The post here is going to be a bit long, since it features a race report.
This week brings the Reach the Beach relay in New Hampshire. It's a 200 mile, 12 person, 36 leg relay. I have about 20 miles (32k) of legs to do. As much as the marathon training was for Toronto, I very much had this race in mind when doing up my training schedule.
Monday was a scaled back long run. I went 27.5k, and did it comfortably. I wanted to come out of this run feeling like I could be well recovered for Friday.
Tuesday was an easy 8k home from work. Wednesday, I wanted to go really easy, so I did a slow 5k on the treadmill. I hate the treadmill, so it felt like 2 hours.
Thursday, my friend Terry picked me up around 12:30 to head to Buffalo so we could fly to Boston, and then drive to NH.
As we were waiting to cross into Buffalo, I got an email from the airline saying our flight was cancelled. We got bumped to a Friday evening flight. Unacceptable, since the race started at 3:20 Friday.
After talking with the airline, and realizing we weren't flying to Boston that day, we loaded into Terry's truck and made the 8.5 hour drive to Manchester, NH. Not ideal.
We arrived in Manchester around 10:30pm, got some food, caught up with some of our friends, and went to bed.
Friday brought quite a bit of excitement. While I didn't run last year, my team was the defending champion, and we wanted to keep that title. Teams started in waves, kicking off at 7:20 am. We were in the last wave that went out at 3:20 pm. That meant we had 2 challenges; to be the fastest team overall, and to be the first team to finish. We did a light 1.5 mile run in the morning, and then prepared to head up to Cannon mountain for the start.
I had legs 8, 20, and 32. Leg 8 was a 6.1mile rolling route. I got the baton from Terry, and took off. The adrenaline was flowing, and I was super excited to be out racing. I checked my pace a couple of hundred meters in, and saw I was running 5:08 mile pace. Not sustainable. I calmed myself down, and settled into a good rhythm over the rolling route. It was dark, and the runners ahead of me were all wearing flashing lights. The goal was to pick off as many of those flashing beacons as I could. I ended up averaging 5:36 miles, which was slightly faster than I was aiming for. I was really pleased, as the effort didn't feel that strenuous, and focused on recovering for my next leg.
I tried to sleep a little before my next leg, but that didn't work. It was 6.83 miles, with the first 2 miles uphill before going mostly downhill after that. The first 2 miles was hard. I planned on going out conservative, but I didn't anticipate going as slow as I did. My pace for those first 2 miles was 6:34 per mile. I felt like I as moving, and I was passing bodies, but I just wasn't able to move fast up that hill. 2 miles uphill is a long, long way. The last 8k was solid. It was more rolling than I expected, but I moved we'll and ran 27:50, or about 5:36 pace again. I was pleased with that, although I felt I could have pushed harder. I averaged 5:52 per mile, which was okay, but I would have liked a few seconds faster. I got into the van with the hope of sleeping a little before the sunrise in a few hours.
Once again, sleep wasn't really in the cards. The runner after me, John, hurt his quad in his second leg. He wasn't sure if he would be able to run his final leg. We debated how to handle the injury, and reviewed what our options were. Since I was the leg right before John, one of the options we considered was having me continue running through the transition area (that wasn't an option in the rules). Fortunately, we had a physio on our team, and he got John ready to roll on his last leg.
My last leg was 6.69 miles, with a good climb in the middle. By the time I got the baton, we had only 2 teams left in front of us. The one team was within striking distance for me, while the other one, a corporate team that started a few hours earlier than they were originally slated, was over an hour ahead. We also had the overall lead by over 20 minutes. So the motivation was simply to get the leg done as quickly as possible so I would be done running.
I started out running about 5:30 miles. I looked at my watch and wondered how bad of an idea that was. I decided to roll them as much as I could, as I knew the big hill in the middle of the leg would take it's toll on me. As I got to the hill, I saw another runner, and dialed in on passing him. It was great motivation to get up the hill as a solid clip. The rest of the leg was small rolling hills, but my legs were beat up enough that the hills slowed me down. I ended up running 5:45 pace for the leg, basically running 5:30 or 6:00 pace throughout. It was hard, and I was extremely happy to finish.
We won the race, which was gratifying. It was unfortunate that we didn't cross the line first, but that give us something to shoot for next year. Overall, I averaged 5:44 pace for my 20.22 miles, which I was pleased very pleased with. I think that should set me up well for a good race at the Toronto Marathon.
An event like this creates a whole lot of different challenges for a runner. You have a good amount of distance to run at a fast pace. You don't have the time to do any real proper warm ups or cool downs, as you basically jump out of a van, run, jump into a van. You don't really get to eat really well (I mostly survived on protein/meal replacement drinks, beef jerky, and peanut butter sandwiches). And, lastly, sleep deprivation. Throw in there running at times that you may not be used to (3:00 am?), and it's a great challenge.
I know I won't be able to hold the pace I ran this past weekend for 42.2km, but this does give me a better feel for what I think I can do. I haven't run a race in over a year, so going out there and running the paces I did, feeling good, gives me a lot of confidence. I know STWM isn't nearly as hilly as this event, either, so that makes me feel good. I think I can run the marathon at 3:40-3:45/km pace. I still need to make it through the next 5 weeks, but this was a good event for me.
Week total: 7 runs, 75km
My last leg was 6.69 miles, with a good climb in the middle. By the time I got the baton, we had only 2 teams left in front of us. The one team was within striking distance for me, while the other one, a corporate team that started a few hours earlier than they were originally slated, was over an hour ahead. We also had the overall lead by over 20 minutes. So the motivation was simply to get the leg done as quickly as possible so I would be done running.
I started out running about 5:30 miles. I looked at my watch and wondered how bad of an idea that was. I decided to roll them as much as I could, as I knew the big hill in the middle of the leg would take it's toll on me. As I got to the hill, I saw another runner, and dialed in on passing him. It was great motivation to get up the hill as a solid clip. The rest of the leg was small rolling hills, but my legs were beat up enough that the hills slowed me down. I ended up running 5:45 pace for the leg, basically running 5:30 or 6:00 pace throughout. It was hard, and I was extremely happy to finish.
We won the race, which was gratifying. It was unfortunate that we didn't cross the line first, but that give us something to shoot for next year. Overall, I averaged 5:44 pace for my 20.22 miles, which I was pleased very pleased with. I think that should set me up well for a good race at the Toronto Marathon.
An event like this creates a whole lot of different challenges for a runner. You have a good amount of distance to run at a fast pace. You don't have the time to do any real proper warm ups or cool downs, as you basically jump out of a van, run, jump into a van. You don't really get to eat really well (I mostly survived on protein/meal replacement drinks, beef jerky, and peanut butter sandwiches). And, lastly, sleep deprivation. Throw in there running at times that you may not be used to (3:00 am?), and it's a great challenge.
I know I won't be able to hold the pace I ran this past weekend for 42.2km, but this does give me a better feel for what I think I can do. I haven't run a race in over a year, so going out there and running the paces I did, feeling good, gives me a lot of confidence. I know STWM isn't nearly as hilly as this event, either, so that makes me feel good. I think I can run the marathon at 3:40-3:45/km pace. I still need to make it through the next 5 weeks, but this was a good event for me.
Week total: 7 runs, 75km
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