Race Report: 2017 Mankato Marathon

This morning, I race-walked the Mankato Marathon.  I’ve done this race before, but this year it was one of the quarterly reunions of the 50 States Marathon Club.  This was the first time the club has held a reunion in Minnesota, so I didn’t want to miss it.

I ran this race three years ago, so I knew what the course is like.  The early miles are rolling, with one big hill at five miles.  In the second half, there’s a long downhill section, as the course descends into the Minnesota River valley.  Finally, the late miles are relatively flat.

Before each race, I ask myself, “Should I run this or walk this?”  I thought running the long downhill section would be too hard on my back, so I walked this one.

I drove to Mankato on Saturday.  I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, which is near the finish line.  It’s also close to where I could catch a bus to the start.  After checking in, I drove to the campus of Mankato State University – Mankato to pick up my race packet.

After returning to the hotel to organize my clothes for the race, I returned to the MSU campus to attend the 50 States Marathon Club reunion meeting.  One of the things they do at these meetings is to recognize members who have finished marathons in all 50 states.  This was the first reunion I’ve attended since finishing my second circuit of 50 states in December of 2015, so I was one of the honorees.

I didn’t have to go far to find my pre-race pizza.  There was a restaurant inside the hotel with brick oven pizza.

I woke up too early, but that’s OK, because I was also able to get to bed early.  I got about six and a half hours sleep, which is better than average for the night before a race.

There were buses to the start, which left between 6:00 and 7:05.  I left the hotel just after 6:00, and I was on a bus by 6:15.  Within minutes of getting dropped off in the start area, I saw four other members of the 50 States Marathon Club.  One asked if there were any coffee shops nearby.  I knew there was a Caribou Coffee across the street, so the five of us walked over there.  When we got there, we spotted more 50 staters who were already there.

At 7:30, we walked back to the start area.  By then, I had taken off my warm-up pants and prepared my gear bag.  We watched the start of the 10K race, and then I checked my gear bag and made a last minute bathroom stop before lining up.

It was 46 degrees at the start, but there wasn’t much wind.  That’s a big contrast with three years ago, when strong winds made the start intolerably cold.  It was forecast to get into the low 60s by the time I finished.  I started the race wearing gloves and a Tyvek jacket, knowing I could take them off when I warmed up.

I saw a 5:00 pace group.  I also saw a 2:30 pace group for the half marathon, which is the same average pace.  I lined up between them.  My PR was 5:03, so starting on pace for five hours was ambitious but not totally unreasonable.

After leaving the parking lot and making a few turns, we eventually headed south on Monks Avenue.  This was the beginning of a large loop.  Even with the jacket and gloves, I was cold for the first two or three miles.

My first two miles were 11:11 and 11:15.  That’s faster than a five hour pace, but I was right with the 2:30 pace group for the half marathon.  I figured staying with them would keep me from going out at a crazy fast pace.  The 5:00 pace group for the marathon was right behind us.

After about three miles, the marathoners turned left, while the half marathoners turned right.  I could no longer follow the 2:30 pace group for the half marathon, but I heard the 5:00 group right behind me.

After the turn, we were on a bike path.  Without the half marathoners, but race was just the right size.  There were enough runners around me that I wasn’t by myself, but the course didn’t feel crowded.

Soon, I warmed up enough to take off my gloves.  I kept the jacket on for a few more miles.

The fifth mile was all downhill.  Here, the 5:00 pace group moved past me.  They could speed on running downhill, but I found this hill to be uncomfortably steep.  If anything, I slowed down.

The sixth mile was all uphill.  This was the toughest hill on the course.  The 5:00 group was taking walking breaks, which allowed me to gradually gain ground on them.  I caught them right at the top of the hill.  I was getting warm going up the hill, so I finally took off my jacket and tied it around my waist.

In these early miles, I continued to average about 11:15 per mile.  At one point, I heard the pace leader tell his group they were about a minute ahead of schedule.  Starting at a five hour pace was ambitious.  Being ahead of that pace was reckless.

I still have blisters from the Amsterdam Marathon.  The hills aggravated a blister on the heel of my left foot.

Although the biggest hill was behind us, there were still smaller hills.  On another downgrade that was uncomfortably steep, I once again fell behind the group.  My pace going up and down hills didn’t vary as much as theirs did.  I caught them going uphill, when they took another walking break.  It was a long enough walking break that I moved ahead of them.  We were playing leapfrog.

At this point, we were about as far from the city center as we would get. We were running between cornfields.  There were also a few bends in the road, and the turns were slightly banked.  The slanted road surface made the blister pain spread around the side of my left heel.

