Napa Valley Marathon Race Report - A wet 4th class Boston Qualifier !

In October I signed up for the Surf City half marathon as my next attempt to qualify for Boston, which gave me 12 weeks to train after a month of recovery from the Mt Lemmon Marathon. However during Thanksgiving week, I got hit with a nasty sore throat, which ended up being a throat abscess (and not a regular cold as I thought), with a visit to the ER and 10 days of antibiotics/anti-inflammatories. Coupled with the week of snowboarding scheduled early January, I started feeling that this training cycle might not be up to par with my expectations. So I signed up for the Napa Valley Marathon early March, which gave me another month of training.

For my training I went back to a McMillan custom plan., which they modified based on my change of plans from Surf City to Napa. For the 14 weeks before the two-week "taper" (McMillan calls the period "peaking", not tapering) I averaged 52.5 miles. I liked that figure because it is 2X a marathon every week. It is not that high mileage but it was significantly higher than my average pre-taper for my previous race (Mt Lemmon - 44mpw) and way more than my previous cycles using FIRST. The highlights of the training were a PR a the 13.1 LA Half Marathon (1:31:59), that I ran without tapering, and the Surf City Marathon which I ran as a supported long run in 3:42 (8:30 min.mi, 1 min/mi slower than my planned Marathon Pace).

I flew to Oakland on Friday, spent the night at an old friend, Christine C., and then took the road to Napa on Saturday morning. I drove to Calistoga, the start of the race such that I could drive the course and see what it looked like. At around mile 2, I stopped my car and ran 23 minutes on the Silverado Trail (out and back) to get familiar with running on the course.

Around Mile 4, driving the course

After getting back to my car I arrived at Napa, and went to the expo. I checked out at my bib, and my bag - nice touch, you can choose between a duffel bag and a backpack - and quickly went through the expo. I checked in at the hotel desk (same place as the expo and spent the rest of the day in my room with dinner at the Pasta Party at the hotel. A little overpriced but Bill Rodgers gave a speech and Magdalena Boulet was also there - she was going to run the first 20 miles of the race as a training run.

For carb loading I decided to forgo the Aussie  carbo load approach mainly because I don't like the all-out workout so close to the race. So I used the traditional approach and ate carb rich foods, but I supplemented my meals with 2-3 bottles of carboforce during the 3 days before the race.

Woke up at 3:40 without alarm clock after a decent 6'ish hours of sleep. The bad news was that it was now pouring rain outside. For breakfast, I decided to drink a last bottle of Carbo force which would give me an extra 400 cal and 100g of carbs, with 2 muffins. I boarded the bus from the hotel at 5:15am, still raining and it took us about 45 minutes to get to Calistoga. I hit the porta potties, and then dropped my "special bottles" on the boxes that were going to be placed at the aid stations. My bottles did not contain anything special, just water, but they had sports cap which made it easier to drink from.

My 6 bottles, each marked so that they can't be mistaken with someone else's !

I placed them at miles 4.3, 8.5, 14.3, 18.5, 21, and 22.4. This ended up being a smart choice because I did not slow down at all at the aid stations, except one where the table was oddly placed way behind.

It was wet and there was steady raining at the start, but not too cold. I hung around on my "throwaway" hoodie, which I ended up putting back in my bag, and took a few pictures. 15 minutes before the start I took a Gatorade "prime", then dropped my bag and waited for the start, about 10 rows from the frontrunners. There I found Amy from the sub-3:20 forum and we chatted for a few minutes, until we started.

The start area in Calistoga, wet, wet, wet....

Waiting for the start, around 6:30am

After the national anthem, we were off and running under the rain. It wasn't too bad at the start, but the rain picked up at moments, which made that I was completely soaked early on by mi 6.

Yes, I look miserable out there...

Within mi 2-3 I knew I could throw away my A goal of sub 3-15, and I started to question my B-goal (3:17), since I had trouble hitting 7:35 miles or under. The first 6 miles had 3 hills which were not bad, but steep enough to slow down a little bit. I got passed by many runners during these miles, but I kept to my tactic of running miles around 7:30-7-38 while knowing that I would pass many or these runners later on. GU at mile 4, followed by the special water bottle, which worked out great and allowed me not to stop.  The same strategy worked for all the other water stations where I had placed my bottles.

