The Rock and Roll New Orleans was my 6th race this year and my 6th PR, beating my marathon PR set only 6 week before! Conditions were fairly bad for me but through mediation I made it to mile 18 without too much of a struggle. The next six miles were a struggle and then my toes started hurting causing the last two to be pure suffering.
Preconditions: The biggest factor going to this race was that I ran a hard ultra 8 days before this race. I ran the Mount Mitchell challenge, a 36ish mile race with 4,324 feet of elevation gain and my legs were still sore going into this race. I also moved (across the street to anyone curious) midweek which took time away from some recovery swims and workouts. I did manage to get in some easy pre-lunch runs and a shakeout run the day before. The day of my flight we got hit by a noreaster which caused my flight to be cancelled and I got rebooked the following day arriving at NOLA at 6 pm. The expo ended at 5 pm so I would have missed bib pickup. It was a stressful morning. I wasn’t able to find any earlier options but Rock and roll allowed me to do bib pickup on race day. Having the day before to relax and walk around the city would have been great instead of traveling but guess this happens once in a while.
On the same flight to New Orleans I met Kieran who ran the QDR long run #2 in Alley Pond park a few weeks ago. He also ran the Houston marathon as well and signed up for this race 2 weeks ago. We talked for a bit and got a uber into the city. Then I was off to the hotel and met up with teamate Julie. Special thanks to Julie for dealing with the hotel booking issue, getting vegan pizza, granola, hammer and vega protein bars, and even a sandwich for tomorrow morning (that's dinner, breakfast and post race recovery covered)! The race site was a 5 minutes walk from the hotel and we did a practice commute to race start. Early to sleep afterwards. Got 7ish hours. Unfortunately heard a lot of in and other from neighbors through the night so I woke often. Still felt pretty rested going into the race.
I ate a little bit of granola and a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast 2 hours before. I brought 6 Science in Sport gels with me to the race. I got to use a few of them on my ultra the week before and while I think it has too much of a sugar taste I should finish my stack before buying more gels (I would probably think differently if this was my A race). Got my bib without any issue and got a .6 warmup run in before the race. I started doing warmup runs before races since the 2 mile race in Van Cortlandt I did with Kevin and Maria. Before that, I didn't do any warmup runs or drills before a race. I think it's been helpful!
Going into the race I had no idea what pace to run. I told some of my friends that I was going to do a crash and burn where I would attempt to run the race for a massive PR and then hit the wall and struggle through it. I figure the experience would help me for my A race in NJ in the end of April. However, still being sore from the ultra brought back painful memories of the Chicago marathon where I attempted to PR in the marathon distance two weeks after my 100 miler. Julie was aiming for a 3:36 goal and I decided that I didn't want her to wait too long for me so I should go for the crash and burn. I would hit the wall and I would struggle to finish the marathon but that's okay.
To delay hitting the wall I decided to not look at my watch at all (of course I could hear my watch beep and see the mile markers but I would not think about the distance left). I wanted to just focus on moving right now. I tried to not think at all. Here and there I would change up my breathing (in and out of nose, mouth and mix of the two) and think briefly on cadence. Sometimes I focused on relaxing my breathing, relaxing my arm swings and just stared far ahead, looking at the branches of trees. My idea was that if I was running more relaxed I could delay hitting the wall. I might have listen to a podcast about Japanese runners on my flight to NOLA. I had to remind myself of this plenty of times during the race.
The race started with an out and back along St. Charles street. I remember mostly thinking about how unique the trees were in this stage. Then it goes quickly through some of the touristy places of the till it hits the corner of City Park. Then it follows City park and does two out and backs along Lake Pontchartrain before heading back along City Park and ending in the park. A lot of the later miles had no shade and were on the boring side. The course was very flat with a few small 30-40 feet gains from a few small bridges.
The race was hot! It started in the 60s and ended in mid 70s but it felt hotter. I ran in North Carolina the week before and NYC had a few spring days so I thought I was ready for the heat. That quickly become untrue. As always with heat I started consuming gels more often. The race had three gel stations and at the first one (around mile 4) the gels were in a box. Not wanting to lose speed I quickly reached in the box for a gel. I ended up grabbing five and just ran with them in my hand. I usually do one gel after 4ish miles and then one every 3 miles after but from miles 10-20 I was consuming one every 2 miles. I grabbed another gel on the course as well and ended up only using two of mine. After mile 20 I started drinking gatarode instead of gels and throwing a water cup over my head at every water station.
I was able to run at what I felt was a sub 3:50 pace for 18 miles. Then I struggled to maintain pace for two miles before my brain started to slow me down. After 20 I lost my meditative state as well and just struggled. I'm normally pick it up after 20 miles but i wasn’t mentally strong enough. I been here before so I kept moving, only thing I could do. I definitively got passed by a quite a few people. With 5k to go I broke my rule of not looking at time and distance left. I realized I was comfortably in PR zone but still couldn't get myself to finish the last miles strong. With 2 miles left, my toes started hurting and I couldn't block it out. At the last bridge I noticed I was heel striking the ground, my running form was breaking down (something that has happened in my early marathons but not anytime recently, I blame it on my ultra the week before).
I saw Julie three times during the race and always tried to cheer her on. I saw Kieran twice as well and waved. He was pretty fast (he got a 3:16 something marathon). I caught up with Julie around mile 16 and tried to tell her what I been telling myself the whole race about not thinking about distance or looking at watch. Talking to her made me feel a lot better. I started to encourage other people as I passed afterwards for a bit. At around mile 18 I met a man from Mississippi who was doing his second marathon, also going for sub 3:50 and we talked for a bit before he had to slow down at a water station.
I was able to make a final push, sub 8 minute pace upon seeing the finish line. Sadly that was only a .2 distance but I finished with a little more than a 4 minute PR. Not too shabby!
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