On May 20, I ran the Nutmeg State Marathon in Hartford, CT. This was the last race of the New England Challenge. For me, it was the third marathon in five days.
I drove to Hartford on
Thursday, after spending two nights in Warwick, RI. Along the way, I made a point of stopping for
lunch in Mystic, CT. Deb and I visited
Mystic in 2005, and we had lunch at Mystic Pizza. I recall having a seafood pizza. That was good, but it had a white sauce, so I
never got to taste the signature red sauce that made this restaurant
famous. (OK, the movie may also have
contributed to their fame.) This time, I
had their House Special.
My legs felt OK in the
morning, but after the long drive, I started noticing some soreness in my
quads. After checking in at my hotel, I went
to the fitness center and walked a couple miles on the treadmill. I walked at a pace that was brisk, but not
too fast. It was a recovery workout.
My hotel was in East Hartford,
which is right across the Connecticut River from downtown Hartford. There weren’t many restaurants on the east
side of the river, but there were lots of dining options in downtown Hartford. They were within walking distance. I just had to cross a bridge. Earlier in the day it was raining, but it
dried out in plenty of time for me to walk into downtown Hartford for dinner.
I didn’t notice any sore
muscles walking to and from dinner, but I started to notice some lower back discomfort. I also noticed that a bit when I got up the
next morning.
You know the drill. The race started at 6:00, so I had to get up
early and eat a light breakfast in my room.
It was a 15 minute drive to the race venue, so I left at 5:15.
The weather app on my
phone said there was a dense fog advisory.
Sure enough, I couldn’t really see where I was going as I drove to the
race. I relied on my phone to tell me
where to turn.
The course was a 2.13
mile loop around the Goodwin Park Golf Course.
We had to run it 12 times, plus a short out-and-back at the beginning. I’ve run this race before, so I remembered
what the course is like. At least half
of the loop is gradually downhill. Then the
rest of the loop is uphill. The uphill
section isn’t as long as the downhill section, but it’s long enough to be
tiring.
When I started running, it
was too foggy to take pictures. The
photos above were taken after I finished.
These are views looking down from the start/finish area.
In my previous two races,
I wore a fanny pack, which gave me a place to put my gloves and phone. Today, I wanted to lighten my load as much as
possible. Since it was foggy, I left my phone
in my car. I also left my gloves and
jacket in the car. I only needed to
carry my keys and driver’s license, and those fit easily in a SpiBelt.
The overnight low was 52
degrees, but it was going to climb into the upper 70s in the afternoon. I didn’t know for sure how warm it would get
by the time I finished the race, but I was expecting to see temperatures near
70.
I didn’t think of this
race as 26.2 miles. I didn’t think of it
as 12 laps. I thought of it as 12 times that
I would have to drag myself up that hill.
Actually, I was also a little worried about the downhill section. That was be the biggest test so far for both
my lower back and my right knee. They
held up well on Wednesday, but that race had hills that were much smaller. As it turns out, I had nothing to worry
about. The downhill section was much
more gradual than I remembered. It never
felt uncomfortable.
I didn’t take walking
breaks in my previous two races of this series.
My plan today was to do continuous running until I warmed up enough that
I could take walking breaks without getting cold.
As I started running, I
felt just a hint of soreness in my quads and glutes. That only lasted for a minute or two. Then I never noticed it again.
The initial out-and-back
took us partially down the hill, but only enough to get a taste of it. Although we didn’t descend very far, I could
feel more moisture in the air as I descended into the fog. That made it feel colder than it was. My hands were cold for nearly half the race.
Most of the course was on
a park road, but we started out running in the shoulder of a busy street. The shoulder was only wide enough for one
person, so we had to watch carefully for cars if we wanted to pass. There was also a cowpath on the grass, which
ran parallel to the street. Some people preferred
the cowpath, but I usually ran in the street, so I wouldn’t have to deal with
any uneven footing.
I started faster today
than I did in my other races of this series.
In the first few laps, my average pace on the downhill side of the course
was about 9:10. Even on the uphill side,
I was averaging 9:30, at least for the first few laps.
There were a few places
where there were gates across the road.
The gates were locked, so we had to go around the side. One of the gates was right at the low point
of the course. As soon as I ran around
that gate, I noticed the road sloped upward a bit.
The first half of the
long hill wasn’t too tough. It was
uphill, but just barely. About halfway
up, the grade became more noticeable, and running up the hill started to get
tiring. The hill was never steep. It was tiring because it was nearly a mile
long.
I expected to start
warming up after along three laps. I
didn’t. Since my hands were still cold,
I continued to run all the way up the hill.
I still expected I would start taking walking breaks after another lap
or two. I was just waiting to warm up.
It wasn’t until my fourth
lap that the fog began to lift. I could
see more of the golf course. By the
middle of my fifth lap, the fog was mostly gone. From near the bottom of the hill I could see
across the driving range to the clubhouse, which was at the top of the hill. My hands still felt cold.
My time at the halfway
mark was faster than in my other two races in this series. I expected to slow down in the second half,
however. I expected the hill to wear me
down.
