Eugene Marathon Race Report

My marathon race day began about 5:30 AM. I woke without an alarm clock (I set 2 though). I have a knack for knowing what time it is, and I think a bit of that helps with running. I slept pretty well really. After getting up I quietly donned my race gear while eating a banana and a soy bar that was in our race packet. I drank a plenty of water too of course, but was careful to go overboard.

The starting line was within walking distance of where we stayed. As soon as I walked out the door, I saw runners gravitating toward the starting line and the adrenalin started to flow. The weather was stunning. It could not have been better. I wore a long sleeve shirt, but a short sleeve one would have been fine.

The starting line for the race was in front of Hayward Field and the University of Oregon was kind enough to open the track to public use. I took a warm-up lap around the hollowed track, where both Steve Prefontaine and Alberto Salazar ran and then stretched off to the side. It was very cool.

Next came the restroom lines, which I am sure that any runner it all too familiar with. I managed to wait through the lines twice before it was time to head to the starting line. I barely got to the starting line in time too. In fact, I couldn’t make it to the pace marker I wanted, because it was all the way up in the chute. I was a bit off to the side of the road too, so I knew it would be a squeeze trying to get past the starting line.

After setting my IPod and GPS watch I was definitely ready to go. I don’t hear very well… so I really didn’t hear a gun or anyone yell go or anything like that, but the mass of people started to move. There was all this pent up excitement and then we started slowly walking forward and I was grinning inside like a child taking his first steps. By the time I hit the starting line, we were jogging, and shortly thereafter I was on my pace.

I had vowed to stick to 8:30 miles for at least the first half of the race. If for some bizarre reason I felt good at this point, I would consider upping it a bit. The first few miles snaked around Eugene neighborhoods, and there were quite a few hills (easy ones though). The people were fantastic. One guy was standing in his yard clapping and telling everyone ‘thank you for coming to Eugene’. Now that is hospitality.

Mile 1 8:20
Mile 2 8:15
Mile 3 8:39 (trying to get back on pace)
Mile 4 8:26 (that’s more like it)
Mile 5 8:49 (hill?)

Between miles 5 and 6 my wife and two boys were at the side of the road. I was going to give my wife a kiss (which would have been the only time I planned to break stride for the entire race) but she had the camera up, so I just smiled and waved (and said something stupid) My youngest son (3) was yelling ‘Go Daddy!’ ‘Go Daddy!’ ‘Go Daddy!’ over and over. My eyes got misty and I filed that gem of encouragement for use throughout the race.

Mile 6 8:20
Mile 7 9:04 (woah GPS burp or I slowed up too much)
Mile 8 8:05 (didn’t run this fast so GPS burp) (ate some GU)

For miles 9-13 I was really in a grove. I was running very comfortable and relaxed. Somewhere along the way I noticed my GPS watch hitting mile markers before I actually did, which was a bit of a concern. Was I actually running slower than I though? It wasn’t by much, and since I can’t hear the beep from the watch when I hit a mile marker, it is dumb luck that I’d be looking at it to catch a mile pass.

Mile 9 8:28
Mile 10 8:30
Mile 11 8:28
Mile 12 8:23
Mile 13 8:27

Decision time. I was feeling very good at this point. I decided to give myself the green light to giddy up… knowing perfectly well that this decision could come back to haunt me later. Someone much wiser than I said ‘respect the marathon’. I did not know if I was making a mistake at this point. I had no idea what the dreaded last six miles would be. I worried that any increase in speed would just be given up at the end of the race, but I also thought that I had a secret weapon… ‘Go Daddy!’

Mile 14 8:15 (GUed)
Mile 15 8:47 (not exactly speeding up now am I?) =)
Mile 16 8:22

Somewhere around here I pass the 4:00 hour pace runner. 4:00??? How could that be? I was averaging about 8:30 per mile, how the heck was the 4:00 hour pace runner in front of me!!! At this point, I figured the pacer must plan on slowing down during the last six miles. I figured my watch couldn’t be off that far.