During the first half of the race, the road winds and turns, and it was essential to run the tangents not to add to the distance. I did it the best I could, but the road has heavily banked at times, which made running there slightly difficult. However I was amazed at how poorly people ran the tangents. At about mile 11, the rain stopped, but it was replaced quickly by a 10mph headwind. I tried to find group of runners to draft, but it was becoming to scattered, and I started to pick up people at this point. I focused on one mile at a time, trying to take advantage of the downhills while not lose too much time on the inclines.

Despite the rain the crowd support was there, during the race, mostly at intersections with other roads. I gave people who were cheering the thumbs up, and high-5'ed a few kids on the way. The headwind was steady during the last half, but I tried to ignore it and not make it more of a mental nuisance than it was. At mile 18 I felt a runner high, similar to the one I had during Mt Lemmon at about the same mile. I started feeling really strong, and telling myself that this road was going to take me if not to Boston, at least to a guaranteed BQ if I did not have any major issue or blow up. I was reeling in runners one by one on the inclines, and maintained a steady pace as opposed to many people that I was catching up and who were slowing down.

After mile 20, the course was "all gravy" because there was a half mile downhill, then it was all flat, no more rolling hills. At this point I started feeling a blister on my right foot, but not too bad. I was feeling good but reminded myself of the McMillan instructions to not start pushing it until mile 22. At about mi21 I had a big GU regurgitation and thought I was going to throw up, but I went against my feeling and took my last GU at mile 22.

Feeling great at mi22, note the completely dry look as opposed to above...

I pushed the pace on mile 22 and 23, but then started feeling weaker at mile 24. This made me slow a little bit and was worried that I was going to hit the wall, but looking back at the split I was still sub 7-38 pace.

Starting to suffer, Mile 24-25 ?

At mile 25 I pushed it to reel in a few other runners in front of me. I knew based on the difference between my Garmin and the mile markers that I would have a little bit "more" than 0.2 mi to run after mile 26, so I pushed as much as I could.


I got passed by one runner during that last push, but I finished ecstatic in 3:18:52 official time.

Last kick to the finish !

Here are my Garmin splits:

1- 7:35
2- 7:42 (hill)
3- 7:39
4- 7:33
5- 7:35
6- 7:39 (hill)
7- 7:39
8- 7:39 - this is where I started to really worry about my ability to BQ, nevermind going sub-3:17 (my B-goal)
9- 7:34
10- 7:38
11- 7:34
12- 7:37
13- 7:36
14- 7:39
15- 7:38
16- 7:40 (incline)
17- 7:39
18- 7:32 - started feeling better
19- 7:31
20- 7:39 (incline)
21- 7:26
22- 7:26 - felt good to pass many runners
23- 7:24
24- 7:30 - thought I had dropped the hammer too early...
25- 7:38 - butt and hamstring muscles start to really complain...
26- 7:21 - felt better at the thought of the finish
0.28@6:45

First Half - 1:39:46 

Second Half - 1:39:08

-- 38s negative split

Overall I think I ran as well as I could given my level of training, the hills on the course, and the weather conditions. I don't think the rain was too much of a problem for the pace, but the wind in the second half might have cost me 1-2 minutes. I probably saved 30-45s by not walking through the aid stations thanks to my special bottles. Anyway I am proud of this race, because this is the first time (besides Mt Lemmon) I have felt in control of my race during the second half and the first normal marathon where I ran a negative split. I do not know if my time will allow me to register for Boston in 2012, since I will be last in the pecking order for Boston registration - 4th class BQ !

Nevertheless I am damn' proud of having qualified and not having to wait until I moved into the next age group to do so !

Boston Qualified, if not Boston bound !

Surf City Marathon 2011 Race Report

I originally signed up for Surf City last summer as my target race for the beginning of 2011. However things did not go smoothly in terms of training. Around Thanksgiving (week 2 of the 12 week cycle) I got hit with a throat abscess, with a visit to the ER and treatment with antibiotics and antiinflammatories, which limited my training and resulted in overall weakness for 10 days . I also went for a 1week snowboarding vacation in early january, which limited my training that week to about 39 miles. So I decided to switch my target race to Napa Valley, one month later, and to use Surf City as a long supported training run. I decided to run it around 1 minute per mile slower than my target pace for Napa, so around 8:30 min/mi, which should bring me home in 3:40-3:45.

