Race report

Running: Lakefront Marathon race report

Thanks for the picture Jerry!

Good thing I had a decent nights sleep on Saturday. As usual I woke up at about 3:00 and couldn't get back to sleep. At 4:00 I got out of bed and started the usual pre-marathon routine. By 5:20 I was ready to go and headed off to meet Jerry and his dad Tom for the drive to Grafton for the start of the race. Found Jerry's house just fine and after brief hello's and loading the car we were off. We stopped to pick up another friend of Jerry's (Dave) along the way. We made it out to Grafton nice and early and set up camp in the school cafeteria waiting for the start.

The start eventually came off without a hitch. My plan was to start the race at 7:10 to 7:15 pace and keep this up through at least half way to give me a chance at a PR. I knew it would take a great second half to reach this. I started back a little farther to try and avoid the usual jack rabbit start. The first mile was easy, but my Garmin registered the first mile early. I had set the auto lap feature so I didn't have to worry about hitting the lap button each mile. So the first mile looks worse than it was. They were calling out the times at the miles so I know I hit the first one at 7:15 minus the 7 seconds it took me to get across the start line. So right where I wanted to be. The next several miles I just tried to lock into pace. I did real well through the first 8 miles. I know I need to run a little faster than 8 MPH to be close to where I think I can finish time wise. So in my head I try to think about the race by 8/8/8 and 2.2. So I know if I run each 8 mile segment in just under an hour and get to 24 miles in a few minutes under 3 hours I'll be close to where I want to be. I hit the first 8 miles at 57:37 (7:12 pace) which was perfect. The next eight miles I just slowed a bit. Nothing really happened here and I felt fine, I just lost the pace. At half I was 1:36:50 (7:24 pace). At this point I started figuring out all my top goals for the day were already gone. This can really start to play in your head. When I met Jerry at about mile 15.5 I was still feeling and running pretty well. I made it to mile 16 at 1:57:54 (7:22 pace). There is a slight discrepancy here because the half time is from the clock and the miles are from my Garmin. Anyway I'm still not far off from my goal, but I know I don't have it in me to speed up. The next 8 miles were really a struggle and a mind game. It's hard when your goals have passed you by and you know how far you still have to go. Somewhere in here a guy passed me that had a shirt that said "for U dad" and had his dad's picture. I talked to him briefly and tried to keep up for a while. This got me back on track to at least not give up. Any time I hurt and wanted to stop I just thought about running the rest of this race for my dad and to finish without walking to make him proud of this day. I struggled on. At mile 23 you finally hit a downhill portion where you get a good view of the lake and start to see the city skyline just beyond the race finish line. When we made the turn onto this section the wind seemed to pick up and blow directly in your face, even though the main direction was West. Frustrating when you are struggling to feel the wind work against you. At mile 24 I was already at 3:03:04. These last few miles were tough and on concrete, which is really hard on those tired muscles. I just kept pushing one foot out in front of the other. I passed several people who had to stop and walk during this stretch. Finally I made it to the break wall and a last right turn to the finish. Some guy had closed in on me the last half mile, but I was not going to let him pass me. I picked up the pace for the final .2 to finish in 3:23:14. I finished 215th overall out of 1885 finishers. This also keeps my streak of Boston qualifying races alive at 14. It's interesting that my finish time is almost exactly what my 5k time plugged into the race conversion calculator told me I'd get. It's not my best time, but considering the way this year has been and coming all the way back from a stress fracture in March I'm OK with it.

After I finished I made it for a quick massage. I then picked up my gear bag and changed clothes. Found my way to the food and of course the beer tent. I then found Jerry and we went to watch for his dad to finish. We talked about a lot of things running and non running related. Just after 5 hours Tom came around the corner. We then met up and we all headed back to the car for the trip home. Over all it was a pretty good day, and good company.

Here are my splits taken off the Garmin:

Mile 01 6:47 (short mile - actually 7:08)
02 7:01
03 7:19
04 7:17
05 7:08
06 7:23
07 7:17
08 7:20 - 57:37
09 7:21
10 7:32
11 7:27
12 7:29
13 7:34 - (13.1 1:36:50 actual clock time not Garmin)
14 7:32
15 7:42
16 7:37 - 1:57:54
17 7:48
18 7:54
19 7:54
20 8:19
21 8:17
22 8:10
23 8:29
24 8:15 - 3:03:04
25 8:42
26 8:56
last .20 2:30 - 3:23:14 (garmin was .34 not .20 so 26.34 total instead of 26.2)