Month: November 2011

Keep Calm and Carry On

This morning I ran the Philadelphia Marathon 2011. I ran it in 3:07:47, making this my second-fastest marathon time. I missed my 2009 PR time (also in Philly) by only 15 seconds! Still, quite an accomplishment given that I ran the NYC Marathon two weeks ago in 3:13:49.

Unofficial Garmin Results

I wasn’t really sure what would happen in this race. Last year I also did NYC-then-Philly. While at the time I made a PR for NYC (but about a minute), I actually ran the easier Philly race slower than NYC (by about a couple minutes). Then, my training had diminished because I was working long hours and when I got off work, I chose to spend time with my girlfriend over training. Also, between the two races, only did one (slow) training run of about 8 miles. This year, having no girlfriend, the conflict of interest was eliminated, making for more regular training despite a hectic work schedule. I also managed 4 training runs between the two races, including on 12.27-miler. The overall result was that I was fitter this year than last year, but I still wasn’t sure if I would run Philly as fast as NYC, or faster, or what.

My original goal for Philly was to run a sub-3:00 marathon. I knew that was not likely in the cards, so I rewrote in my head my goal to be sub-3:07:32, meaning my goal was to beat my best Philly time and run my faster marathon ever. A secondary goal was to at least do a sub-3:10 (which would coincidentally qualify me for the Boston Marathon 2013), and a tertiary goal was to run at least better than my recent NYC Marathon time of 3:13:49. I wasn’t sure what was in the cards.

For this race, I strategized to hold back a little in the beginning. The day before, I printed out my Garmin results for the two marathons last year and the one I ran a couple weeks ago. I folded the results so that the splits were all lined up. Then I studied them. I was looking for trends. At what mile do I tend to slow down? At what point in the races do I lose steam? Etc. I tried to remember these trends so that I could make running calculations when I was out today. They definitely helped. I started to slowly realize that I was able to maintain a competitive pace, but I also knew I needed to push as much as I could at the end.

You may have seen the posters that read simply “Keep Calm and Carry On.” For some reason, that motto came into my head early in the race, and I used it to help steady my breathing and keep me from “race panic” in hillier areas that taxed my breathing. The other motto was more like a command, one that I heard someone say rather forcefully early on in the race: “Let’s go!” I decided to tell myself that to see if it could excite me as it did early in the race. (It seemed to help a little bit, but it didn’t seem to endure. It seemed to take a few seconds for my body to respond to the command.)

In studying my race results today and comparing them with my NYC results, I noticed some interesting effects of the different courses on my body. For one, NYC’s bridges do a number on my body. Essentially, they are draining, zapping my energy and sending me eventually into high-7:00s and 8:00s. At the same points in today’s race, which didn’t have really anything like the bridges of NYC, at least late in the race, I was maintaining a fairly even pace, and that pace was able to endure. In Philly today, none of my splits were greater than 7:40, which is just incredible to me. It’s the bridges and late hills of NYC that send me into the 8:00s.

My body held up today. I was at the start line a bit concerned, having just had a bathroom concern develop (the kind that could lead to in-race embarrassment), and having noticed that bouncing would probably trigger. I also had to pee slightly. I was less concerned about the pee sensation, because I’ve learned that a slight pee sensation goes away for me in races. However, the other sensation struck fear in me. I bargained that if it happened, I wouldn’t be embarrassed, and it would be a valuable experience. But, Eureka!, it never developed! At some point early in the race I forgot about the sensation and I was fine.

At times in the last hour or so of the race, I really tried to push myself a bit, especially on the downhills. While I probably succeeded to some degree, I wasn’t able to really drive down my time in a significant way (like bringing myself down to low 7:00s). My pace felt slow but constant, but I really couldn’t get my body to speed it up into a sprint. As the race went on, I was starting to see that I had about 5 minutes in the bank–that is, 5 minutes ahead of a 3:10. I knew some of that would be used up in the later miles, but it was seeming to me that I would probably finish around 3:06. It was only toward the last mile or so that it was getting a little dangerous, and it wasn’t until I rounded the slight turn and saw the finish line that I knew that my dream of beating my PR was just out of reach. I did, however, manage a sprint at the end that felt like about 90-95% of my maximum speed, so I finished strong despite just missing my PR.

During this race, I was fearful of the cramps that flirted with my calves in NYC. To guard against them, I decided to consume a quart of coconut water the day before in order to load my body with potassium. To see what it might aid me, I consumed 1 ibuprofen an hour before the race, and one Gatorade Prime 15 minutes before. I also tried better to hydrate myself, taking water and Gatorade along the course at probably 80% of the stations. I consumed somewhere on the order of 6 PowerGel or Clif Shots, but with the PowerGels I actually dialed back the caffeine just a little bit. More importantly, I tried to strategize my use of them. I wasn’t exactly sure how long my body would get a bolster from their ingredients, but when I predicted a hill (like the one near Drexel, or even the bridge about a half-mile before it), I consumed a Gel in hopes that it would kick in at the hill and help me out. Also, I made up a strategy in the race to take Gatorade in stations and then try to pick up the pace coming out of them. The theory was that I would want to slow down so don’t do that, and by the time I’d tired from that pickup the Gatorade would kick in and rescue me, allowing me to keep up the pace. It seemed to work out, at least as a nice idea.

The 3:00 pace team passed me around Mile 10. However, the 3:10 pace team never caught me. They weren’t that far behind me (when I was getting back onto the bridge in Mile 17 area, they were just leaving the bridge), but I was a little concerned that they were close enough if my pace dropped off. Fortunately it didn’t.