It was nice to come back to Surf City after I ran my first marathon there in 2008. We decided to make it a mini-vacation and stayed at the Hyatt close to the start line. We hit the expo early and they had a display of all the miles markers before the entrance:

At the expo, the kids had fun pretending to surf on the wave. We did not stick around very long, just time to pick up bib and shirt, but it was already crowded at 9:30 am.

Antoine and Jeremy on the virtual surfs....

Back at the hotel, I ran into Stevie Ray Lopez from the forum and we briefly chatted. In the afternoon, we met friends in Newport Beach, and then went back to the hotel for dinner. In bed early and woke up at 4am - managed to get a decent 6h of sleep.

I was down in the start area at 6am and first ran into Sam (261to26.2). Then we met Matt (Grapevinerunner), and at the pacers tent CharliePro, RiP, HikerGirl, and PonyExpress. It was fun to finally meet so many people from the forum.

 

Emil(Pony), Sam(262to26.2), Louis(RiP), Charlie(Pro), Matt(Grape), and I. Photo courtesy of HikerGirl.

We got started on time, and I let the 3:40 pace group go in front. At mile 3 I caught up with Stevie Ray Lopez and we chatted for about a mile. However he was running a tad too fast for my planned pace, so I let him go at mile 4. Between Mile 5 and 8 we ran in the park around the HB library. I actually did not like that part too much because of the constant turning around and small bumps. I got passed by many people there. I think I would have had issues with pacing in that section, had I tried to maintain an actual marathon pace in this area. Around mile 9 we were back on the PCH. I met Ale (Dark Ale) who introduced himself and his DW who was running the marathon. He ran with me for a few minutes. I liked that segment on the PCH because you could see all the fast runners coming back from the turnaround. I shouted-out to Matt (Grape) who was with the 3:10 pacing group and looked strong.

Between miles 5 and 15, I was running with "Elastic maniac". Basically he was wearing a MM shirt and would run relatively fast (7:30 pace ?) but then would stop and take walking breaks every 3-4 minutes. I ended up passing him for good after mile 16.

After the turnaround on PCH, I saw Ale again, who shouted out at me (Go France !), and  a little bit later saw the 3:10 group who had turned around and was already on the bike path.  Grape still looked great. At mile 16, we turned into the bike path. This section going north on the bikepath was longer than I thought, because they modified the course compared to when I ran it in 2008, with the turnaround only at mile 21. Again, it was great to see the leaders, and the 3:10 pace group. I shouted out to Matt again, then to Howard (WadiaSoft), who looked very strong and seemed like he was getting closer to the 3:10 group, but I don't think he recognized me. Stevie Ray Lopez who was a few minutes ahead of me also gave me the thumbs up there. Turnaround was at mile 21, and after that I started recognizing other runners behind me. I saw Pasadena Runner and gave him the thumbs up, and also recognized Anaheim Runner but too late. Finally I shouted out at Roccco, right before I exited the bike path as he was entering it with his 5:00 pace group. 

Feeling good on the beach bike path - mile 18-22 ?

I picked it up a little bit on these last few miles but decided not to run any miles at marathon pace for the sake of recovery. I passed many runners there, and got passed by 2-3 people. Here are my splits for the run:

1-8:40
2-8:37
3-8:29
4-8:38
5-8:28
6-8:38
7-8:38
8-8:34
9-8:30
10-8:36
11-8:33
12-8:33
13-8:30
14-8:33
15-8:32
16-8:25
17-8:30
18-8:27
19-8:30
20-8:30
21-8:29
22-8:27
23-8:27
24-8:22
25-8:12
26-8:13
0.2@7:48
--------------
3:42:46

The last mile and finish were sort of anti-climatic, because you merge with all the half-marathoners, and even though half and full runners have their separate finish line, the finish chute is a zoo with so many half runners. I decided not to stick around because there were too many people around, found Catherine and the kids, and after lunch at BJ's we drove back home for the Superbowl. Overall a great run, I sticked to my strategy of running a minute slower than marathon pace, and was in good shape afterwards, such that resuming training should not be too hard.

