Valentine's Day Marathon '11

The morning of the Valentine's Day Marathon I woke up, got dressed, walked the pooch and then hopped in my truck and left. I made a quick stop at a deli for a nice roast beef, egg and cheddar sandwich with hot sauce and a large cup of black coffee. Good fuel to get me through the 26.2 miles that were coming up.


I made the short drive to the park, found a place to park and went to check things out. This was a very informal race: no registration, no fee, no awards, and aid station only at end of each 6.55 mile loop. With all of the snow we had I wasn't sure about running the race at all. The only reason I was really there was to use it as a training run for the 50k trail run (The Hat Run) I had next month. Due to weather I hadn't been getting many miles in and this was good way to push myself into a long run.

The race would also be a good test for Vibram Five Fingers KSO Treks. I had done some limited trail running in my Sprints and KSOs but was worried about how well my feet would do for a long trail run if there were a lot of rocks and roots. For short distances rocks and roots didn't bother my feet, but a 50k could prove different. So, shortly after signing up for the Hat Run I bought the KSO Treks, which have a slightly thicker sole. They also have a bit of a tread, more like a typical trail running shoe, which could prove valuable. The Valentine's Day Marathon I hoped would give me a good idea whether my feet would hold up with the KSO Treks or whether I had to quickly come up with another plan.

Upon arriving at the start/finish area I "checked in". I quickly donned my red stocking cap, which we were asked to wear to help ID "racers", but not required to wear and my bib number. I was assigned the number 2 and was feeling pretty special despite the fact that all of us got the same number. I didn't really understand that, but didn't care, figured it was all part of the fun.

There was a bit of a wait for start time and then for everyone to get organized. A few minutes after 10am, our official start time, we were set and the National Anthem was sung and race instructions given. Lots of warnings of ice and hard packed snow in them and cautions especially when passing. Then we were off!

The start area was only standard sidewalk width so I positioned myself a bit back from the line. The race included a 10k and 1/2 marathon option and I wanted to let the shorter distance runners a chance to get free without tricky passing. My mistake!

Within 50 yards I, along with many others, found myself trapped by a couple groups of some of the rudest and most inconsiderate women I've encountered during a race. I understand running with your friends, it makes the miles go by easier, but when you have a narrow path with deep and dangerous to run on snow and ice to each side and insist on running on 3 a breast so you can talk you are being inconsiderate. And to do it at the start of a race with several hundred runners trapped behind you goes beyond breaking race etiquette. They made no effort to move over as runner after runner slipped and scampered off path around them. They just kept chatting oblivious to the rest of us who were taking up space in THEIR world.

It took me almost a 1/2 mile to work my way around them and I was off. The opening 2 miles were as icy as promised. I was very glad of the extra traction my Treks provided me. As long as I kept my strides relatively short and took it easy around corners it wasn't too bad. There was one steep hill, to get up the side of an overpass, that proved too treacherous to run, but rest was doable.

The first 2 miles went by relatively quickly. There was some slipping, but damage done by it was minimal. But I was looking forward to the hard packed snow with good footing that we were promised for the remainder of the 6.55 mile loop. Once there though, I was less than thrilled.

The snow became hard packed alright, but was like ice and had all sorts of bumps and angles to it. Pace quickly dropped as it became a major effort just to stay upright, much less move forward. I had managed sub 9 minute miles to that point, but knew I was quickly around 11-12 minute pace now. The only fun part was 1/2 mile into it trying to hammer the gong they hung by the trail without slipping and turning my butt into a toboggan on the downhill where it was placed. I kept my feet somehow and rang out a solid bong on it.

The rest of the first loop consisted of some nice scenery and occasionally passing or being passed by other runners. A few comments during the brief meetings to distract from how the body was feeling helped pass the time. Footing remained horrible and feet continued to slide all directions twisting them up as well as my ankles and knees. Everything below the waist was a bit upset with me as I hit the end of the lap.

The aid station at the start/finish area was self serve, so I grabbed a bottle of water to refill my bottle that I was carrying in my waist pack. I quickly filled up and took off again for the start of lap 2. The temperature had warmed slightly since the first lap, which wasn't surprising since it took me around 1:06 to complete it. But, the footing hadn't improved much.

