Duke City Marathon Race Report

Zero to Marathon

There's so much hype about "the marathon" in the mainstream running press that you'd almost think manna should be raining down from the heavens as you finish one for the first time. Well, no, actually, I just really wanted to sit down. And take off my shoes. And eat like four bacon green-chile cheeseburgers. Given the post-race selection of fruit and sports drink I had to settle for two out of three. After my wife made me wait for a photo of course:



(Can I sit down please??)

Those were, quite literally, my initial impulses after I crossed the line at the Duke City Marathon - my first. I finished in 3:29:33, a time with which I'm pretty happy.  If you had told me back in April that I'd run that kind of time after just six months of training, I probably would have filed that under the "wishful thinking" category. But the clock doesn't lie.

In The Beginning

When I went through the 5 mile marker and looked down at my watch and saw 38 minutes I felt like the clock was lying. Not that that time was necessarily fast or slow; in fact it was just about where I hoped it would be. Rather, the entire start and first 5 miles were a complete blur.  Last minute bathroom visit. Find a place in the crowd.  Vent nervous energy while we wait for the gun.  Accelerate from standing to fast walk to light jog as we go across the timing mat.  Weaving in and out of bodies to get some space.  Watching the start unfold until I finally feel like I'm "out there" and actually running. Then as I pass the 5 mile marker, the realization that, oh yeah, wake-up dipshit: you're running a friggin' marathon. It was either luck or subconscious pacing that my split ended up where it did.

About three or four days prior I had settled on what my goals would be: A) 3:25, B) 4:00, and C) finish. Given the course profile I also thought a negative split would be possible. I established my "A" goal by sticking my time from the Old Santa Fe Trail 10k into the racing/pacing calculator over at the Runners' World site. I figured it was optimistic but not impossible, so why not. My "B" goal was basically the time beyond which I would be disappointed if I went any slower. And if all else failed, my goal would be to get to the finish line. I had estimated that the lower elevation should give me about 10-15 seconds per mile, but instead of adjusting my goals to compensate I decided to just stick that into my back pocket as a little extra cushion.

At the 5 mile point I felt like I was out for a moderate but comfortable run and I was right on track with my "A" goal.  I took several minutes to get a good read on what my body was doing, what the pace felt like in terms of cadence and turnover, and if any muscles or joints were starting to act up. Then it was time for me to start taking in calories so I washed down a gel with some water from the 6-mile aid station and kept chugging along.

The Prequel

A couple months before the race we had decided to make a family overnight trip out of the event. We headed down to Albuquerque Saturday afternoon following a pretty routine morning. Our first stop was the expo so I could pick up my race packet. Last year the event had about 3000 participants across five events (marathon, half, half walk, 5k, and 5k walk). I don't know how many there were this year but the expo was pretty busy. Once we managed to escape we headed to our hotel which was about a mile from the start/finish area. We chilled out there for an hour or two before going to over some friends' house for dinner.



(Setting out my gear the night before - can you spell A-N-A-L?)

My plan in the morning was to wake up about 4:30 am to eat some breakfast, and then go back to sleep for another hour or so before jogging over to the start/finish area. Of course, nerves being what they are, once I was up I knew there was no way I was going to go back to sleep. So I just hung out until about 6:15, ate a couple gels, glanced at the map for the hundreth time to make sure I wouldn't get lost on the way over, and headed off.

One thing that gave me some thought in the week before the race was nutrition. The race website indicated that sports drink and water would be available on the course. Since I don't normally use sports drink I was a little concerned about that being my only source of calories during the race. After considering my options I eventually settled on shoving a handful of gels into my shorts' pockets, and planned to eat one every 25-30 minutes starting about 45-60 minutes in. I figured if I ran out I could supplement with sports drink.

Feeling Strong

From about the 6 mile marker out towards the turnaround the miles still felt pretty routine. I found my mind wandering quite a bit as I churned along the bike path enjoying the views of the river, the backside of the Botanical park, and several hot air ballons that were ascending nearby. At first my daydreaming bothered me because I was concerned I'd get too distracted and go off pace. But I soon realized that, as long as I didn't forget to check in every few minutes, letting my mind rest now would be of benefit later when I would really need that mental energy to keep my focus. So I tried not to stress about it.

