Bellingham Bay Marathon

My recovery from Skagit Flats didn’t go too well. The first week I was just plain tired. The second week I had a shooting pain in my hip that drastically altered my stride. My general rule is: if it hurts but doesn’t alter my stride and I warm out of it in a few mile… keep training. If it hurts and doesn’t alter my stride, but keeps hurting after mile 3… call it a day. If it alters my stride at any point….quit and take a few days off. So given my rule, I took 5 days off leading up to the Bellingham Bay Marathon. I also modified my goal. Originally this was going to be my second attempt at a fall BQ, instead I decided to just see if I could get through it pain free.

Race morning started out chilly but was supposed to be sunny and warm up by mid-morning. I decided to wear a singlet, gloves and compression shorts. I also decided to carry a water bottle so there would be no chance of dehydrating again. I was going to work on two things this marathon: properly timed nutrition/hydration and not walking when I started to fatigue (a bad habit that I picked up during a year of ultra running). Since my goal was to finish uninjured, I wanted to run around a 9:15 pace and hopefully pick it up the last 3 miles or so. As usual I lined up with the Maniacs at the start, and when we took off I found myself with two friends who are much faster than I am. We were having a nice conversation though, so I failed to pay attention to pace. 2 miles into it I noticed we were running 8:30’s. Too fast, I told them. I would drop off the back to keep my pace slow… then one of my friends would drop back with me, promising to go at my pace. Before I knew it, we would be running too fast again. This continued until the half way point. The pace hovered around 8:45 minutes per mile with the exception of a few big, long hills that I elected to walk. I enjoyed the company, though, and maybe a faster first half will pay off at some future race. I hit the half way point at 1:58. I forced myself to hold back again as my hip pain started to come back. Luckily the course veered onto a lovely dirt trail that eased the jarring at mile 15. I was starting to feel better, but kept my pace slow with hopes of turning on a little speed for the last 6 miles. When I passed the 20 mile marker, I decided now was the time, and worked to push my pace down to 9:00 minutes per mile again. Unfortunately, and wild downhill on a paved surface brought the hip pain back again. I reminded myself the goal was to come out of this marathon without injury, so once again I slowed my pace. I caught up to one of my fast friends from earlier in the race (also suffering from hip pain) and we managed to keep each other going to the finish line. I crossed the line in 4:12:10. I quickly stiffened up and the muscles in my hip area were very tender so I was glad I didn’t push it harder.

Now it’s time to rest again and see if I have anything left for the Royal Victoria Marathon in two weeks.