{"id":856,"date":"2012-10-21T22:15:45","date_gmt":"2012-10-22T02:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/?p=856"},"modified":"2012-10-27T21:22:42","modified_gmt":"2012-10-28T01:22:42","slug":"surprise-you-didnt-run-a-320-or-a-325-you-ran-31514","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/2012\/10\/21\/surprise-you-didnt-run-a-320-or-a-325-you-ran-31514\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprise! You Didn&#8217;t Run a 3:20! Or a 3:25! You Ran 3:15:14!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This morning I ran the Atlantic City Marathon. \u00a0I ran it in 3:15:14 (7:27s). \u00a0This exceeded my estimated finish time of 3:20, which I figured would potentially end up being 3:25.<\/p>\n<p>Here are my unofficial Garmin stats, or <a href=\"http:\/\/connect.garmin.com\/activity\/235922013\" target=\"_blank\">click here if it looks funky<\/a>:<br \/>\n<iframe width='465' height='548' frameborder='0' src='http:\/\/connect.garmin.com:80\/activity\/embed\/235922013'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The weather for today&#8217;s race was perfect. \u00a0The thermometer was hovering around 50 degrees, the skies were cloudless, and there wasn&#8217;t much of a wind on the Boardwalk where this race started. \u00a0I had forgotten how small this race is, which was quite a surprise to me &#8212; this was perhaps my smallest marathon ever! \u00a0Most of the people were there for the half-marathon which was run simultaneously.<\/p>\n<p>As I was in the corral, I spied the 3:15 pacer. \u00a0I also spied the 3:35 pacer. \u00a0Where was the 3:25 pacer? \u00a0I asked 3:15 (Tony) and he said some others were going to split off and unofficially run 3:25. \u00a0I figured they were the people I&#8217;d be looking for because I couldn&#8217;t imagine doing a 3:15. \u00a0Without much mental prep or really any nerves, we were off and running not much later.<\/p>\n<p>The AC Marathon is largely a flat course. \u00a0Where you hear that kind of thing, if you don&#8217;t know better you tend to think it&#8217;s entirely flat without a hill to speak of. \u00a0Well, that&#8217;s not true, as there are some on ramps that have a wee bit of a hillage to them but nothing that really taxes your body overly so. \u00a0Much of the first part of the race is pretty fun as you go on a winding path that takes on some highwayesque roadway. \u00a0In fact, during your second mile you&#8217;re actually in a tunnel and I lost signal on my Garmin. \u00a0When I emerged, my second mile beeped and it was a 7:44! \u00a0I&#8217;m not sure if that was right but I had been chatting with a runner during much of my time in that warm tunnel so I might have slowed. \u00a0However, I picked up speed again and as you can see from my stats, most of my early miles were sub-7:00s or in the low 7:00s.<\/p>\n<p>Chatting with some runners about pace, a couple remarked that I was much too fast for aiming for a 3:20. \u00a0I realized this, but deep down I was experimenting with my current ability. \u00a0My training this month had been lighter than a taper, and largely inconsistent &#8212; not following very well my training schedule. \u00a0I was set in running what felt good then seeing where I tanked. \u00a0It came as a bit of a surprise that these same guys who warned me about my pace started to pull ahead of me &#8230; but eventually, I overtook them all! \u00a0I was a bit perplexed by this move on my part, which I thought would surely correct but I don&#8217;t think it ever did. \u00a0I maintained my fast pace for quite some time!<\/p>\n<p>I entered back onto the Boardwalk and passed the finish line. \u00a0But what happened at that moment couldn&#8217;t have been timed better: I was passing the finish line just as the first-place runners for the half-marathon were finishing in what looked like a photo-finish sprint! \u00a0Wild! \u00a0I remarked to the runner who was running near me at the time. \u00a0I eventually passed him and wished him luck.<\/p>\n<p>At the point, the AC Marathon gets a bit lonely. \u00a0It&#8217;s a monotonous, lonely jog to the turnaround point for the half-marathon &#8230; but it&#8217;s an even more monotonous and lonely jog past that point if you&#8217;re doing the full marathon! \u00a0The loneliness actually wasn&#8217;t that bad. \u00a0It was nice to see a bit of encouragement here and there from people on the Boardwalk, but too much attention would have drained me a bit. \u00a0I was prepared to run from the 8-mile mark where I reentered the Boardwalk to the 15-mile mark where I thought we&#8217;d turnaround. \u00a0However, I misinterpreted the map and we didn&#8217;t run all the way down the mile 15 on boards; instead, we turned off at some point around, when was it?, mile 13-ish?, and ended up running on the street! \u00a0That was a complete surprise and a bit mysterious to me.<\/p>\n<p>I completed the half-marathon in 1:32 and change &#8212; I think I was on the Boardwalk but maybe I was on the streets. \u00a0It was during this stretch on the street that I was running solo for the whole time until I got to the turnaround at mile 15. \u00a0After the turnaround a guy caught me and passed me &#8212; he was aiming for a 3:05 and I&#8217;m betting he made that time easily given his clip. \u00a0After this long stretch and turnaround, we then turn off and head into suburban neighborhood streets. \u00a0I remember this area from the map of the course, and I remembered that it would take some time to get out of this maze.