The biggest issue this year has been a small handful of in-race injuries (calf cramping) that derailed my performance - particularly in the shorter/faster races. I've never had an injury during a race until this year. But this year it became the norm, forcing me to drop out of one race and skip another for fear of re-injury. Although I dropped out of a half marathon at the midway point, I was able to finish two other half marathons without injury. However my times were slower than expected. But I'm coming into today's race feeling very good about how my aggressive high mileage training has gone over the past six weeks.
Then three days before the marathon, I became ill. A bad head cold completely sapped my strength. On Friday, two days before the marathon, I really thought I would have to withdraw due to illness. A 26 mile race is nothing to mess around with - particularly when one's health is not 100%. However it's also very hard to walk away, after months of hard work and training to prepare for the race. I convinced myself last night that I felt well enough to give it a go. Deep down I knew I wasn't 100%. A bad head cold usually takes two weeks to flush through my system. This was just going to be another obstacle to overcome in a race season filled with many obstacles.
Another reason I wanted to run so badly today was the weather. We have been blessed with good weather for this race almost every year and today was no exception. It was sunny, dry and relatively calm with an air temperature in the upper 30's at the start, warming to the upper 40's by the end of race. In the weeks leading up to the race, I always worry about the potential for bad weather. The marathon is a long, difficult, grueling race that doesn't need help from the weather to make it even tougher than it already is. But today, the weather was about as good as you can ask for.
Although the weather was great for racing, 38 degrees is a bit chilly just waiting around for the race to start. With U.S. Bank Stadium now in operation, just two blocks from the starting line, it would have been nice for the doors to be open for runners to warm like was done in the old Metrodome days. However today, the Vikings have a home game at noon and new security laws prevent non-event access to the building 24 hours prior to the game. This conflict was caused by the Ryder Cup which was in town last weekend. Normally, marathon weekend would have been last weekend too, but was pushed to this weekend to allow the Ryder Cup to take center stage. The NFL will continue to schedule the Vikings out of town the first weekend in October, so the marathon can utilize the stadium as base camp for the runners before the race, as in years past with the Metrodome.
As the race began, all was good. I settled into my race pace and tried to feed off the noisy crowds that lined the Minneapolis lakes and parkways that dominate the first half of the race. Heading north on the east side of Lake Nokomis is the midway point of the race. There are time clocks scattered throughout the course, but it's the clock on Nokomis at the 13.1 mile mark that I use to gauge how I'm doing and motivate me for the second half of the race. My time was 1:38 this year. Two minutes slower than last year. Still not bad though, but it was the first indication that a 3:15 marathon may not be waiting for me at the end of the race.
I didn't want to allow negative thoughts into my head at the time, but if I had been honest with myself, I would have recognized that I wasn't running as smooth and efficiently as I did last year. My time was okay to this point, but the first half of the race took more out of me than it did last year, despite running two minutes slower. Over the next five miles I tried to convince myself that because I ran two minutes slower, I now have more energy left in the tank to tackle the second half of the race. A positive approach to take mentally, but one that became more and more difficult to convince myself of with each mile that passed.
Like it or not and I definitely didn't like it, my mile splits were not delivering the news I was hoping for. No major "bonks" but the splits were a few seconds slower with each mile I completed. As I reached the 18 mile mark, shortly before crossing over to the St Paul side of the river, I knew my time was going to be at least five minutes slower than last year. So I held out hope that I could "will" myself to a 3;20 marathon over the final eight miles of the race. Miles 20 and 21 are slightly downhill along the east side of the river on the St Paul side. But my mile splits continued to slow, despite to help of gravity. This was a devastating and fatal blow to my psyche. At that point I admitted to myself that my tank was truly empty and I still had five miles to go. The next two miles (22/23) were uphill, the toughest two miles of the course. I was running on life support now. It was clear that although I was feeling better this morning than I had been the prior two days, my body had not fully recovered from my illness and I began this race with less than a full tank of gas.
There is nothing worse in a marathon, than to realize your goals are no longer achievable and yet you somehow still need to reach the finish line. All motivation is gone and the miles seem to be suspended in time. You run and run, but never seem to reach the next mile split...or so it seems. It was an ugly finish for me, but I did finish. The attached pictures are blurry because I captured still images from several video clips my son took from different locations along the course. Although they seem appropriate, as my mind was in a complete fog and my vision just as blurry. I finished with a time of 3:29:53 - 15 minutes slower than last year. My slowest marathon in 6 years. Overall, I finished 1,045 out of 8,556 finishers and 22 out of 229 finishers in my age group. It is what it is. This race fits right in with how my race season has gone this year. I have two races remaining to close the season. A 10 Mile race on October 29th and a Thanksgiving Day 5k. My optimism is always renewed as a new race approaches. But as for today, I'm just glad it's over.
Race results: http://www.mtecresults.com/runner/show?rid=2217&race=4497
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