Suffolk County Marathon – Marathon #23

The Suffolk County Marathon was supposed to be an ego boost race.  The sole reason for it was to prove to myself that I was improving in fitness.  I worked quite a bit on the summer on speed and I thought a final marathon would be a good crowning victory.  It was supposed to show me going from a 9ish minute mile marathon pace from the beginning of the year to a 7:40 pace marathon pace.  After that, I could start to consider what it would take to get to a 6:50 mile marathon pace, to start thinking of a potential BQ attempt next year.  Instead I ended up sitting in a medical tent at mile 21.5, wondering why I had no energy left in the tank.

The need for a fall marathon

A fall marathon didn't really fit well into my fall schedule.  After the Lake Placid half ironman, my focus shifted to the North Face Endurance Challenge SF.  While a marathon could be considered a good long run in race conditions to prep for an ultra, the lack of elevation gain of road marathons won’t help much in a race with 10,666 feet of elevation gain.  Getting the muscles use to vert is a significant factor.  

However, though my years of running the marathon distance has become the distance I have ran the most.  It’s not my favorite distance, trail 50ks are (better views and recovery twice as fast versus the road) but I guess due to most people I know doing road marathons, I ended up doing more road marathons.  A good PR on the road marathon would be the best proof of improvement.  

So five days before Suffolk County marathon, I signed up.  I learned about this race from the many QDR folks that run it last year in rainy and windy conditions.  The weather looked well this year around, what I thought was a flat course and close to Queens.  They even had race day pickup for a fee so that made logistics even easier.  

The day before

My original plans was to do some sort of bag transport for the QDR people running the last few miles of the NYC marathon, get a shakeout run, volunteer at Flushing Meadows and then boulder at BKBQB.  Bad weather changed that quite a bit.  I ended up not volunteering and not getting the shakeout run in.  It was my first marathon this year without the shakeout run the day before.  I started doing shakeout runs the day before marathons this year so I wasn’t too worried, for most of my marathons I have not done the easy 30 minutes jog.  I did boulder but I have boulder while traveling for races before so I didn’t consider that to be something that could hurt me.  I use to hike the day before but I have stopped that practice, figure it would still wear legs out a bit.  Hiking afterwards is still the best recovery in my mind.

The case for no breakfast

The only thing new I did for race was not eat breakfast at all.  I got the idea with from running podcasts.  I do all my morning training runs with no breakfast, even the medium long runs so I thought it made sense.  Don’t give the body things to process so soon to the race.  I usually eat bananas with peanut butter but I been fairly inconsistent in breakfast.  For the Georgia marathon, I simply ate a blueberry cliff bar.  I always eat 3 hours before race time.  From this, I had the idea that 300 calories or so weren’t really much help.  It was all going to be fat burn so why risk GI issues and stress the body a bit by giving it food to process by eating breakfast?  Instead I would eat a gel 5 minutes before the race and do my usually gel every 40 minutes strategy. 

Race Strategy - Going out hard and holding on for dear life on vs smart strategy

Race strategy was a big debate internally for me.  My only goal for this year was a sub 4 marathon which I achieved in a “smart” Houston marathon.  I glided for the first half and then started picking it up.  I did initially picked up a bit too fast but then slowed to a steadier pace.  Fought hard the last 10k to finally break the 4 hour mark.  For my marathons soon after that, having already achieved my time goal, I had nothing to lose so I just started going out faster.  I got positive splits in those marathons but I finished each race faster and faster, getting to a 3:35 in my last marathon - the NJ marathon.  In just 3 months I went from struggling to break 4 hours, a 9:07 pace to a 3:35, an 8:12 marathon pace.  This kind of got me in the mentally of going out hard and trying to hold on - even in marathons.  Part of the success of this though might have been because the marathons were so close together.  That the last marathon just ended up being a long run for the next.  For this marathon, it’s been 6 months since the last marathon.  My longest runs going into this race have been trouting on trails at a much slower pace.

I avoided advertising that I was running Suffolk because I wanted to try to go out hard and if I blew up, I didn’t want an audience to see.  Suffolk only had a 3:15 and 3:30 pace group where I thought I could do 3:20.  I was going to go out with 3:15, a 7:27 mile pace group which I knew was way too fast.  I have pretty PRed in every race this year (a few while sore) and I think that got in my head.  It starts to give you a sense of invincibility that I had when I was younger.  I also think I started underestimating the marathon distance.  I started not giving it the respect it deserves.

I got talked out of my reckless idea from Kevin, Edwin, and Jessica (most of the QDR admins) the day before the race.  Kevin broke the race into 10M-10M-10K which I heard last year from Lesie during the QDR marathon panel.  Kevin advised not running the first few miles faster than 8 minutes a mile.  I wasn’t sure if I could pace myself like that till Jessica mentioned that I could go out with the 3:30 pace group.  So I decided to go out with the 3:30 pace group for the first few miles and then slowly ease into marathon pace.  The last 10k I would fight for it to try to make up time.