For a couple miles, I was out ahead of the 5:00 group.  Just as they caught up to me, Ken, the pace leader, announced it was time for a walking break.  Then I moved ahead of them.  This pattern repeated for the next few miles.

Around 10 miles, we entered a residential neighborhood, and there was a large cluster of people cheering.  I’m not sure if this was an organized “cheer squad,” or if several local residents were all watching for friends at the same spot.  Going through here, the cheering was actually loud.  It was like a miniature version of the Wellesley scream tunnel.

The next time the 5:00 group caught up to me, I said, “Since you caught up to me, it’s probably time for a walking break.”  One of the runners said, “We walk when Ken says it’s time to walk.”  On cue, Ken said, “We’re going a little fast.  Let’s take a walking break.”  After that, I moved ahead of them and didn’t see them again for several miles.

For a five hour marathon, I needed to average 11:27 per mile.  So far, every mile had been faster than that.  Then, mile 12 was 11:38.  That made me wonder if I could sustain my pace in the second half.  The next mile, however, was faster.

I reached the halfway mark in 2:27:47.  That was a new half marathon PR by 90 seconds.  I set the old PR at the halfway mark of the Amsterdam Marathon.  In that race, I fully expected to crash and burn in the second half.  I slowed down by about five minutes, but I still felt strong until the last mile.  In this race, I expected to slow down, but only by about four or miles minutes.  I thought I had a chance to break five hours.  At worst, I assumed I’d still break 5:03, which would be a new PR.

Soon, we turned onto Monks Avenue for the second time.  Emboldened by my fast halfway split, I sped up to have my fastest mile of the race.  I walked the 14th mile in 10:50.  Then I began to deteriorate.  Mile 15 was 12 minutes.  That was by far my slowest so far.

By now, I was getting warm.  The temperature was probably in the 50s, but the sun was out, and that makes a big difference.

We eventually reached the intersection where the half marathoners left us earlier.  Now it was our turn to turn right. The 16 mile sign was right at the corner.  I walked that mile in 11:41.  It wasn’t as slow as the previous mile, but the trend was unmistakable.  I was slowing down.  To encourage myself, I reminded myself that I was still ahead of the 5:00 group.  They were far enough behind me that I couldn’t hear them.

I was beginning the fastest part of the course.  The next mile would be flat, but then I would begin a long downhill section.  I couldn’t remember if the grade was steep or gradual.  If it was gradual, I would probably speed up.  At the very least, it would feel easier.  If it was too steep, I would be uncomfortable, and I might actually slow down.

The next mile took 11:39.  That was slightly faster than the previous mile, but still not encouraging.  I looked forward to the downhill section.  I needed it to get back on pace.

About halfway through the 18th mile, I reached the beginning of the downhill section.  Thankfully, the grade was gradual.  I thought I was picking up the pace a little.  That was wishful thinking.  When I reached the next mile marker, I was distressed to see that I slowed to 11:49, even in a downhill mile.  I was still descending, but I realized I would never see another 11:27 mile.  Now it was a question of limiting the damage.  I still had a slim chance of breaking five hours if I could get back to an average of about 11:40.  Even at my current pace, I had a good chance of breaking my PR of 5:03:08.

We left the road we were on and turned onto a paved path.  At first, we were running alongside a highway.  The grade wasn’t uniform, but there was still.an unmistakable downhill trend.  I saw a sign indicating steep grades ahead.  I knew they were steep downgrades.  The first one was uncomfortable, but short.  At the bottom of the hill, I reached the 19 mile sign.  In another downhill mile, I slowed to 12:10.

I knew at this point I had no chance of breaking five hours.  I still clinged to hopes of breaking 5:03, but I couldn’t afford to keep slowing down.

The 5:00 group finally caught up to me.  One runner said, “We caught ya.”  I said, “I knew you would.  I’m deteriorating.”   Imploding would have been a better description.  I wanted to pick up my pace to stay with them.  I couldn’t.  They passed me like I was standing still.

When I’m walking with a smooth stride, I sometimes feel like I have wheels, and I roll over the pavement.  Now the wheels were coming off.  I still had seven miles to go, and I knew it would be a struggle.  I was crashing and burning.  I was fatigued, my legs were stiff and sore, my blisters were painful, and I was hot.

The path we were on entered the forest.  This was the most scenic part of the course.  I no longer saw the highway, and I couldn’t even hear the cars.  Instead, I sometimes heard water from a nearby stream.  This section of the course was a nature walk.

