Chicago Marathon Race Report!

Coming into the Chicago Marathon, I had setup some big expectations for myself. My previous PR was at this years Boston Marathon (I ran for a charity thus allowing me to run without qualifying) where I ran a 3:28:08. At the time I thought perhaps I could have done a bit better, but I did struggle through a few miles there so I'm not sure how much better I could have done. That said, as we (my wife and I) chose to do the Chicago Marathon, there was one goal on my mind: qualifying for Boston. Therefore I would need a 3:15:59. I signed us up the first day registration opened assuming we would run just in time for Boston registration. Fast forward a couple months and a new registration process for the Boston Marathon is introduced...including opening a month early! Say goodbye to my Boston Qualifier.

Onto race weekend. I still set myself up with that lofty 3:15 goal. In fact, I told EVERYONE I was shooting for it. I started second guessing myself a bit and was worried I wouldn't be able to hit my goal. That said, I had every intention of going for it!

We flew into Chicago Saturday, hopped in a cab and headed downtown. We couldn't check in yet, but we were able to drop off our bags and then we proceeded to Niketown to catch a shuttle to the expo. There was a shuttle ready right when we got there and we were soon heading towards McCormick Place to pick up our bibs/chips/tees.

We arrive and the expo is well setup and we easily pick up everything we need, peruse the expo, run into some friends from our running group, and then head back to the shuttles and back to Niketown. After arriving at Niketown, we hit the Corner Bakery for a bit of lunch, and then back to the hotel to see if we can check in. We can/we do, we hit the room, unpack a bit and then relax a bit.

We decide to see if we can take a boat tour, but that doesn't work out, so we take the water taxi to the Navy Pier and we just kind of veg out there for a bit. Then it's back to the hotel, relax, dinner at Buca di Bepo, and then back to the hotel for some shut eye. We actually are able to get into bed fairly early and if all works out, I'll get a decent amount of sleep (close to 8 hours if it works out perfectly...).

Race morning is finally here! Decent sleep, but I was mostly awake the last hour or so in bed. Oh well, I'm pretty well rested. I try to get some calories in, but I'm struggling. This is the first time it's really hit me that I may not be able to hit my goal and I could crash...HARD. Really having a hard time eating, but I manage to drink a reGen and a bagel (wow, is that all I ate???) - well, I take about 45 minutes to finally polish off the bagel and by that time we're at the race start/gear check.

With everything checked in, it's one more stop to the porta pottys, and then to our corrals. Wow, craziness trying to get into the corrals with a last few minute surge to get there! Oh yeah, I realized a bit before this that I forgot to wear my pace tat. DOH! Well, I knew I had to average a 7:26 to hit 3:15 so I would try to keep it there.

Finally in the starting area and I'm getting pretty nervous. Find a few inches of empty space, sit down and do a quick back crack and stretch and it's almost go time. Soon enough, the pros are off along with everyone else. I'm across the starting mat within a minute thirty and I settle in, looking to do an "easy" 7:45 for the first mile and then steadily pick it up. I hit the one mile marker (by the way, the Garmin hit 1 mile at about the 6:30 mark - tough signal in the city, but I knew this - no auto lap!) at about 7:38...ok, right where I want to be. Mile 2 was 7:33 or so so I've got some work to do to get on pace for the 7:15, but 24.2 miles to do it in. First 5k comes and goes (along with some EFS Liquid Shot - thanks to www.personalbestnutrition.com) and by the end of mile 4, I am ahead of schedule. Ok Owen, time to back off a bit. I was feeling pretty good and trying to enjoy myself and the crowds, thanking the volunteers, etc. I hit the halfway point, I've finished my first flask of EFS Liquid Shot (wanted to finish around mile 12 and I did somewhere around 12 or 13) and I'm currently at 1:37:16. PERFECT. Now, to do that AGAIN. Yikes! Well, the miles keep ticking away and it's beginning to warm up. I was feeling pretty good, although the heat was definitely picking up. By mile 20 I was feeling it. Not so much so that it was going to take me down...yet, but enough that the run was definitely getting harder and keeping the pace was becoming tougher. I don't recall off hand without referring back to my Garmin, but I was below my needed pace for a few miles between 20 and 25. The Nike Cheer Zone at 24.2 had me picking things up knowing there were only 2 miles to go, but then I say to myself, "another 15 minutes??? Are you kidding me???" Even so, I kept up the pace and finally hit mile 25. I know I have enough in the tank to keep it going. I finally hit mile 26, chucked my other EFS Flask, and with one turn left, I know I'm going to do it. I could have given a little more, but crossing the finish line at 3:14:50 was pretty damn satisfying.