Race morning

I woke at 5 am, got ready and drove 40 minutes to St. Joseph’s college.  The race recommended parking there and taking a shuttle that runs every 15 minutes.  Seemed simply enough.  They had volunteers check the bags before we boarded.  Not really sure why but I guess if you did have a banned item, you could simply return to your car and drop it off.  The shuttle bus ride was 7 minutes and it was nice talking to people in the bus.  It was pretty obvious that most people were half marathoners but that’s usual for races that also include the half marathon distance.  I did VIP bag check so I didn’t have to go to Suffolk on Saturday, I thought the extra $25 was worth saving the two hours.  Bib pickup was easy enough, I got my warmup run in and drills done.  I sort of got doubts if I was running for the right reasons.  I remember something Danny mentioned the day before about people who showed the joy of running when they ran.  Here I was running to fulfill my ego.  I reminded myself that I run for fun.

There weren’t cups of water at the start but they had water bottles so I took a bottle.  As planned I took a slow burning muir gel (140 calories) 5 minutes before and some water.  Threw the rest of the bottle away (felt bad since it was such a waste).  I didn’t see the 3:15 pace group but I did see a 1:40 pace group for the half marathon group.  I stuck to the plan though and went out with the 3:30 pace group.  It was a small race, so 3:30 was pretty close to the front of the pack.  The first few miles I was a bit in a drowsy state but I found the 8 minute to be pretty easy.  This was the opposite of the NJ marathon where I went out with the 3:30 group and it was a hard pace right away.  At 4 miles I took my first gel.  It was supposed to be every 40 minutes and for so long in a marathon, 4 miles meant 40 minutes.  I forgot I was moving much faster now.  I didn’t make that mistake again.  After 4 miles I decided to slowly advance and go into a 7:50 pace.  I figure I go for 7:50 pace till mile 10 and then go into marathon pace.  I remember a story that Jona said during the Jack and Jill marathon where the 3:30 pacer was a minute behind early on in the race and rushed to catch up which killed a lot of the group.  I wasn’t worried about a few minutes because I knew I could make it up.

The first few miles when through the town and then it kind of went into more just roads by the side of a highway marathon before turning around.  I would consider it the usual environment that a small city or town marathon is.  Kind of what I’m used to.  I thought the race would be flat but Kevin mentioned there were bumps and I see 500 feet of elevation gain on my garmin so bumps is accurate.

After separating from the 3:30 pace group I was pretty consistent with the 7:50 pace.  I found a group of people and ran with them.  A little past 6 miles most of them took the turn for the half marathon.  Now the race felt pretty empty.  Mile 9 had some hills and perhaps I took it too easy because the 3:30 group passed me at mile 9.  Mile 9 is also when I started feeling a lack of energy.  After 2 miles of dragging along I decided to push myself to catch up to the 3:30 group.  I decided that I would just try to stick with 3:30 till mile 20 and push the last 10k.  At mile 17 I almost caught up but by mile 18 I hit a hard wall.  The rest of the race I fell apart.  I started walk running at mile 21.  At mile 22 I was invited to stop by the medical tent and sit for 5 minutes.  Think I saw for like 10 minutes and eat a bag of pretzels.  Got heart rate checked.  I talked to them about what could have been the cause of my lack of energy.  My legs felt fine, I just couldn’t pick them up (mile 24 I started feeling soreness in the legs).  I talked to the staff about what could be wrong and the no breakfast is the only new thing.  I continued to walk run the rest of the race.  Some hard miles.  The thought of DNFing crossed my mind a few times but I figured it would be too inconvenient.  A lot of passing runners gave encouraging words, things I usually hear in an ultra-marathon. 

So not 100% sure what happened.  Hard to blame it solely on breakfast, could just been a bad day.  Maybe no breakfast could work but waking at 5 am and racing at 8 am might just been too much of a gap.  I felt especially bad since I got a whole lot advice about the race and I kind of just let them down.  Afterwards I met Roy who I ran a few mile with in the Brooklyn half marathon last year (the Rock and Roll one).  Roy ran two back to back marathons the weekend before and ran a 4:20 marathon.  He was also going to run the NYC marathon the weekend after as well.  Marathon maniac indeed.  Before the start I saw a stand for some plant based protein.  I was looking forward to trying that but they were gone by the time I finished, too slow.

On the bright side, a year ago I would not have been able to do a 4:25 marathon with 6 miles of mostly walking.  Afterwards I debated whether I wanted to try again in two weeks in the Bucks county marathon but that would mean a painful 50 miler the week after.  Better to refocus on bigger goals for my next marathon.