TACOMA CITY MARATHON
MAY 13, 2007
Okay, I admit many of the miles splits were shorter than the average pace of 8:23, but I was able to finish in 3:39:39 for the 3:40 pace, which is about an 8:22 pace. Plus, three guys who were running with me finished very close to that goal. One of them qualified for Boston and got an age group award with a time just under 3:40. Another came in at 3:40:36, even though I didn’t run with him in the last 2 miles, but I’m sure he was keeping my pigtails in site. And the last guy came in at 3:42:56. I came in at the halfway mark about 1:50:40 and thus had a sub 1-minute negative split.
Longer version:
Earlier in the year, I asked Tony P. (aka RD) if he would like me to volunteer for the race or run it. He said that he’d rather I run it but came back to me a few days later asking if I wanted to pace. The free entry was the ticket. I signed up for 3:40, figuring that would be a very comfortable pace. Earlier in the year in February, I ran a 3:24 at Birch Bay against strong winds so I thought I was running strong.
But a recent calf injury and running a lot of races at a “slower” pace for 50K+ races left me feeling that maybe I didn’t have the spring in my legs to finish in 3:40 on what was rumored to be a challenging and hilly course.
I went on a short run three days before race day and struggled to keep an 8:30 pace for 4 miles. Uh-oh! How could I expect to run an average of 8:23 pace for 26 miles? Granted, I hadn’t eaten before this run, I was tired from work, and the pollen in the air triggered my asthma. It still left me feeling unsure of myself.
I went to the Expo on Friday and picked up my stuff. I started to voice my concerns about being able to do a good job in pacing. Everyone said it was going to be a piece of cake for me, but my running partner, Mary Hanna, could detect the fear in my voice. The next morning, my husband helped me drive the course, or the parts that could be driven. I became even more concerned with all the turns on the course, thinking for sure that they would slow me down in addition to the many hills. I spent that evening developing a course specific pace chart based on what I had seen during the drive and the elevation chart available on the website. My splits were between 8-minute to 9-minute miles, with many miles slightly faster than the average pace of 8:23. That night, I had two stressful running dreams. In one, I was not able to keep an 8:40 pace and could not run any of the hills. The other, I missed the start of the race. Gee, I wonder if I was stressed out?
Race morning came sooner than later and my brother-in-law Cliff Richards and I arrived about 5:35am at the start. He was going to be the 3:10 pacer and the night before at dinner, my husband suggested that we have a friendly wager to see who could come closest to their goal time. I joked that knowing Cliff, he would slow down right at the finish to get in a time of exactly 3:10. We picked up our pace signs and returned to his car, as the wind was blowing decent enough to make us very cold. I debated what to wear and settled on a lightweight short sleeve wicking tee under my very bright yellow maniac singlet. I ran into Prez Steve Yee and Chris Warren at the start. Although I am one of the earlier maniacs, #27, I have never worn a maniac singlet, choosing to maintain my individuality (until I became a member of the Montrail team and am now wearing their gear). Steve and Chris both raved about how good I look in yellow and Chris even said (dare I say), “You look sexy.” Sorry, shuga, but I’m taken. Besides, tell me something I don’t already know (just kiddin!).
The most popular question before we started and in the first mile was, “How long do you have to carry that sign?” Well, we had to carry it at least a mile but it was up to us as to when we wanted to chuck it. There were a few pacers that ran with that darn thing the entire way. After running a half-mile with the sign catching some of the headwind, I decided that I was definitely going to get rid of mine at the first mile. I saw a marker that said 1, and dropped it there. Then I realized that my Garmin said that was only about 0.7 miles. It turned out it was the 1K mark for the 10K runners and walkers. Woops!
I was pretty close behind the 3:30 pace guy at the start, but I had a master plan to run slightly fast in the first 9 miles in preparation for the hills to come. I was worried about that strategy because I did not want to make the mistake of “banking time.” But I knew that my runners would not be able to keep an 8:23 pace up the hills that I had driven the day before. The problem was that many people ran up to me saying that I was either running too fast or the 3:30 pacer was running too slow. I think it was a little of both because he picked up his pace a littler more and I slowed down a little after the 2nd mile, spreading us apart. Still, I wanted to stick to my variable pace and let my runners run a little faster on the flat and downhill so that they could give up some time on the uphills. But I continued getting several comments from people and decided to back off. The other problem was that I had to factor in the gun time. It took me about 15 maybe 20 seconds to get to the start line after the clock was started. Since there was no mat at the start for a chip time, I had to make up for that 15 seconds in my overall time.