I realized based on what I wanted to say that I was a little disappointed that I didn’t make a PR with this race. But as the day went on, I realized I was shocked I did so well, considering that I also ran so well at the NYC Marathon two weeks prior. It was cool to be able to do this. Elizabeth also ran this race and did incredibly well (running a 3:15 and some change), and her boyfriend Chris ran the half-marathon and surprised me with his awesome finish time of 1:51:06.

Photos coming soon!

Holy Cramp!

Today I ran the ING New York City Marathon. It is my fifth running of the race. I ran it in 3:13:49* (7:24s), which is a new PR for me for this marathon. My prior PR for the NYC Marathon was 3:27:27, set last year. I shaved off 13:38 from last year’s time.

* Update11/7/2011: This is the official time. Yesterday, the unofficial time was reported as 3:13:50.

To view my splits and pace, visit http://trackmyrunners.ingnycmarathon.org and click Select Runners then find “Benjamin Hauck.” Then click my name to show my results.

Here are my Unofficial Garmin Stats:

First off, what ideal weather. The start was around 46 degrees, and the race warmed up only to about 52 degrees by the time I finished a minute shy of 1pm. The sky was sunny and the wind was light, except at a few points like on the Queensboro Bridge (crosswind), as well as when I was coming back into Manhattan from the Bronx (headwind). I wore a thin running singlet, shorts, and compression socks, and I was comfortable without ever feeling cold. I tolerate cold really well and even get warm really easily. Note that last year it started around 41 degrees and I did the whole race shirtless!

My first half of the race was quite impressive to me. I started only about 36 or so seconds after the gun went off, which made it easier to interpret my progress as the clock went on. I managed to pull off a half-marathon in 1:29:15, which probably is my second fastest known half-marathon time. (I probably did a half faster in the Philly Marathon 2009, but I don’t know the time.) By that time in the race my pace was 6:49, creeping up very slowly from a 6:40 5K pace. After the half was done, that’s when my energy started to change and my pace more noticeably crept up. I didn’t hit a 7:10 pace until Mile 22 was done, which is still quite respectable to me and had I kept that pace up, I would have finished with a 3:10 marathon or better. However, knowing I had some long, slow grades ahead of me on 5th Ave. and in Central Park, I didn’t think I’d be able to sustain my pace to achieve my goal.

Plus, I was dealing with calf cramps. I’ve never dealt with cramping in my calves before–my first real post-run experience of them was after a long training run about a month or so ago when I was lying in my bed and my left calf went into a 45-second lockdown. The pain was so paralyzing I yelled to my roommate for help!

In today’s marathon, I was afraid full cramp lockdown would happen. Here and there the during the 22nd mile (and possibly sooner–I don’t recall), each of my calves would “grab” a bit as if they were about to contract into a race-stopping cramp. To compensate, I only did what I could think of: I kept my toes and feet pointed up to counteract the movement of the cramp, which surely would have rendered my feet pointed down and stuck. This strategy worked, but it didn’t leave me feeling very secure. From what I know of cramps, they are the result of low potassium and/or the imbalance of electrolytes in my body, so I realized I also needed to get Gatorade into my system. Gatorade was available every mile but I wasn’t confident it would help me. I’d already had what I thought were plenty of electrolytes in my system from having a PowerGel every 5 miles, then eventually every 4 miles. I’d also consumed some Gatorade along the way. Whatever the case, whatever I did was not enough. (Given that my PowerGels had about 50mg of caffeine in them, maybe I was dehydrated by the caffeine?) I did escape the race without either of my legs making it into full cramp, but because of the threat of full cramp (especially when going uphill), I really couldn’t push myself harder for fear of disaster. (An afterthought was to take a banana that was being offered along the latter part of the course. Bananas are known to combat cramping because of their potassium content.)

Fortunately disaster was averted by the time I saw Elizabeth waiting to see me at the “Half-Mile to Go” sign across from 210 Central Park South. I’d looked forward to this for a while, especially as I entered the park, and fortunately we connected hands as I passed her by with a serious expression on my face. I emotionally broke down a moment after passing her, likely the result of seeing someone out there I knew was supporting me. She said I looked strong at this point in the race.

My goal for this race was to run NYC in sub-3:10. Around this point I knew I wouldn’t achieve that, so the point became to see just how fast I would finish. I didn’t push myself very hard upon re-entering Central Park, going only as fast as I could before I felt cramping. It was nice to see, though, that I was going to finish below 3:14. Something about finishing in the 3:13 range to me seems fast, while 3:14 seems somewhat slower. 3:13:49 is what I got.

I emotionally broke down only for a second or two, two or three times on the walk after the finish line. My mood, though, was upbeat and happy, which was indicative for me that I was healthy in running this race. My body felt pretty decent, actually. As I sit here typing this entry at nearly 6pm, 5 hours after I finished, my body is in really great shape. There were no noticeable blisters or chafing. I do have some specific groin pain (probably from the 3+ hours of pounding), and I have a little bit of “diaper rash.” But apart from that, I walked to a restaurant for dinner pretty comfortably and my spirits are still with me. (We’ll see how I am in the morning!) I lost somewhere around 8 lbs. in this race. I started at 176, and when I weighed myself at home I was around 170-171, after having consumed about 2.5 beverages.

I’m pretty happy with how I did. While I didn’t manage a sub-3:10, I did make a major improvement in my NYC PR. I also beat my Boston Marathon time from earlier this year (3:15:16). Today is the second-fastest marathon I’ve run, and probably the hardest course I’ve run.

In two weeks, I run the Philadelphia Marathon 2011. My original goal was to run a sub-3:00. After today and considering how I did last year (I did both last year, too), I’m not really sure I can swing a sub-3:00, even though Philly is a pretty flat course. Instead, my goal is to beat my PR for Philly, which is also my Overall PR (3:07:32). I think I’m within striking range. However, I still have to train. Let’s see how the training holds up. Tune in in a couple weeks!