|
October 11, 2014
|
Marathon 48, State #42 (Age 46)
|
|
Hartford, Conneticut
|
4:09:19
|
Oh, yeah, back to the real reason for this long weekend road
trip…2 Days, 2 States, 2 marathons (52.4 miles). Getting to Hartford, CT from Los Angeles
was already long enough a coast to coast flight to Boston then a 100 mile
drive, however, instead in the last 24 hours I now had driven 286 miles and found
my way to the highpoint of both the state of Massachusetts (Mount Greylock) and
the high point of Connecticut (South slope of Mt Frissell).
So now coming from Salisbury, CT on the west edge of the state couldn’t have asked for a more pleasant drive, mostly single lane country like roads through little towns on route 44. Well everything was going great until we entered the city limits of Hartford. I hadn’t done any research of the city but knew the race was downtown, the expo was downtown, and our hotel was downtown. What I didn’t realize is that from the direction we would enter the city and drive through what seems to be one of the country’s worst ghettos. Fortunately it was day light, fortunately we didn’t need stop for gas, and fortunately, we didn’t need any directions, and lastly fortunately I think we were only briefly stopped by a red light at a single intersection. Finally through this section of town and onward toward the expo downtown.
After our first two adventures of the day by the time we had
arrived to the expo it was already 5pm on a Friday night so there was normal
rush hour plus the extra 1,000’s of additional participants all struggling for
space on the streets and parking.
Fortunately, according to our GPS our hotel was hardly more than a mile
away, just over the river, but with all the craziness of people and traffic
combined with not exactly knowing where we were going or the best way to get
there we finally make it to the official race hotel a Hampton Inn &
Suites. So after unloading the car and
checking into the room there was already a feeling of exhaustion. After
all, we had already driven 286 miles, climbed two mountains, woke up 3 hours
earlier than normal because of the time difference and were supposed to have
enough energy to run a marathon the next morning?
Normally the routine after check-in would be to begin laying
out clothes for the next day however I had one major dilemma. Last summer in Montana when I had spent the
week in Glacier with my friend Greg and met his friend George I never guessed I
would have planned a marathon weekend together. Now that I would see George after a year I
remembered every day after a long hike he would love to throw back a beer or
two and the favorite choice of the three of us was from a microbrewery out of
Missoula called “Trout Slayer”. I
happened to see one afternoon in Bev-Mo in Los Angeles that they actually had
this on the shelf. I made a special
trip just to pick up a six pack and surprise George, well the adventure only
begins here. It ends up the local
Bev-Mo was sold out so I had to drive an extra 20 miles to the next closest
Bev-Mo that had Trout Slayer in stock.
As far as packing this meant I could not bring my carryon only like usual
and would actually have to check my bag.
Not realizing this would entail a $25 baggage fee this was quickly
becoming the most expensive six pack of all times. I tried to secure the bottles the best that
I could but as luck would have it one of the bottles was broken inside my bag
and all clothes and running attire were all wet and smelled like beer. Of course George was thrilled like I knew he
would and had the remaining five bottles on ice in no time, but this left me
scrambling to clean out my suitcase as well as visit the laundry mat in the
hotel for 1.5 hours to wash and dry all my clothes.
Now checking weather, we knew from all the clouds blowing
overhead Saturday that we were going to be hit by a storm Sunday. Not just a passing by shower, but basically
it was supposed to start raining about 3 a.m. and rain all day Saturday. Great, what else could go wrong, right? Well when we checked with hotel and they
were adamant that there would be no late checkouts Saturday morning and because
the marathon didn’t start till 8 a.m. I couldn’t finish my race and be out of
the hotel without passing the checkout time which means I would have to
checkout in the morning before the race, no problem, a nice pool in the lobby
would make for where I could clean up after the marathon.
Marathon preparation wouldn’t be complete without finding
a place for dinner. Earlier while we were downtown next
to the XL Center we scoped out a couple streets that looked like would
have some good restaurants so we laced up our shoes and were going to see
exactly how easy it would be to walk to the start in the morning since the race
started a few blocks from the XL Center. Already dark and having some second thoughts about walking in the dark after driving through the
ghetto earlier that day, however the hotel staff suggested downtown where we were
was relatively safe so we took off on foot. Only about a 10-15 minute beautiful walk over
the river and looking at the downtown lights, in about a mile we found
ourselves back in the bustling part of the downtown and because now it was so
late, there surprisingly wasn’t a line at a little Italian restaurant. It
felt good to sit down, really for the first time since landing in Boston 24
hours ago.
Lights were out as soon as we returned from the mile walk
back to the hotel. As soon as the alarm
sounded, the first order of business was to look out the window and check the
weather, sure enough it was already raining, everything soaked, and still
coming down. Ugh. The Hampton Inn had a fantastic continental
breakfast buffet and plenty of seating for all the guests. This morning would mark my 42nd
state and 48th full marathon.
I remember all the nervous gitters I would get race morning, but after
this many races it’s more business as usual instead of butterflies.
Of course I’m a bit of geek when it comes to running and
endurance activities, but I looked around the room and tried to imagine what we
must all look like to the non-runner.
We were all strangely dressed, everyone had shirts on from the various
previous races as trophies of earlier battlefields, and I’m wondering to myself
if I really fit it with all these crazies or not. The husband and wife across the table was
from Albuquerque, as I’m planning on my 2 base layers to stay warm and a 3rd
shell to stay dry, he was minimalistic and was going to run in shorts and a
singlet. To each their own I guess!
