Steamboat Marathon

27th Steamboat Marathon
1 June 2008
Hahns Peak Village to Steamboat Springs, CO

Actual finish: 4:58:26
Anticipated finish: 4:35:00.

Overall 242 of 315
Men 155 of 184
M35-39 27 of 29



Hahn's Peak Village sits north of Steamboat Springs by just about 26 miles. It is at about 8200 feet in elevation, Steamboat Springs sits about about 6800 feet. Per my GPS the course had 2000 ft of descent and 600 feet of ascent.

About a week before the marathon I started getting serious butterflies. Not always, just off and on. They peaked the Friday before. The closest I've had to this was the morning of my first half marathon, but it was just that morning and nothing like this. I knew I would finish, knew I was as well trained as any beginner, but logic could not win this battle. Saturday night was better than most that week, probably a mix of having dinner with a buddy who also ran the race and our families and the accepted inevitability by then. But it really wasn't until I started running the race that the nerves completely left.

Riding the bus up was fun, lots of light conversation, some jokes about how brilliant the half marathon folk (lining up on the other side of the street) were, etc. Looking around on the bus everyone looked like a runner of some sort. Not all skinny elites, but everyone looked the part. It was cool to feel part of that group. Feel, heck I am part of that group!

The marathon course was beautiful. It ran down a river valley with only the last 1.5 miles being in town. There were mountain peaks in the distance still partially covered in snow, meadows full of wildflowers, the sounds of the river high from spring run off at times, and very little traffic.

The weather early on was perfect, about 55F at the start, no wind, sunny. I was expecting to be cold at the start, being early and being 1400 ft above the finish, so I knew it was going to be hot before it was all said and done. The first 6.5 miles of the marathon went by fast. I felt awesome, knew I was going a little faster than I wanted to (10:15 mile avg vs 10:30 goal), but I wasn't feeling it at all. My legs were still very fresh and I was having a great time. A net 778 ft down certainly helped!

During the second 6.5 miles I slowed partially because of some uphill sections and partially because I was starting to feel it in my legs some. Not terribly, but there was enough of the race left I didn't want to push too hard. This section saw my average pace drop by 30 seconds a mile to 10:44 over a net drop of 359 ft though there were some rolling hills in this section. I hit the half marathon with a split time of 2:20. A little off my anticipated pace which would have give a split of 2:18. At this point I was starting to feel a little fatigued. I was encouraged by the split time, but could tell my pace was slipping and thought a 4:35 finish was unlikely. I was still in very good spirits and still enjoying myself greatly.

The third quarter of the race was the toughest for me. Miles 14 to 18 specifically. My overall average pace dropped 15 seconds a mile over these 4 miles alone. Mentally I found these miles hard to keep going. It wasn't that I was physically unable to run at pace, I was having trouble mentally focusing on running at pace. When not fatigued it is easy to set a pace and run it almost on auto-pilot. Here I had to focus on running faster or I just slowed down to a 12-13 minute pace. It was about mile 18 that I realized that this is what they mean when they say the marathon is as much mental as physical. There will be more pushing the pace under fatigue conditions during my next training. At mile 18 I dropped my pace down to 11 minute miles or so and held them until the hills at mile 20. The third quarter of the race was a net 248 ft downhill. Overall I still felt good as I finished the leg running strong. Definitely tired, but I could sniff the end.

The last quarter of the race has some hills cruelly placed at miles 20-23. All together about 248 ft of climb. You get it all back in miles 23-26 for no net elevation change in this leg. After running great from miles 18-20 the hills were a rude awakening. I could hold a decent pace on the level, but uphill I could not, a 13 minute pace was all I could muster. At mile 23 I picked it up again and ran a sub-11 minute average for the last 3 miles. I had no kick at the end, but did run the last mile at a constant 10:13 pace for a relatively strong finish. It was 75F for last 1.5 hours I was on the course. It felt like 95F.