<\/p>\n<p>Maze it was. \u00a0I actually got so twisted up in my head that I thought maybe the route had changed, but in hindsight I think all was there. \u00a0I started to realize I was actually doing pretty good when I started to double back over the course (it&#8217;s an out and back) and saw the fitness levels of some of the people. \u00a0I&#8217;d seen the 3:15 pace group during this time, though, too, and I could tell it was getting closer to me. \u00a0I needed to keep my pace up because with a 1:32 half, I figured there was a good chance I&#8217;d do somewhere around a 3:10 &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>When I got out of the maze and back onto the street where the stretch began, the distance looked very daunting. \u00a0You could only see cones for days into the horizon, and I started to feel a bit demoralized. \u00a0I quickly refuted that thinking with comments like &#8220;I will!&#8221; and I pressed onward, trying to avoid thinking about the recession of cones. \u00a0Eventually, I could see lights from a cop car, and of course eventually I reached the place where I turn back onto the Boardwalk.<\/p>\n<p>My pace was started to really lag. \u00a0Here I was trying to pace myself and get enough energy into my body from gels and the like but mainly just persist. \u00a0A great time was pretty much assured but just how great wasn&#8217;t clear to me, especially as my times drew above 7:00s and into the high 8:00s. \u00a0I remembered from the half I ran in AC in 2010 that the finish takes quite a bit of time to get to once you see it (you see the pier that is also a shopping mile from more than a mile away), so you get a bit impatient to finish. \u00a0I also knew that this year&#8217;s finish was past the shopping mall rather than before it. \u00a0I kept onward.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, the finish was within range. \u00a0I saw no &#8220;Mile 26&#8221; marker, but I did feel another runner come up near me. \u00a0He sped up &#8212; so did I. \u00a0He sped up again &#8212; so did I. \u00a0Each time he sped up, I responded and held him off. \u00a0As I went into the chute toward the finish, we were both sprinting though I felt I&#8217;d pulled ahead of him solidly. \u00a0I wanted to go faster, but my calves held me back with cramping sensations! \u00a0I held off this runner, whom I talked to after we finished. \u00a0His name was Dan. \u00a0He finished 2 seconds after me but we had the same net time &#8212; and he ended up with the higher place than me. \u00a0What a great balance of power. \u00a0Afterward, I learned he PR&#8217;d by about 8 minutes; I was so impressed!<\/p>\n<p>I came in 27th place, 26th among men (only one woman finished faster than me), and 13th in my age group. \u00a0I was pretty wasted at the end of this race and moaning a bit. \u00a0I was so much sore; I was more in agony if that makes any sense. \u00a0I leaned for a while, lay down for a while, &#8230; I took my time after learning I had more leeway with my hotel checkout. \u00a0And then I headed back.<\/p>\n<p>I was really happy with my 3:15:14. \u00a0I eventually realized that the 3:15 pace group didn&#8217;t pass me, and then I learned from Dan (whom I saw as I was leaving) that he was part of the 3:15 group and noticed that it was off pace so he left the group. \u00a0Apparently the 3:15 pacer finished in nearly 3:17, which made me feel very sad for him. \u00a0According to Dan, the pacer had run something like a 2:50 in Chicago earlier in the month, so I&#8217;m guessing running nearly a 3:17 was a bit of a shock. \u00a0I just hope the guys running with him weren&#8217;t upset.<\/p>\n<p>For the run, I had a lot of fuel in my system. \u00a0I used Seamless Web to track down some macaroni &amp; cheese (really just pasta was cheese on top) and some garlic bread and seasoned fries for dinner after I realized I&#8217;d missed out on registering for the pasta dinner. (Note to future self: Register early! It&#8217;s not automatic!) \u00a0I had a bag of Gu Chomps just before the race and I may have had a bag about an hour prior (I can&#8217;t recall). \u00a0During I used some PowerGels without caffeine, though at some point in the second half I opted for some 1x caffeinated ones they were passing out. \u00a0I was getting pretty sick of these things, though, wanting real food later in the race. \u00a0For this race, I probably weighed about 178 lbs. \u00a0I don&#8217;t know what I weighed after but I had a lot of liquid during the race (I&#8217;d heard the wind dries you out faster) &#8212; but I probably still dropped around 8-10 lbs. during this race I imagine.<\/p>\n<p>My legs held up for this race! \u00a0The main pain I felt was soreness in the front of my hips. \u00a0I got on compression socks for the rest of the day. \u00a0I ate at Applebee&#8217;s after while I waited for the train ride back to NYC by way of Philly. \u00a0Other than being a bit tired from running a marathon, I held up pretty well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning I ran the Atlantic City Marathon. \u00a0I ran it in 3:15:14 (7:27s). \u00a0This exceeded my estimated finish time of 3:20, which I figured would potentially end up being 3:25. Here are my unofficial Garmin stats, or click here if it looks funky: The weather for today&#8217;s race was perfect. \u00a0The thermometer was hovering &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/2012\/10\/21\/surprise-you-didnt-run-a-320-or-a-325-you-ran-31514\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Surprise! You Didn&#8217;t Run a 3:20! Or a 3:25! You Ran 3:15:14!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathons","category-races","tag-atlantic-city-marathon-2012"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":864,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions\/864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}