Mt Lemmon Marathon 2010 Race Report

The decision:
Back in March, an ad hit my facebook page advertising "Mt Lemmon Marathon: the toughest road marathon in the world"...mmmh...never heard of it. And for good reason; after looking at marathonguide.com, I realized that it was an inaugural event, and then checked their web site. Let's see: Arizona, potentially hot (even in October), almost all uphill from 3000 to 9000 ft, and running in altitude. That sounded fun. I talked to my wife, who immediately recommended not signing for it because it sounded really stupid. Naturally, my first reaction was to go for it, but I decide to wait a little. So after a few more weeks of reflection and a saturday evening with a little bit too much wine, I signed up for it and here we go...

A couple of months before the date of the race they decided to change the course. Instead of having the last 3 miles uphill and finishing at 9,100 ft, they modified the last 3 miles to have some rolly polly sections and finish at 8,278. I was sort of bummed with the course change as it seemed that they eliminated one of the hardest part of the course - running the last 3 miles uphill at />8,500 ft but at that point I was not going to change my mind because of this course change, and figured the race would be hard enough...

Previous Elevation Profile:










The real one:









The training:
After my June marathon in Newport when I failed to BQ by two minutes and change (3:23 vs 3:20:59..) I decided to take a break in my chase for a BQ time. This marathon provided me with the perfect opportunity to do so. No way I would even try to BQ on that course, but the way I saw it, it would provide me with a great opportunity to get a much stronger base than I have had before. My training for most of my previous marathons had been on low mileage (average 30mpw, peak at 40 or 43), including 3 cycles on FIRST. So I decided to increase the mileage to get better prepared for this tough course. I considered using the 18/55 Pfitzinger/Douglas, however the plan did not account for, nor prepare specifically for the uphill nature of the course. So I went back to McMillan and ordered a 16-week custom training plan. I hit the mileage/times recommended and performed all the workouts, which brought me 8 weeks above 48mpw, and a peak week at 60.1 mpw. Not that high for the high mileage people out here, but a significant increase in average (+50%) for me. My body reacted well to that increase, with some minor aches and pains but nothing major. During the heaviest weeks, my easy paces really slowed down (from 8:15-8:30 to 8:50-9:30), but I interpreted it as the fact that training was working. The highlights of this training cycle were:

1- a kick azz 8-mile training run in Hawaii in 1:29 on the slopes of the Mauna Kea volcano (observatory accesss road). The run started at 6,500 ft and ended up at 9,200 ft, and I had to walk some parts of the last 3 miles due to the steep slopes and the altitude, coming from sea level.

2- the Pier-to-Peak half marathon in Santa Barbara, from sea level to la Cuembre summit, 4,000 ft elevation gain that I finished in 2:02:57 - short of my sub-2 goal but happy enough that I managed my race well, did not bonk, passed many runners in the last 4 miles and finished strong.

3- a very hilly 23-miler long run 3 weeks from the marathon with 3,500 ft up and 3,500 down run at 9:14 pace.

I finished the training cycle at 126 lb, down 6 from 132 at the beginning...and DW complaining about it - she likes me more...well rounded !


Friday: carbo (b)loading and travel day:
I decided to fly on the Friday preceding the race. However this caused some complications on the timing of the Aussie carbo load protocol...so I ran my 3 miles with 3 minutes all out at 5:00am, guzzled two bottles of carboforce (100 g of carb each, 400 cal) right after, and reached LAX around 8am - had time to swallow a third bottle of carboforce in the security line...burp !

Travel went fine and I used my connection in Phonix to eat two tupperware of whole wheat pastas. Only problem was the the Budget Car Rental desk that was understaffed and had to wait over an hour...but I used the line to drink the fourth carboforce bottle of the day (that's 1600 liquid calories and 400g of carbs, not couting the pasta for those who are counting). Then when I took the road...it was like the beginning of the apocalypse: dark skies, black clouds, followed by thunder, ligthning and rain (who knew it could rain in AZ ?), and a fly over of 3 A-10 fighter/bomber planes... On my way to the hotel I stopped at a Trader Joes supermarket to stock up on breakfast items, bananas , and a bottle or red wine. I checked in fine (stayed at the "official" hotel of the race, the Lodge at Ventana Canyon. The room was very spacious, like a minisuite with a small kitchen, and huge bathroom with walk-in shower (space for 3..) and tub. I had dinner at the hotel - a BLT salmon sandwich with cole slaw; not particularly carb rich but enough given what I'd had during the day. In bed at 9:30

