On March 15, I ran the Tobacco
Road Marathon in Cary, NC, which is in the Raleigh/Durham area. This race is held on the American Tobacco
Trail, which is a trail built on a former railroad line.
I ran this race once
before. That was 15 years ago, when I
was in the best shape of my life. Back
then, I ran this race in 3:07:18, which is an average pace of 7:09 per mile. Now, I can’t even run that fast in a 5K
race. I wasn’t looking forward to seeing
how much I’ve slowed down in the last 15 years.
I had all sorts of drama
with flights. I was originally scheduled
to fly to Raleigh on Saturday, on a direct flight. Delta changed their flight schedule, and they
rebooked me on a flight that wouldn’t get me to Raleigh until after packet
pickup had ended. To get there on time
for packet pickup, I had to make connections in Atlanta, and my flight to
Atlanta would’ve left at 5:15 AM. So
far, this was just like my recent trip to San Antonio, but it didn’t end there.
On Friday, I got a
notification that my flight might be affected by a winter storm, and I had the
option of changing my flight at no cost.
As far as I knew, the storm wasn’t supposed to arrive until Saturday
afternoon, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
I called Delta, and I was
able to switch to a direct flight that left Friday afternoon and would get me
to Raleigh around 6:00 PM. By the time I
made that change, I barely had time to pack a few last-minute things and drive
to the airport.
When I got to the
airport, I found out that my flight was delayed by about an hour. That wasn’t the worst possible news. I no longer had to stress about getting
through security in time. It also gave
me time to make a few phone calls. I had
to change my hotel and rental car reservations.
I arrived in Raleigh
around 7:00 Friday evening. My hotel was
close to the airport, so it didn’t take long to get there. I’m not used to arriving so late in the day,
so I got to bed later than usual.
Thankfully, both the hotel and the rental car company were able to accommodate
me.
One nice thing about
arriving on Friday is that I didn’t have to get up early to catch a flight
Saturday morning. I was able to sleep as
late as I could and enjoy breakfast at the hotel.
Packet pickup was at the
USA Baseball National Baseball Complex, which is also where the race started
and finished. While I was there, I could
see people setting up the start/finish area for the race.
The day before a race is
normally a rest day. I never had time to
go for a run on Friday, so went for a run on Saturday instead. I used my run as an opportunity to
refamiliarize myself with the American Tobacco Trail. I drove to a parking area at the northern end
of the marathon course. I ran south
along the trail for a few miles and then turned around and came back.
My recollection is that
the trail was gravel, so I was surprised to see that this section was paved.
I had an early dinner at
a pizza place just a few miles from my hotel.
Then I relaxed at my hotel and turned in early.
From the forecast I saw
on Saturday, I was expecting it to be in the upper 40s at the start, but warm
up into the upper 50s. My legs don’t
respond well to cold temperatures, so I was planning to wear tights and hope I
wouldn’t get too warm later in the race.
When I got up Sunday
morning, it was 54 degrees. The hourly
forecast still showed the temperature dropping into the 40s before warming up
again, so I stuck with my decision to wear tights. I decided to also bring a pair of shorts, in
case I wanted to change my mind after I got to the race.
The race started and
finished at USA Baseball. Parking there
is limited. Those who registered early
enough could buy a parking permit. If
you didn’t have a parking permit, you had to park at a remote parking lot and
take a bus. I was lucky enough to get a
parking permit, which made my morning much easier. I didn’t have to get up as early, and I
didn’t need to bother with the gear check.
I was able to leave my extra layers in the car when I went to line up
for the start.
An hour before the race,
the temperature was still 54 degrees.
The hourly forecast had been updated.
Now, it wasn’t going to cool off any more. I knew I would likely get too warm in tights,
but I apparently forgot to bring my shorts with me. They weren’t in the bag with my other race
gear. I was now committed to wearing
tights.
As I was in the bathroom
line, I heard people commenting about the humidity. I didn’t feel it yet, but this was another
ominous sign that I was probably overdressed.
I set a goal of
3:50. The last time I ran that fast was
last October, in Chicago. This year,
I’ve struggled just to break four hours.
I’d like to think I just haven’t had the right course under the right
conditions. This is a relatively flat
course, so I decided to go for it, even if the conditions weren’t ideal. I wanted to test myself.
They had pace groups, and
one of the groups was a 3:50 group. I
met one of the 3:50 pacers in the start area, and I looked for him in the start
corral. As it turns out, the other 3:50
pacer is a runner I’ve met before.
Although we would mostly
be running on the American Tobacco Trail, we had to run on city streets for
just over two miles to get to the trail.
This part of the course has some hills.
The first mile is always
chaotic, because it’s congested, and people are starting at different
paces. Sometimes that causes a pace
group to take the first mile a little slow.
These two pace leaders got up to speed quickly. I did my best to stay right behind them. The pace felt fast, but I challenged myself
to stay with them.
As we started climbing a
hill, I found myself unable to keep up with the pace group. I kept them in sight, but I couldn’t catch up
until we turned a corner and started running downhill. Even then, I had to work hard to catch up.
When we finished that
mile, it confirmed my impression that we were starting fast. Our target pace was 8:46, but we ran the
first mile in 8:27.
I was hopeful that we
would ease up in the second mile. We did
ease up a little, but not as much as I hoped.
That mile was 8:33, which is still fast.
I started the race with
gloves, but I took them off just before we reached an aid station. I knew I wouldn’t need them for the whole
race, and I didn’t want to risk getting Gatorade on them.
Early in the third mile,
we reached the trail. Runners doing the
half marathon turned left to do a long out-and-back on the southern section of
the trail. Those of us doing the
marathon turned right to do a long out-and-back on the northern section. Without the half marathon runners, the course
wasn’t as crowded. Now, it was easier to
see who was in our pace group.
The first section of
trail was gravel, but it wasn’t loose.
It probably had a lot of clay, because it was very firm.
Shortly after we got onto
the trail, I started to notice a cool breeze.
My hands quickly got cold. I
expected to get hot later, so I wasn’t too worried about it. The longer my hands felt cold, the better.
In mile three, we sped up
slightly. Through three miles, we were
averaging 8:30 per mile. The fast pace
was taking a toll on me. I still felt
like I was working hard to keep up with the group.
After about a mile on the
trail, the surface changed to pavement, but there was still a strip on one side
that was gravel. I ran on the pavement,
but some runners chose to move over to the side that was gravel.
Over the next several
miles, our pace moderated slightly, but it was still fast. I was getting mile splits ranging from 8:28
to 8:40. Some miles were faster than
others, but we never had a slow mile.
The pacers didn’t seem too concerned that we were running fast, but I
was working much harder than I should be this early in a race.
At times, one of the
pacers would comment that we were on a hill.
If there were hills, they were very gradual. It always looked and felt flat to me.
Just past the eight-mile
mark, we reached the northern turnaround.
I briefly fell behind at an aid station and had to work hard to catch
up. I didn’t know how much longer I could
do that.
We were almost to 12
miles when I began losing contact with the group. I could see the handwriting on the wall. The work it would take to stay with the group
would break me. As it is, I probably
waited much too long to abandon the pace.
I never noticed what my
time was for mile 13, but I reached the halfway point a minute ahead of
schedule. I could barely see the pace
group by now, so they may have been as much as two minutes ahead of schedule.
I was still on pace for
3:50, but I knew that wouldn’t last much longer. I was hoping I could still break four hours,
but I worried that the wheels were coming off.
My pace for mile 14 was
9:25. I knew I was slowing down, but I
was surprised to have slowed down that much already. With 12 miles to go, I tried to figure out
what pace I would need the rest of the way to finish in four hours. My best guess was something in the low 8:30s.
The trail was
well-shaded, but soon we came into a clearing.
For the first time I felt the sun.
I started to feel hot, but only until we got back into shade. I no longer had cold hands.
Soon, we crossed the
street where we had turned onto the trail.
Then we continued onto the southern part of the course to begin another
long out-and-back. Runners doing the half
marathon were already on their way back.
I worked harder to keep
up with the runners around me. In mile 15,
I sped up slightly to 9:21. Then, in
mile 16, I sped up to 8:50. After
running fast for one mile, I settled back into my previous pace in the next
one.
