Marathon win #5 at The Woodlands– 2:37:18.

Introduction

This weekend I was back at it, winning marathon #5 at The Woodlands, in 2:37:18…. a painstaking 4 seconds off my marathon PR I ran at the Olympic Trials 7 weeks ago. This was my 4th marathon since late-October and 9th marathon since Dec. 2010.

First off, let me say THANK YOU to everyone with The Woodlands Marathon for putting so much into the race! Jeff E. and I were blown away by the hospitality, professionalism, and pride the community had in putting on a first-class event. There was a lot of attention to detail and making sure the first-year event took off without a hitch. To get nearly 6,000 participants in the first year (for a community with only 55,000 people!) is phenomenal! It says a lot about the excitement the community had in participating and organizing the event. I would recommend this race to anyone!

As I said in my previous post, I’ve been getting recruited to this race since I-don’t-know-when, and with my schedule…. the timing of it was perfect. I finally got to experienced The Woodlands firsthand…. and what a neat place! The city was built in such a way that there’s trees between the roads and the buildings (hence, The Woodlands). This made for a really cool road racing experience because you’re surrounded by these tall, sparse trees. The city is also highly active and embraces the runner/triathlete culture. It’s a very clean-cut town with nice shopping, restaurants, and a major city Pavilion for concerts– it sort of reminds me of ~Palo Alto or the Pacific Northwest.

Anyways, for the guys who recruited me to the race (Jon Walk, Doug Storey, and Terry Bisogno), I brought each of them a homebrewed Cream Stout. Doug is a former homebrewer and was blown away by it!

Pre-Race

It was pretty warm and humid when I arrived (70s). Doug took me to a Vietnamese place for dinner on Thurs. night– although I had to pick out the onions from my pasta dish (angel hair with shrimp, mussels, and clams with a unique sauce), it ended up tasting FANTASTIC! One of the tastiest pasta dishes I’ve ever had. I had a full breakfast the next morning (omelet, waffle, juice), courtesy of Terry…. this put me into a food-comatose by mid-morning, and after the course tour, I totally passed out for a 1 hr. nap.

I’m going to admit: I ate Taco Bell for lunch on Friday. I know, a bit of a gamble and not the most ideal thing to eat, but it was the closest place to our hotel, and I figured…. if it “worked” in high school between track races, it would still “work” now! I got my usual 2 Double Decker Supremes, and man…. it was soooo good! I went for my 2nd brief run in the late afternoon and then grabbed some coffee, Powerbar, and Gatorade and headed over to the media conference.

The media conference was such a crack up. We had a panel of elites, from open to Master’s runners. Terry asked us questions, and of course…. him knowing me, we start talking about beer, and I don’t even remember if I talked about running! Funny enough, my last few interviews have turned into a discussion about beer, lol. I gotta give a shout out to the title sponsor, My Fit Foods, whom I had never heard of until this weekend…. what they do sounds fantastic, making prepared and healthy meals for people. They said they’re coming to Oklahoma, which will be a great option for people who want healthier food options.

In the evening I ate spaghetti with my friend’s Adrienne (who’s a sports psychologist in The Woodlands– thank you Adrienne for dinner and being our chauffeur for the weekend!), Rebecca (who came over from Alabama), and Rebecca’s boyfriend Keith. It was really fun picking Adrienne’s brain on sports psychology and hearing how Rebecca juggles her running (gets up at 3am!), being an elementary school teacher, and now getting into coaching. 

Race Day

The race had a 6:45am elite start…. which also meant an early finish, yeaaa!!! I got up at 5am and had my Powerbar Harvest bar, banana, coffee, and water at 5:15am. I thought there would be a shuttle at 5:30am, so I waited, and waited…. and kept waiting, before I finally texted Doug about it. The shuttle never came, so by 6:15am, I strapped my bag to my back under my jacket and started running to the start (which fortunately was only 1200m away). The weather was in the mid-50s, slightly overcast, with wind about 10-20 mph. A light rain came in for the last 10 miles of the race, which made it chilly with the wind (thank goodness for wearing gloves!). I wore my Inov-8 233s once again, which are perfect for the marathon.

I didn’t have time to go through my full warmup routine of drills and strides, so I decided to let the first few miles of the marathon be my warmup (took about 4-6 miles until I finally started cranking it). Being an elite start, with not very many elites, I mentally had to prepare to pace myself and let the chips fall wherever. I got into my usual mindset– just another Sunday long run with progression pacing. I focused internally. This always makes me feel comfortable, esp. when I know I’m having to pace myself (which I do anyways in training!). Jon W. asked me after the race how I’m able to be so consistent, and this is why…. my mindset is the same every time, regardless of the course, conditions, and competition (although the competition does make it easier to run faster and focus).

I caught up to the top HM girl, Mattie, by around 6 miles– I didn’t get to talk to her after the race, but I’m assuming she was doing a tempo run at 6:00 pace. I kept my rhythm going, and I was probably about 100m ahead of her through halfway. Being a two loop course, I focused on keeping up the pace on the second loop and trying not to let my mind wander.

