Albany Marathon

The Snickers marathon was my 2nd marathon and my 1st 'real' marathon. I ran the Columbus Red Nose Marathon on January 5th pretty much by myself. I had finished lots of 20 mile runs before that and did the Red Nose in 4:23:23, which was about what I expected. My goal was to do the Red Nose as a marathon-length long, easy run. I just wanted a baseline marathon time at a comfortable pace.

I chose the Snickers Marathon because it was close and because it got some good reviews on Marathonguide.com. Having read the reviews and now having run the course, I'm extremely glad that I chose this marathon. It was just small enough (371 in the full, 386 for the half marathon)that I didn't feel crowded, but big enough so that I was never running by myself. Every intersection had volunteers, the aid stations were every 2 miles and well-stocked with both water and Gatorade, and there were lots of people cheering at nearly every intersection on the course. The race director did a great job. I will definitely do this race again next year!

So anyway, I had between January 6th and February 29 to train up for this one. I got in a 12 and 3 20-mile runs, then another 12 the Saturday before the race. I'm a slow, steady plodding runner and my average pace on long runs is about 9:20. On my last 20-mile run my pace was 9:11. So I got to thinking, after that run, why not try to break 4 hours since my long run pace, like a lot of beginners, is eerily similar to my marathon pace.

One of my goals was to lose some weight between the Red Nose Marathon and the Snickers Marathon. I swam, I lifted, I did my usual thing... didn't gain or lose a single pound. I stayed right at 180 lbs. A bit heavy.

A friend and I drove to Albany on Friday and picked up the race packets. Drove back home that night, ate some dinner and was asleep by 9. I woke up at 3, like usual, and ate a Power Bar and drank some water. Then it was a couple cups of coffee... and some more coffee at the Circle K for the road. I met John at Below The Knee at 4:45am, we headed out and got to the race about 6:15. Plenty of time to loosen up, use the porta potties, stretch, check things out, make last minute adjustments or whatever. It was 44° at the start and the forecast was 57° at 11am. I wore shorts, a sleeveless tech tshirt, throwaway gloves, and a cap. I also wore my fuel belt, so I had 4 10-oz bottles and a flask of Hammer gel.

The first 4 miles were a bit fast for me but I settled in pretty well. At about mile 4, I started to run beside a kid named Adam. We didn't talk or anything, but at mile 6 I noticed that he wasn't drinking when we passed the water stops. I told him to start drinking right away, otherwise it would catch up to him later. The first 8 miles or so were kind of boring, just long stretches along the major roads in Albany, but then it turned in to the residential areas. Very scenic and lots and lots of people cheering on the runners. The race support was fantastic- every single intersection had support for the runners. Adam and I just kept trucking along at about a 9 minute per mile pace. He started hydrating pretty good and looked like he was in good shape. I felt fine, just trying to stay at a 9:00 pace. I used the Hammer Gel every 30 minutes, just as I had done on dozens of 20 mile runs, drank the CeraSport from my bottles, listened to us and other runners' footsteps, and tried to stay on track.

To cut to the chase, at mile 25 we were still very much right on track and I told him to kick it in to the finish... he asked about me, and I said "dude, this is my sprint". So he took off and I see where he hit 3:59:00 almost exactly. Good run for him. I watched him take off, then glanced at my watch, freaked out, and started my other sprint pace, the one that was probably about an 8:40 pace... but to me it was a sprint...and crossed the finish line still looking at my watch. Dang if I was going to do all of that and then get a 4:00:01 or something.

I talked to Adam afterwards and told him thanks for keeping me motivated during the race.

mile 10 01:29:44 8:59
mile 13.1 01:58:03 9:01
mile 20 03:01:29 9:05
finish 03:59:41 9:10

Marathon website Results

So, I'm glad I hit the pace I was shooting for and ended up with a 3:59:41... the fuel belt, Hammer Gel etc definitely helped me a lot. I didn't bonk at all, and only experienced major pain when I tried to sprint in to the finish. I have a feeling that when the photos are available, my finish line photo will show me fiddling with my watch.

Right now my plan is to work off all my soreness and then figure out what's the next thing up... probably the Ft Benning Reverse Sprint Triathlon in May.