Mile 20 took 12:17.  Each mile was slower than the one before, and I knew that trend would continue.  At my present pace, I wouldn’t even break 5:03.  At best, I might be 5:04 or 5:05, and that’s only if I didn’t continue to slow down.

I tried to encourage myself by reminding myself that only a few months ago, I didn’t know if I could walk fast enough to do a 5:30 marathon.  That’s an average pace of 12:35.  So far, every mile had been faster than that.  Right on cue, I slowed to 12:35 in the next mile.

Now I just wanted to finish.  I felt dejected that I wouldn’t set a PR in this race.  Then I remembered that I already set a half marathon PR.  I kept alive my streak of setting PRs for either the marathon or half marathon in every race I walked.  That would have to be enough, because the last five miles were going to be ugly.

I had a love/hate relationship with the mile markers.  On one hand, each time I saw one, I knew I was one mile closer to the finish line.  On the other hand, I hated seeing the way my mile times were deteriorating.

I didn’t want to completely throw in the towel.  Subconsciously, I might be giving up, but consciously, I was really trying to maintain my pace.  I set a goal of keeping my remaining mile times under 13 minutes.  Mile 22 was 12:45.  That was a good start.

We were getting close to the downtown area.  Then we reached a street with runners going both ways.  The runners on the other side of the street were in the last mile of the race.  To get to where they were, we had to cross under the highway and do a three mile loop.

As I started the loop, nothing looked familiar.  Up until now, I recognized most of the course.  Now I felt like I was doing it for the first time.  In mile 23, I sped up to 12:30.  That encouraged me to pick up my effort.  I once gain briefly felt like I was I was rolling over the road.  Unfortunately, I was now rolling on a flat tire.  My blisters really hurt.  I was actually rolling on two flat tires.  My right foot hurt almost as much as the left foot.

If mile 23 was encouraging, mile 24 was the last nail in the coffin.  I slowed to 13:23. So much for keeping them all under 13 minutes.

Eventually we came alongside the Minnesota River.  Suddenly, the route looked familiar again.  I remembered what the rest of the course looked like.  I also enjoyed the river views.  Neither of these helped me pick up the pace, but they both made it easier to keep moving.

Mile 25 took 13:29.  I wanted to tell myself to keep the last full mile under 13:30, but I thought that would only lead to disappointment.  I focused on finishing.

I got back onto the street with two-way traffic.  I didn’t see anyone going the other direction.  Was I really that close to the back of the race?  There was a Burger King on the corner.  Another runner thought it was unfair that we had to go by Burger King twice.  I think it was making her hungry.

As I made the turn onto Front Street, a volunteer said we were getting closer, adding that there were several blocks to go.  I was glad he didn’t say “almost there.”  Soon I saw the 26 mile sign.  Looking farther ahead, I could see the finish line.  I really was almost there.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that mile 26 took 13:22.  I actually sped up.  I pressed on and finished in 5:09:24.  After having high hopes of breaking five hours, that seemed really disappointing, but it’s still my second fastest time race-walking a marathon.

After crossing the line, I received my finisher medal and T-shirt.  They’re old school when it comes to T-shirts. You have to earn it.

Post-race food included bagels, popcorn, pretzels, gummies with vitamins, and chocolate milk.  I think they also had bananas, yogurt, water, and Gatorade.  I needed the food.  I didn’t have any breakfast, and my only food during the race was one gel packet.

I continued through the finish area to get my gear bag.  Then I headed to the post-race part area.  My race bib had a tear-off tag for a free beer.  I went to Pub 500 to redeem it.  As I left the pub, I saw two other 50 staters sitting on the patio.  I joined them, and while we talked, we kept seeing other 50 staters who had just finished.  I’m sure I was there for at least an hour before walking back to the hotel.

My fast time last week at the Amsterdam Marathon made me overconfident.  My implosion in this race brought me back to earth.  I still think I have it in me to walk a marathon in five hours, but it’s going to take a good race and smart pacing.  Doing the first half in 2:27 probably isn’t going to work.

I’m a little disappointed with my performance, but I still enjoyed the race.  It was nice seeing so many friends.

Race Statistics

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  5:09:24

Average Pace:  11:48

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  343

Minnesota Marathons/Ultras:  46

I've Rediscovered the Pursuit of PRs.

When I started running, I was motivated by personal records (PRs).  Running was the first athletic activity that I was even remotely good at.  I liked having an objective method for measuring my progress.  If I ran the same distance twice, my stopwatch told me which time was faster.

I tried to set a new PR every time I ran.  I treated each training run like it was a race.  I could that at first, but only because I had so much room for improvement.

Eventually, I discovered 5K and 10K races.  These were opportunities to test myself (and try to set a new PR).  I saw no point in doing a race if I wasn’t in good enough shape to make a serious attempt at a PR.  If I was just going to run, I could do that at home.

I viewed marathons differently.  At first, just finishing one was a challenge.  I wanted to run faster if I could, but even if I couldn’t, I felt a sense of satisfaction.  It didn’t have to be a PR.  Even after running hundreds of marathons, I still felt like it was a distance that always challenged me.  I could never take it for granted.

In 1992, the year I turned 31, I set new PRs for 5K, 8K, 10K, 7 miles, half marathon, 25K, and marathon.  The following year, I let myself get out of shape.  I also gained weight.  By the time I lost the weight and got serious about my training, I was several years older.  I still ran marathons, but I stopped doing shorter distances.  I knew my days of setting PRs were behind me.

In 1998, I ran my first ultra.  As I tackled new distances, I once again had opportunities to set PRs.  Eventually, though, I realized I was also past my peak for those distances.

The last time I set a running PR was in 2014, when I set a PR for the unusual distance of 89.3 kilometers.  That was at the Comrades Marathon in South Africa.

I have hundreds of friends who run, and I’m connected with many of them on Facebook.  When I see that one of my friends set a new PR, I’m happy for them, but it’s getting harder and harder for me to relate to that feeling.  It’s been 25 years since my marathon PR.  It’s been just as long for shorter distances.

That all changed this summer.  After my back surgery in June, I had to give up running for at least 12 weeks.  I started walking so I could still get exercise.  Then I started race-walking, so I could do marathons and finish within the time limits.  At first, race-walking marathons was an act of desperation.  Given a choice between walking a race and not doing it at all, I chose to walk.

The first time I walked a marathon, I finished in 5:47.  That was automatically a PR.  By my next one, I had improved to 5:21.  That was another new PR, although I was more thrilled to have finished within the time limit.  In the next one, I narrowly missed a new marathon PR for race-walking, but my half marathon split was a PR.

When I could, I started running occasionally, but most of my training is still walking.  I want to eventually return to running marathons, but I don’t want to risk injury by doing too much too soon.

I finished the Moose Mountain Marathon by doing a combination of running and walking.  It was my slowest marathon ever, but I finished.  Four weeks ago, I returned to race-walking for the Ely Marathon.  Why didn’t I run it?  I had two reasons.  First, I felt like I was overdue for a quality long race-walking workout.  My longest walk since the Solidarity Marathon in August was only 10.2 miles.  Having worked so hard to improve my race-walking, I wanted to keep that going.  Second, I learned the Ely Marathon had a hilly course.  I’m not ready to run hills.  Running downhill transfers too much impact to my back.

I surprised myself by setting another new race-walking PR in that race.  I finished a hilly course in 5:17 under less than ideal weather conditions.  That made me wonder how much faster I could walk the Amsterdam Marathon, which has a fairly flat course.  I went into that race gunning for another new PR.  I never considered running it.  I wanted a PR, and I could only do that by race-walking.  The result was a 14 minute improvement.

It’s been 25 years since I last set a PR for running a marathon.  Since then, I’ve run 283 marathons without setting a PR.  I’ve only walked five marathons, but I set PRs in four of them.  Even in the race where I didn’t set a new marathon PR, I set a half marathon PR.  I’m not yet ready to run a marathon without doing a substantial amount of walking.  Why run/walk a marathon and finish with a really slow time, when I can race-walk it and set a PR?

I love the thrill of setting a PR.  I’ve done some race-walking before this year, but only for shorter distances.  I’m new to race-walking marathons.  That means I once again have lots of room for improvement.  In any given race, I have to ask myself, “Can I set a PR in this one?”  I feel like I did when I was in my 20s.

I hope to eventually return to running marathons, but in the short-term, I’m more than happy to walk them.  I was planning to run the FANS 24 Hour Race next June.  Now I’m planning to walk it.  It’s one of the few races in the United States where a walker can earn a Centurion badge for walking 100 miles in 24 hours.  That’s a challenging goal, but I still have almost eight months to train, and I’m off to a good start.  In the meantime, I’ll use marathons as part of my training.  I’ll also pursue new PRs.

