Marathon number 14 is in the bag. It was a great run and I’ve never felt better during a race. The day was bittersweet for me, though, as I found myself surrounded by my family of Maniacs and Boomers but also filled with suspicion and mistrust of a new friend…. I’ll get to that in a minute.
Saturday night Tet, Karl, Divechief, Rasmussenmp and Rnrwife had dinner at a neat little place down by farmer’s market. It was the first pre-race dinner that I have attended where everyone was a Boomer and a Maniac (or Maniac spouse), so the conversation revolved around various marathons: which ones to run, which to avoid, comparing notes on how to prepare for frequent marathons, etc…
Sunday morning was cool and wet. I met up with Hippo, Karl, Tet and SR Lopez at the start but quickly settled in with a group of Maniacs that I hadn’t really run with before. The first 7 miles were full of conversations that only Maniacs would find interesting, mainly how to train when you only have one to two weeks between marathons, how to recover and strategies for running doubles (two marathons on two days). We decided that someone needs to write an Owners Guide for Maniacs since none of this information is available anywhere except as pleasant conversation during races. It felt like a casual Sunday stroll with my best friends. I had decided not to wear a watch and run by feel, knowing there would be no clocks on the course, so I was not surprised to discover we had been running a 12 or 13 minute per mile pace. Around mile 7 the hills started and marked the beginning of my favorite part of the Capital City Marathon. I bid goodbye to my buddies and started the roller coaster run through the forests, farmlands and inlets of southern Puget Sound. At mile 13 I asked another runner what our split was: 2:16. A bit slow, but I am trying to let go of time goals so after a quick assessment of all operating systems (all systems running smoothly) decided to be happy with it and continue to enjoy myself. The miles ticked by effortlessly with mile 24 appearing out of nowhere along with Mr. Dove offering to run with me over the next mile. Mr. Dove got me to mile 25 and the start of a long descent to the finish line. I crossed amongst cheers from my family and co-workers (one of the hugh benefits of a hometown marathon) in 4:16. A negative split of 2:16/2:00.
Everything was wonderful. I felt great, I was in my town, I had just run my favorite course: then I checked the results. My son’s baseball coach, a 46 year old fitness runner who logs 15-20 miles per week, had finished 3rd overall. He finished ahead of well-seasoned, fast Maniacs; our local race favorite who logs 100 mile training weeks and several other talented, trained runners. I had just met the coach this year. He is a great guy who has been spending a lot of time with the little Dovelet, believing in his abilities and offering that tough mix of discipline and encouragement. He is also highly competitive. As much as I like Mr. Coach, I doubted his ability to run his first marathon in under 2:30 hours. I went home wondering how this could happen and what I should do about it. I checked race results on the internet… maybe he was a sandbagger or just humble and hadn’t mentioned his racing to me. Nope, no race results except a DNF at our local ultra several months ago. I continued to fret about this all night, trying to decide what to do. Monday morning the local paper had front page coverage of the race, Mr. Coach was still listed as 3rd overall. I decided I would wait until Monday night’s baseball game and innocently ask “how’d the marathon go?” before I alerted race officials.
Before the game start, Coach walked up to me a said “Did you see this morning’s paper?”
(Oh no, here we go, the moment of truth…. Get ready Dove….)
“Yes,” I replied “You ran a great race”.
“No, I didn’t. I ran the half and someone at registration forgot to make the change. I knew I had a different colored number than everyone else, but didn’t know why. I’ve spent all day trying to fix things. This is so embarrassing.”
Whew! My red alert signs were back to green, crisis over, faith in friend restored, universe is back in balance and I don’t have to worry about my son being coached by a cheater.
Marathon 14 is in the bag.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Vancouver International Marathon 2007
I’ve been in a bit of a slump since Boston. My times have been steadily
increasing since the beginning of the year compared to last year when I
was PRing every race. After Boston, I sat down for a long talk with myself. I realized I could only PR on base-building type mileage for so long, then I would need to train specifically for a target race and quit running maniac-style. I came to the conclusion I could either run a few fast marathons a year or many slow marathons. I was at a "fork in the road" with my running career and goals... quality or quantity? To make my decision I asked myself "Who do I admire most? Someone who spends 6 months to a year training for one fast marathon, or a mid-packer who cranks out 50+ a year?” Do I want people to say "Hey that's Dove, she's running her 101st marathon today!" or "Hey that's Dove, she ran a 3:30 once". I decided I value frequency over speed. Brooks also decided to sponsor me based on my presence at many marathons, not my chance of winning one. That tells me that much of world admires ordinary people leading extraordinary lives, not just elites that seem out of reach.
All that said, I approached Vancouver with the primary goal of trying to discover how to run a marathon for the quickest recovery, not the fastest clock time. I forced myself back into walk breaks (10-1's), even though conditions were perfect for me (49 degrees, steady rain) and marathon morning I felt like my legs had a PR in them. That first walk break was the hardest thing to do but I stuck with my plan and continued to do so the entire race. Did I set a PR? Not even close.... 4:21, 7 minutes slower than last year, despite the fact I am in much better condition. Am I happy with my race? Absolutely! I crested Burrard Bridge at mile 23 smiling and shouting to the spectators "I love marathoning, it's the greatest sport in the world!" The other runners sure shot me some dirty looks after hearing that!
Who knows, next year or 10 years from now the need to be speedy may win out, but for now I'll take the opportunity to run as many as possible. Next up: Capital City on May 20th. It’s a tough, hilly course and I’m sure I’ll be even slower than Vancouver… but it will be my 6th (and probably best) marathon this year.
increasing since the beginning of the year compared to last year when I
was PRing every race. After Boston, I sat down for a long talk with myself. I realized I could only PR on base-building type mileage for so long, then I would need to train specifically for a target race and quit running maniac-style. I came to the conclusion I could either run a few fast marathons a year or many slow marathons. I was at a "fork in the road" with my running career and goals... quality or quantity? To make my decision I asked myself "Who do I admire most? Someone who spends 6 months to a year training for one fast marathon, or a mid-packer who cranks out 50+ a year?” Do I want people to say "Hey that's Dove, she's running her 101st marathon today!" or "Hey that's Dove, she ran a 3:30 once". I decided I value frequency over speed. Brooks also decided to sponsor me based on my presence at many marathons, not my chance of winning one. That tells me that much of world admires ordinary people leading extraordinary lives, not just elites that seem out of reach.
All that said, I approached Vancouver with the primary goal of trying to discover how to run a marathon for the quickest recovery, not the fastest clock time. I forced myself back into walk breaks (10-1's), even though conditions were perfect for me (49 degrees, steady rain) and marathon morning I felt like my legs had a PR in them. That first walk break was the hardest thing to do but I stuck with my plan and continued to do so the entire race. Did I set a PR? Not even close.... 4:21, 7 minutes slower than last year, despite the fact I am in much better condition. Am I happy with my race? Absolutely! I crested Burrard Bridge at mile 23 smiling and shouting to the spectators "I love marathoning, it's the greatest sport in the world!" The other runners sure shot me some dirty looks after hearing that!
Who knows, next year or 10 years from now the need to be speedy may win out, but for now I'll take the opportunity to run as many as possible. Next up: Capital City on May 20th. It’s a tough, hilly course and I’m sure I’ll be even slower than Vancouver… but it will be my 6th (and probably best) marathon this year.
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