The northern part of the
course always seemed flat. The southern part
definitely had uphill sections and downhill sections. I could barely see the difference, but I
could definitely feel it. Mile 16 was
evidently a downhill mile. Mile 18 was
an uphill mile. I slowed to 9:50 in that
mile. I took solace in knowing that mile
was balanced by the 8:50 I ran in mile 16.
On average, my pace in recent miles was in the 9:20s.
The 19-mile mark came
just after the turnaround at the southern end of the course. In that mile, I sped up to 9:10. Right after the turn, I realized I had been
running downhill. Coming back, it was
uphill, and it drained the life from me.
I slowed down to 10:00 in that mile.
I was starting to have
serious doubts about breaking four hours.
The next mile was downhill. It
should have been a fast mile. Instead,
it was 8:32. That was about what I
needed to average. What would happen in
miles that were level or uphill? I
didn’t have to wait long to find out.
Mile 22 seemed fairly
level, but it took me 9:49. There was no
question I was slowing down. Mile 23 was
uphill, and I ran it in 10:34.
When I reached the
10-mile sign for the half marathon, I had 3.1 miles to go. I did a quick calculation that confirmed that
I no longer had any realistic chance of breaking four hours.
I still had one more goal
worth fighting for. I was still on pace
to break 4:05, and that would be a Boston qualifier for my age group.
In the next mile, we left
the trail and turned back onto city streets.
We needed to retrace our route back to the start/finish area at USA
Baseball. This section has rolling hills.
For the rest of the race,
there wasn’t much shade. The temperature
was much warmer than it had been at the start of the race, and now I could feel
the sun on me. It’s likely that my
deterioration over the previous four miles was caused, in part, by the rising
temperatures and the humidity. Direct
sunlight only made it tougher.
My time for mile 24 was
10:25. I was on pace to break 4:05, but
if I slowed down any more, I might be cutting it close.
Mile 25 was rolling. It was more up than down, so I was encouraged
when I kept my pace under 10 minutes. I
knew mile 26 would have a nice downhill section, but first I had to run uphill.
I struggled going up a
hill, turned a corner, and saw it was still uphill. I grabbed a cup of water at the last aid
station and walked while I drank it. I
couldn’t drink while running up a hill.
I regained my composure
on a brief downhill section, but then there was one more hill. I struggled with this one. I needed to limit the damage. I couldn’t walk or slow down too much.
Finally, I made the last
major turn, and I started down a hill.
This is the same hill where I fell behind my group in mile one while
running up the hill. From here to the
finish, it was much easier.
When my watch gave me a
split for mile 26, it was under 10 minutes.
My watch was consistently giving me splits prematurely, so I knew I was
still well short of 26 miles. I couldn’t
even see the “26” sign yet.
I had to get past the
“26” sign before the finish line came into sight. My friends, Julie and Miles, were watching
for me near the finish line. I heard
Julie yell my name, and I looked just in time to see her.
I finished in
4:02:29. For the third time this year, I
got a Boston qualifier, but failed to break four hours.
How much slower was I now
compared to 15 years ago? Then, my
average pace was 7:09. This year, it was
9:15. I’ve slowed down by more than two
minutes per mile.
I felt hot in the last
two miles, and the heat was probably affecting me much earlier. I didn’t realize how hot I was until after I
finished. Then I felt hot and sweaty.
Finisher medals have been
getting larger in recent years. This
medal was definitely a part of that trend.
It had a railroad theme, which was appropriate.
There were volunteers
offing water bottles, but I didn’t take one.
I already had water in my car.
Anyone who qualified for
Boston could get an extra T-shirt. I
didn’t ask for one. I already have too
many T-shirts. I also didn’t eat any of
the post-race food. Instead, I saved
room for lunch.
After I had time to go
back to my hotel and get cleaned up, I joined Julie and Miles for a late
lunch. We had a nice visit.
I spent the rest of the
day resting at the hotel. I didn’t go
out again. I had dinner at the hotel’s
restaurant.
I don’t need to fly home until Monday. That’s just as well, because Minnesota is getting hit with a major winter storm. Hopefully, the storm will be done before my flight home. The drama with flights might not be done yet.
Well done! None of us are running the times we ran 25-30 years ago.
ReplyDeleteOllie