Race Report: 2017 Amsterdam Marathon

This past week, Deb and I went on a trip to the Netherlands, and I did the Amsterdam Marathon.  Our last international trip together was to Norway in 2013.  On our way home from that trip, we had an overnight stopover in Amsterdam.  We had half a day for sightseeing and spent the night in a boutique hotel near the city center.  That was enough to whet our appetites, but we both wanted to come back.  Deb especially liked the canals, which reminded her of Venice.

Thursday, October 12

We were able to get a non-stop flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam.  It was an overnight flight, which arrived Thursday morning.

We stayed at the Amsterdam Hilton.  For those of you who are Beatles fans, that’s the same hotel where John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent their honeymoon and had their “bed-in for peace” in 1969.  When I made the reservation, the “John and Yoko Suite” was available, but it was a bit out of our price range.  It’s about €1,200 per night!  While we didn’t stay in the John and Yoko Suite, we did get a room with a canal view.

After checking in at the Hilton, we walked to a neighborhood between the western canals called Nine Streets.  Along the way, we walked through the museum quarter and the southern canals.  We got lots of canal views.

Amsterdam is a bike friendly city.  Most of the streets and sidewalks have bike lanes.  We quickly discovered that you have to be more careful crossing bike lanes than you do crossing the streets.  In most places, the bicycle traffic outnumbers the automobile traffic.  Throughout the city, we saw bikes parked everywhere.

Deb was a little disappointed with the shops in Nine Streets, but we found some interesting shops in another neighborhood as we walked back to the hotel.

We didn’t have any lunch, so when we got back to the hotel, we were hungry for an early dinner.  That’s when we realized that the Hilton was well-located for the marathon, but not so much for dining.  There weren’t many restaurants close to the hotel, and the hotel’s restaurant wasn’t open for dinner yet.  We eventually found a pizzeria about half a mile from the hotel.

We managed to stay awake until nightfall, but then we went to sleep immediately.

Friday, October 13

The expo was held at a Sporthallen Zuid, which was near the Olympic Stadium.  I walked over there as soon as it opened.  On the way, I got my first glimpse of the stadium, where the marathon would start and finish.

At the hotel, we were able to buy two I Amsterdam cards.  These gave us unlimited use of public transportation for 48 hours.  They also gave us free or discounted entry to dozens of museums.

Our first stop was the Van Gogh Museum.  Our I Amsterdam cards gave us free admission.

After the Van Gogh Museum, we walked over to a pancake restaurant called The Carousel.  There was a small carousel inside the restaurant.

No visit to Amsterdam is complete without having Dutch pancakes.  Mine had Nutella and bananas.  Deb’s had pineapple.

After lunch, we took a tram to the western canal neighborhood to visit the Amsterdam Tulip Museum.  Amsterdam has more than 50 museums.  The Amsterdam Cheese Museum wouldn’t necessarily have been at the top of our list, but it happened to be two doors down from the tulip museum, so we went there next.

We were in a neighborhood that we had visited four years ago, so some of the shops looked familiar.  For dinner, we were originally planning to go to another pancake restaurant called The Happy Pig.  They close at 6:00, and we were still shopping, so we couldn’t get there in time.  Instead, we took the tram back to The Carousel.  This time, instead of sweet pancakes, we had savory pancakes.  Deb’s had bacon, cheese, and pineapple.  Mine had bacon, apples, and butter.

After we got back to the hotel, I walked over to the stadium and back.  It was about a mile in each direction, and I already knew the way, so this became my daily walking route.

Saturday, October 14

After my morning walk to and from the stadium, we went to the Rijksmuseum.  This is Amsterdam’s finest art museum, with works from the 12th century through the 20th century.

After the Rijksmuseum, we took a one hour city canal cruise.  The cruise was free with our I Amsterdam cards.

After the canal cruise, we took a tram into the city center, so we could have lunch at The Happy Pig.  Then we explored the city center.

Finally, we went to the Albert marketplace in a neighborhood called the De Pijp. 

The market was several blocks long and took about an hour to explore.

For pre-race dinner, I had pizza.  When we arrived at the restaurant, we were told it would be an hour to get a table for two.  Everyone wants to have pasta the night before a race, so Italian restaurants tend to be fully booked. They only had three small tables, and the larger ones were all reserved for larger parties.  Then we got lucky.  One of the couples left right after finishing their entrees, instead of staying to have coffee.  We were able to get that table after waiting for just a few minutes.

Sunday, October 15

Sunday was race day.  I got enough sleep the previous three nights, but pre-race nerves combined with jet lag made it difficult to sleep.  I only managed to sleep for about two hours.  Fortunately, I’ve done enough marathons to know that I’d be able to shake that off.  I finally got up at 6:30, so I could have a light breakfast before getting ready for the race.  The hotel started its breakfast service early that morning.