By mile three, I was overheating with my short sleeve shirt and my singlet over it. So I decided to take off my shirt. While running about an 8-minute mile, I was able to take off my shirt without having to take off my singlet. (I’m very talented). I handed my shirt and gloves to Mary, who was a course marshal at 4.7 miles. She was concerned that I would get cold later, but even when we were up in Tacoma’s highest point with the wind blowing, I was very comfortable.
Our average pace for the first 9 miles before the hills was about 8:15, including a couple of fast downhill sections. The next 5 miles were 8:35 to 9:21, which made us lose our cushion and actually go over our time goal. I wanted to run a little faster on the uphills and probably should have, but the group that was with me was struggling a little and I didn’t want to wear them out. As I said above, we reached the halfway point at about 1:50:40 something. I urged my runners to take advantage of gravity on the downhill sections but held them back enough to avoid trashing their quads. Because we were behind on our time, I put in some faster miles after the halfway point. Only 3 guys were able to keep up with me. I lost the others. But I also felt that some of the runners that were with me might have been running beyond their comfort zone anyway. I didn’t have any girls run with us for any length of time. By mile 20 and having run 5 faster miles, we were back on target for a 3:40 finish with the remainder of the race possible at 8:23 pace. One of my guys said that his foot was giving out. It sounded more like a cramp to me and I offered him electrolytes when it first happened. He declined. But after continuing to have problems for 20 minutes and realizing that he was cramping, he accepted my offer. I gave him two pills and he seemed to run better after 5-10 minutes. He was the one that finished in 3:40:36. I had three guys with me at that point of 20 miles until about 24 miles. I lost two of them, but they were not too far off. We picked up another guy who was walking/trotting along just before mile 25. He decided to join us. I told the last guy from my original group to take off with a mile to go. I knew he was capable of finishing strong. The other three guys came within three minutes of the 3:40 mark. I ran in by myself the last stretch and saw the clock. I was going to finish in the 3:39:30 range. I saw Cliff at the sideline and purposely slowed my stride signaling that I could just stop right there before crossing the mat at exactly 3:40. Instead, I ran in and finished 3:39:39. He finished within 5 seconds of his 3:10 pace goal. But he went over 3:10 and I stayed under. I didn’t want to go over if I could have helped it.
Cliff ended up getting first in his age group and I got 4th. Go figure, we weren’t even racing. But pacing is hard work. I found that you can’t please everyone. There will be some people who think you are running too fast if you are running faster than average pace goal, thus worrying that you are going to wear them out. There will be others who will be concerned if you don’t have a cushion. What people don’t realize is that the average pace, in my case 8:23, is just that. It’s an average. Sure, I could have run 8:23 for every mile, but I’m sure I would have lost a lot of people in the hills, possibly something that they could not have made up for on the down. If I pace next year, I would stick to my original course specific plan. If I’m running faster next year, I might go for the 3:30 because I found it hard to run slower, especially in the first half.
I really enjoyed the course. I was concerned that all the turns would drive me crazy, but they didn’t. Maybe because I was not racing. The hills weren’t as bad as I had feared and were probably good to work different muscles. The weather was ideal, maybe a little windy. The volunteers were great-cheerful and encouraging. It was one of the best-organized marathons that I have done in a long time.
I felt great all 26 miles. I usually prefer people not to talk to me when I’m running because I need to focus on my breathing. But I was able to talk the entire time. I think I was the most verbose of our group. I hardly sweated and was able to run the whole race with only one water bottle without cramping. That is unheard of for me. Cliff and I ran from his car to Starbucks after the race. We both felt like we could have run longer. And when I got home, I spent 2 hours weed-wacking before going to dinner with my mother. The next day, I went for a short run with my friend Mary up Poo Poo point, up 1.5 miles and 1600 feet and back down again. I sweated more on this run than in the marathon.
Hope you all enjoyed yourselves, too!