I thought I would be emotional at the end, afterall I have come a lot longer than 26.2 miles to get to this point. I had a few moments in the latter miles where I teared up briefly while reflecting, but that was it. Finishing was wierd, after running that long it just felt wierd to stop. It felt good, don't get me wrong, but I just kind of stood there at the end of the chute taking it all in. One of the volunteers even asked if I was OK, I guess because I had been standing there for awhile. With a big grin I told him everything was great. They say you never forget your first one. Of that I am sure.

I awoke on Monday the same guy. Still committed to living a healthy lifestyle, still got a little flab to lose, still love playing with my 2 girls, still like to run. But there was a little bit of pride stuck down inside me somewhere that wasn't there before. As I lost weight I became one of "the other half". Last Sunday I became one of what the other half aspires to be. One of the rumored 1% to ever run a marathon in their lifetime, one of the < 0.2% who will run one in 2008. Damn.

I'll definitely run another. This fall maybe. Sometime I'll run one in a bigger city just to see what the hub bub about, but I suspect I'll prefer the rural locations.

Pics: Up top is from about mile 6, down below is one from mile 18 and one at the finish.





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Now playing Rush - Marathon
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Getting Nervous

This past Friday night I was kind of off-kilter, but wasn't sure why. About an hour later it hit me, I was starting to get nervous. It's only gotten more frequent since then. 26.2 miles, that's a long way to run. Rationally, logically I know I did enough training and know I should be as ready if not more ready than your average first timer. But emotionally I'm still nervous. There's nothing more I can do at this point either, so being nervous doesn't help anything. Hopefully logic wins out soon.

This past week was week 2 of the taper. I bought some clipless pedals and shoes for my bike and enjoyed several bike rides with them. I can tell I am going to really like them and suspect it will enhance my cycling strength. I also had a good tempo run, a 5K speedwork session, and a 10K race that I substituted in for my long run this week. The Bolder Boulder 10K is a huge race with around 50K participants. I believe it is the second largest 10K in the US. It's a fun race with tons of spectators, bands along the course, and a fun finish into the football stadium and 2/3 of the way around the track. I know a 10K race isn't exactly part of the standard taper, but it is fun, and it's a company tradition where I work so I'd never live it down if I skipped it. I didn't meet my goal time of 54:00, but the 55:38 I ran was still a PR (by 8:24)!

I don't know if I'll post again before the race or not. This week I'm hoping to relax, eat well, drink lots of water, do a couple 3 mile marathon pace runs, and skip all my cross training (no matter how much I'll want to ride my bike). And I think I'll dig out that book of marathon stories and re-read some of the stories in it.

Week 2: 13.2 miles, long run 10K race
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Now playing: The Band - Ophelia
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2 Weeks and counting

This marks the end of my first week of the taper. I went out and ran "only" 12.8 miles today. I averaged my anticipated marathon pace of 10:30 per mile and that included stopping to walk as I drank my watered down Gatorade and ate my fig newtons. I also ran the last half faster than the first, the last quarter the fastest of all four. It was a good run, and will be my last double digit run before the race. I originally planned 10 for next weekend but since the Bolder Boulder 10K is on Memorial Day I am going to use that as my long run next weekend. I'm looking forward to the Bolder Boulder. My company sponsors any employee who wants to run this race, we have 15 of us signed up this year in 3 teams. I am in considerably better shape this year than last and think I have a real shot of taking 10 minutes off my 1:04:02 time last year.

For the first time in 3 weeks I did not commute to work on my bike. I have put a self-imposed limit of 15 miles or less per ride, 2 times a week, during my taper. As much as I want to get out and do more I do not want to get sick or overdo it with only 2 weeks to go until the marathon. I did have some quality runs this week though with a good 5 mile tempo run and a speedwork session of 800s. After doing 1600s for most of my training the 800s felt REALLY short.