I hit my goal! I can't tell you how pleased I was/am with the results. It only takes me a couple minutes to find my wife waiting for me. I of course try to act like I didn't hit it, but she knew. Oh what's that? What did she run? Oh, just a 3:03:28! WTF??? The woman can fly! The Graham's had a pretty damn good day in Chicago!

Oh, to celebrate the accomplishments, a little food and drink at the Signature Lounge on the 96th Floor of the John Hancock Building!

Taper time!

Less than two weeks until the Chicago Marathon. I'm feeling pretty good, and I've set myself up with an ambitious goal. I ordered my Pace Tats today. I went with my big goal, and one with my "I should definitely hit this" goal times (3:15 and 3:20). My PR is a 3:28 at the Boston Marathon (I ran for a charity this past year because I'm still a ways off from qualifying and I wanted to race since my wife was running) so this should be a lofty goal and I will be thoroughly stoked to hit my top end goal. Most of the work is done. A track workout tomorrow will pretty much be my last hard effort. 10ish miles on Saturday and then just a couple more workouts til game day.

Get fast or die trying

Parks Half Marathon Race Report

Yesterday was the Parks Half Marathon. This takes place in Rockville, MD from the Rockville Metro running mostly down trails through Rock Creek Park to downtown Bethesda. Rumor had it that the course may be a bit under water/mud, but I had a set goal in mind and a PR to shoot for. In four weeks I will be running the Chicago marathon and my goal is to technically qualify for the Boston Marathon with a 3:15:59 or better. Chances are this will be way too late to actually get into Boston, but the ability to technically say I BQ'd (for this year at least - next year qualifying is 5:59 faster - or 3:10 or better for my age group). With this in mind, I wanted to run about a 7:15 pace for a half marathon hoping this would put me close to being able to run about a 7:30 pace in Chicago (I will need to officially run about a 7:28 pace to be 3:15:59 or better). I lined up with the 1:35:00 pacer (7:14 pace) and basically wanted to try and hold on as long as I could. The first couple miles were a bit quick, but there was some downhills that helped keep the pace up. At mile three there is a steep short hill dubbed the "silencer" and the pace slowed down a bit. This was also evident in mile four and somewhere around the third or fourth mile I decided to pick up the pace a bit and I pulled away from the group. I maintained a sub 7:10 pace for the next couple miles and then had a slower seventh mile and I began to wonder if I would fall off a bit. I knew I had some time in the bank, but I would still need to do work to hit 1:35 or better. At about 6.5 I opened my Gu Roctane and began to "sip" on it hoping for a water stop to come up. It seemed to take a bit to find that stop so eventually I took the whole gel. Soon after I was able to down it with some water and perhaps this allowed me to pick things up and maintain my pace. I seemed to be fairly steady/consistent throughout and by mile 10 I was ahead of pace by a bit and would most likely definitely hit my goal unless the wheels decided to fall off. I was hoping to hold on until I hit mile 11 and then pick it up for the final two. Well, this didn't quite happen, but I maintained close to my 7:15 pace I was looking for and when I hit mile 12, I slowly began picking up the pace. The Parks Half Marathon runs along a trail I am very familiar with. My running group routinely runs portions of this race so I know where I am and how much I have to go through much of the race. There is about a quarter mile of tunnel you run through just towards the end and I finally started to put the hammer down (for me anyway). I wanted to be a bit faster here, but my gut was telling me, "push any harder and you will have a visitor." I did manage to put a final push down and pass a few people and only one person was able to hammer it past me down the final stretch so I am ok with that (I think I could have picked it up a bit to hang on with him, but I was almost positive I would have puked and it may have been prior to the finish). I crossed the line in an official time of 1:33:47 beating my goal by over a minute and about a 5 minute 30 second PR. I'll take it!

