and reveled in the new PR that I just ran.

After a couple of minutes to regroup my thoughts, I found myself making my way to post race food. My legs were sore from top to bottom, but I could still walk. I had some Southwest Chicken soup, which I thought was a great post race snack. It hit the spot and didn’t make me feel bad for missing the pizza, which now I am glad that I didn’t eat. I’m going to post a “what I learned at this race” soon, because even though this was my 10th, I stilled learned a few things.

This is one nice thing about deciding at the last minute to do a marathon. You don’t have all the extra lamenting on whether or not you trained enough, are you ready for the race and the other things that go through your mind during the Taper period. Not that you don’t have them, they are condensed into a few days rather than a few weeks.

So here’s what I have been concerned about for the race:

Last Maintenance run
I ran today at lunch, a rather speedy 3 miles. It’s a break from the norm, but I am following a strategy that I picked up from fellow Worldwide Half Marathon Challenge Race Director John Ellis. Instead of going into the race on two days rest. I go into the race have run the day before, this is supposed to have the legs primed for the run, rather than have settled. I looked back at my training log, and there were times where I had ran the day before a race and did well at the race.

I did take it pretty easy this week, ran on Monday, swam on Wednesday then ran on Friday.

Weather
We are in that transition period in the weather that it can be 50-60F during the day and 30-40F at night. I did not want to dress for 30s and then end up in 50s. Based on the pontificaters over at Weather.com, the weather for the race is going to be right about perfect.

Race Starts at 7:30 (I checked) and with it being above 40, that means that will wear shorts, but probably just a longsleeved shirt, maybe a short sleeved layer. I’ll bring a hat and gloves for good measure.

Pre Race Strategy
I plan on packing my car tonight before the race. This way, I just need a few things before I leave early in the morning. I’m sure that I will be a little anxious that I don’t oversleep… wouldn’t that totally suck? But I will have to be extra quiet because The Younger will wake up and want to go with me.

Race Strategy
I saw that Greg is running the OBX marathon on Sunday (you can play Guess His Time on his site) and he was implementing a 10/10/10 plan. He’s running the first 10 miles at one pace, then the next 10 at another pace and then the last 10, wait, 6.2 miles at another pace. He’s going for negative splits. I don’t think that I have the training logged into accomplish negative splits, but I think that I can do some positive splits. I’m going for a 6/10/6.2

First 6 @ 9:00 min pace
Middle 10 @ 9:15 min pace
Last 6.2 @ 9:30 min pace
predicted time 4:02
faster predicted limit 3:55
slower predicted limit 4:15

Promised by the website, there are plenty of water stations on the course and I have schedule for 6 gel intakes. Not sure if I will eat all 6 or not. Sometimes I get tired of them towards the end of the race.

Okay, it’s official!

This weekend, under short notice, I will be running my 10th marathon at the Chickamauga Marathon. Now this course and I have a little history together. If you have ever heard the Phedippidations episode about Race Day Strategies, you’ll know that strategies that I suggested, I learned from this experience. Know The Course and Know The Start Time, else you might be in for a wild ride of running a different race on the same course and fleeing from a wild pack of rabid chihuahuas.

The Chickmauga marathon course is run almost exclusively on the Chickamauga National Battlefield and is manage by the Chattanooga Track Club. The course starts out just outside of the battlefield, makes two loops inside the park and then back out to the start/finish line.

It’s not a large race and crowd support will be lean, really, nonexistent in some places. The total number of finishers for the marathon in 2006 was 323, not large by any stretch of the imagination. However, I am used to the smaller race size and sometimes running alone.

From what I remember in 2005, it is does have some very scenic views and the amount of Civil War monuments is amazing. You run by battle markers and monuments. Canons, like in the picture. I’m debating on whether to bring a camera or not, just to avoid the distraction.

My plan for Saturday’s run is to attempt to break my current marathon of 4:09:03 set on November 10, 2001 (6 years to the DAY). I think that I have a legitimate shot of breaking this BUT there has been a large amount of volatility in my training these past few months. This training season would be the first time that my longer runs of 13 or more have been broken into 2 sessions in the same day. Also, I only have 1 long run, of 20 miles which wasn’t too long ago. But I know the Phedippidations Half Marathon run, although being only 13.1, pushing the two kids in the double stroller added some resistance training.

Saturday’s Marathon will be a day trip. Chickamauga is about 2 hours away from knoxville. I will leave around 4:45am for the 7:30 start and then drive home after the race. My Lovely and Talented Wife will have to pry me out of the car, as my legs will have locked in the seated position from the sheer fatigue.

I am planning on sending a text message to my secret blog email account so that it will post sometime Saturday late Morning/ early Afternoon. So although you won’t be able to track me while I am running, I will send my unofficial time here and you can see how I did. A Race Report and Scorecard will follow next week (of course)!

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I was a slacker this weekend, in other words, I failed to run on Saturday or Sunday. I had taken Friday off as a rest day but my chance never materialized on Saturday and Sunday was taken up so I got to do nothing. This is why I switched Monday from a Speed Day to a Tempo day and ran 4 miles instead of 3 miles. With the Chickamauga 10 miler coming up on Saturday, I need more mileage than speed. Although I am officially going for a PR time at the race, I can't get any faster for that race in 5 days, but I can get experience at what that distance will feel like and get some quick conditioning. The race will be the most significant mileage that I have ran since May 1st when I almost went 10 miles (9.6). More on the race in a few days.

Here are my split times

As I was running today, I though of a number of titles that might be suitable for today's entry. It could have been titled “Flu and Tetanus” or “Fatigued” or something else. I started today getting two shots, one shot was the Flu shot and the other was my Tetanus Shot which I was over due. SO now I type with two mildly sore shoulders.

During today's run I could really feel the fatigue of the past few days exercising in my legs. They felt like lead weights as I tried to complete a 4 mile jaunt. The first and last miles were actually the best of them and they have the most traffic and obstacles to avoid, plus the big hill at the end makes it a tough mile. I decided that tomorrow will be a total rest day to let my body catch back up. I'll fore go the swimming and take the day off… maybe I'll have lunch with the guys. Who knows.

Now that I am in Super-Secret-Marathon Training, I'll have to commit to running Saturday morning. Maybe 6-8 miles. I found out earlier this week that Jennifer is going to hold a Mary Kay event down in Chattanooga on the 12th. Like the good runner that I am, the first thing that came to my mind was “I wonder if there are any local races” and Praise be [insert your deity of choice, if any]!!! There was… a small race called the Chickamauga Marathon. Accompanying the marathon is a 10 miler. I did think for about 30 seconds, okay make it a minute… that I would do the marathon with little to no training. Okay, make that no training, but it's not like I have not done that before. Rewind to February 2002, I was in Lake Charles, LA for a project and we went to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras Marathon. I ran the full marathon and Tom ran the half-marathon. I could not justify NOT running the marathon when I had the chance, even though, I had only run 40 miles the past 6 weeks and 13 of those miles was a half marathon I ran the weekend before.

Chickamauga is only 1-1/2 hours away, so if I wanted to do it next year, I could make it a day trip, so I am running the 10 miler else I would be suffering through that 26.2 miles to get the state of Georgia checked off on my 50 State map.