DNF Marathon

I've been running so well all winter.  I've achieved goal after goal after goal.  I guess it was about time for a bad race and that came today.  I ran the Two Rivers Marathon in Northeast Pennsylvania and pulled out at mile 16 with a DNF.

The race was a disaster before it began.  We had trouble finding some of the roads to get there.  Then, we arrived at the finish, where packet pickup was supposed to be, and no one was there.  Some others were looking for it as well.  Instead, it was at the start.  I guess they changed the location of it.  Maybe I missed it in the latest email.  It took another 15 minutes to the start and pick up my packet.  There was a line for the bathroom and I had to go bad.  I still had about 20 minutes to get ready before the race, but I felt rushed.

At least it was a small race and I was able to get out to the front with no issues.  The weather was pretty much perfect at the beginning.  It was right around 40 degrees.  I went with a short sleeve shirt and shorts and had my LVRR singlet over top of it.

The race starts at a resort at the highest point.  It is mostly downhill in the first 6 miles.  It drops over 600 feet over the first 11 miles.  The start was awesome.  I ran a good pace down the hills and it felt easy.  I didn't know whether to hold back at all or just run by feel.  I decided to go by feel and since it felt easy, I didn't worry about what my watch said.  Mile 1 was 6:28.  That was certainly faster than my goal of 6:51, but as long as I wasn't working at it, I wasn't concerned.

Mile 2 was where the biggest drop occurred.  Again, I was going easy and running comfortably.  I guess this one was definitely too fast as I ran a 6:05.  Then, I settled into a groove.  I passed a few people and few people passed me throughout the early part.  One guy, was very bad on the few uphills.

I was so thrilled in these first few miles.  The course was very favorable and I was well under my goal without putting much effort into it.  I thought maybe this was finally my day.  The legs felt great.  It was amazing.  I thought I would just continue to cruise along.

There were water stops and some of them had volunteers, while others didn't.  Sometimes, you were on your own to grab a drink.  I tried to drink at every one, but the cups were small and I probably didn't drink enough.  Maybe I should've taken more.  I think it was costing me later on.

I continued to run comfortable and relaxed.  The next 4 miles were 6:40, 6:43, 6:54 and 6:34.  It was faster than I wanted, but I felt like I wasn't making much of an effort.  My legs felt good and I wasn't breathing heavy at all.  I was taking full advantage of the downhill.

Things got challenging after that.  There wasn't much in terms of hills, but all of them were between miles 6 and 11.  Between miles 6-9 were the worst.  I continued on.  I didn't work too hard on the uphills, but they started taking their toll anyway.  I wasn't struggling yet, but I sure wasn't feeling as great as I did earlier.

I ran a 7:00, 6:59 and 7:17 over this section.  I wasn't thrilled with that, but I had plenty of fast early miles to not worry about that.  Originally, I had thought about running the downhill part slightly under goal at 6:45.  That ended up being basically what I did.  With the varying terrain, there was no consistency.

I ran by my parents after mile 11.  Those two miles before them were a 6:50 and 6:55.  That was still solid.  I picked up a GU from them at this point and they told me I was doing well.  I thought so too, although I felt like I was slipping a bit.  This was how I felt around mile 5 of the Lake Effect Half Marathon and I consistently was able to grind out the next 8 miles.  I thought I could probably do that again and I'd fall off at the end, but still be under goal.  I was sure wrong.

During the hilly section, I kept telling myself to get to mile 11.  I knew from that point on, it was a relatively flat out and back on one road.  I finally got to that road and was thrilled.  It was short lived.  There was a brutal headwind thanks to the river we were running along.  I was complaining like crazy, but trying to stay focused.

This road was in rough shape after the winter.  It was hard to find a good place to run on.  I knew the wind would be at my back for the last 7 miles.  The problem was running the 7 miles into the wind to get there.  The legs were slowly starting to lose it too.

This section is where the slide began.  I ran a 7:07, followed by a 7:15.  A guy passed me and pulled away.  The miles seemed to take forever.  Every mile in the beginning went by like nothing.  Now, each one felt like 3 miles.

I tried to take it one mile at a time.  It just wasn't happening though.  Those two previous miles might've been fine, but then I went to a 7:26 and a 7:21.  I had 11 miles yet to run and was falling bad.  I started to consider quitting. 

