Monday, May 7, 2012

Just a Parade of Monkeys

...It all started... well I've told that story before; go look it up.

The first two Monkeys

Last year I qualified to run "THE" Boston Marathon. It took two tries and they were night and day. My first attempt was the CMM in Nashville. There is a race report somewhere around here to detail the events, but the short version is FAIL. The temperatures were 85 degrees before I finished and I'll say that being my first, I didn't correctly respect the distance. Now I felt confident I trained right for it, but it turns out I wasn't prepared for it. 15 days later I signed up for a local marathon solely because the weather was just what I had trained in. The forecast was cold, overcast and rainy, and race day was 37degrees and overcast the whole way. There was a brutal wind out of the north gusting from 20-30 miles too. But I felt that I had trained in this weather and I was better than Nashville demonstrated.

It turns out, runners are just sick. They tend to be hyper critical of themselves and often times unjustifiably to those outside their skin. It was my first marathon; unless you're an elite runner, you're really not supposed to be good at these on your first try, but I like to think I am better than the average bear.

Before Nashville, I actually talked myself into thinking I could BQ. For my infirmed age that required a 3:20 and I was probably in 3:05-10 shape. So my first monkey was the BQ Monkey. The events of the day in Nashville returned me a 3:32. Additionally, I resorted to walk running before I even hit the 20 mile mark. Now all of that was not being fully prepared, even though I had fully trained. With this result, I quickly paired up my BQ Monkey with an adorable little buddy, the Run the Whole Thing Monkey. I was kinda distraught that I had resorted to walking so early and moreso that I really never mustered enough fortitude to mount a running finish. As you can see you don't always stay married to your monkey.

How to Get Rid of a Monkey


As the story opened, you saw that I did qualify for Boston and it was at this make-up marathon. The weather was in my wheelhouse and I finished the entire marathon while running. I posted a 3:05:50 which was almost 15 minutes faster than needed for Boston. Well that killed two monkeys, end of story right? Oh so wrong!!! When you attain a goal, you're super elated. The endorphines are overwhelming; you're pretty sure you can leap tall buildings. Then about 5 minutes later you start thinking. What if...
...I didn't wear that second layer
...I didn't run 10 miles yesterday
...I didn't have to do a make-up marathon and would have been tapered and rested for this one
...I didn't have to run the last two miles uphill against a 20-30 m.p.h. wind

You don't know it while you're in "what if" mode, but you're manufacturing the next monkey. In my case it was the Sub-3 Monkey. Sub 3 is a fairly significant barrier for a marathoner. It's no 4 minute mile, but it's still big. Don't get me wrong; there are other significant milestones like finishing. Finishing should be theonly goal of a first time marathoner. And some people start their journey trying to break 3:30, 4:00 or in some case longer times. Now that I'd run 3:05 and change, could I be a sub 3 marathoner? In order to do all I could to become a sub 3 guy, I asked some of the faster local marathoners I knew how they trained. It turns out there is no one plan nor philosophy, but I did grasp on to the training of one guy in particular. He was doing high mileage (90+) and slower pace (nothing faster than 8:00/mile). In the months up to his marathon it was much of this and one 5K at 5:28/mile pace. I took this information and designed a plan around it. I was going to do high mileage, but I was also going to keep a more aggressive pace on my training. I was able to maintain my weekly distance from 75-90 miles for 4 months leading up to Boston. Boston would be my next chance to go sub 3. In addition, to this mileage, I got a few members to buy into some really town track workouts:
  • 12x1 mile @ 5:40-6:00 pace
  • 4-3-2-1 miles @ 6:10-5:30
  • 5x2 miles @ 5:45-6:10
And our Thursday night runs were sometimes just as silly 6 mile temp on hillier streets with a 2 mile c/d. Some of the guys and I did a 4 mile w/u for these as well. Again they were agressive tempo runs. For each of these workouts that I created, I felt there was less than a 50/50 chance of surviving them. In the end, we always survived them. I was running 25-40 miles on the weekends. I was really going at this hard.

The Lead up to Boston

As the early spring progressed, mid-April was looming on the horizon, and I did everything possible to ensure a successful race for my first Boston. I'd run far, fast and over hills. My diet was very reasonable. I watched my sleeping habits. and 10 days out we get the first forecast. It's gonna be 60 and overcast. Now 60 is a tad hot, but well within reasonable. So now I am armed with great conditions and great training. I am starting to feel really stoked and I have announced publicily that I think 2:50 is within my realm. Privately and to a select few I even toy with 2:40. Heck the training indicated it was feasible. So a few days later I recheck the weather, maybe it will be cooler.