The race didn’t start until 9:30.  I had to walk about a mile to get to the stadium, so I left about an hour early.  That gave me plenty of time for a bathroom stop before finding my way to my start corral inside the stadium.

It was 55 degrees when I left the hotel, but it was forecast to get into the upper 60s later in the afternoon.  Most runners probably thought it was too warm, but for me it was comfortable.

I wore a Tyvek jacket as I walked to the stadium.  The race provided a gear check, but I didn’t want to bother with that.  Instead, I tied my jacket around my waist before starting the race.

Three weeks ago, I set a race-walking PR at the Ely Marathon.  That was a hilly course, and conditions less than ideal.  I wanted to know how much faster I could go on a nice flat course with better weather.  This was the best opportunity I could ask for, so I went for it.

I wanted to break 5:15.  To do that, I needed an average pace just under 7:30 per kilometer.  Ideally, I would do 7:30s for the first half and then speed up a little.  If you’ve read any of my race reports, you know that’s not what happened.

I was lined up in corral D.  Corral assignments were based on estimated finish times that we provided when we registered.  When I registered for this race, I thought I would be running, so my estimate was under four hours.  Corral D was for runners in the 3:30 to 4:00 range.

I knew I’d be starting much slower than the other people in my corral, but I thought I could ignore them and go at my own pace.  Guess how that worked out.

We started on the track in the Olympic Stadium.  That’s not a large enough start area for all the runners, so we were packed in like sardines.  Runners who didn’t line up early enough were in staging areas next to the track.  I’m not sure exactly how and when they got onto the track.

After the leaders started, it was still a few minutes before I noticed any movement in my corral.  While we waited, we could watch coverage of the leaders on a big screen in the middle of the stadium.  It took almost eight minutes before I crossed the line.

When I crossed what I thought was the starting line, I started my watch.  It turns out that was the finish line.  The starting line was still 75 meters away.  It was a natural mistake.  It was a balloon arch with chip mats underneath.  It said, “Finish,” but I assumed we started and finished in the same place.  By the time I realized my mistake, it was too late to stop, reset, and restart my watch before crossing the starting line. Instead I made a mental note to subtract 21 seconds from the time on my watch whenever I  read my splits.

After leaving the stadium, we turned onto a street that had tracks for a tram line.  I was careful to stay to one side, so I wouldn’t accidentally trip on one of the tracks.

Next, we entered Vondelpark, a large city park.  I knew we had gone about 1½ kilometers, which means I missed the first kilometer marker.  I would have to wait for the next one to find out how fast I started.

Inside the park, we reached an aid station.  The aid stations were generally spaced about five kilometers apart, but this section of the course was out-and-back.  This aid station was meant for the return trip, but it gave me a chance to drink some water before the 5K aid station.

Just past the aid station, I reached the two kilometer mark.  My watch read, “13:44.”  Deducting 21 seconds, my time for the first two kilometers was actually 13:23.  If I started at my intended pace, it would have been 15 minutes.  I started WAY too fast.  Suddenly the 21 seconds seemed inconsequential.

I eased up a little, but the next kilometer was still too fast.  I walked it in less than seven minutes.  I wasn’t making any effort to keep up with the runners around me.  They were passing me left and right.  Still, the fast crowd around me was influencing my sense of pace.  It didn’t seem like I was going that fast.

Often when I try to walk fast, my stride is a bit awkward.  This time, I felt nice and smooth.  I knew my pace wasn’t sustainable, but it felt deceptively easy.  I kept telling myself to ease up, but I knew it would take several kilometers to find the right pace.

I was passed by one of the pace leaders.  She was carrying a stick with a yellow balloon that read, “4:00.”  As the four hour pace group passed me, I wondered how many other pace groups I would see during this race.  Over the next few kilometers, I was also passed by the 4:10 and 4:20 groups.  For the first half of the race, I was surrounded by faster runners, so I was constantly drifting backwards through the pack.

After leaving Vondelpark, we turned right and headed toward the Rijksmuseum.  I heard “Hi, Dave” from the crowd.  I turned in time to see Deb.  I didn’t know for sure what her plans were, but I told her this would be a good place to watch the race.  It was only a few blocks from a neighborhood where she wanted to go shopping.

We turned again to run under the Rijksmuseum.  Then we had another sharp turn, and the course briefly narrowed to one lane.  As the course got congested, we briefly came to a halt.  We got going quickly, but it was an opportunity for me to hit the reset button on my pace.  It didn’t seem to help much.  My pace stabilized at seven minutes per kilometer, which was still too fast.

