Boston Marathon (9-weeks out)
A Natural Disaster: Isla had finally gone down, but not before I managed to crack my right knee on the corner of a nightstand while soothing her to sleep. This clearly was an unfortunate drawback of not being familiar with your surroundings, that, and not having the light on. The croup appears to have left us but in its place we have a snotty, unsettled and irritable little girl… who hasn’t slept for more than 90’ straight in the last week. I digress.
With Isla down I began my last minute preparations, including formulating a race strategy. Based on my recent 10k, a predicted 1:20:00 (3:48km) was called for, but I was hoping, willing for an improvement and instead settled on 3:42-3:45 goal pace. My decision ended up being a moot point as I quickly discovered during the first few minutes that the course was measured in miles (stupid mistake). I did the math in my head and based on old marathon goals, I knew +/- 6:00mile/pace would get me what I wanted. Sadly, a 6:00 mile was as elusive as a blue moon.
Despite being up six times the night of the race, I had toed the line hoping the excitement and adrenaline would see me through... it last about 3 miles. I’m embarrassed to say I ran the slowest half marathon (1:21:29) in probably more than a decade, the wreckage is detailed below:
5:37, 5:56, 5:55, 6:07, 5:56, 6:05,
6:10, 6:17, 6:26, 6:25, 6:40, 6:36,
6:40, 0:34
The only racing that occurred on the day was the negative thoughts swirling around my head, “Why am I doing this and when does it become fun? If I were to cancel our flights to Boston, I wonder where else we could travel, Maui? Could I train half-heartedly and tell everyone that I went there to soak up the true experience the race provides?”
I hope everyone had a better week than I, until later...
Training:
Thursday: easy 36:50
Friday: easy 28:57 with 9xstrides
Saturday: day off (unscheduled)
Sunday: 1:40:34 with First Half Marathon in 1:21:29 58th OA, 3:52 pace/mile
Weekly mileage: 4h49’45”, +/- 67k or 42 miles
6 comments:
Don't be so hard on yourself Michael. Remember that a few years ago you had less distractions than now, not that's a bad thing now. Train your best and plan on enjoying the day no matter what!
I'm sure you're disappointed, but whatever you do - don't get down on yourself.
You didn't get much sleep, and it just wasn't your day. You've got a great coach and the training is coming along. Better days ahead for sure.
Kick back, have a pint of your favorite brew, go grab a nice dinner and pick it up again tomorrow!
Thanks for the comments, I really appreciate them. I wasn't trying to be too hard on myself, but just give an honest opinion of what (at times) goes through my head when I have a bad race. I'm sure we've all been there.
And know that I do plan on a) enjoying the day and b)having a favourite brew, although the pint might come sooner, much sooner.
Well done on pushing through. It's all part of the experience (gotta take the good with the bad). The fast first mile may have hastened the slowdown.
You can't throw away Boston because of one botched half marathon! I'd say you ran too fast during the first half and paid the price. Consistent lack of sleep wouldn't have helped either.
I feel your pain. All you can do is put it in the experience box, brush yourself down, forget about it and move on to the next race. No point dwelling on races in the past when there's more to come.
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