Saturday- Route recon, expo, and jacuzzi:
I woke up at 6am without alarm and after breakfast in my room, I decided to drive up the road to Mt Lemmon to get a better idea of what the course looked like. I had checked some photos of the course before and had bought the pacing/elevation info from Greg Maclin, but it is hard to get a real sense of the elevation without seeing it. I was in for an eye opener. Instead of the steady incline suggested by the elevation profile, the route consists in a succession of relatively hard uphill portions and some flatter ones, even a few small downhill segments. I stopped at many points to take pictures, but it's pretty much after driving the course that my time goal went out the window. I was initially thinking that it would be nice to get 4:15 or faster in that course (B goal), the A-goal being sub-4, but after driving it and feeling the effect of the altitude, I made a decision to run the race entirely by feel and to try to be superconservative in the first half..and just to enjoy myself without any time goal.

After driving down, I stopped at a native arts store to buy a Navajo necklace for my wife, and was on my way to the expo. The expo was tiny -- maybe a dozen tents on the Parking lot of the REI store at Tucson mall. I learned that there were about 500 registered for the full marathon, and 400 for the half. However I also saw a few people registering for the race at the expo. I picked up my stuff and decided to leave right away but then I saw a guy wearing a red "Runner's World" shirt who looked familiar. It was Bart Yasso, and I got the pleasure to meet him and chat for a few minutes. His wife was running the full marathon and he would be at the start and at the finish lines. It was really cool !




I also saw the course director, Laszlo Otvos whom I had met at the Pier-to-Peak half marathon back in August in Santa Barbara. After telling him that I drove the course and got freaked out, he mentioned that it took him 7 hours to run the course - while he is a 3hr-marathoner...I decided that it was better not to think too much about it anymore, had lunch at the Cheesecake factory, stored up on Gatorade and went back to my hotel. I soaked in the Jacuzzi where I met Rick, another runner. He mentioned he had only been training a couple of weeks and was running the full...! Well I guess I should not doubt my training anymore since there were obviously some lesser prepared ones. Instead of dining at the hotel restaurant I drove down to the closest Panda Express and had a 2 items with rice followed by a banana. Bed at 8:30

The race
I did not sleep well - too much eating, anxiety...woke up at 2am and tossed and turned until 3am, when I decide to officially wake up. Had breakfast (buttered bread and honey, showered, and boarded the shuttle at 4:15. We were dropped about 0.5-1 mile away from the start line (hard to tell in the dark) and had plenty of time to check the bad and use the port-a's. I decided not to use my hat because it keeps my head warm and it was already sort of warmish for my taste (low 60s)

Near the start, about 5:15am:



Start of the race:

Miles 1-5 : 3138 -> 4334 ft
We got started a 6 am around dawn and I tried to get into a comfortable pace. Around mile 1, many people started to pass me, including a hot blonde girl. I ended up catching a lot of them in the later miles.

At mile2: 


From miles 2-5 I ran near a guy who kept spitting and coughing every 30seconds..fortunately I dropped him at about mile 5. I ran these first miles with a Gatorade bottle and sipped it throughout. Overall the pace felt good and not too challenging. The uphill was regular but manageable. I paid attention to running the tangents really well, and it was amazing to see how many runners failed to this. This is a major issue on a curvy race like this.

Mile__El.gain__ El.loss_ Pace
1 _____213 _____30 (?) 9:46
2 _____249_____ 0___ 9:39
3_____ 307_____0 ___10:06
4 _____295_____ 0___ 10:07
5_____ 237 _____0___ 10:04

(notes: the elevation data from the Garmin don't agree with the data from RunningAhead but I will post them anyway).