Week 3: 23.6 miles, 12.8 mile long run

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Now playing: Blues Traveler - The Mountains Win Again
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Lifetime

If you've only read the latest entries here you know I'm training for my first marathon, but may not know that this whole thing started with me walking into Weight Watchers to lose weight. 3 years and 2 months ago I started that. Today, 13 May 2008, I have achieved what Weight Watchers calls Lifetime Status. To do this I had to reach a goal weight, in my case set by my doctor, and then maintain that weight (or below) for six weeks. To me this means I don't have to pay Weight Watchers anymore! I don't believe in artificially setting a weight to stop at, but rather think that your body will tell you when it wants to stop. I'm still losing weight, so my body is not there yet. And I'm OK with that as I still have some flab to lose. There is no finish line.

My WW meeting leader is quite proud of me. I was her first member to ever lose 100 lbs, and her first to hit 150 lbs lost. She orchestrated quite the party at our meeting this week. There were noise makers, a cooler of (root) beer, and a few pictures of me around. The weekly topic was about exercise, so most of the meeting was a discussion between her and I. Additionally she and several WW members who have been attending the same meeting as I for some time chipped in and got me an REI gift card. It was a very touching time. When you accomplish something it is easy, maybe even human nature, to downplay the achievement. Seeing the celebration others planned and hearing that you are an inspiration to others is both humbling and an ego boost at the same time. Since I do not feel I am finished it was all kind of weird. But it was very touching, very cool.

Below is a scrapbook page my wife made with pictures from along the way as a gift to my meeting leader.


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Now playing: The Beatles - A Day In The Life
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T A P E R

Tomorrow marks the start of marathon training taper. A typical marathon taper is 3 weeks of reduced workout load, cut by anywhere from 20-50% depending on how much you were doing to start with. The idea is to work enough to maintain fitness but rest enough to be at your strongest when the marathon comes. That's three weeks from today, 1 June 2008.

The taper is probably coming at just about the right time. I had been working out awfully hard, both running and biking a lot, including a couple bike commutes to and from work, 24 miles one way. This past week I went out and run at lunch time and then had a particularly hard ride home with a stiff headwind. Later that night I came down with a sudden cold that wiped me out for nearly 3 days. I believe this was a sign of overtraining as I could not seem to get enough sleep either. For only the second time in my 16 week training plan I skipped a run (speedwork). And I skipped a cross training session too. It's amazing the razor's edge we can live on. I was at the peak of my fitness, running fast, biking a lot, feeling invincible and then BAM! I'm wiped out.

I did do my last long run of my training after skipping the speedwork and cross training. 19.5 miles, better than my first 20 mile run but not as good as my 22 miler 2 weeks ago. My pace wasn't where I wanted it, I was hoping for anticipated marathon pace but ended up running about 30 seconds a mile slower. Given the cold and overall crash I had last week I'm not as disappointed as I might have been. I've still got the lingering effects of the cold, but am not so wiped out or tired anymore though.

Week 4: 29.6 miles, long run 19.5 miles.
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Now playing: They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse In Your Soul
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Peaking too soon?

Another great week of running in the books. I ran a tempo run with a couple of people from work - both of them faster than I. In the sixth mile I started pushing the pace and while they kept up, they were both commenting on how they couldn't believe I had anything left in me. I banged out that mile at a barely sub-8:00 pace. While they were running behind me I garnered a "Your legs are ripped" comment too. I'm still glowing over that one. On speedwork day it was snowing and raining. Instead of our typical rest between intervals we decided to do some fartleks. We ran 4 miles and did so quite fast for me, about 30 seconds slower than my 1600 interval times. It may have been being cold and wet that pushed us faster, but whatever it was we were moving.

After that run I decided to re-assess my plans for a 5K this weekend. My original plan was 8:30 miles. I started thinking 8:15s were possible since we pretty much ran 8:30s for our fartlek. I didn't have a watch (forgot it) but that goal wasn't too far off as I ran a PR (by 3 minutes) of 25:24. My last 5K, and previous PR was last October. Evidently marathon training improves your 5K too!