A couple runners came up to me around the 8 or 9 mile mark and mentioned something about the Big Tesuque shirt I was wearing. Turns out they were both Santa Fe runners, two of several that I recognized during the race, although I never got their names. Their pace was right about what I wanted to be running so I keyed off of them the rest of the way to the turnaround.

The course profile is nearly flat: the turnaround elevation is listed as 123 feet higher than the start/finish elevation, with about half of that gain in the last half mile before the turn-around:



(Course profile courtesy of race web site)

Knowing this I wanted to go hard through the turnaround to stress the legs a little bit and see how everything was feeling. I also didn't want to start giving myself excuses to take breaks. I had been taking in a gel every half hour or so since about the 6 mile mark and my energy level felt pretty good. Actually my nutrition was spot-on all day. I had experimented with the "Western Australia" carbo loading method before Big T and was pretty happy with the results, so I did it again for this race and it seemed to work great. I did end up skipping my last gel and sticking to Gatorade over the last part of the race but that was the only deviation from my plan.

At the turnaround my legs felt great. None of my major muscle groups were giving me even the slightest bit of burning, and aerobically I also felt very strong. My hip flexors were starting to tighten but that was the only discomfort I was feeling.  My split time was right around 1:41 (which included a one minute potty break). I was ahead of my "A" goal pace and possibly on track to break 3:20. Motivated by the possibility of a negative split and the slight downhill I hammered out the first few miles heading back at a solid 7:15-7:30 pace.

Wrath of the Bendy Parts

It seems like every story about a first marathon has some dramatic period during which the runner must prevail over their inner demons if they are to make it to the finish line. In my case it wasn't inner demons; it was my bendy parts:

(Photo from www.sports-injury-info.com)

I mentioned that at the turnaround my hip flexors were starting to flare up a little. From about mile 17 until mile 20 the pain and the tightening slowly increased until I felt like my waist and hips were wrapped up in some medieval torture device. This was extremely frustrating for me because otherwise my legs still felt great and my cardiovascular system was firing like a Formula 1 car (OK maybe a Hyundai is a better analogy), but I just could not turn my legs over.

All of this turned the last 10k into a quite a struggle, partly because my hips wouldn't work right and partly because I was so pissed off. Finally by about mile 23 I managed to figure out how to run with some semblance of a rhythm and I just tried to carry it home best I could. I still managed to pass a couple runners, folks who I presume had completely detonated. With two miles to go I knew I wouldn't break 3:25 but I still had a chance to break 3:30. Then at the 1 mile marker it was, "how slow can I go and still break 3:30?". Well I made it with 30 seconds or so to spare. No it wasn't 3:25 but I'm sure as hell not complaining. Full results are available here.

Reflection 

Despite my hip issues a lot of things went right for this race. My nutrition and taper both seemed to set me up perfectly for a good day. My long runs also were more than adequate in terms of time - but because they were almost all trail runs, and therefore at a slower pace, what I think I missed out on was running road tempo pace late in a long run. If there was anything my training could have had more of it was those types of runs. I was already thinking about doing pilates/core classes over the winter, and that will help for future runs.

Overall this is definitely an experience that I'll look back on with a mix of accomplishment, relief, and even a little gratitude actually. As cliche as it sounds, signing up for this marathon is what helped me transform from active to athlete over the last six months. And I learned a hell of a lot about myself, both mentally and physically, in the process.

Having written that, I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to do another road marathon. While I do enjoy just getting out and running, even if it is on the road, trails are what I'm really passionate about. The entire trail running experience just has a certain depth to it that I've not yet found on pavement. The pain that long road miles seems to inflict on my joints and connective tissues doesn't exactly enhance its appeal either. I'm sure that given the right course I'd be game to line it up again (my wife really wants to go to Chicago now), and I certainly don't regret having done this race. But at least for the next year or two, trail races will be my focus.



(Post-race indulgence: two yummy home-made pizzas for dinner)