On November 2, I ran the City of Oaks Marathon in Raleigh, NC. This was a last-minute addition to my race schedule. I was originally planning to run the Big Bear Marathon on November 8. That race had to be cancelled after the road washed out during a severe storm. As I looked for another race to fill in the gap in my schedule, City of Oaks was an obvious choice.
I’ve done this race twice
in the last three years, so I knew it had easy logistics. I knew where I wanted to stay, and that hotel
still had vacancies. I was also able to
book direct flights without paying an unreasonable airfare.
For an extra fee, you
could have your race packet mailed to you.
By the time I registered, the deadline for this option had passed, so I
had to pick up my race packet at the expo on Saturday.
I flew to Raleigh
Saturday morning. The expo was at Coastal
Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek.
This was a new packet pickup venue.
The old venue was at a school that was on my way into town from the
airport. The new venue was on the
opposite side of town, but I still went there first before driving to my
downtown hotel.
The tents for packet
pickup and vendors were all set up in a large packing lot. As luck would have it, Saturday was a sunny
day. It was a nice day to be outside.
After picking up my race
packet, I headed downtown to check in at my hotel. I’ve done this race three times, and I’ve
always stayed at the Hampton Inn. It’s
two blocks from the starting line and two blocks from the finish line. It’s also just around the corner from my
favorite restaurant in Raleigh. The one
negative about this hotel is that it’s located near a night club that plays
loud music until 3 AM. The hotel
provides all guests with ear plugs, but I always bring my own.
When I arrived, there
weren’t any rooms ready yet, so I walked around downtown Raleigh while I was
waiting. After I got into my room and
unpacked, I did a workout in the fitness room.
Then I relaxed until dinner.
I had an early dinner at
Raleigh Beer Garden. Besides pizza, they
have 200 different beers on tap. While I
was there, one of the bartenders recognized me from last year. He remembered that I ran the marathon.
I had been up early that
morning to get to the airport, so I went to bed right after dinner. It was probably the earliest I’ve ever gone
to bed before a race.
Sunday was the day we set
the clocks back. My room didn’t have an
alarm clock, but there was a microwave oven, and it had a clock. I usually wake up a few times during the
night, and I sometimes glance at the clock.
To make sure I wouldn’t get confused, I reset the clock on the microwave
before going to bed. My phone resets
automatically.
I slept well for a few
hours. Then I got up and went to the
bathroom. By now, it was late enough
that I expected to hear loud music from the club next door, but I didn’t hear a
thing. My ear plugs were completely
shutting it out.
It took me a while to get
back to sleep. As I was lying in bed, I
thought I detected a faint smoky smell.
It was like the way your clothes smell after spending an evening sitting
around a campfire. I couldn’t find any
obvious source of the odor. It was so
faint that I couldn’t be sure if my mind was playing tricks on me.
I eventually got back to
sleep, but I woke up again a few hours later.
The time on the microwave was 12:30 AM.
It was actually 1:30 daylight time, but I had already set that clock
back.
I heard a chirping sound
that repeated. It sounded like a fire
alarm, so I quickly got dressed, so I could go down to the lobby and find out
what was happening. When I took out my
ear plugs, I heard how loud the alarm was.
It was loud enough to cause hearing loss with prolonged exposure.
Before heading
downstairs, I grabbed my wallet and phone.
I didn’t know if it was actually a fire or just a false alarm. The other hotel guests were all emerging from
their rooms. I followed everyone down to
the lobby and outside into the street.
When I got outside, I saw a fire engine.
Two others would arrive soon.
A well-dressed man
motioned for us to come across the street.
I think he was the owner of a club that was across the street from the
hotel. A few of us went into that building.
It was nice to get inside and sit down, but there was loud music
playing. I just wanted peace and quiet.
My rental car was parked
in a ramp in that same block. I was
tempted to go and sit in my car. Then I
realized I had left the car keys in my hotel room. After a few minutes, I went back
outside. Then I saw that others were
going back into the hotel. Apparently,
we received the all clear. I wanted to
confirm that with a hotel employee, but I couldn’t find one.
I saw one of the firemen
leaving the building, so I asked him what happened. He said it was probably a faulty alarm. They didn’t find any fire or smoke in the
building. I eventually learned that the
source of the alarm was a heater for the hotel’s pool. It started overheating, and that set off the
alarm. They had to shut that system
down. Then everything was fine.
On my way back to my
room, I was talking to other guests who all said this was the first time
anything like this has happened to them.
I wish I could say that. For me,
it’s the fourth time I’ve had to evacuate a hotel because of a fire alarm. It always seems to happen after midnight, and
it’s always the night before a marathon.
When I got back to my
room, I noticed how loud the music was.