My other concern was that if I got all the way out to the turn around, I'd have 7 miles to go yet to the finish.  If I couldn't continue running at that point, I might have to walk all the way back.  There was almost no one out on the course other than the other runners, so I was unsure if I'd be able to get a ride back.

Finally, at mile 16, I made the decision to pull the plug.  I still had 10 miles to go and a final mile of 8:04 was enough for me to give up.  I knew I could still do another spring marathon, provided that I didn't totally destroy my body.  I faded at the Run for the Red in 2010, just like this and I knew what that was like and the recovery.  I wasn't willing to risk it, when I'm only shooting for a time.

If I felt like I was slipping slightly and it was a bad patch or if I was near the end, I would've soldiered on.  I knew it would be a very ugly final 10 miles though and I'm not sure if I could've finished it or not.  I doubt I would've been able to without walking.  I was already feeling like I expected to at mile 23 and it was only mile 16.

For some people, pulling out might have been tough.  For me, I'm only running a marathon to run a BQ time.  I want to qualify for that, so I can run slow and run with friends and enjoy the experience.  I didn't sign up for this marathon simply to suffer or test my level of suffering.  For that, I have a 50 miler that I'm signed up for.  I don't mind suffering, but I wasn't willing to do it for 10 miles when I had no chance of achieving my goal (even if I was technically still under pace).

I walked for about a mile after calling it a day and thankfully they had a sweeper driving around.  Otherwise, it would've been another 3 or 4 mile walk/run.  I wasn't sure if I was supposed to tell them that I DNF'ed.  I did so anyway.

I love running half marathons because you can push yourself hard for a fairly long period of time, but not totally kill yourself.  I also love ultra type running where you just see how far and long you can go and don't worry about pace.  I hate marathons, however.  For me, it's just too long of a distance to push a hard time for a set time.  I could run marathon distance any time, but doing it will a strong effort is difficult for me.

In addition to being reminded of how much I hate marathons, I learned another thing that I sort of already knew.  A downhill course isn't for me.  My quads can't handle it.  It's the same type of thing that did me in at Run for the Red.  I need a flat, consistent course like the Lake Effect Half Marathon course was.  Then I can get into a rhythm and click off consistent miles.  With a course like today's, I'm not able to run the course properly and adjust to the terrain.  I am capable of that with shorter races, but not longer ones.

I'm willing to acknowledge that I went out too quick, even if it didn't feel that way.  I'm not convinced that a slower start would've helped though.  I think my body would've been punished with all the downhills regardless. 

For my training, I knew that I didn't have enough goal paced runs.  It was too much long and slow or short and fast.  I did one goal paced 15 miler and that was tough.  I need more runs like that if I have more time to prepare for a race in the future.

I don't know what is next on the agenda.  There's a full marathon at the beach at the end of April.  It is a flat course, which I think will be more of my style.  However, I don't have any time to actually improve.  It's not so much that I need to improve, but I need to run smart and solve the marathon.  I might hold off on it until I'm even faster and I'm able to run more conservative at the start and still hit a BQ time.

I was looking at a race in July in Massachusetts.  It is relatively flat and around a lake.  It is 8 loops of 3 miles each though.  The other thing is that it is in July.  However, my hope is that I'll be a lot faster by then.  The nice thing is that while it is July, it is at night.  It starts at 9 PM.  I love night runs, so maybe I'd do better in that.  It is a BQ course as well.  It's small though, so that would be another issue.  If I don't do that race, then I'll have to run VIA I guess.  I should be ready to break 3 hours by then.  The concern is that it is right before Boston registration is open.  That means I'm screwed if I have a race like this.

Where I go from here, I'm not sure.  I guess I'll take a few days off to recover.  Then, in the middle of the week get back at it.  I have a 50 miler in May, so I need to start getting some longer, slow runs in and a lot of mileage.  It's probably not best to squeeze in a marathon before that too.  I guess eventually I will decide one way or the other.  Maybe I'll try to do the marathon without a taper or any real prep and just run it.  That way, I can keep some good base mileage and if I don't BQ, I don't BQ.  I'll go into it trying hard, but really with no expectations.  Time will tell.

16 miles - 1:51:36 (6:59 pace)