I am definitely getting nervous about the race already. I spent the morning printing out maps, and marking off the locations I will need to visit on race weekend. I am lucky in that I will be able to walk from my motel to the starting location about ¼ a mile away.
After looking at the advice from Sub (thank you) I have decided to run at 8:30 miles. The pace will feel very slow to me at first, but as Sub mentioned… I am sure I will be grateful during the last 6 miles. Could I run faster? Probably… probably. But again, I need to live to train another day to reach my ultimate goal. My guess is that my pace will still fall off quite a bit at the end.
On August 6th last summer when I began this blog, I really didn’t know if I would be able to run a marathon, and qualifying for the Boston marathon was not even thinkable. I struggled through 5 and 6 mile…. LONG runs. LOL. I can remember the day I finished my first 5 mile run. I limped into the kitchen, I am sure with a smile beaming ear to ear and showed my wife the miles on my GPS watch, as if to validate the fact. Now… 5 miles is a very short run for me. I can also remember collapsing on the floor under the ceiling fan after 3 mile runs!
I actually started on my marathon journey two months prior on 6/6/6. At that time I was running 2 miles on the treadmill twice a week. I remember the pain when I headed off the treadmill a few weeks later and found that it was quite a bit harder running on the pavement.
My 2nd ever five mile run was at a 9:46 pace, and it wasn’t until my first 10k race, The LiveStrong Challenge, that I broke 9 minute per mile at 8:54. I hovered close to 8 minutes for a few months on my faster runs and finally clocked 7:46 on a 4 miler at the end of August. I ran my first half marathon on Sep 24th, at a 9 minute per mile pace. It felt very easy even though I wasn’t supposed to be running that far at that point. I got sick a few days afterwards and missed runs.
In October I ran a 15K race at 7:56 (which was a monumental struggle into the wind), then first 18 miler in December at a 9 minute per mile pace. In January I ran a 20.07 race at 8:17 per mile, then through late winter runs of 20 at 8:47, 21 at 9:17, and a 23 miler at oh… I stopped keeping track… probably 9:30. By the time I ran the 23 miler I realized I was running my long runs too fast and was not able to recover properly to continue with my schedule two days later. My fast long runs (for me) were definitely causing some knee problems. Two days later after my slow 23 miler I was able to run 7 miles at 7:57 and felt great.
One thing I learned early on in my distance running, was that it is much better to run at an even sustainable pace the whole run or race, than to run out of juice and crawl to the finish. Not only is it worse on your body, but I found that the amount of time I lost in the collapse at the end, was greater than if I would have just kept a consistent slower pace. For instance, take a 10 mile run with splits of 8:00, 8:10, 8:15, 8:20, 8:30, 8:40, 8:50, 9:00, 9:30, 10:00. This would give you a time of about 87 minutes. If you ran the same 10 miles at an even 8:40 pace, you would finish faster than the first example, and probably feel a whole lot better afterwards.
Anyway… back in August I said my stretch goal was under 4 hours, and 4:20 was realistic. Of course I shouldn’t be putting ANY time goals on my first marathon, just finishing is the best award, and honestly, why should I set myself up for disappointment after a 1000+ miles of training! Next Sunday I will run a marathon. I will try to run it at 8:30 per mile, but regardless… I will run a marathon.
3 comments:
As Sub mentioned in his last comment, don't get too hung up on pace. My absolutely best race ever was an 30K I ran as a tune up for the Carlsbad Marathon. It was a simple out and back course with the outbound leg slightly up hill nearly all the way. I kept the pace slow through the first 9 miles and then had the energy to accelerate through to the end. Unfortunately, I didn't follow this plan during the marathon and got wrapped up sticking with a pacer until they dropped me on mile 19. The last 10K wasn't a lot of fun.
Had I stuck with Sub's suggestion and stayed around 9:00/mi for the first 30K, I think I would have had the energy at the end to accelerate to a strong finish. Good luck and thanks for the link to my blog.
You wrote..."Of course I shouldn’t be putting ANY time goals on my first marathon, just finishing is the best award" ... This is 100% CORRECT! I learned this on my first when I wanted to run sub-4, only to CRASH. Get one under your belt. You will learn so much from this first go.
Secondly, YOU CAN QUALIFY FOR BOSTON, despite what you wrote on my blog; it may take some time. I always thought the same thing. Truthfully, last year was the first time I ever tried. I always was gradually improving. You'll get the burning desire to test yourself for Boston after you get a few marathons in. Good luck...
I could have written some of these things myself. The collapsing after short runs, the 1000+ miles, the "I will run a marathon." Just the time frame differs. I started earlier, it took me longer, I have another week. I am slower.
Post a Comment