There’s no way I could tune that out and get to sleep without ear
plugs. I put in my plugs. As they expanded in my ears, the music
gradually got quieter, until I couldn’t hear it at all.
By now, my phone had
reset to standard time. According to
both my phone and the microwave clock. It was now a few minutes after
1:00. I wasn’t planning to get up until
5:00, so I tried to get back to sleep. I
still thought I detected a faint smoky smell, but it seemed to fade away over
time.
I wasn’t able to get back
to sleep, but I did the next best thing.
I spent the rest of the night resting in bed. I was almost asleep, when I heard something
that sounded like an explosion. Was that
from one of the clubs? It was now 3:19
AM. I think they all close at 3:00.
I continued to rest in
bed until it was time to get up. I never
got back to sleep. The good news is that
I got four or five hours of sleep before the fire alarm woke me up.
When I got up, I felt
OK. I’ve run marathons on less sleep, so
I didn’t worry about it. Thinking back
to the other times a fire alarm woke me up, I always had a good race.
The temperature at the
start was in the upper 30s, but I expected it to get up to 60 by the time I
finished. I needed tights to keep my
legs warm for the first two hours, but I wondered if I would get too hot
later. I also started the race wearing
gloves. I was thinking of wearing my
Tyvek jacket in the early miles, but I made a last-minute decision to tie it around
my waist just before we started.
Having run this race
twice before, I knew it was hilly, and they’re the sort of hills that take me
out of my rhythm. My primary goal was to
break four hours. That’s the same goal I
had two weeks ago in a race with hills and strong winds. If I couldn’t do that, my backup goal was to
run a Boston Qualifier. To do that, I
just needed a time of 4:05.
I wanted to start with
the 4:00 pace group, but I wasn’t able to spot them in the start corrals. I saw the 2:00 pace group for the half
marathon, so I started with them. It’s
the same pace, and the two races have the same course for the first eight
miles.
Those first eight miles
are on streets in or near the downtown area.
I had forgotten how hilly these miles are. Some streets were uphill, and others were
downhill, but it was rarely flat.
I quickly learned that
the leaders of this pace group were taking every mile at the same pace, whether
it was uphill or downhill. On downhill
sections, the pace felt really easy, and I had to hold back to keep from
running away from the group. On uphill
sections, I sometimes had to work hard to keep up with the group.
In mile five, we ran a
particularly long downhill section.
Here, I got ahead of the group, and I went about 15 seconds too
fast. I was going so easy that my heart
rate was only 116. That’s unusually low
for a race where I have ambitious time goals.
The next time we went
uphill, the group caught up to me again.
Then, on a tougher hill, my heart rate climbed to 149. I was working up a sweat, so I had to take
off my gloves.
At the seven-mile mark, I
found myself in front of the group again.
I was exactly on pace for a four-hour finish, so I didn’t worry about
getting away from the group. I needed to
go on my own in another mile anyway, so I started setting my own pace.
At eight miles, the
marathon and half marathon diverged. The
half marathon looped back toward the downtown area. The marathon continued onto a series of paved
trails through a greenway.
We were beginning a long
out-and-back section on these trails.
Most of the time, we were running through a narrow valley with a creek.
After getting onto the
trail, I immediately felt colder. I
wondered if the air was cooler because we were near the creek. Another runner pointed out that this section
was shady, so it felt much cooler than when we were in the sun. My hands were cold, but I didn’t worry about
that. I knew it was going to warm up as
the race progressed.
At nine miles, we started
a three-mile section that was mostly downhill.
There were still occasional upticks, but the trend was decidedly downhill. I knew I would have to run this in the uphill
direction later, so I gave myself permission to speed up running downhill.
I’ve run this course before,
but I was still surprised how quickly we were descending in mile 10. I sped up to 8:14 in that mile. That was almost a minute faster than my
target pace of 9:09.
Mile 11 wasn’t quite as
fast, but it was still much faster than my target pace. I was building a nice cushion, but I expected
to give that time back when I had to run these miles in the uphill direction.
In mile 12, I was
disappointed with my pace. It was just
barely ahead of my target pace, even though that mile was also downhill.
After that, the course
leveled off. There were still uphill and
downhill sections, but they balanced out.
After having a disappointing time for mile 12, I picked up my effort to
make sure I would stay on pace in the somewhat level miles. In mile 13, I sped up to 8:35. That was a pleasant surprise.
At the halfway point, I
was on pace to break 3:55, but I knew the second half would be much tougher.
By now, I was seeing the
faster runners on their way back. With
two-way traffic, the trail got crowded.