On the 2nd lap the ice was still slick, as was the hard packed snow, but both had improved very slightly. Unfortunately my legs were fried from the first lap and the 2nd lap just managed to put an even bigger hurt on them. I was still occasionally passing and being passed by other runners but things had thinned out considerably. I spent a good portion of the loop on my own. Even the 'highlight' of banging the gong was dampened when I slipped causing myself to straighten up right into the branch it was hanging from. I caught a bend in the branch right in the belly of my right side trapezius muscle. No major harm done, but an added insult to the injury I'd already been facing.

I completed the first half of the marathon in approximately 2:15. Far from a PR performance, but I was happy with my efforts. I quickly refilled my water bottle again and took off on my third loop. Things had continued to warm and there was now a 1/2 mile stretch of the start/finish stretch that was getting soggy. My feet were quickly soaked and over the first 2 miles got very cold. There was good news though. The ice had melted slightly and the hard packed snow had softened considerably and wasn't nearly as slippery. If my legs weren't already extremely sore from the first 2 loops I probably would have made much better time on this loop. But, as it was, I just kept plodding along at the same pace, unable to go faster. On the positive side though, the beating my legs were taken was considerably lessened.

The third loop was pretty uneventful. I saw very few runners, hit the gong without hurting myself and slipped around considerably less. I ran a slightly slower lap than the second, but didn't feel much worse. Unfortunately the final 200 yards was now a big puddle and my feet were thoroughly soaked and muddy by the time I reached the aid station.

I again quickly filled my water bottle and plunged into the fourth and final lap. The first 600 yards were more mud puddles and I slogged through them. The rest of the course had improved tremendously and if I had fresh legs I think I could really have cranked out a good lap on it. However, my legs were done and I just focused on putting one foot in front of the other. This lap there would be no luxury of having other runners to occasionally focus on, I was pretty much alone. In the first 4 miles of the loop the only people I saw were 2 unfriendly walkers going the other direction. Somewhere around the 4 1/2 mile mark a runner, not in the race blew by me. I saw and passed one other racer a mile from the finish.

The last lap was an exercise of will power. My legs and feet were in pain. My toes were frozen. I was starting to feel dehydrated and my blood sugar was plunging. I wanted to stop badly and say the heck with it. It was a race, but I was doing it as a training run. No harm in quitting. But, I've never had a dnf and that more than anything kept my feet moving. My spirits did buoy in the final mile when I saw and over took another racer. It wasn't so much from passing him as knowing I wasn't the only one still left on the course. At times it felt like I was alone in the world and just that one person made a big difference.

I finished strong, but still had my slowest lap of the day. My unofficial and official (timing was all on our honor, we recorded our own finish times) was 4:43:24. I felt like crap, my feet, ankles, knees, and all leg muscles were killing me. My right shoulder was throbbing, I was dehydrated and blood sugar shot. But, I was in and alive and met my goals. I got in a training run that would help me be ready for my 50k. My feet, though sore, showed they could go the distance in vibrams, no way the 50k course could be harder on them. I made it through almost 5 hours of running with zero calories or electrolytes, doing 31.2 miles with them would seem easy.

All in all it was a good day. I learned and gained a lot. I knew I would pay for it for a couple of days, but that's ok, as an endurance athlete I know to expect it. I may have even set a new PR, for my slowest ever marathon, but still haven't been able to find records to confirm. I had my first ever top 10 marathon finish and since there only 15 finishers I was also in possesion of my second worst finish, being only 6 places from my second dead last place (the only 1 I had was in a an injured 5k high school cross country race that would end up costing me the season). Looking back, I'd gladly do it all again.

Why Do Race Directors Hate Me?

