Tuesday, June 19, 2012

The Delaware Marathon Race Report

Sunday, May 13, 2012...

Marathon #13 done!

The Christiana Care Health System Delaware Marathon, which apparently is one of only two marathons in the state. It draws runners who are working on their 50 state goal as well as marathon maniacs and mega-marathoners (those crazy people who will run hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of marathons in their life). I loved the positive atmosphere and eavesdropping on conversations in the early miles of the race.

My goal for 2012 is to break 3:30 by October. After decent training feedback this spring I amped up the training so I could make a go of it in now. With two marathons planned for May ideally I would achieve the goal here, then run the second one a little easier. Summer weather arrived early on the east coast and as race day approached I knew I would need a perfect race to achieve the goal. Nonetheless I went into it with an open mind and a plan. I considered my race options to be either to try to put time in the bank knowing that I would be slower as the temperature rose, or conserve my body temperature and plan on either maintaining speed or picking up speed later. I went with the latter because I figured the risk of overheating too early in the race (see Surf City Marathon) was too high. I’m not really a mantra person, but for this race mine would be “you ran Pikes Peak, you can run Delaware” which is what my friend Tina texted me the day before after I complained about the heat. Thanks Tina!

The morning was as good as I could have asked for - in the 60s and humid but it was a little overcast. The course is a figure eight-ish loop with a small loop of 2 miles then an 11 mile loop with the finish line at the center; you run the whole thing twice. I’d never run on a course like that and was somewhat apprehensive about how I would like it. I gleaned this from an e-mail from the RD describing it and telling folks not to burn out in the first loop. For some reason they don’t have an easily accessible (to me at least) elevation map on the website so I didn’t know anything about hills but his e-mail had my spidey sense on high alert. I had assumed it would be flat it’s Delaware, how hilly could it be? Well it’s a pretty hilly place. But I’ve run Pikes Peak, I’m a monster…

My plan was to stay near or just over my 8:00 pace for the first half. I knew there was a hill after mile 3 but to my surprise it was mostly up and down hills with substantial climbs out of miles 6 and 19 and fair climbs at 11 and 25. The good/bad thing is that I could see the mile markers for the later miles that we would be coming back for so I knew where the hills would be. No doubt I was a little more tentative in my pacing because I knew what was coming in the second half.

Other than my surprise over the challenge of the course, the first half went by smoothly. By mile four I knew I was off pace and just tried to keep things under control and strived to get the pace down to 8:00. With hills it’s harder to gauge the pace/effort so I ran as fast as possible within a safe perceived exertion zone. It was warm and sunny now, but thankfully a lot of the course is shaded. I sipped water and poured it on myself at every station and never slowed to anything less than a jog because I knew I would need every last second to stay within striking distance. I still couldn’t quite get the pace at or under 8:00. I started doing the math…I’ve negative splitted most of my marathons and was telling myself that I could pull it off in this race too. I didn’t notice the half marker but I figured that by then I was about a minute and a half off. That’s a chunk of time, but I was feeling very good and confident I could turn reel it in. For Pete’s sake I’ve run Pikes Peak, I can run Delaware! I pulled out my ipod, cranked up my pop music …and all the other boys try to chase me so here’s my number, call me maybe…and bopped along into the second half. I capitalized on the flat part of the middle of the course, but I wasn’t really making up a lot of time. Side note – somewhere in here I passed a group of 50 Staters, one of whom was on his 50th, I congratulated and high-fived him, how awesome! As I entered the hardest part of the course (mile 18-ish), I knew it was unlikely I could make up the time. As it turns out I ran exactly one minute slower on the back half. I still wasn’t ready to give up, and figured I could run for place we’re all in the same heat. I turned my focus to catching people in front of me, some of whom were running legs of the relay so they were moving well. There weren’t many women but enough that every so often I could make a move. Thankfully my legs were responsive.