There was a brief section
on sidewalk, as we ran alongside a residential street. Then we crossed the street and got back onto
another section of paved trail. From
there, it was about two and a half miles to the turnaround. I worked hard enough to keep my pace close to
nine minutes per mile.
Along these trails, there
weren’t many spectators. There were only
a few spots that spectators could easily reach.
One was a park that we ran through at about 15 miles. I have friends who live in the area, and this
is where I’ve sometimes seen them. This
year, unfortunately, they were out of town.
As I got closer to the
turnaround, I started looking for the 4:00 pace group. I didn’t expect to see them in front of me,
and I never did. After the turn, I
started looking to see if they were somewhere behind me. I never saw them. I stopped looking when I saw the 4:15 group. I had read that there would be a 4:00 group,
but apparently there wasn’t. Either they
couldn’t find enough pacers, or someone didn’t show up.
Making my way back, I
continued to work hard enough to keep my pace close to nine minutes. In at least one mile, I overdid it, adding to
my cushion.
When I came back through
the park, I felt the warmth of the sun for the first time in about 10
miles. Finally, my hands no longer felt
cold.
I was thinking I would
begin the tough uphill section around 19 miles.
I was off by a mile. The
three-mile uphill section was from 20 to 23.
As I started this
section, I knew I had a cushion of at least three and a half minutes. I wasn’t keeping close enough track to
realize it, but I actually had a cushion of about five minutes going into this
stretch.
Mile 21 wasn’t as tough
as I thought. The trend was uphill, but
there were still some flat or downhill sections. With effort, I managed to keep my pace close
to my overall target pace. Now I just
had two more uphill miles, and my cushion was still intact.
As I started mile 22, I
told myself anything under 10:30 would be acceptable. This mile also wasn’t as tough as I
remembered. I worked hard on the uphill
sections, and I used the occasional flat or downhill section to recover. That mile was also close to my target pace,
so I still wasn’t giving back any time.
Mile 23 was every bit as
tough as I expected, but I knew I wouldn’t give back my entire cushion in one
mile. There was a long section that was
steep, but all I had to do was run it at whatever pace I could manage. I would be fine as long as I didn’t walk.
My only concern at this
point was that I might be too tired to resume my previous pace in the last few
miles. That concern went away when I saw
my time for mile 23. I ran it in 10:04. That’s almost a minute slower than my overall
target pace, but it still left me with a large cushion.
Midway through the next
mile, we left the trails to get back on city streets. From here, the next two miles were straight
toward downtown. I wasn’t getting hot
yet, and I was close enough to the finish that I knew I didn’t have to worry
about overheating.
Where we got onto the street,
it was initially uphill, but it wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t steep enough to slow me down, and
it wasn’t long enough to tire me out.
When I finished mile 24, I saw that I had brought my pace back under
nine minutes.
I knew the rest of the
race would have a downhill trend. Mile
25 had a couple small hills, but much more of it was downhill. My time for that mile was the same as the
previous mile.
With just over a mile to
go, I knew I was done with hills. The
rest of the race was either flat or downhill.
As I passed runners who were struggling, I made sure they knew they were
done with the hills. One was relieved to
hear that.
With half a mile to go, I
saw a spectator standing in the middle of the street. I didn’t notice what her sign said, but she kept
shouting, “Downhill time.” Then she
said, “It’s all downhill from here.”
Usually, when a spectator
says that, they’re wrong. This time, she
was right. The rest of the course was
all downhill. I was too tired to pick up
my pace much, but I easily kept up the same pace.
There were still three
sharp turns before the finish. When I reached
the first one, I knew exactly where I was.
I wouldn’t be able to see the finish line until after the last turn, but
I knew the rest of the route.
A couple runners passed
me on the downhill charge to the finish line.
I tried to keep up with one of them, but he was a stronger finisher.
I knew I was easily
breaking four hours, but I was still shocked to see how large my margin was. I finished in 3:55:15. I was only about 30 seconds slower in the
second half, even though it has a tougher elevation profile.
As I moved through the
finish area, I received my medal and a bottle of water. Then I made my way to the customer service
tent, so I could find out if I won an age group award. I did.
I was second in my age group.
I think the age group
award is supposed to slip over the ribbon of the finisher medal, but I haven’t figured
out how to do that without putting a fold into the ribbon.
Next, I made my way to
the beer garden to have a post-race beer.
I didn’t eat any post-race snacks.
I’ll probably eat an early dinner instead. Then I’ll want to get to bed early. I need to catch up on sleep.
When other hotel guests
found out this was my fourth fire alarm at a hotel, some of them thought I
might be bad luck. One said I should
remind him never to stay at the same hotel as me. While it’s never a pleasant experience, it
almost seems like it’s good luck for me.
Every time it happens, I run a Boston qualifier.