Well, maybe they don’t, but it sure seems like it at times. It is like they’ve banded together and decided, hey, what can we do to make it impossible for this guy to run our races. We don’t like him, we don’t want him, make him go away…


I guess a little more explanation and background would be helpful. I work as an athletic trainer at a private school working with athletes in grades 7th-12th. And, for those that don’t know, an athletic trainer works in the field of sports medicine. We’re often confused for coaches, personal trainers, fitness trainers, etc. If you’ve seen a college or pro football, basketball, baseball or other game on TV you’ve seen an athletic trainer. Someone gets hurt; we’re the first one on the field to take care of them. There is more that we do, but that is relatively unimportant to this. What is important is that even though I get 2 months off during the summer, I usually work 6 days a week and occasionally on Sunday. I am the only one at my school that is qualified to work with injured athletes, so if I leave, I put my athletes at risk. I need to be here for all contests.


Believe me I’m not complaining about my job, or my hours, what I’m complaining about is how hard it is anymore to race during the school year. Trying to find a ½ marathon or full marathon (or triathlons) that I can do is almost impossible. It’s not that there aren’t any Sunday races or there aren’t any on my few Saturdays off, it’s just that they’ve become impossible for me to do, and I’m sure that I’m not the only one.

Every time I look for a race during the school year I check for days that I will have time to get out of town and get to a race. Granted it would be nice to race locally and save travel expenses, but how many ½ and full marathons are in your neighborhood? So, when I find a date that works for me, I look for races that I can get to in my limited travel time and budget. There are many places online that make it easy to look for races and just about every time I have several to choose from. Unfortunately, most are closed to me.

This is where the crux of the problem arises. I will find a race that looks like a possibility and check out the info for it. The first thing I look for is if they offer race day packet pickup. I’ll check, and nope, no race day pickup. Next I’ll look at when pickup closes the day before. Most of the time it is too early for me to get to due to work. Strike two. Finally, I check to see if someone else can pick up my race packet for me. NOPE! Strike three! I’m out. I got to the next race site, same thing. The one after that, again, same thing. The next, yep, no go.

It gets frustrating as hell. I need these races. They help provide motivation for my training, allow me to see where I am physically and it gives me a release that training alone can’t do. But race after race, I am blocked from doing. And the trend is growing. Ten years ago this was never a problem for me, but each year there are fewer and fewer races that allow same day packet pickup or allow someone else to pick up your packet for you. And, it makes no sense.

Is the Taliban really going to target the Podunk Corn Fest Marathon and strap a bomb to a runner and make him detonate it at the finish killing 4 people and 2 cows? I don’t think they’re really interested in it. Am I going to sell my race number to the Small City ½ marathon for a huge profit? I don’t think so. So why can’t someone else pickup my packet? What’s the big deal? Is it because I registered online and so didn’t actually sign a release form? Hell, I’ll download it, sign it and either mail, fax or email it in. What’s the big deal?

Like I said, I’m sure I’m not the only one that faces this difficulty and I’m sure that many of you are able to work around it, but do you really want to? Who really wants to give up a vacation day or personal day just so they can make it to packet pickup on time? I’ve known people that raced locally and had to take a ½ day off to make it to packet pickup on time. This is a trend that really makes no sense and needs to end. I’d gladly stop by a booth race morning to show ID, sign form, whatever to prove that it really is me racing with the number I was assigned. Ban me for a year from all races nationwide if someone else ever races with my number, whatever it takes, but let me race!

Why do race directors hate me?

Cox Providence Marathon 2010: A VFF Milestone

The day before the Providence Marathon I got up, got breakfast and set about gathering all of my gear for the race. I didn't put a lot of thought into it, I've done it so many times, just grabbed it and stuffed it into my bag. I sort of kept a mental checklist as I went, but that was the extent of my planning. When I was done I made sure my four legged little girl was safely with her sitter for the weekend, threw my bag in my truck, and headed for Providence.

It was a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining, the skies blue, the temperature warm and all was well. It was a great drive until about midway when I realized I'd forgotten my running hat. This put a little damper on the drive, but I quickly shook it off knowing the hat wasn't critical and that I could pick one up at the race expo.

I pulled into Providence a couple hours before expo close. It took a while to find parking due to the circus being in town, and the circus protestors with them. I found a spot about 1/2 mile from the expo and host hotel, The Westin, and quickly made the walk there.

