I’m sitting in my car in the parking lot this morning. I drove around in all the dark places a healthy person with a family and a good life should never go. My mind was racing and wondering if there was any other way to deal with the overwhelming compulsion that has taken me. I telephone my usual support group, but nothing on the other end. Called Rick, Tim, …Crickets….My life-line is cut and I’m sweating! It’s 8:00AM and I’ve just completed the transaction. I’m sure I was not recognized and I make the buy, but I’m worried just the same. I used an un-marked crinkled up ten dollar bill left over from the washing machine. I have worked hard and I have a good reputation in these parts. I reach into the bag and I’m shaking, looking around and my nerves are shot. I half care if anyone is looking. At this point, I don’t care anymore if I get caught. This is now where I am at, I’m on the edge, and danger is my middle name. A police car slows to a crawl behind my car. I pull my hood over my face as to conceal my identity. This is no crystal meth experience… or maybe it is? I have just eaten my third Egg McMuffin of the week and I am now heading into another chocolate glazed donut. Tonight it’s Chinese and Cold-stone Ice Cream and tomorrow it’s the North End and Italian.
For real, this is how I felt this morning!! Kid you not! After 64 straight weeks of eating pure and what my fellow Qt2 mates call “the core” post marathon, I’ve got serious issues!
Coming off the core and really dedicating the nutrition aspect to this season, I’ve certainly gone full-speed with catching up on all of the things I’ve deprived myself of this year. It would probably make you ill to hear about how much I’ve had to eat in the past two days, but I’m thankful to admit that even that has become boring and I miss my healthy way of living. Now sleep, that is something I don’t think I can have enough of.
MCM Marathon Report (As prompted by Custie the super fast Crampton)
I completed the MCM Marathon this past weekend. This race completely kicked my tail! Here goes!
Arrived in DC on Saturday morning at 7:30 and hit the expo. This was the first time I went to an expo and didn’t buy something I didn’t need. Registration was smooth and left with packet in hand in about 20 minutes. The expo like all of DC is so spread out, but I was happy to get back to the hotel and continue the carbo loading and to get off my feet. I took a cab back to the hotel even though it was a quarter mile walk. Saturday was relaxing and watched the movie Hangover again. Quick nap during the day and woke up to meet up with Kat and Jeff Donatello at a really nice place in Georgetown. I had my taper meal of ½ chicken breast and some pasta and headed home early. I’d say I fell asleep by 9. By far, this was the best week of preparation in terms of sleep, lower stress, etc that I’ve had prior to a race. Feeling very good about the prospects of having it all come together at this point. To digress, the week leading up to the race I got a terse email from my coach letting me know that one of my key workouts I hit too hard. I ended up pulling down very low 6 min paces off of a long bike. It was a quick misunderstanding, but I was warned that this mistake because of the stress I put on my body could have an impact (it will you will see). Also, the major issue I had leading up to the race; I was heading into about my 64th week and I was on vapors. I was so exhausted and had a really hard time keeping my concentration to a level I needed. I did it, but it was not fun. I continue to practice too hard and it will be something to improve after the break.
Back to the race. The pacing agreed for the race was a best case, 2:58-3:06. I was told to stay away from pacing below 6:45 at all costs and to run the race as conservatively as possible all the way into mile 20. If at mile 20 “I had it” I could lay the hammer down only then. Mess with the 6:45’s even if only for a spat, risk paying the price latter. This is still new to me having made so much progress so soon. How can I question any of it? I’ve only started running in the 6’s for about a month. Also, this race goal was going to be about 45mins faster than my last pr only 2 months ago. Granted that PR was while doing an Ironman with fractured Ribs and a bruised spleen but was still aggressive! I’m all about that and the challenge and love to see what I am made of.
Race morning. Usual pre-race Apple Sauce and shower and rolling. Head off to grab a cab and apparently the early morning DC Cabbies don’t like to drive people unless they get the extended airport passenger. After searching and finding one he takes me to the wrong hotel where the Donatello’s are meeting me. I had 20 buck’s on me and my options were getting pretty slim. This was not a good way to start the day. I decided to go back to the hotel and have him wait while I got my cell phone. We are on our way once again and the cabbie was talking on two cell phones, eating a sandwich and proceeded to light up a cigarette. Now, I’ve basically had it at this point. I had so much applesauce bloating my stomach and enough fluid in me to hydrate an elephant. Suffice it to say the cabbie had a look of horror when I explained my rights to him. I still have not come to terms that I don’t come off as intimating at 143lbs at race weight. It’s all about the bark now!!
