The heavy mileage from the last few weeks paid off. I ran a 3:50:24. My goal was to run a sub 4:00, but despite my recent mileage I didn't know how prepared I was to actually accomplish my goal for this reason: I have not done any speed work. My training runs are usually in the 9 to 9:30 range. In order to run a sub 4:00 I knew I would have to sustain a sub 9-minute pace for the entire race. Since I knew my training did not have me prepared to sustain that type of pace, I decided to push it from aid station to aid station and then walk until I had my gatorade gunned down. In this race, the aid stations were approximate 1.5 miles apart. At each station, I walked fast until my Gatorade was down. Downing gatorade was no easy task because in the 16 degree temperatures all the offered beverages were more slush than liquid. It's hard to drink a slushy fast. But I managed. Here are my mile times:
1. 8:36, 2. 8:18, 3. 8:09, 4. 8:36, 5. 8:12, 6. 8:51, 7. 8:34, 8. 8:43, 9. 9:01, 10. 8:11, 11. 8:52, 12. 9:04, 13. 8:22, 14. 8:58, 15. 8:42, 16. 8:58, 17. 9:05, 18. 8:26, 19. 9:07, 20. 8:49, 21. 8:44, 22. 9:27, 23. 9:06, 24. 9:37, 25. 9:04, 26. 8:46.
The last five or six miles of the marathon are always difficult, but in this race the last 10k was particularly difficult due to the consecutive large, rolling hills. Thanks to my walk breaks, I never hit "the wall" in this race, but my times did slow because I resisted the temptation to crank it up the hills. Instead, I would dial back and lean forward, letting my body almost naturally climb and then try to make up for the slow pace by letting it fly on the way down each backside.
I really liked the walk-break strategy. I could tell it paid off at about mile 16. From about mile 8 to mile 16, people would pass me when I walked at the aid station, and then I would pass them before the next aid station. This back and forth went on for miles and was slightly frustrating from a competition standpoint as I didn't want to see the same people passing me over and over again, but I made up my mind to run my own race and ignore everybody else. At mile 16 to 17, this really paid off. The back and forth ended, as gradually my competition started fading. It was easy to see some of them were coming face-to-face with the wall. Meanwhile, I felt pretty great and continued to push my pace. I will probably try this method again at my next marathon. I expect even better results.
Not that I wasn't happy with these. Prior to yesterday, my PR for the marathon was 3:52, in 1997 at age 21 (a lifetime ago). My recent PR was a 3:57 at last year's St. Jude. I really wanted to beat those times if I could, and yesterday, I DID!
Despite the bad luck with the weather, the Mississippi Blues put on a great race. I was really impressed with all the people on the course in the subfreezing temperatures who were just out to cheer or offer an encouraging word. These must have been Blue Cross employees (the race's sponsor). The encouragement was appreciated.