Throughout the last 10 miles there was one woman I couldn’t quite catch. I’d reel her in then she’d pull away. With the exception of hills, my pace was fairly stable and I could see it was her speed that was vacillating. She seemed to have a great attitude, as she caught up with people she would chat and encourage them to stay strong. Whenever I got close enough for her to see me, she would speed ahead. She was/is a fighter for sure and a good hill climber. Somewhere in the mile 21-22 range I passed her at a water station. It was on the outside of a turn and when she went in, I ran the tangent, grabbed water from the far end then booked ahead. She caught me in a mile or so and so I had to play catch up again. I was now pretty hot and tired and didn’t really make up time on her. We passed mile 25 which had a .4 mile climb. I was inching toward her but not making up much ground and figured I’d go for it after the crest.  At about .4 to go I knew I was in striking distance but I didn’t want her to see me because she was clearly not going to give up. Unfortunately it wasn’t very crowded and the race lane was narrow and she saw me as I pulled up even. I said “I’m going to make you work today,” she replied letting me know I was killing her and she knew I wasn’t going to go away. She also was clearly not going to give up without a fight! We spoke briefly even though we were now charging for the finish. She asked me about my goal and I explained I clearly wasn’t going to make it and that since she led me all day, there was no way I was going to try to pass her at the finish line.

We charged side-by-side on the downhill stretch for the finish line. 3:33:27! Not 3:30, but I was happy nonetheless.  She gave me a big hug afterward and thanked me for pushing her. We chatted about where we live, etc. I was happy to find out she is 10 years younger than me although she’s on her 68th marathon and 35th state Yikes!

Packed with glutenny goodness!
They had an amazing post-race hospitality tent that included one of my favorite snacks – Philadelphia soft pretzels. I try to eat gluten free at home, and I’ve been 100% good about staying away from gluten bombs like bread, pastry, etc. but knew if I was going to cheat with a bomb of glutenny goodness, it should be now. It was so fine and I am proud to say I only ate one. Thank goodness we don’t have them in Seattle.

I headed back up to Philly to spend my last day with my family. It was wonderful to spend Mother’s day with my mom, sister & sister-in-law.

Because the race draws from all over they award a prize to the fastest person from each state. A while back I looked at the start list and based on ages and the fact that there were only a few of us from WA I thought I had a shot at being the fastest. I also thought I had a good chance of winning my age group. Based on 2011 results, even a slow time would be 10 minutes faster than last year’s winner. So a few days later I check out the results to find that I was in fact, 2nd in my age group to a woman who ran a 3:28. Bummer but surely I’ve got the Washington prize locked up. I look at the state by state and see that I was second to a woman 11 years older who ran 3:22:35. What the heck? I looked her up on the start list and find notations next to her name “50 state club” okay, she’s experienced and “1984 Olympic Team” oh come on! Couldn’t she have picked a different year to run Delaware??

Unfortunately I am not 100% healthy. My left hip is still a problem; in fact at a few times during the race I was running with my fingers shoved in the socket trying to perform some self ART. A few times I joked to myself that I was taking my left leg for a drag around Wilmington. Thankfully between my small army of specialists - chiropractor, massage therapist and a phone session with my physical therapist friend I think I’ve got things under control and on the mend. That’s what I’ll tell myself anyway because either way I’m running another one in two weeks.

Ready or not Coeur D’Alene here I come!


3:33:27 (8:09 average) per mile splits:
(1) 8:02 (2) 7:59 (3) 8:06 (4) 8:09 (5) 7:59 (6) 8:15 (7) 8:32 (8) 8:15 (9) 8:01 (10) 7:59 (11) 8:07 (12) 7:46 (13) 8:08 (14) 7:55 (15) 7:49 (16) 8:00 (17) 8:12 (18) 8:03 (19) 8:02 (20) 9:05 (21) 8:25 (22) 8:13 (23) 8:36 (24)8:12 (25) 7:50 (26) 8:08 (0.2) 6:35

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