I arrive at the hotel and I was happy to find out I was not the only late one. About 6 of us headed into the metro to get to the marathon start. Pretty seamless. I always seem to link up with people who have the whole morning logistics thing nailed down. It allows me to relax. At this point we make a few switches and start to see the masses. You could tell from the start that this event was well run with the Marines. Basically like clockwork. Mostly, all I do is search for random places to pee or poop until the gun goes off. Today is no different. I believe there was something like 30,000 or so runners. The start had two sides that would merge for corals. Tons of people! Kat and I picked an entry coral to get to our pacing places. It was really cool that my coral was going to be the second of all of them or about the 400th spot. It’s exciting to be in a coral where everyone (Well hold-on) looks fast. Count-down comes and we are off! I could immediately see that I should have gone into the first coral, because people in mine started walking at mile 2. I had to plow through a bunch of people and I was below my starting pace by 10 seconds. The course was mainly up-hill for the first 5 miles. I felt good and was surprised how many hills were there were along with the steep down hills. I had my Garmin set for two-mile alerts and I was pretty much spot on. I felt tired and no pop, but that is not unusual for me to start.
As the race continues, I could see that I was slipping a little and got into a grove and focused. I also noticed that it was very easy to get away from pacing on the down-hills. I saw on my Garmin that just the momentum took me into the 5’s for pacing and had to back-off as much as possible. I kept hearing Jesse’s voice, “it only will take little to screw your whole day up”! The nutrition and pacing is without incident from mile 1-15. I knew I was having a hard time on the down-hills and could feel my quads pounding and a first, my right knee interior was bound-up. I pressed forward and I was very much on pace. Again, I’m purely focused on mile 20 and then who knew how deep I could go?
At mile 19, I’m not feeling so confident. My energy is fine, my quads and knee are not. Something in my left foot exploded and burned. It’s common, and felt it was either a blister or a toe nail that said bye, bye.. Onward. I stop and decide to walk for no more than 10 seconds. This is where the funny of the suffering is.. I had my Qt2 uniform on and my red Ironman hat. Obviously I consider myself a tri guy vs. a marathoner. Also, it’s what I train in and the most comfortable. As I was walking, about 6 runners rush by and said, “come on ironman, you can do this running back-wards”, you can’t walk”! That inspired me and pissed me off at the same time. But, they were right, and this was nothing compared to Ironman. We are talking about a three hour workout, and I had to get this over then a now. At least I had hoped!! LOL.
At mile 21, Jeff Donatello caught up to me. He was suffering too. He was still able to rally pretty well. He as we all do make little pledges’ or goals while on the course. Jeff’s offer, it’s only a quick 6 mile run from here to the finish. “Let’s do this together, what do you say Mark”?. I agreed, because it sounded awesome. About a minute into the deal with the devil, I told Jeff I had to walk… It was that bad now and my knee was seizing up.
Mile 22 to 26.8 was ugly. At this point breaking 3 hours was out of the question, but I still had my last goal in view, qualifying officially for the Boston Marathon. I calculate that I really only needed to run about an 8:30 min mile to get that goal. In order to even do that, it was pulling from that go deep ugly place. As I rounded over the bridge and toward the starting line and searching for the finish I realized that the finish line was not at 26.2 miles, it was a long course. I’m pulling a 5:20 pace at the end for a half mile at the end of a marathon with throw-up in my mouth. The finish line has a cruel hill at the end where you have Marine’s yell, “take that hill”!! The clock is ticking, and ticking. I need 3:20 to qualify. Tick, tick and people are stopping at the hill blocking. I had no choice; I blew through the wall of walkers and sprinted.. Fell into a Marine..Qualified for Boston with a 9 second to spare… 3:19:51 7:38 pace. For the first hour or so I was very upset that I did not hit my targets. However, I knew in my heart of hearts that I gave it everything I had on this day. I'm happy with it and excited to build.
Below are my splits.. I’ll have more on the season and a video soon. For now, I have five week off before the next big, big push to Hawaii. In the meantime, it’s more time with my kids, sleep and food!!
Dist Clim Dec Pace Best Pace
1 00:14:20 2.00 518 281 07:10 04:55
2 00:13:45 2.00 285 512 06:52 06:03
3 00:14:13 2.00 155 105 07:06 06:31
4 00:14:23 2.00 207 187 07:11 06:16
5 00:14:06 2.00 423 490 07:03 04:51
6 00:14:11 2.00 169 206 07:05 05:07
7 00:15:06 2.00 136 136 07:33 06:44
8 00:14:53 2.00 180 185 07:27 05:53
9 00:15:37 2.00 171 169 07:48 06:41
10 00:15:39 2.00 207 165 07:49 06:47
11 00:16:25 2.00 128 98 08:12 07:03
12 00:16:56 2.00 724 685 08:28 05:40
13 00:16:21 2.00 155 219 07:20 05:20
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