Packet pick-up was easy, and well organized, but the advertised expo was non-existent. There was a booth for Team-In-Training, and one for Team MS, and another for small smaller charity group doing the race. The few remaining booths were for the non-running related race sponsors, there wasn't a single thing there for runners. So much for buying a hat, restocking on Body Glide or anything else.

The expo may have been lacking but they did have a very nice race shirt for us and a fancy new timing chip. The T was a long sleeve tech shirt that just happened to be in my school's colors. Which meant I had a great shirt to wear under my staff shirts when covering games on cold days. As for the timing chip, I'd never seen anything like it. The chip was 2 magnetic strips that almost resembled refrigerator magnets. They were attached to the back of the bib number, so no lacing into shoes or strapping on a chip belt. It also meant nothing to turn in after the race because they were one use disposable chips. Not sure they are very 'green' but I liked them.

I was in and out in less than 10 minutes and then went to check in at my hotel, The Marriot, a mile away. The next couple of hours I spent using my Droid to find 'running' stores looking for a hat. Didn't need it, but I had the time to kill. Found out after walking all over the mall that none of the 'running' stores in it actually carry any running gear. They're all about 'fashion' not about function.

Finally I found City Sports just outside of downtown and got what I needed. I stopped at a pizza place to pick up dinner and headed back to hotel to relax. After pizza, I had a soak in the hot tub and made good use of the foam roller in the hotel fitness center. Afterwards it was time to get some sleep.
Race morning came way too early, as they always do. I got up and had my preferred breakfast of champions, cold pizza, and started to get ready for the race. Put my number with its cool new b-chip (timing chip) on my race belt along with pouch to hold my droid (for pics and tweeting). Stuffed a couple of Accel gels in pocket of tri top I'd be wearing along with some electrolyte capsules. Stuffed my body glide and my VFF Sprints in my race bag with couple shirts for after race and left the hotel.
It was .9 miles from my hotel to race starting line and instead of trying to deal with finding parking and worrying about post race traffic I elected to jog there. I had on my VFF KSOs and I covered the distance quickly and without incident. When I got there I went over to bag check, changed to my Sprints and tri top, put bandage (I developed small cut on top of foot previous weekend from top strap) on top of feet and covered with Body Glide, put on race belt and I was ready. Turned in my bag and headed out.

On the way out from bag drop I heard my twitter name, IronmanLongRunr, called and I turned around to find at @Luau coming my way. He was a literal walking billboard with names and charities written in marker on every square inch of skin that was showing. He'd sold off parts of his body for display if they would donate $22 to charity. I believe he got 22 people for a total of $484 for various charities.
We chatted on the way out to the start line. This was going to be his 3rd marathon, 2nd in 2 weeks (he'd run Boston exactly 2 weeks before) and all in VFFs. We'd both run the Manchester marathon back in the fall, his first, my 20 something and were introduced to each by @oblinkin.
We milled around at start for a few minutes before race start, both of receiving many stares for our choice of footwear and fielding a number of questions as well. It wasn't a very big race and we were able to find a space relatively close to the starting line, just slightly ahead of the 8min/mi pace signs which is what both of us were going to try and run.
They played the National Anthem and off we went. The first few miles were uneventful. I spent most of them running with @luau and chatting with him. There were some stares at our 'shoes', more comments and questions, but for most part it was a nice easy run. We started out at just under an 8 min pace and sort of hovered there for a while.

Around the 3 mile I started noticing some pain in the top of my right foot and realized that I was reverting to old form again. I slowed slightly, dropping slightly behind @luau and focused on correcting my form. About as quickly as the pain came on, it was gone again and I slowly started to ease the pace back up.

It wasn't long before I was back up with @luau again and running comfortably. Shortly after I caught him, @luau yelled out 'nice shoes' and pointed to other side of the road. Running the opposite direction was a non-racer out for a run in red VFFs. He smiled and waved but I don't think he noticed that we were sporting similar footwear.

Around the 5 mile mark we were both still running sub 8min pace and @luau backed off trying to settle into it. I was just focused on my form and not worried about pace and slowly pulled in front of him. But, since my pace wasn't that much under 8min I'm sure he remained relatively close.

The next 4 miles were uneventful. I had several more conversations about my VFFs and tried to keep my focus on my running form. My feet and legs were feeling great but I was starting to realize that I wasn't going to be able to hold pace. I'd slowed to around an 8 min pace and knew I probably wouldn't hold that much longer.

Around the 9 mile mark @luau caught me again and we ran for a short ways together again. He was doing well, but was having some problems with his knee. About this time I also noticed that my bladder was starting to ask for attention. I saw a wooded area ahead that another runner was already using for same purpose and pulled off the course to answer nature.

After a quick stop I was back running. @luau was no longer in sight and I put on a bit of a surge to see if I could catch. About a half further there was a 180 degree turn and for about 1/4 mile we were able to see some of the runners ahead of us on the way back. I saw @luau who still had a sizable gap on me. We slapped hands in passing and I continued to press the pace.

I chased him for about 1 1/2 miles before I started noticing the pain in the top of my right foot returning. I backed off pace, which I wouldn't have been able to hold much longer anyway, and refocused on my form again. The pain quickly disappeared again and I was feeling good again, but I could still feel the effects from having pushed the pace in my legs and decided to stay at pace I was currently running.

The next 10 miles were pretty uneventful. I had some good scenery to look at for just about the whole race, got many more stares, questions about VFFs, and generally just had a good run going.

Around mile 22 I started to really feel things in my legs. I knew the last miles were going to be a test, but I'd basically been expecting that. I really hadn't put in the kind of mileage I needed leading into the marathon to be able to expect much. I'd experienced a little concern about my feet making the distance when I passed the 20 mile mark, which was farthest I'd ever run in VFFs, but that quickly passed. Now I was simply concerned about my legs getting me there. Fortunately, I've been to that point enough I now how to push through, and push I did.

I did find some entertainment the closing miles to take my mind off of the legs. Still not sure what to make of the guy, but he was enthusiastic and great support when really needed and so I'm thankful for him. I saw him about 5 or 6 times in closing miles, he kept moving spots, and first couple times I wasn't sure if he was male or female. He had long wavy hair, a shirt that exposed his midriff, which was a bit of a belly, and was banging on a pot with a spoon. He definitely loved my VFFs and made sure everyone in the area saw them. By the 3rd time I passed him I was sure he was a guy, but from then on I wasn't sure if he had a wig or not, whether he was trying to look like a woman for fun or really dressed that way or what, but at the same time I didn't truly care. He was a good crazy, having fun and making things easier and more enjoyable.

I finally left the one man cheering section behind and started the final stretch to the finish. About 2 miles from end we crossed a bridge that was under repair and had a very narrow walkway to navigate. It was impossible to run side by side with anyone the whole length of the bridge which made passing difficult and rather acrobatic. I did a few pirouettes, twirls and spins as I passed people and then did the descent from hell. We ran a wheelchair access ramp back down to ground level. With quads burning we went around and around and around and down and down and down. It was a series of short down ramp followed by 180 turn and down another with another 180 and on for what seemed like miles.

After Satan’s ramp I figured my legs couldn't feel any worse and I started a final push to the line. My increase in pace wasn't anything to brag about but I was emptying the tank. About 1/2 a mile from the finish there was a stretch of pavement the was old and had buckled a bit. I was pushing hard enough I wasn't paying close enough attention to my footing and I kicked a hump in the pavement. Fortunately it wasn't with my toes, it was the ball of my foot, but I almost wiped out. I'm still not really sure how I stayed on my feet because I swear I was only inches from face planting in the middle of the road.

But, stay on my feet I did but the ball of my left foot was in incredible pain and I could barely put pressure on it. I hobbled on best I could and about 200 yards later despite the pain I was almost running normal again and I could hear the finish area just ahead. When I turned the final corner I made my final surge and crossed the line. 3:37:38 was my official time, not a PR, but I was very happy with it for my first attempt at a marathon in VFFs.