We did not have elite fluids, so I had to take cups. They had a station about every 1.5 miles, so I planned to take a cup every other station, unless I felt like I needed an additional drink. It was a bit confusing knowing whether I was taking water or Gatorade (the people giving the cups didn’t match up with the designated signs). I accidentally kept grabbing water– knowing I needed to get some Gatorade within 10 miles (to go with my gel at ~mile 7 = 30-60 g of CHO/hour), I had to press my luck between 8-10 miles that I grabbed some Gatorade (which I finally got). I took additional gels at ~14 miles and 21 miles and an Excedrin at ~16 miles. I felt like I did everything right/well with fluids and gels.

I was running like a metronome…. until I hit the wall of HMers! We began overlapping with an increasing number of walking HMers the last 6-8 miles. They had coned off the road to 1 lane (and traffic in the other lane), so it became tricky maneuvering around the HMers (sometimes 2-4 women abreast), trying to run the tangents (the course roads wound a lot), and then cutting in to get fluids (while maintaining a <6:00 pace!)….  AND doing so with masses of HM walkers doing the same! I felt like a runningback weaving across the road and sometimes having to go outside the cones to get around people (and hoping no cars hit me!). Finally, Jon W. came to the rescue on his bike, to help escort me the last ~3 miles and get people out of the way (thank you Jon!).

The marathoners had to cut in through a parking lot around 24+ miles (while the HMers went straight)– I had to speed up to get around the masses so I could cut through and not miss the turn. It was around this point that I passed the 4th place male (whom I couldn’t see once we merged with the masses of HMers). He had a huge lead on me through most of the race, so it was a bit shocking to suddenly come upon him. I put a minute+ on him the last 2+ miles.

What was going through my head for most of the race? Well, I remembered exactly what Jack Daniels said the weekend before, “Run the first 2/3 with your head…. and the last 1/3 with your heart!” I remember him saying it with conviction too. During the race, I’m trying to calculate in my head, “What is 2/3 of 26.2 miles?” The answer is 18, so I waited until 18 miles…. and then I told myself I needed to run with my heart. Oh man, there couldn’t have been anything more perfect for Jack to tell us and the mindset I needed to have to pull me through the last 6-8 miles!!! While I was somewhat annoyed and distracted by the wall of HMers, at the same time…. I was mentally cueing Cuba Gooding Jr. in Jerry Maguire, “I’m all heart, ************!!!!”

For the last ~400m, we had to cut through a parking lot and finish on a narrow bike path by the Pavillion. They had the marathon finishing to the right (they should switch this for next year), so I had to cut through the HMers to get over to the finish. It was great to win, but it was also devastating to have missed my PR by 4 seconds!!! Soooo close.

I found out Jeff E. won in 2:15:41…. how about that for a small, first year event?! Baller…. both of us coming in and running 2:15 and 2:37. Michael W., who also represents Team Marathonguide.com, finished 2nd in 2:21+. We legitimized The Woodlands for sure! Honestly…. and I told Terry this (as he told me before the race that I’ve PRed every time he’s done the announcing)…. this may not have been a PR, but it was the best performance of my career so far. To have run only 4 seconds short of a PR in a non-major marathon confirms that…. **** , I’m in great shape. It’s a great place to be at right now.

I gotta give credit to my new strength and conditioning program for making running (and running fast!) feel easier than ever before. I’ve seen and felt the transformation in my training (~mile repeats, alone, are 9 seconds faster than before the Trials), so it was great to see this carry over to race performance…. in a very big and positive way!

What to do next? I might be a late entry for Boston. Stay tuned!!!

Post-race– Where’s the beer?!

I’ve decided I need to start chronicling my first post-race beer.  My friend Adrienne picked Jeff and I up, and we went to BJs for lunch, which has an excellent beer selection. I went with a Kolsch ale, to go with my hamburger and fries. It was so-so…. admittedly, our recent homebrewed Kolsch ale sets the bar pretty high!

On this note, Doug texted me mid-afternoon to inform me he was drinking the Cream Stout– he was blown away by it! This totally made my day (to go along with winning the marathon).

The awards ceremony was in the evening at the nearby shopping center. While we picked up a cardboard check and $$$$, we also got a diamond-band ring from Thomas Markle Jewelers, with the initials TWM (The Woodlands Marathon). BLING– it’s gorgeous!!! We went to the jewelers and got to meet Thomas Markle. Fortunately, my band fits my index finger, so I didn’t need it sized.

Afterwards, we went to a local popular brew pub called Goose’s Acre. Per Adrienne’s recommendation, we got the Black Velvet specialty, which was a mix of Guinesss with a Cider Ale. It was FANTASTIC and well-balanced! I want to homebrew a stout and a cider now (and mix em!).

Conclusion

It was a great weekend for marathoning and Team Marathonguide.com. Jeff and I set the bar high on Saturday by rocking and rolling at The Woodlands. This was followed on Sunday by teammate Leah T. scoring a new PR of 2:37 to win her 4th Little Rock Marathon…. AND, 3rd marathon/win since the Olympic Trials 7 weeks ago! Heck yeah, way to throw yourself out there Leah!!! Michael W. also cameback to finish 2nd at the US 50K Championship. He’s preparing for several upcoming ultra races. The guy is beastly!!!! I also have to give a shout out to my friend and fellow-long-legged endurance animal, Devon C-H, for getting the course record at Napa Valley– finally someone took it down! Way to go guys!!!!