Today I ran 10 miles at anticipated marathon pace. It seemed easy. I ran from my house to the finish of the Colorado Marathon and watched the 3:45 - 4:10 finishers. Most looked pretty strong. I'm taking the image of them finishing strong and aiming for that in 4 weeks at Steamboat. It was fun watching marathon finishers. I've watched them while training for a half, but never really truly appreciated the feat then.

On Thursday I was talking to my running buddy after our Fartlek workout and told him how great I was running. His reply was that he hoped I wasn't peaking too early! Great, something to worry about when everything is going well. Actually I'm not worried, one more hard week and I'm into the taper. It feels awesome to be running this strong, and injury free.

Week 5: 23.4 miles, long run of 10.1 miles.
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Now playing: Barenaked Ladies - Grade 9
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26.2 - I can't wait!

I just finished the best week of training of my short running career! I am pysched. Bring on the 26.2 baby.

I ran 10 miles at anticipated marathon pace one morning just at daybreak. The nearly full moon was hanging just above the mountains, the birds were singing, I ran well, it was beautiful. Another morning I went out with a couple guys from work and we ran 6x1600. We've never run that many, it was work no doubt, but I wasn't wrecked afterwards. The old "good tired". And even with the hills on #s 2, 3, and 4 I still managed to average 8:06/mile for the 6. I ran my fastest 1600 ever at 7:30 as well.

A few weeks ago I ran 20 miles. I wouldn't classify what happened as hitting the wall, but I wasn't happy with my energy level and ability to hold pace the last 4 miles. I was questioning whether my anticipated pace was realistic. I did suspect that maybe I had not eaten enough the day before that run though. So this week I put that to the test. On Saturday I ate not only carbohydrate heavy, but also ate more than I normally would. I ate lunch then ate an extra sandwich, I ate dinner then had an extra burger and extra half potato, and also snacked more than normal. The result, near perfection. I ran 22 miles! and held close to my anticipated pace the whole way. And miles 16-22 were the strongest six I ran. And all things considered, I felt awesome afterwards. I am very confident I have figured out the trick to eating right the day(s) before, and it is to eat and eat (and maybe eat more). Fig Newtons and Gatorade as long run fuel are also still treating me well. They say that training for a marathon is no time to lose weight. While I've dropped 15+ during this training, I understand what that saying means now - you can't skimp on food before or during a run of that magnitude. Which makes perfect sense if you think of it as a 3100 calorie run - that's more than I eat in a typical day.

It's been awhile since I threw in a picture, here's one of me glowing after my 22 miler.


Week 6: 40.3 miles, 22 mile long run

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Now playing: The Reverend Horton Heat - Big Red Rocket Of Love
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A cutback week, eager to get to it

42 days until the big race. Time flies when you're running your butt off. Well, all things are relative. I'm not putting in the 60 mile weeks many do, much less the 100-120 the elites do. But I am running a lot. After a 20 miler followed by racing a half I planned a cutback week this week. Earlier this week I thought it might be beyond a cutback week. After not feeling too bad on Monday I felt pretty sore on Tuesday, especially my achilles/lower calves. I think it was a result of tightness everywhere else in my legs as I haven't had achilles pain before. Some biking Tue and some ibuprofen seemed to take care of things though as I had a good recovery run on Wednesday and then put in my normal speedwork (5x1600, total of 7 miles) on Thursday. I topped it off with only 10 miles for my long run today though I held anticipated marathon pace for the entire run. I'm feeling good and ready for 3 hard weeks including a 22 and another 20 before I hit the taper.

On the weight loss/improved body front I went shopping for some new shorts this weekend as all mine are falling off me. I bought a couple pair of size 32 shorts. Yeah I said 32" waist. Crazy. I also bought a size M t-shirt. It will fit better in a month or so, but I was swimming in the size L one. It's wierd (and a little sad) to have trouble finding shorts that fit not because there aren't any that big, but because there aren't any that small. I say a little sad because though I am making great progress I am not skinny. I am evidently approaching the underside of the mean though. This past week was week 2 after hitting my Dr. goal weight at WW. 3 weeks from this coming Tuesday I'll be considered a "Lifetime" member and can stop paying them!