My foot that kicked the road now merely felt hot, but I didn't care. I was elated because I had just finished my first VFF marathon and I did it only 8 months after starting to run in them. It felt like my first marathon all over again. I was a VFF rookie no more.

I collected my medal, and headed for food. On my way I ran into @luau again. He'd run his 2nd PR in 2 weeks taking almost a full 2 minutes off of his Boston time. We chatted a bit and then he went off looking for ice and I for food.

They had a pretty good spread of the usual plus pizza. I loaded up on pizza and Gatorade and wandered out of the food area. There was an area just outside of there where one of the sponsors, Harpoon Beer, was giving a free sample to racers and selling beer. I quickly secured my free beverage and went off to eat my pizza and drink my beer. I of course snuck back and due to a poor job marking my bib # the first time was able to make off with a 2nd freebee.

After filling my belly I went and reclaimed my checked bag and did the .9 mile jog back to the hotel. My feet, despite the incident near the end of the race, felt great the whole way. A quick shower, checked out and I was on the road for home.

Despite the lack of expo and poorly placed and too few aid stations, the Cox Providence Marathon was a great event. With planning it is easy to adjust for the distance between aid stations, it was a beautiful course partially along the water and through a number of nice neighborhoods. The race was well organized from packet pickup (which was available race morning which has become a rarity) to finish area. Volunteers and fans were fantastic and made the day much easier. The Marriott was great with the late checkout, which is also becoming a rarity. All in all a great race which I highly recommend.

PS - next day, despite running in VFFs, my feet still felt great!

