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.