Next back up to the room for last bathroom stop, grab race
gear, and to cart luggage downstairs to toss in the trunk of the car before beginning
the march back over the river to the start of the marathon. I hadn’t checked GPS, but realized last second
that the battery was about drained, so the GPS watch and heart rate strap
chucked into bag and went old school with just my trusty Timex that would at
least allow me to record my mile splits.
Now to face the elements, this time not nearly as pleasant as the bright
lights of the city at night the prior evening and not to happy about the grey
skies and pounding rain as we make our way to the start line. We planned our walk so that we had just
enough time to get to the start without getting rained on for two long, just
one stop to toss bag of warm dry clothes at bag drop for the finish line. (This is where experience comes in….this
would be key later in staying warm post race!)
As planned, not a second to spare, after bag drop and
heading to the start line I heard a few announcements before the gun would go
off. One interesting story, a guy that
had already completed his 50 state quest and ran all marathons either under 3
hours or under 4 hours, I can’t remember was to start dead last, and as a charity
for every runner he passed by the finish he would raise $1 per number of spots
he moved up. I thought that was pretty
cool! Usually races starts everyone
lines up according to race pace, so fastest runners are in front of the slower
runners. I usually try to get close to
the front to avoid being stuck behind a bunch of slow runners and spending the
first couple miles passing 100’s of runners, but this morning was
different. Today’s game plan was just
to finish, no real time goal, no trying to break 4 hours like normal, just stay
aerobic (hard to judge without heart rate monitor), and stay hydrated, after
all I would have to do this all over tomorrow!
What was I thinking?
Two marathons in two days (52.4 miles), can this be done and how would I
train? Maybe if you are not a runner
this seems crazy however even to some of my hard core running friends they also
thought I was nuts. There are many things
to consider in planning and training for such the weekend. First, why…time and money. The goal 50 states by 50, so I’m running out
of time. Also most of the states I have
remaining are all in the NE of the United States and coming from Los Angeles
there are lots of expenses with travel, so if you can do two races in a single
weekend the costs per race are dramatically reduced. Second, can I do it? If you are going to do something like this
you can’t doubt yourself, you need to always think that “I can do it”.
I Can Do It. Way back in June I remember I wrote an email to a friend of mine John explaining how I would justify trying to actually pull this off. With any large goal you need to break it down into manageable parts. What is the goal and what is your experience to get to your goal? I tend to over simplify everything as well as I’m a believer of not over training to the point of having injuries or always being exhausted. As far as justification, I know I can run 26.2, that’s exercising about 4 hours, I also know that I’ve also completed Ironman triathlons which are about 12 hours of exercising in a single day, so running 8-9 hours over two days shouldn’t really be that hard, right? Besides last November I met a guy 68 years old that did this exact same double marathon, so if he could do it, over 20 years the younger I could probably as well. Training wasn’t any different than any other marathon of recent years. I stuck to my cross training plan of biking 2-4 hours every weekend and trying to run about 5 nights a week or about 20-30 miles per week.
Back to the start line, after bag drop all the runners that
I could see had to file in from the rear.
There were so many people at the start, that there was no chance of
getting any closer to the front, so keeping with the game plan it didn’t matter
and was time to see what the day would bring.
While I usually start out and all the faster pace groups one by one pass
me, by starting so far back I found that I had actually started behind the pace
I would run so I started passing the slower groups. While sometime starting too far up front is
demoralizing seeing the faster groups pass, I was liking the new feeling to
passing others!
The course itself, other than the non stop rain, was
lovely. About mile 3 we entered a
riverside trail that followed the Connecticut River for 2 miles. I usually start out running 8:00-8:30
min/mile pace and try to hold on as long as possible. The half and full had two completely
different routes, I ended up running right past our hotel at about mile 7 and
with the rain had actually thought about calling it quits right then, but I
relied on my “Seattle” years of running nearly half of the year in the rain, so
it wasn’t really as bad as it seemed. Today
I was consistently running a 9:00 min/mile pace and by the 13.1 mile mark had
already finished half the race with a time of 2:01:55 which is a 9:18
pace. I was pleased so far but knew that
this was only ¼ of my race weekend, so backed off a little in the 2nd. Usually I get to about mile 20 and know I
have to push myself the last 6 miles to get under 4 hours. Knowing that 4 hours or less wasn’t my goal
for this race and that I would have been pleased with anything under 4:30 and
was thrilled with how effortlessly I crossed the finish line at 4:09:19. I saw George, who had run only the half
marathon, and he was pleased to see me smiling as I stroll past him about mile 25.
Next mission was to find baggage drop and get into some warm
dry clothes. There’s a new company that
is providing lockers at the start line and then relocating to the finish line
so you can easily retrieve your belongings.
I was a little disoriented after the race when I saw the lockers because
I thought they were in the same place and I knew where bag drop was in
relationship to the lockers. When I
followed all the signs for bag drop I realized I had to walk back to the start
line which was directly behind Bushnell Park.
No worries, found my clothes, just dropped stripped right there and felt
so good to have dry clothes once again.
There were a few others less fortunate that didn’t pack anything and
were walking around shivering out of control.
Chalk that up to experience of now 48 marathons to have the right supplies
packed and easily accessible after the race!
Again the mile walk back across the river to the hotel. This walk seemed a little longer this time
around, but I would have to say that without that extra push I would normally
do the last 6 miles of a marathon, I wasn’t in any pain, legs and knees felt
good, and was soon back to the hotel to figure out how I was going to get
cleaned up. As expected, a family was
playing in the pool so when my key didn’t unlock the door to the pool, they
greeted me with a smile an allowed me come in.
There was a shower in the pool area so I was 2nd in line and
a hot shower never felt so wonderful.
Wet clothes stuffed in a bag and we were soon on our way to Rhode Island
to do it again Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment