The Decision

What do you look forward to this time of year?  In Colorado, it's the changing of seasons: the shifts of hues in the tree leaves that leave hillsides ablaze with color, the bugling of the elk, the cooler temps that inevitably bring snow...and for a bunch of us runners, marathon season! 

Yes, marathon season is in full swing now, and no--non, runners--that's not when you can hunt down a marathoner! Fall is the time when most (though not all) of the major marathons occur, along with some smaller gems that one of my friends tend to find and race.  This is the time when we want to see all of our consistent training pay off...all those early morning long runs, speedwork sessions, goal pace runs, recovery runs, and the cross training we've been doing.  (And, of course, the nutrition we've hopefully dialed in as well as the REST we've been getting.)  As some of my friends and teammates head off to their races, their "hay is in the barn" (and they must just now "feed the horses"), while I still have some hay stockpiling to do (5 weeks, to be exact:  3 weeks of "regular" training, followed by a 2-week taper).
 

And so I headed out in the early morning darkness (as usual) again today to do my goal pace run. (I have to interject here that I do enjoy running in the darkness.  There's something almost magical about only being able to see the ground directly in front of you that removes that visual reference of where you are and how far you've gone versus where you're going and how far you've gone.) The weather folks said that we'd have a cool front moving in today, so I was prepared for--and actually looking forward to--a cooler run.  I've been a little tired this week, having volunteered at a race on Sunday and probably also just due to where I am in my training cycle, so I wasn't sure how this goal pace run would go.  I adjusted my expectations a little, but not so much that I'd be disappointed in the target pace I was hitting. 

Now, when I do my goal pace training runs, I deliberately start slowly to warm up, but gradually pick up the pace with each successive mile prior to the actual goal pace section, so that moving to the goal pace miles doesn't seem like such a big shift.  I've found that works well for me, and makes that transition much smoother.  This morning, even though I'd adjusted my expectations of my target goal pace to be a bit slower, something was clicking in those miles.  I found that I was holding my target pace (for this morning, at least) pretty exactly mile after mile after mile.  Given that I was tired going into this run, you'd better believe that there were several times that I wasn't sure I was going to keep up the pace.  There were times when it wasn't comfortable to keep going--today, my hamstrings were arguing with me a bit--and the wind gusts made sure to hammer that feeling home this morning.  Somehow I kept my inner metronome going and repeated "I can do this, I can do this..." to the rhythm of my footfalls and breathing.  "Keep the turnover quick, watch your form...".  (I mean seriously. This was a morning when I have to admit that the thought of sleeping in did cross my mind for a split-second, because I knew I was just tired and that this was probably going to hurt a little. Not as in "injury" hurt, but as in "dipping into the pain bucket because you're pushing yourself" hurt.) Mile after mile, though, I was able to nail the goal pace I'd told myself I could live with this morning, and then something happened in that final mile.  Without planning it, and I think simply because I was trying to keep the effort constant, the final mile ticked away at a slightly faster pace.  And then, the beep of my Garmin signaled the end of goal pace miles and one final, recovery pace mile.  Ahhhhh...a comfortable, easy pace for my last mile back to the car!

This morning's run--along with every race I've run this summer and fall so far--reminded me that I have to be willing to "dip into the pain bucket" and endure the discomfort during my race(s) if I want to PR, BQ, or RAFASP  (run as fast as smartly possible).  (And thank you to my friend who challenged me to do so after I ran Boston last April.)  I have a "pain bucket" theory.  There's the discomfort of the marathon in and of itself, and then there's the discomfort of pushing yourself and your pace (as fast as SMARTLY possible) during the marathon, and they're not necessarily the same. We hope and pray that we've trained well so as to avoid much of the first pain bucket, because by virtue of the fact that we've even toed the line at our race, we're facing that one, but we either choose or we don't choose to possibly dip into the second pain bucket when we decide on a goal pace and strategy for our race.  Don't get me wrong here:  I absolutely believe that we have to run a SMART race (including pace)!  But we're also faced with the choice of taking a CALCULATED risk and testing ourselves with our pace.  And that's where it gets scary.  (At least it does for me...  Anybody with me??)  We know the consequences....And we dream of the reward.  

This is the decision I'm faced with, as are my friends and teammates who will toe the line at our respective races this fall.  Take that calculated risk, or play it safe?  


 

May the running gods smile on you, my friends and teammates, in your races this fall.  

Relentless Forward Motion, Ya'll...  

2011 Boston Marathon Recap -- Countdown to Marathon Monday: T-1

Marathon Monday.  That's what they call race day for the Boston Marathon.  In contrast to other marathons that are usually held on Sundays (and in a few cases, Saturdays), the Boston Marathon is held on a Monday, and is always on Patriots' Day.  It's a holiday for the city of Boston, and the Red Sox have a game that day, too.  Marathon Monday is extremely well-supported by the citizens of Boston and the towns along the race course!