Mile 2:



Miles 6-9: 4334-> 5466 ft

I decided to take a GU at mile 5 before the 2nd water station, but unfortunately I missed the water at that station and I only realized it about 20 yards too late. So I decided not to go back and let the GU sit dry in my GI system until the next aid station (8.x). During these miles, I ran with "scream guy" who was very talkative and kept screaming every time we passed a mile marker. I told him he should keep his energy for later and he made fun of me because I was running the tangents...guess who had the last laugh later ? The uphills on these miles were less hard (at least they felt), including mile 9 with a small downhill but part of this segment was on a deep dark gorge where it was pretty cold (high 40s-low 50s ?). I had a small segment where I did not feel comfortable -- I thought maybe this was a combination of the increased altitude and the cold, and the GU starting to solidify in my GI system...I nevertheless took a second GU at mile 8 at the water station, where I finally got my liquids. I got passed by a few people in this segment, including a small asian woman who was really cruising, but I kept to my strategy of keeping a comfortable pace in which I feel I was working, but not too hard, knowing that there would be hard miles to come.

Around mile 8, before being passed by cruising asian woman:

Mile__El.gain__ El.loss_ Pace

6 _____305____ 0____ 10:12
7_____ 295____ 0____ 10:07
8 ____ 256____ 0_____ 9:44
9_____ 187___ 43_____ 9:57


 






Miles 10-15: 5466 - /> 7000 ft
I knew after driving the course that there would some hard miles in that segment, so I focused on running loose, small steps but regular and get into a groove. The splits show that the pace was relatively regular and effort based depending on elevation gain/loss. That's where I started to drop more people running with me, including "scream guy" and catching up others, including the small asian woman who passed me earlier on, and many triathletes (based on their outfit and shaved legs....). I took another GU at mile 12 before a water station and drowned it with a few cups. Overall the elevation gain was hard on some places, but it was nice to reach the halfway in really good shape -- I reached it in 2:11.

The halfway is also where half-marathoners start, at Windy Point. What was cool was that you could see other runners, way way below. The most scenic point of the course.

Mile__El.gain__ El.loss_ Pace
10 ___ 339______ 0 ___10:22
11 ____188______ 0___9:48
12 ____385______ 0__ 10:26
13 ____ 251______ 8__ 10:29
14 ____ 189_____ 30__ 9:48
15 ____ 231_____ 30__ 10:11

Mile 10


Mile 12:


In action, halfway at Windy Point (photo courtesy Bill Vaughn):

Miles 16-20: 7000 ft -> 8200 ft
I focused on running strong and relaxed while things were getting slightly more difficult because of the altitude. However I was glad because I knew that after mile 20, there would be easier downhill segments. At mile 16 I got interviewed by a video cameraman who ran about 100 yards with me and asked me questions "Is this the toughest marathon you've ran ?" - my answer was that the hardest part in a marathon was the second half so I would give him the answer at the finish. I caught up with a few other runners, including the hot blonde girl at mile 17, and several who were walking, obviously starting to bonk. I patted them in the back telling them to "keep moving" but not much more I could do - it's nice to see that you can keep moving while others are bonking, but I also felt bad for them since the finish was a long way out. Gu and water at mile 18. At mile 18 I had a runner's high , half laughing/half crying and got a very emotional moment thinking about my grandmother. There was not reason for this, but these things sometimes pop up during my runs, and I was really emotional thinking about her - she passed away several years ago but she took care of me when I was a kid because my mother was often away.

Overall the paces slipped a little bit, but I thought I was in good shape because I kept feeling relatively strong and knew that I could use the downhills past mile 20.

Mile__El.gain__ El.loss_ Pace
16____263_____0____10:02
17 ___ 356_____ 51___ 10:18
18___ 277______0___ 10:35
19___ 239_____ 0 ___ 10:07
20 ___152_____ 57___ 9:14

Mile 19:


Miles 21-26.2: rolly pollies in the 7700-8200 ft zone...
The last half of mile 20, mile 21 and the begining of 22 were downhill, so I tried to use it to relax, use different muscles, and increase the pace to get a chance at getting 4:15 and negative splits. Gu and water at mile 21. I could not hammer this downhill as much as I wanted - only averaged 8:13 pace, but the altitude and the brutal change of running position made things more difficult than I thought.

 Cruising on the downhill, mile 20:

I knew at this point that there would be 2 major uphill miles: 22-23 and 24-25. So I focused on getting relaxed on the downhill while gaining times, while also conserving energy for the uphill. I also had another "high" on one of the downhills, as it felt so good.