Uh uh! 70 degrees. Well the next 8 days just keep bringing worse news until the temps hit the mid to high 80s. Good grief! an entire training cycle down the tubes. Since this is my first Boston, I am going regardless. The expo is laced with warning about how we're doomed. The message from the BAA is strongly worded that only the fittest athletes should even attepmt to run this event. None of this bodes well for me. I typically fold in warm/hot weather. One guy in the club reminds me, "you are in the best shape of your life, the heat should affect you but fitter people should do better than the rest." This relieves me a bit and I decide to really just slow down my start and see what the race has for me. The race had nothing but doom for me. I ran the first 4 miles super easy and then felt good so I thought maybe I did train well enough to be immune to this heat. I start reeling of miles at my original target pace, then about mile 11 I realize that I am wilting. So I go to plan B: forget the 2:40-50 and just preserve a sub 3. You can do that just be holding 7:15-20 and that's a walk in the park for you. Well I got parked on, and walking became a reality. I had succumbed and being in the best condition of my life, I was blowing my sub 3 marathon. I tried to shut it down, but kept thinking this is Boston. I whimpered home with a 3:17. It was still a BQ for me, but I no longer cared about that monkey. My Sub-3 Monkey had trounced me.

I was dejected to say the least. Sure my supporters tried to placate me with it was a great time for the conditions. But I wasn't here for the conditions it was just a marathon and I wanted sub 3. What do I do now? Well last year I ran the Chicagoland Spring marathon. This time the Chicagoland Spring is too far out, what about Illinois, crap sold-out DOUBLE CRAP 40 degrees on race day. So why not find another small local marathon? That sounds great but what if the weather sucks there too? So I waited until the Wisconsin marathon was within 8 days and liked the temperatures so I pulled the trigger. My mindset here was that I was just making an investment in a great day, if the weather turned sacrafice the $80-90 whatever bucks and wait for Rockford or Chicagoland. If those don't work screw it get ready for your triathlon and the Masters Championships in August. Run a marathon next spring.

Well it turns out that Wisconsin's weather stay in great shap high of 60 with a 7:00 start and moderate chance of rain, aka. overcast. Heck I'm gonna toe the line. I went up with a younger guy in my running club who had done every bit of the crazy workouts I had and we were gonna be conservative. Everything to preserve the sub 3. We made a pact, nothing faster than 6:40 through 8 miles. My buddy is every bit the talent I am, but he's gunshy because his only marathon prior to this is last years Chicago and he blewup. I shared with him how different the weather was and the hell I put him through in training and explained these were totally different circumstances.

Ok, so we get ready and the obligatory 3-2-1 BANG! We're off. We really eased over the start line and both felt like we were jogging. I looked at my watch and there was some disbelief. I assumed the clouds must be playing with my GPS, because we were through the mile in 6:22 and not breathing. The next couple miles we deliberately backed off to 6:30s. By mile 5 I was back in the 20s and he was getting nervous, he begged off a bit and I proceeded on without him. Something good was happening this day. I went through 8 miles and we reach the northern turn around on the out and back. I'm just not breathing yet and still comfortable running low 30s. At this point a half marathoner is drafting off me and worse yet he'd clipping my heals. I grew annoyed and dropped another 10 seconds. for the next 4 miles I was sub 20s and still not breathing. I am not doing it intentionally, but I am passing a lot of fading halfers. We separate off and I find myself in no man's land. I think I am in about 8-10th place, but it's really 12th. The next person ahead of me is out of sight and I can see 3 city blocks. I think this was a help. I really just focused on looking at the corners and running to them. I'm ticking off miles in the teens and 20s. At 19.5 we hit the southern most point and we are right on lake Michigan. We travelled down about a block inland, but the whole way back was going to be right on the lake. Fek!!! a head wind. I started passing people here and moved up to 9th place. I was falling to mid 40s now, but still pulling away from those behind me so I am embolded by knowing I am strong this day; stronger than them and stronger than I thought I could be, but I am rolling towards the finish and I still may go sub 2:50. Those dreams pass by quickly as I just can't overcome this wind and drop back into the 30s. I remember crossing the finish line and being so elated. I had just defeated another monkey. I was no longer capable of running a sub 3, I had run a sub 3. It was just amazing for all three steps until I hit the lil guy passing out medals whereupon I started thinking, how could I have shaved off that last 1:25. Really? you can't just grit out an 18 minute 5K? Why couldn't you be sub 2:50? As I said earlier, runners are sick. About 4 minutes later my clubmate finishes. Seeing the joy and sense of accomplishment on his face was the greatest point of my running career. I saw him come to the realization of what he had just done and I felt I was a part of that. It took some of the sting out of the 1:25 I was in search of.

As we left the finish area to get our gear from check, I had cast aside that silly Sub-3 Monkey, sadly another weight rested upon my shoulders why not 2:50 and this new B@sturd had a buddy, if you can do 2:50 two weeks after Boston why not 2:40 on fresh legs. Later than night I looked up my age graded results and found yet another monkey, I was not yet a national caliber marathoner (80%).

So here I sit hours after accomplishing a goal I could not have conceived of 2 years ago and said never to 20+ years ago, and all I can do is carry around 3 new monkeys:
  • Sub-2:50 Monkey
  • Sub-2:50 Monkey
  • 80% Monkey
Why can't we just relish a job well done?

Ternt I want another Monkey, The Harpeth Hills one, please <-- the sole reason I wrote this blog ;)

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