Mile 17 8:22
Mile 18 7:42 I am starting to feel it now
Mile 19 7:55
Mile 20 7:56 (GUed)

This is it. This is what it all comes down to, the last six miles. I put a bulls eye on this point when I named my blog. I knew it was the point where I would learn something about myself. I felt I put in the training to deal with whatever it would do to me, but would 3 straight sub 8 minute miles come back to haunt me?

Mile 21 8:02 Still feeling good. Amazing. But I was expending quite a bit more effort.
Mile 22 8:22 My right quad is cramping. I am starting to feel my energy drain.

At mile 22 I realized I was losing it. My whole body was becoming comfortably numb. Oh who am I kidding, it wasn’t comfortable at ALL, but I kept thinking ‘I like pain’ in my head. (Which is a lie, but maybe my body wouldn’t know that) Like a dying insect making its last flutter for life, my next mile was shocking.

Mile 23 7:25 My fastest mile in the race, and at mile 23 no less.

I am passing people left and right at this point. Many are stopping to walk or stretch. At this point have not broken stride once during the entire race… not even at the water stations. I grabbed the water, pinched the cup in half to minimize the splashing, and drank on the run. Whenever I felt really bad I just kept repeating over and over and over and over in my head, ‘Go daddy! Go Daddy! Go Daddy!’

Mile 24 8:56 I am losing it now. My body is screaming ‘STOP!’ but I am trying to distract my mind with ‘Go Daddy’ and the energy of the crowd.

Mile 25 8:37 Almost back on pace
Mile 26 8:27 Perfect!

GPS Mile 26.2. My clock beeps that my run is complete at about 3:37, which was my goal when speeding up. EXCEPT, I still have over a mile to run. Back to mile 25. This little piece of news could have broken me… but I drove on and finished strong, with a chip time of 3:44:25.

It wasn’t until I arrived home and check the marathon website for my times that I realized I ran the 2nd half faster than the 1st half, and I ran my last 10K faster than my first 10K. Wall, what wall?! I CRUSHED the last six miles. =)

The GPS screwup bothers me a little bit, but if that was what I was training too, then it would have been off during my training so it is a good thing that I did run by it, because I may have ran out of juice otherwise. I think a new GPS watch is in order. =)

Overall, even though my time may have been a bit slower than I thought when I was running it, I am thrilled with my race. I came out injury free, and wiser. I do a great deal of respect for the immense challenge a marathon is. It is more than a race… it is a journey of epic proportions. What I found on my journey is nothing I imagined when I started. I learned that even after 40, I can still do amazing things. My life isn’t almost over, and sometimes, the 2nd half can be better than the 1st. =)

I was part of a mass of people, each on their own individual journey, but at the same time together… connected… sharing pain and encouragement, flowing through the streets generating electricity to power one foot in front of the other… again and again and again. It was amazing, yet bittersweet, like the birth of a child… pain joy fear excitement… all blended together into a straight shot concoction of lightning in a bottle.

It was nothing, and yet it was the most amazing thing in the world.

To someone who has not run a marathon, reading this may not make sense. I lived 4 years in Fairbanks Alaska, and before arriving I had seen pictures of the northern lights in books and on TV (nothing special)… but when I experienced them up close, I was in awe at the green glowing lights dancing through the sky. There are some things that reading about and TV can’t do justice. Running a marathon is one of them.

During training, some friends at work kept telling me I was crazy… like a mesmerized bug floating toward the zapper in a back yard… some were yelling ‘don’t follow the light! don’t follow the light!’ I will be the first to admit that the marathon did zap me to the core. Pzzzzatttt! But the thing is… when the energy in my batteries started to recharge, I immediately started planning my flight back into light… next time maybe faster.

I ruined the Eugene marathon. Boston, you are still on the radar.

Eugene Marathon 2007 - Marathon
date: Apr 29th, 2007
location: Eugene, OR

Summary
number of finishers: 1496
number of females: 659
number of males: 835
average time: 04:21:33

Brad Stark
bib number: M1122
age: 41
gender: M
location: Hillsboro, OR
overall place: 438 out of 1496
division place: 55 out of 112
gender place: 342 out of 835
time: 3:44:25
pace: 8:34
10k: 53:54
half: 1:52:48
20mile: 2:50:58
last10k: 53:27