Mile 21:


The uphill at miles 22-23 went reasonably well. However the one at mile 24-25 felt really hard. It was a loop segment very close to the finish line, and you could see other marathoners coming down fast, while the slope was brutal. Many people were walking there, including half-marathoners that I caught up with. I ran all the way up, but that sucked up most of the energy I had left and I started to feel my calf twinge, on the verge of cramping. That uphill felt endless, since you could not see the turnaround. I still managed to "hammer" the downhill finish at 7:46 and finished ecstatic in 4:15:3x, my legs almost buckling when I crossed the finish line. Similar feeling as the one I had after finishing my first marathon and at my last at Newport where I ran strong and got a 7 minutes PR.

 Crossing the finish line:

Got my medal -not particularly pretty, but I will take it..:


Medal:




Mile___El.gain___ El.loss___ Pace
21 _____ 0______ 255____ 8:13
22 _____115_____140____ 9:10
23 _____124_____ 46_____9:15
24 _____278____ 133_____ 8:51
25 _____ 291____122 ____10:33
26______ 0_____ 433____ 7:46
0.1 _____ 55______ 0 ____ 6:51

Overall:
time ___distance___ El.gain____ El.loss___ Avg. pace
4:15:47 __ 26.11____ 6,077_____ 1,378___ 09:47 min/mi


So I reached my B-goal, and felt really strong except maybe on the last uphill segment, so I am glad that neither bonking nor cramps hampered my performance. I finished 37th but was far from placing (10th of my AG, I guess the 40-44 males were well represented). The winner finished in 3:13. "Asian woman" finished in 3:31, "Scream guy" finished in 4:45, "spit and cough guy" in 5:00 -- and saw many people that I started running with in the first few miles in the 4:30-5:00 range. Overall I am happy with my race - ran a 7 minutes negative split, which is aided by the course but also because I did not run too hard and did not exhaust myself on the uphills early on. Maybe I could have run harder on the first 20 miles, to gain a few minutes, but I am not sure the last 6 would have been as fast. For runners interested in running it, I cannot emphasize enough running the tangents. My Garmin was 0.1 mile short, while many others were "long" because they just ran without focusing on the tangents. This is essential for this course. Retrospectively it's interesting because someome said that for this course, "add 2 min/mi" to your "normal" MP. Well I ran 9:47 pace and my last PR was ran at 7:45 pace !

The NY Times published an article about the inaugural race:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/sports/18tucson.html?src=me

Mauna Kea Access Road Training Run

After I signed up for the Mt Lemmon Marathon, I started my official training program on June 30th. The Mt lemmon Marathon offers a unique challenge of uphill running (+6000 ft) and finish in altitude (8,200 ft). Since I was vacationing on the Big Island of Hawaii, I decided to do a mini simulation training run for Mt Lemmon on the access road to the visitor center of the Mauna Kea Observatory. The access road starts at 6500 ft and ends at 9280 ft – so about 2800 ft elevation gain in 6.2 miles.  I figured it would be a good way to simulate the altitude of the MLM, even though the elevation gain is much steeper than for the race.

The end of the access road to the visitor center. Notice the steep grade on the right side, that levels off to reach the visitor center. 

I got dropped 2 miles from the access road by my family, and got a 2 miles warm-up with pretty much no elevation gain.

Mile 1 (6500 ft): 9:02 + 0 ft
Mile 2: 8:44  + 121 ft

Warm-up miles, just before entering the access road: 

(I am the white spot on the lower left corner of the picture)

Then the fun began at the access road:

Mile 3: 8:56  + 192 ft
Mile 4: 9:47 +278 ft
Mile 5: 10:10 + 346 ft
Mile 6: 12:43 + 599 ft
Mile 7: 12:49 + 468 ft
Mile 8: 15:02 + 774 ft
Mile 8.2: 10:22/mi + 77 ft  - finish at 9280 ft

At the "finish"...notice the "high grade" sign on the right side of the road:

Elevation Profile and Map of the run:

The good news is that I was able to finish the run in less than 1:30, 10:53 min/mi overall…and that I covered in about 10K half of the elevation gain of the MLM.  I also was not too much affected by the altitude, more so by the steepness of the grade. The bad news is that I really got my azz kicked between miles 5-8 and was not able to run the whole thing. During these miles, I pretty much alternated running and walking, with the last mile alternating between running 0.1 mile and walking 0.5 mile, as shown by the pace/elevation graph below:

My average heart rate was about 170 bpm – knowing that I average 140-145 on my easy runs. However on the last 3 miles, the walk/run heart rate profiles were really reminiscent of those observed during track intervals !

