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If you missed the last letter, we are discussing my debrief of the Asheville marathon. Last time we talked about my buildup and training for the marathon. Today, let’s jump into the marathon itself!
Let’s jump in!
RACE DAY
The best part about local marathons is sleeping in your own bed.
After a beautiful dinner of fried rice and salmon (prepared by my loving wife) we went to bed nice and early. Which is just our typical routine.
I believe I woke up around 5 am, had my first meal of oatmeal, started drinking some electrolytes, and began psyching myself up.
One thing I’ve noticed is that no matter how excited you are the night before, there is not too much excitement over running 26.2 miles at 5 in the morning. I suppose that’s why we wake up so early, so we can be fully awake and excited by the race start.
We left the house to get to the parking area and walk to the starting line with about 25 minutes to spare.
Just in time to get in the massive line for the bathroom, which took exactly 20 minutes.
I had no idea it would take quite that long.
If you aren’t stressed out by that thought, don’t worry, I was. Taylor helped a lot, scouted out where the start line was, and even shuffled me into the front of the pack right when the race was about to start.
All in all, it was perfect timing.
There is nothing worse than having to wait in the race pack for 10 minutes. Usually, the nerves hit and you need to go to the bathroom again and that is a terrible feeling during a race.
The race started and I was feeling good. I felt like the flash with my bright red race shoes! It also helped that the first stint was a big downhill.
As an aside, the first 5 miles of the race were pretty hilly, but with a majority being downhill. The next 21 miles were all generally flat down by the river where I did most of my long runs during training.
I was supposed to be going at around a 6:50 minute/mile pace, but when I looked down I was pretty near the front of the pack and we were all cruising around a 5:30 minute/mile pace. Way too fast!
I tried backing off but ended up settling into 6:40 thinking my fitness had magically gotten strong enough to carry that pace for 26 miles.
But hey, it felt good, my breathing was under control, and looking back my heart rate was only like 130 at the time. Well within my aerobic zone.
I ended up running my first mile at 6:30 and my second mile even faster at 6:08. This is exactly what they say “Don’t do.” Your first 2 or 3 miles should be slower than the marathon pace, not faster by a long shot.
I did eventually settle into my pace, though. Probably for the first half marathon, crossing the halfway point at about 1:28 or so. Right on pace for a sub-3-hour marathon.
But that’s when things started to…turn.
Around that time my pace started slipping, but only up to about 7:05 - 7:15. Not awful. I figured, hey, I’ll run this pace for 3 miles until mile 16, recover, and then return to the race pace.
Mile 16 slowly turned 18, but then something did happen that was kind of fun.
The Best Moment in the Race
Around miles 16 to 18, I can’t fully remember, we met back up with the half marathoners.
Around this time, these were the half marathoners gunning for a 2-hour half marathon, which is about a 9:00 minute/mile pace.
When I entered that pack of people, there was a good bit of weaving and I started to worry I’d waste too much energy.
But to be honest, it was also a massive mental energy boost.
But then an even bigger boost happened. One of the bikers for the marathon came up and got right in front of me and started yelling “Move to the right, the lead runners are coming.”
I, a classic rule follower, began to move over and the biker looked at me and said “No, not you.”
And in that moment I realized I was one of the lead runners he was talking about.
Highlight right there, that gave me a huge boost!
For like 2 miles.
Last 10K…Oof
The last 10K of a marathon is apparently where the real race begins. And it’s also when you get punished for starting a race too fast.
For me, it was a mixture of nausea and a mental battle.
See, the last 6 or so miles was a loop (it might have been 8). A loop I’ve done before at the most boring part of the greenway and close to the sewers.
The sun had come out and my stomach was pretty done with gels, electrolytes, and water. And it definitely didn’t want any pickle juice (yes they were passing that out).
But I started the loop, it was a down-and-back kind of loop. I knew that I just needed to go down to the end of this path, turn around, and come across the finish line.
So I thought.
When I started the loop I soon saw a sign that said “Mile 22” and I looked down on my watch to see I was only around mile 18. “Hmm, someone made a mistake.” I thought to myself. But somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew what was happening.
But this far into a marathon, there is no “thinking.”
Then right before the turnaround spot, I see another sign: “Mile 24” and I look down to see mile 20 on my watch.
I started to look around at where I was, a familiar part of the greenway. I knew where the finish line was and I knew that the distance of where I was and where the finish line was was not 6 miles.
And all of a sudden, it clicked.
Even though I looked at the course map several times, I for some reason thought going into this loop that it was a one-time thing. But in that moment as I turned around thinking I was gunning for the finish line, I realized…“I have to do this again.”
No matter how many times I reminded myself of that 20-mile long run I did in the snow and ice when it was 0 degrees outside, I couldn’t psych myself back up.
And that is when everything crashed. Going into the final 10K, my stomach was gurgling, and my mental excitement was devastated. Going out too fast finally caught up with me.
I watched my paces fall from 7:15 to 7:45 to 8:15 to 8:45 to 9:15 and finally finished the race at around a 10:00 minute/mile pace crossing the finish line in 3 hours and 20 minutes.
It didn’t go as I planned, but I can look back and see my mistakes.
And at the end of the day, I set a new PR by over 10 minutes! So all in all, I’m very proud and am already excited for my next race this coming Halloween weekend!
After the run
Directly after the run was a very interesting experience.
After hugging my wife, of course, and saying my thanks and hello and all that to the friends who came to cheer me on, we proceeded to walk back to the cars.
The first thing to note was half of my right foot was in pain. See, I am a proud part of team #widefeet, but most race day shoes don’t come in wides.
I also learned that during a big race, your feet tend to swell, which I guess makes sense when you think about it.
My hip and legs were not as wrecked as the last marathon, which is great news! I think it shows I’m getting stronger.
But I did have to eventually take that shoe off and walk barefoot back to the car.
The other thing I learned that I don’t recall from the Outer Banks marathon, is that sometimes post marathon your body can go into shock.
You’ve taken your body through this intense high-stress situation for 3+ hours and then in a matter of seconds, you try to take it back to normal. Shocking is probably an understatement.
I found out I was in shock with 2 main things…first, I was still pretty nauseous and it was getting worse. Second, when we got in the car I told Taylor, “Even my teeth feel like they are vibrating.”
This is just an odd thing to say anyway, but I was kind of out of it. But my whole body felt this weird tingling sensation; very strange.
But I did learn that Coca-Cola helps a ton! After probably 1,000 calories of Coke later, I felt normal, the nausea was gone, but the appetite still wasn’t back yet.
This is another classic marathon thing; before the race and even during the race you fantasize about the massive pizza and junk you might want to consume post-race.
Then when the race is over and you’ve burned 3,000 calories, your appetite is shot. Probably another side effect from shock.
But not to worry, it only took another 2 or 3 hours and I was starving. I think I ate nonstop the rest of the day and also drank a ton more Coke!
I was able enough to walk around the rest of the day and even help clean our Airbnb a little bit, which is just a massive improvement from the last marathon.
It wasn’t until the next day that the strangest effect of post-marathon hit me…the post-marathon blues. This was such a strange phenomenon I’ve dedicated a whole article to it, which you can read in the coming weeks!
So until then, run with joy!
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