Post race I caught up with my wife who incidentally just went out, 4 minute PR'd, AND won her age group (8th female overall as well). One day I'll catch her...maybe. I also met up with my cousins and a bunch of friends. This is a point to point race so I wasn't able to bring a bunch of reGen (or any reGen) but my buddy actually had one for me! That definitely hit the spot.

I'm sore today, but hoping to catch a few recovery miles. To be determined... I also have to treat my plantar faciaitis issue. It is definitely flaring up post race! Ouch!

On to CHICAGO!!! 3:15 or bust!!!

Team reGen

Ok, I have been meaning to mention that I'm lucky enough to be sponsored by the recovery drink reGen through Active Ambassadors. I really was lucky to get this opportunity. The first time I tried reGen was after the 2010 Marine Corps Marathon where samples were being handed out as we left the finishing area. I definitely enjoyed it at the time but didn't think much more about it until I heard about the opportunity through AA. I've always been a big fan of supplementation since I used to be really into lifting weights. So having the opportunity to support a nutrition company is right up my alley.

For any of you endurance athletes out there, check out Active Ambassadors for sponsorship opportunities.

I have to say that I love reGen as do most everyone who I've handed samples out to. Tastes great and starts the recovery process as soon as you start drinking it. There haven't been too many workouts lately where I haven't had one immediately afterwards. My workouts have been going great and I'm really looking forward to some PRs this fall!

So check out both Active Ambassadors and reGen. If you've tried reGen, let me know what you think!

Almost a big week...

It's funny being a part of an "experienced" marathon running group (aptly named XMP). I'd venture to say out of the 200 +/- members in the group, I'm probably very close to the bottom in number of miles run per week. A combination of time, laziness, procrastination, and body can't handle that much contributes to my lack of miles. I'm averaging over 30 miles a week the last couple months, but I'm not hitting that magic number of 40 (unless we manipulate the first day of the week in which case I did hit it last week). But I go by my www.runningahead.com training log which runs Monday through Sunday. I hit 37 and change last week. Oh so close, but not quite there. I would have hit it, but my wife was at the beach this weekend so I wasn't able to squeeze in those last 3 miles on Sunday. Oh well, hopefully this week...only 34 miles to go...

Things looking up...

Despite dealing with some injuries (broken toe, plantar fasciitis), my running is coming around. I have a big goal of 3:15 or better at the Chicago Marathon with my best time of 3:28 from the Boston Marathon this past April. That's a pretty big jump, but I do think it's possible. I've got two months to get into peak form so we'll see how that pans out.

Last night was our group "speed" workout. We did 8 miles with 4 miles of lactacte threshold (with 1/2 mile active recovery between the work miles). I moved myself up two pace groups to push myself a bit as I don't think the pace for my pace group is enough of a work effort for me. I'm definitely better at shorter distances anyway (even though I have few results) so moving up was the right move. We averaged about a 6:50 pace over the four miles which I'm very happy with. That definitely gave me some confidence moving forward that there is the potential to truly do something big at Chicago. I'm still a long way out and to date and I have yet to hit over 30 miles in a week (I should be well over that this week). The first big test will be the half marathon on Sept. 11 to gauge where I truly am.

Coaching

Well, I think I've decided to finally take a big and important step in finding a tri coach. I would like to get a true assessment of my swim/bike/run, but especially my bike. I am a good swimmer and know I could be much better simply by actually swimming (hey, I grew up swimming so I use it as an excuse to not go as much). My run is improving a lot because I am - go figure - running a lot more. My bike improved this year by about 5 minutes in my olympic distance tri and I was sub 3 hours in my first and only Half Ironman (which was my goal), but I also had some gear improvments that certainly could count towards those improvements. I would like to say it was all me, but Zipp wheels were probably a key component in cutting some time. I know I need to ride more and ride hills and ride more, but I feel like I should be MUCH better on the bike. It gets frustrating when so many people pass me while riding. I need to fix this. I'm hoping having someone looking over my shoulder will help me get over this hump and start me on the path to fast riding, but when I'm averaging sub 20 mph on an olympic or 70.3 tri, I just can't expect to be towards the front of the pack.

I've sent a couple emails out hoping to find a coach so we'll see what transpires. Anyone have a recommendation in the DC area??