Manchester City Marathon 2009

If you’ve been reading my post, you’ll see that I had a rough fall leading into the 2009 Manchester City Marathon. Repeated foot injuries kept the mileage down and left me less than ready for a great race. Heading into the marathon I spent 3 weeks fighting the last foot injury and wasn’t fully recovered by race morning. The Monday before the race I tested my foot by going for a 10 mile run. The foot felt ok, but was still painful when I stepped on it wrong or stepped on acorns, rocks, etc. But, after the 10 mile run was over, I felt confident that even though it would be slow, I could complete a marathon and so signed up to do Manchester.
So, the evening before the race I arrived in Manchester, NH about an hour before the race expo and packet pick-up closed. Unfortunately, even though it was supposed to go another hour the expo, except for 2 vendors who were still packing up, had shut down. Packet pick-up was still going and the volunteers were busy stuffing t-shirts into the race packets.
I checked in, got my packet and was informed that they only had small and medium shirts left, even though I’d ordered a large. I looked at all of the packets of people that were unlikely to show up yet that night, even though there was supposedly no packet pick-up in the morning, that had shirts already stuffed in them and couldn’t help wondering if any of them had larges. After all, I made it to pick-up on time, shouldn’t I be the one to get my size?
Anyway, gathered my stuff together, gave it a quick check to make sure everything was in there and headed off to check into my hotel. The rest of the evening was relatively uneventful. I was at the race alone, but had a number of people there for the race strike up conversations with me because they were curious about the VFF’s I was wearing while walking around.
Race morning arrived and I got up about 3 ½ hours before the race. I ate the leftover pasta and chicken wings from my dinner the night before and started getting my stuff ready for the race. I went back and forth between wearing my more traditional running clothes or switching to my tri gear. I finally put on my running clothes, strapped on my chip, my number belt, loaded my gear bag and headed out. I made it about 3 blocks before I turned back and went to change into my tri kit, which I’d found to be more comfortable for the longer runs.
Finally dressed in the clothes I would race in, I again started the .4 mile walk to the start area. It was a beautiful, sunny, cool, crisp fall morning. It was absolutely perfect weather for a marathon. Too cool to just be sitting around in race gear, but once the race started it would be perfect.
When I got to the start area, I stripped off my warmer clothes and stuffed them into my bag. Loaded my pockets with my packets of accel gel, my container of electrolyte tablets and checked my bag into the bag check. To keep warm I went for a very easy mile jog and then headed to the hotel by the start to use the restroom. On my way I ran into @Oblinkin and stopped to chat with him for a bit. While we were talking @Luau came over to talk to him as well. @Oblinkin was getting ready to run his 2nd marathon in 3 weeks and @Luau his first ever marathon and he was running it in VFF’s (Vibram Five Fingers).
We all chatted for a bit and then separated to take care of our last few things before the start of the race. I saw them both again in the starting area and chatted a bit more. Moments later we were underway.
The first miles were pretty uneventful. I ran behind @luau for about a mile before dropping back and got passed by @Oblinkin about a mile later. This would be the last I saw of either of them during the race. My goal had been to run 8 min/mi pace as long as I could and then go into damage control and just find a way to finish. I went through the first mile at 7min pace and then settled into a 7:30 pace. I tried slowing to an 8min pace, but somehow stayed at 7:30pace anyway.
I felt real comfortable through the first 10 miles and then my lack of training started to come through. I managed to hold pace through 13.1 miles before slowing, but it became more of an effort. By mile 18 I was just about done. I was still on an average pace for a 3:30 marathon, but slowing quickly. I actually started walking somewhere between mile 18 and 19 and finished the marathon alternating between walking and jogging. I never walked more than 100yards at a time or ran less than ½ mile, but it was a struggle the rest of the way. Just before the 25 mile mark there was a bridge with a sharp zig-zag in the path we were running and the base of the downhill side. I don’t know what cruel, sadistic SOB put that in there, but my legs almost gave out trying to make the turns (heard many complaints about that section after the race). I walked briefly at the next aid station and with the 25 mile marker in sight I started my final run which I carried through to the end. No matter how badly I felt in the closing miles of a marathon (done more than 20) I have always run the last 1.2 miles and that includes in my 3 Ironman triathlons.
I did manage to pass @luau somewhere in the final 4 miles, but never saw him. I spent the closing miles focusing on keeping moving and getting to the finish. I’ve run over 800 races in my life and I don’t have a single DNF which is a huge motivator when I’m really struggling. I also like to use fans, volunteers and other racers to help keep me going. Instead of focusing on how miserable I feel I start to become an entertainer, cracking jokes with everyone along the way. During the closing miles I had a running joke (yes, pun intended, groan and get over it) going with another runner who was dressed in a hockey outfit (shorts, jersey, pads, helmet, gloves, mini stick…) that really helped keep my mind off of my body. It also helped push me because there was NO WAY I was letting someone who was wearing all of that through the whole marathon beat me.
After the race was over (yes, I beat hockey guy), I wandered the finish area getting rehydrated, eating and chatting with other finishers. After a while I came across @Oblinkin and sat down to talk with him for a while and do some gentle stretching. I turned out that we had a lot in common beyond running and we talked for a quite a while. @luau stopped by briefly and chatted as well. He told me he saw me pass in the last 4 miles, but evidently I was very focused and never saw him
After the race I did my usual self analysis of my performance. I was happy with my time and effort, but puzzled over how I had felt. The first 8+ miles felt great, but somewhere between there and the half way point things didn’t feel quite normal. I started noticing muscles I’d never really had problems with in marathons. This coincided with when I started focusing more on my form. I was pretty sure that I was running with my usual heel strike through the first part of the race (confirmed by @Oblinkin’s video around 10k mark and official race photos). However, sometime after the 8 mile mark I tried to focus on running with more of a forefoot landing, which is very difficult to do in my current running shoes. The further the race progressed the more successful I felt I was in doing so based on the way it felt like my feet were hitting and the way the different muscles were starting to feel. Official race photos, though inconclusive, do seem to lend some support to my success in this area. I did however in the closing 1.2 miles revert back in a final effort to reach the line.
This leaves me wondering whether I’d have done better sticking with my normal heel strike or whether by changing my form and how I used my muscles did I allow myself to maintain my pace longer. @Oblinkin has lots of data yet to sift, but I’m hoping that when he gets to video from the 20mile mark of the race I can get a better idea if I truly changed my form like I believe I did. Regardless, I won’t know whether the switch helped or hurt me, but if I was successful it gets me a step closer to becoming a forefoot/barefoot runner.