Starting with my seventh
lap, my hands were no longer cold.
Having run all the way up the hill six times, I wanted to run it at
least one more time. It was tiring, but
I always knew that if I was tired at the end of one lap, I would recover in the
first half of the next lap, because it was downhill.
There were two
circumstances that would’ve persuaded me to start walking part of the
hill. The first is if running up the
hill got really difficult. I didn’t want
this race to be an all-out effort from which I would need two weeks to
recover. I wanted it to feel more like a
long training run.
I would also consider taking
walking breaks if running up the hill made me too hot. Even after seven laps, I wasn’t getting at
all hot. The sun came out briefly, and I
started to feel warm, but then it went behind the clouds again.
During my eighth lap, I
had to make a bathroom stop. After spending
a couple minutes in the port-o-potty, my legs felt stiff. I was on the downhill section, which made it
easier to get going again. Still, I ran
much slower after that. On average, I
was about a minute per mile slower both uphill and downhill.
It was in that lap that I
first noticed I was slowing down much more on the most tiring part of the hill. I kept telling myself I might walk part of it
in the next lap, but not this lap.
After nine laps, I
checked my watch. I was slower on laps seven
through nine than I had been in the first six laps. If I ran at the same pace in the last three
laps, I would still break 4:30. If I
continued to slow down, it might be close.
As I began my 10th lap, the
sun came out for good. I paid more
attention to whether I was getting hot.
I still felt OK.
In that lap, I continued
to feel like I was really slowing down on the most tiring part of the
hill. I still ran the whole way. It wasn’t difficult to keep running as long
as I didn’t mind slowing down a bit. I
also wasn’t feeling too hot yet.
With two laps to go, I
wanted to know what pace I needed in my last two laps to break 4:30. I forgot to check my watch. Without knowing, I was tempted to pick up the
pace in my last two laps. I did pick up
the pace a little on the downhill section, but I conserved energy on the uphill
side.
Going up the hill for the
second-to-last time, I finally started to feel hot. I was almost done with that lap and had only
one more to go. Without knowing how fast
I needed to be to break 3:30, I continued running all the way up the hill.
Excluding the lap with
the bathroom stop, my lap times never got slower than 23 minutes. With one lap to go, I had almost 30 minutes
to finish faster than 4:30. There was no
need to push.
I ran the first half of
that lap kind of lazy, just conserving energy for the last time up the
hill. I ran mile 25 in 10:22, even
though that mile was almost completely downhill. When I went around the gate at the bottom of
the last hill, started to pick up the pace.
It was easy at first.
Halfway up the hill, it
got more tiring, but I continued to put more effort into it. I wasn’t trying to hammer it. I was just putting in a little more
effort. When I got the last split from
my watch, I saw that I ran mile 26 in 9:45, even though most of that mile was
uphill. It was much faster than the
previous mile, which was downhill.
I was within sight of the
last gate. Then I was in the parking
lot. Early in the race, I told myself
that gate was the end of the hill. In
fact, the top of the hill was about halfway through the parking lot.
There was another runner
ahead of me. I didn’t know if we were on
the same lap, but I made a point of passing him before we got through the
parking lot. That helped motivate me to
maintain my effort all the way to the finish.
I finished in
4:21:14. That was much faster than
either of my previous two races. I kept
my average pace under 10 minutes per mile.
I put a lot of effort into that last hill, but overall, I felt like it
was a measured effort.
I think I did a better
job of hydrating today. I needed to
drink a cup of Gatorade and a cup of orange juice after I finished. After that, I never felt unusually thirsty. I did, however, feel hungry. At the aid station, they had some type of
pasta dish that was really good. I ate a
bowl of that and a PBJ. That went a long
way toward satisfying my hunger.
My back never bothered me
today. My right knee felt a little sore
when I got back to the hotel. When I
walk to dinner tonight, I’ll have to do some stairs getting up to the
bridge. I expect to notice my knee on stairs,
but I also expect it to feel fine by tomorrow.
When I signed up for
these races, I wasn’t in shape to do three marathons in five days. I was barely in shape to run one
marathon. I took it on faith that I
could get through them. I was a little
bothered by how slow I ran on Monday and Wednesday, but today’s race felt
easier. I’m not in peak shape yet, but I
feel like I’m making progress.
I don’t have to fly home
until tomorrow. I need to drive back to
Boston, so I’ll still have to get up early, but I’ll have time to eat a real
breakfast.
I have one other observation
about this race. At least five times,
the sole of my left shoe brushed against my right ankle. By the end of the race, my ankle was bleeding
through my sock.
The same thing happened
at least once in Monday’s race and at least three times on Wednesday. It’s always my left shoe clipping my right
ankle. It’s never the other way
around. I’m not sure what’s causing me
to do this, but clearly there’s something asymmetrical about my stride.
This isn’t the first time
this has happened. I’ve noticed this
before in training runs, but never with this frequency. I don’t think it has anything to do with the
terrain. I’ve had the same thing happen
while running on the treadmill. If any
of you have insights on this, please comment.
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