Just past 5K, we reached another aid station.  This one had water and an energy drink called Isostar.  The volunteers handing out cups called it “eeso.”  Some of the other aid stations also had energy bars and gels.

I saw spectators waving Finnish and Norwegian flags.  I noticed the runner in front of me was from Poland.  Then I was passed by a couple from Belgium.  There were runners from all over the world, but European countries were particularly well represented.

Between 6K and 9K, we were on and out-and-back segment that took us by some tall office buildings.  Like Paris, Amsterdam has a modern downtown area that’s a distance away from the historic city center.

Before the race, Deb asked me if we would be running on cobblestones.  Some of the streets around our hotel were paved with bricks, which people often refer to as cobblestones.  Except for the plaza right outside the stadium, we had been running on smooth pavement.  In the modern downtown area, we encountered some bricks.  That’s the last place I was expecting this.

At 7K, I finally recorded a kilometer that was slower than seven minutes.  By 9K, however, I was again recording times under seven minutes.  Being surrounded by faster runners was really affecting my pace, even though I wasn’t trying to keep up with them.

There were bands along the course, but I rarely noticed them.  One that did catch my attention was a drum group from Brazil.

I started to ease up.  My next few kilometers were in the 7:00 to 7:10 range.  In the 12th kilometer, I eased up to the point where my pace felt lazy.  That one was 7:45, which was too slow.  I overcompensated.  If I had slowed to 7:30, I would have been content to maintain that pace for the rest of the race.  Slowing all the way to 7:45 scared me.  I picked up my effort, but overcompensated again.  The next one was 6:53.

At 14K, I was roughly one third done with the race, and I was on pace to easily break five hours.  I didn’t actually expect to maintain that pace.  I was still planning to slow down.  I eventually settled into a pace between 7:10 and 7:15.

We were now on a long out-and back segment along the banks of the Amstel River.  We were on a bike path that was paved with bricks.  The bricks had a rough surface.  I think that was to give bikes better traction, but it was uncomfortable walking on them.  I started to notice painful blisters around my heels.  I don’t know if the brick surface was a contributing factor, or if it was coincidental that I started to notice the blisters on this section.

The pavement alongside the river changed several times.  We had an asphalt section, then some smooth bricks, then more asphalt.  I felt relieved when we seemed to leave the bricks behind.

Along the river we had a different form of entertainment.  There were guys above the river wearing boots that used jets of water to propel then 10-15 feet above the river.  Maintaining their balance must take a lot of practice.  I saw at least four of these guys.

I was eventually passed by the 4:30 pace group.  I was still much too far forward in the pack.  I noticed as they passed that they didn’t leave me behind as quickly as the other pace groups.

Between 19K and 20K, we crossed the river and started following the opposite bank back towards the city.  By now, we were out in the countryside.  The river was on my left.  On my right, I saw cows grazing.

On this side of the river, I had to endure more uncomfortable bricks.  Here, they were weathered, so the surface wasn’t as smooth.

At the halfway point, I was still on pace to break five hours.  I still expected to slow down, but I was worried it wouldn’t be by choice. I was starting to feel fatigued from my fast early pace.  I fully expected to crash and burn in the second half.

Around 22K, I started to notice that I was keeping pace with a few of the runners.  Most of the runners were still passing me, but it felt encouraging to be able to keep up with a few of them.  I had fewer kilometers remaining than the number I had already completed.  I started feeling more confident.  Could I actually sustain this pace?

I was getting hot, so I started to drink more at the aid stations.  Near the river we had a nice breeze, but it was getting warmer, and the sun was now high in the sky.  At one of the aid stations, they were handing out bananas.  I wasn’t going to have one, but one of the volunteers called my name.  He was in the middle of the street, backpedaling so I could grab the banana without slowing down.  I took the banana.

As we got near the end of the section along the river, I noticed more of the rough brick.  This section was longer than I expected.  As much as I enjoyed running along the river, I could wait to get back onto smooth pavement.

Even the best city marathon has at least one section that’s less attractive.  After leaving the river, we briefly passed through an industrial section of town.  Between 25K and 35K, I didn’t have a good feel for where I was.  I wasn’t familiar with the east side of the city.

In the second half of the race, some of the aid stations had sponges.  I could see how those would be helpful on such a warm afternoon, but the streets got littered with hundreds of sponges.  Some of the aid stations were like obstacle courses.

Just before 28K, I was passed by the 4:45 pace group.  This was the last pace group I saw during the race.  They were still in sight for a long time.