We've now reached T-1 day, Sunday, the day before race day.  Our three goals for the day are:

1)  Stay off our feet as much as possible,

2)  Tour the course, and

3)  Talk out our race strategy.

I won't go into detail about each one--just the highlights...

1)  Stay off our feet as much as possible.

     The last thing we want to be doing is spending lots of time on our feet the day before our marathon.  For the last few weeks of the taper, and now especially this close to the race, our objective has been to avoid doing things that would sabotage the training we've put in and hurt our race. 

2)  Tour the course.

     Thanks to a friend in my running group, I'd made reservations for us to take a tour of the course through Marathon Tours.  We were sure to get to the coach buses early in order to get a seat in the front--where we could actually see the course as it unfolded in front of us.  With half an hour to spare before the stated departure time of 10 am, I quickly went to the shirt exchange area in the expo so that I could exchange the technical shirt that came in our packet for a better fitting one.  As I came out to the bus area again, with 13 minutes to spare, Marguerite stepped off the bus and motioned for me to "come on!!"  After I ran to the bus and took my seat, she told me that the tour director had come on the bus at 9:45 wanting to leave, but she proceeded to keep that from happening.  It was an uncomfortable scene for her, and I'm extremely glad that she's a strong woman and friend who'd do that for me.  (Note to Marathon Tours:  If your stated departure time is 10am, then you shouldn't plan on leaving early without telling your paying guests prior to the day of the tour!)  Despite this incident, I highly recommend taking this course tour.

Our tour narrator proved to be very knowledgeable not only about the course, but also about the history of the Boston Marathon, as he'd run it twenty-something times.  His experience on the course dated back to the 1960's, and he had quite a few interesting stories to tell about now-famous runners, such as Alberto Salazar, with whom he'd actually run! 

We arrived in Hopkinton, a small town where the race begins, and they alloted about twenty minutes for us to walk around and take pictures.  If you're a runner, you may have seen some of these pictures before. 



This well-known sign is almost at the Starting Line for the marathon.

The folks in Hopkinton must be very patient...just about every runner out there, including us, had to get their picture at the Start Line.









 

The Start Line for the 115th Boston Marathon!

While on the course tour, we paid close attention and tried to remember as many aspects of the course as possible. The mile markers are actually painted onto the road, and every so often there is an 'elite' marker as well.  These people are committed to the longevity of this marathon.

We made it a point to note were there was a rolling hill and where it flattened out, as well as how steep we thought the initial descent really was.  One important thing we came away with: the course is more of a rolling course in those first miles than it's been described, and we'd need to plan for that accordingly.

Of course, the primary things that everyone wants to see on the Boston Marathon course are the hills.  How steep are they?  How long are they?  I'd read various descriptions of the course, but until I actually saw the hills, I didn't know how they compared to the hills that we'd run in training.  Let me just say that the hills that we run in training are enormous energy-suckers that drain even the best hill warrior.  The hills in Boston are notorious not just because they're hills, but because of where they are in the race--starting at mile 16.5 and lasting until you crest Heartbreak Hill at the end of mile 21.  They aren't to be taken lightly, but because of the hill training we do, we should be ready for them.  I believe it's the running strategy employed up to this point that also helps you navigate them. 

Here is a video of the infamous Heartbreak Hill:

   

 Interestingly, at the end of the course tour, the bus stopped short of the finish line on Boylston Street.  We'd heard that it was bad luck to walk across the finish line prior the the race, so we opted to skip the walk down Boylston and returned to our hotel instead.  It was time to rest and talk strategy.

3)  Talk out our race strategy.

     Up to this point, we'd talked casually about running the race together, but hadn't made a firm decision yet.  We also hadn't talked pacing or pacing strategy. 

     After a few minutes of discussion, we decided that we did want to run the race and cross that finish line together.  Unusual, yes, but we might not ever get a chance to run Boston together again. We agreed on one 'ground rule':  that if either of us had to stop, the other would automatically go on.  As for pacing, we reviewed the different times and settled on the most conservative time as well as the most conservative pacing strategy.  Our plan was to run conservatively through the top of Heartbreak Hill (mile 21), check in with each other, and slam it in from there to the finish on Boylston Street.  We both believed that we could run faster than the pace we'd chosen, but one of our goals was to run a smart race, strategically speaking.

Finally, we caught a cab to the pre-race pasta dinner at City Hall, where we were treated to some pretty decent pasta and a pary-like atmosphere.  It wasn't Little Italy, but we also didn't want to linger at a late dinner the night before we ran the Boston Marathon.  Get in, get out, and get back to our final preparations for the next morning's ride to the race start in Hopkinton.  

In line at the pre-race pasta dinner.



 Ready for Marathon Monday for the 2011 Boston Marathon!

Relentless Forward Motion, Ya'll!