So this was a sort of confidence builder for Mt Lemmon, but knowing that I still have ways to go to get properly trained for that course.

After the run, at the visitor center with all the family:

A short hike from the visitor center takes you to the top of the hill with a lunar scenery and spectacular views to the Saddle Road:

Newport 2010 Marathon Race Report

Official Postcard of the Newport Marathon

Back in February I signed up for the Newport Marathon, as a fallback plan in case my attempt to qualify for Boston at the LA marathon would not work. The LA marathon was a bittersweet experience, PR’ed by 30s (3:30:02) but the last 4 miles were painful due to cramping and I was far from my needed BQ time (3:20:59). So after 3 weeks of recovery I had about 8 weeks to train seriously for Newport. Since this was a little short (at least to my standard, I am not a maniac), I purchased a training plan from Mc Millan and trained with it instead of FIRST which I had used before. I followed the plan and flew to Portland the day before, drove to Newport. After a really bad night (I saw every hour of the night on the alarm clock), I “woke up” at 4:45, had breakfast, showered and walked to the start – only 0.5 mile from the hotel.

About 30 minutes before the start

Start at 7am, no chip, and here we go for the first 4 miles – sort of a rollercoaster of short rolling hills, nothing nasty but a little steep, and a ¼ mile segment on loose gravel road.

View from the area of the start

Once you are out of that initial segment, the race is on a flat undulating road bordering the Yaquina river. Very scenic and peaceful and no hills except the last mile. Not much spectators, but I don’t really need them (I actually hate having people yell in my face when I am suffering…). Some segments had a headwind, and the areas of the road exposed to the sun were a little too warmish for my taste, so the shaded areas were welcome. I had 4 GUs  with water, did not try the Heed which was offered since I did not want to try anything new.

I was “sort of” on pace for the BQ until mile 18, when I started to slow slightly but significantly, which kept me from BQing by 2 minutes. Despite this I was very happy with my run, because I felt strong all the way and did not hit the wall nor cramp. I had some small side stitches around miles 8, 16 and 24 but nothing bad. I was able to pick up the pace slightly on mile 25 and 26 compared to 21-24 (despite 26 being a moderate uphill incline) and ran the last 0.2 at 6:59 thanks to a generous downhill finish.

Finish Line (way after I finished...)

I was ecstatic at the end, despite not BQing, because that was my best marathon run in terms of consistency of pace and I felt in the driver seat from beginning to the end. With a little more training, a BQ is in the future ! Here are my splits:

Mile1: 7:43
Mile 2: 7:45
Mile 3: 7:34
Mile 4: 7:39
Mile 5: 7:51
Mile 6: 7:40
Mile 7: 7:41

Mile 8: 7:44
Mile 9: 7:44
Mile 10: 7:42
Mile 11: 7:41
Mile 12: 7:40
Mile 13: 7:40
Mile 14: 7:39
Mile 15: 7:46
Mile 16: 7:41
Mile 17: 7:42
Mile 18: 7:45
Mile 19: 7:46
Mile 20: 7:46
Mile 21: 7:53
Mile 22: 7:58
Mile 23: 7:53
Mile 24: 7:55
Mile 25: 7:49
Mile 26: 7:48
Mile 26.2: 6:59
Final: 3:23:06 – 7:44/mile

Around mile 10, still feeling strong

After the race I went back quickly to my hotel (thanks to a driver from Idaho who was waiting for his wife and gave me a ride back), showered, checked out and enjoyed hanging out at the Newport Harbor with a great lunch of salmon and pasta.

In the harbor, with my finisher T-shirt and medal

Newport Harbor

I also attended the awards ceremony, it was really cool. The older finisher was 81 years old !!
I really enjoyed Newport. It was such a refreshing race compared to a megamarathon like LA, and the people in town were all very nice. I hope to be back next year !

The course along the Yaquina river