At 28K, I was roughly two thirds done.  I was still on pace to break five hours, but only because I went so fast in the first third of the race.  The middle third wasn’t as fast.  To actually break five, I would need to speed up again.  I never considered trying.  At no point in this race did five hours seem like a realistic goal.

By now, I had reached an equilibrium point.  I was now passing as many runners as were passing me.

I was gradually drifting into a slower pace.  Now I was doing about 7:20 per kilometer.  With every kilometer that was under 7:30, I became more confident that I would hold on to set a PR.  The only question was by how much.  At some point, I realized I would break 5:10.  Could I break 5:05?  It seemed possible.

The aid station just before 35K was congested.  I wanted Isostar, but I kept having to go around runners who were coming to a stop.  I missed those tables and went for water instead.  More runners were coming to a stop.  To get water, I had to come to a stop too.  Then I had to avoid all the sponges on the ground.  I lost several seconds navigating through that aid station.

When I got to 35K, I saw that I slowed to 7:33.  I was discouraged, even though I knew it was only because of the time I lost at the aid station.  I worked harder to get my pace back into the 7:20s.

After 35K, we came alongside one of the canals that form a ring around the city center.  I didn’t recognize anything, but I had a better idea of where I was.  I managed to pick up the pace, doing the next few kilometers between 7:22 and 7:25.  I was now determined to break 5:05.

After crossing the Amstel River, I started to recognize my surroundings.  I recognized a section of the canal that was lined with houseboats.  This was near where we caught our canal cruise.  Soon I reached the Heineken Brewery.  Ahead, I could see the top of the Rijksmuseum.

After passing the Rijksmuseum, I entered Vondelpark again.  From here, everything was familiar.  As I walked through the park, two race officials on bicycles asked us to move to the sides of the path.  They were escorting the lead runners of the half marathon.  For the rest of the race, we were occasionally passed by fast half marathon runners.

About halfway through the park, a runner who was trying to keep up with me commented that I was picking up the pace.  I was.  At 39K, I knew I would break 5:04.  I continued to light a fire under myself to go as fast as I could.

I did the 40th kilometer in 7:14.  I had a shot at 5:03.  As we left the park, I tried to maintain my pace, but it got more difficult.  We were back on a street with tram tracks.  I didn’t want to walk on the tracks, so I tried to either walk between them or stay to one side.  Sometimes I had to change “lanes” to go around a slower runner.  Sometimes a half marathon runner had to pass at the same time.  That was awkward.

As we got closer to the stadium, the street was divided, so the half marathon runners had their own lane.  My legs were getting stiff, and I felt like I was slowing down.  Before entering the stadium, I had to cross the plaza again.  It was slightly uphill and paved with bricks.  I’m not sure which bothered me more.

I was relieved to finally get onto the track, but I was out of gas.  I fought for every second.  When I finally crossed the line, I was momentarily disappointed to see that I didn’t break 5:03.  My official time was 5:03:08.  There’s really no reason for disappointment though.  I set a walking PR by 14 minutes!

I went out at a pace that was way faster than I planned.  Usually when I do that, I pay for it later.  I did slow down by five minutes in the second half, but even my second half was faster than my goal pace.  Had I walked the whole race at my intended pace, I would have been 12 minutes slower overall.  Sometimes it pays to be greedy.  I really had no idea I could walk that fast.  It makes me wonder if five hours is possible.

After crossing the finish line, I continued walking around the track and got my finisher medal.  Then I exited the stadium to get to the refreshments.  I was thirsty, so I quickly drank a whole bottle of Gatorade.  They had bananas, but I didn’t have room for solid food.

Walking back to the hotel was slow.  I had painful blisters on both heels.  I wondered if I would be able to walk to a restaurant for dinner.  The trams near our hotel weren’t running because the streets were all closed for the race.

We eventually walked to Carousel for dinner.  I had to walk on the balls of my feet, so my heels wouldn’t touch the ground.  It was slow and tiring, but we eventually got there.  The first two times we ate there, we had Dutch pancakes.  This time we had the poffertjes.  We saw a street vendor making them when we were at the Albert marketplace on Saturday.

Monday, October 16

Today, we flew home.  It was another non-stop flight, but it’s still a long time in the air.  It helped a lot that we didn’t have to get up early.  We were able to enjoy one last breakfast at the hotel before leaving for the airport.

Race Statistics

Distance:  42.2 kilometers

Time:  5:03:08

Average Pace:  7:11 per kilometer (11:34 per mile)

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  342

Total Countries:  27