Week 7: 20.2 total miles, 10.1 mile long run

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Now playing: The White Stripes - Death Letter
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Half way there?

Half way as in Half Marathon. I ran the Horsetooth Half Marathon yesterday. My original plan was to run it at my planned marathon pace. But I ran pretty well Tue and Fri this week and knew there was no way I was going to be able to hold back. So I made a plan. I haven't run a recent 5K, but have had some race pace training runs. From these an equivalent half time would have been 2:06:42 (9:40 pace). I finished in 2:09:00 by watch (2:09:34 gun time). It's a hilly course (and I ran 20 7 days prior, not exactly a standard taper ;-) so I am very happy with my result. After the monster 2 mile hill at the start I averaged a 9:37 pace. Adding to the experience was the attendance of my parents, the first time they have seen me race. I'm not sure who was more proud, them or I. This race was a 6:42 PR for me and 22:56 faster than when I ran it 1 year ago as my first half marathon ever. I don't think I'll take another 23 off for next year, but I wouldn't bet on my time being over 2 hours either.

Considering my relative lack of hill training before the race I felt pretty good afterwards. Minor aches on Monday but they were probably aggravated by riding in a car all day. A day after bike ride seemed to stretch things out a bit. I first tried this after my half last November and am sold on this.

Here's a link to my race pictures complete with some great scenery in the background on some of them. I'm wearing orange, there are some pictures of a guy in white included in this search that are incorrectly labeled. Too bad they didn't mix up our times, he finished 21 minutes before me! ;^>

Oh, and my time in this half predicts a 4:32 marathon (10:24 pace), a pace 4 seconds faster than the faster edge of my anticipated marathon pace. Cool beans!

Week 8: 22.9 miles with a long run of 13.1 miles.

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Now playing: Jethro Tull - Mother Goose
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Gravy Time

Most beginning marathon training programs take you through a progression to a 20 mile run 3 weeks before the race. Looking at these plans I felt I was at a point to run more than the 6-8 mile long runs many of them start with. I took the FIRST plans for first timers and vets and kind of made a hybrid. I have the speedwork and tempo runs from the vet plan (though the two were similar) and made a beginner-plan like progression but started up at 12-13 miles, leaving me time for more 20 (or more) mile runs. I ran my first ever 20 miler today. I did some things right, could have done some things better. I ran the whole way, except for when I was eating and drinking. I slowed down a lot in the second half. But I got through it. I ran about the same pace as for my 18 two weeks ago, which is about a minute or so slower than my anticipated marathon pace. Not that I have a time goal, I just want to finish strong and not be wrecked, but I have an idea of what I am capable of.

To the entry's title, I've done as much, distance-wise, as most training programs have you do. And I still have 8 weeks until the race! So from an endurance point of view everything from here is gravy. I have a half marathon race (shooting for marathon pace), a 22 miler, and another 20 miler on the calendar for the next 5 weeks which will leave me 3 weeks to taper to the race. Having run the one 20 that most do, I am not sure I feel ready. I feel confident could finish, but not ready yet. Maybe you never feel ready, at least for your first.

It's been a great weekend for me. Not only the 20 miles but I hit my Dr. assigned goal weight at my weigh in on Saturday. I weighed in at 188.6 lbs. I am not ready to be done losing weight, but am ready to be done paying Weight Watchers. Six weeks of maintaining a weight <190 and I'm what Weight Watchers calls a Lifetime member (free if I maintain the weight loss). Week 9: 41.8 miles, 20.2 mile long run (deceiving because last week's 10 was folded in, a 2 week average of 26.8 miles is a better way to look at this I think.
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