Cowboy Hazel

I got a new trophy for the fireplace today. There were a lot of things that I was expecting from today, new hardware was definitely not on that list. Neither was a top 10 finish. Or my running partner winning the women's race. Or her dad dropping 15 minutes off his NYC time and finishing 3rd place in his age group. Out of the three of us running today, we came home with 3 Boston qualifying times and 4 trophies – Sarah got 2. And not just trophies, but super cool bronze bobble-head trophies.



My official time was 3:04:31, which was a little off my goal time of 3:03:30, but still easily qualified me for Boston (my main mission for the day) and trimmed my P.R. by almost 12 minutes. My first half was a little too quick at 1:29:26, but it was not at all my typical crash & burn race "strategy." I actually did a great job of pacing myself today, just ran out of steam on a monster hill on mile 19 and was never able to get back in the groove. I blame that on the lack of more intense midweek training distances.

Here's how it played out:

Sarah and I lined up right on the starting line. A cannon (really, a cannon – it was loud) went off and we began running into the rain. I took off too fast, but corrected the error within a couple hundred yards. I thought I was right at a 7:00 minute pace until I hit the first mile marker and saw 6:38. "Shit." At the exact same time, the guy a step behind me blurted out the same thing. He pulled up alongside me and asked what I was trying to run. "7's," I said. "Me too." But he as kept on at the same pace, I put on the brakes.

The next five miles really felt like that – like I was running with the parking brake on. But, as we hit the giant hill on mile 6, I started to get fatigued and, as a result, sped up. I know it sounds weird, but it was like I just didn't have the energy to fight my pace anymore. I passed quite a few people on my way up the hill then, running on the plateau at the top, someone informed me that I was in 15th place. "No way!" That was a huge mental boost. I kept gaining on the group of runners in front of me until finally I became part of the group.

For the next 8 miles or so, I was running in the midst of this very tight pack of 5 runners. It was such a cool experience – I didn't have to think about pacing, they blocked the wind, and I coasted along. I was thinking, "Oh, so this what it's like when the elites run clumped together." The only issue was that I missed a couple water stations because I was in the back corner of the group and couldn't get over to the side in time and also my visibility of the ground was poor so I hit a few puddles. The entire time we were running as the group, nobody passed us and we only passed one guy. The finishing wasn't a whole lot different from the order at the half.

I was hoping that the group would carry me through to the finish, but it started to break up around mile 15. Two of the guys took off faster than I could follow and the other two fell back. By mile 19, when we hit the giant hill the second time, there was about a minute cushion between me and the runners both in front of and behind me.

This is where it became a struggle. My legs were really slowing down and I just wasn't able to keep consistent pace. To be honest with you, I didn't know until after the race that I had slowed down as bad as I did. I was checking Guadalupe, but the numbers weren't really meaning a lot to me. I was trying to do math in my head but couldn't. I passed a struggling marathoner standing by a water station somewhere on mile 19 and that was the last position change for me the entire race.

I struggled on until I hit the mile 25 sign, then got a (relatively) big burst of energy and dropped back to sub-7s again. A bunch of half-marathoners and relayers were coming in at the same time and I was flying by them all, which helped boost my energy. By the time I got to the finish line, I was actually sprinting. At first, that made me happy – that I could still finish strong – but later I realized that was probably a sign that I didn't push hard enough in the later miles.

We all happily reunited at the finish line and shared our "war stories" with each other. Needless to say, after everyone doing as well as they did, the mood was festive. I still can't believe that Sarah won the race, that is just such an amazing accomplishment. When they finally posted the results, we discovered that I was 2nd in my age group and that Sarah's dad was 3rd in his. Then, we found that we were getting trophies, not just the standard medals or plaques. Very cool. Oh, and Sarah even won prize money.

I have (almost) nothing but good things to say about the Delaware Marathon. The course was beautiful and the people were friendly, but there were times were the numerous turns got confusing, especially since there were three different races going on at the same time. In fact, Sarah took a wrong turn and ended up running over a half mile extra. Also, a cop was snoozing on his job and I ended up having to stop for a truck crossing the raceway as I was coming down a hill in the final miles. Very annoying. But, despite those little mishaps, the course really was great and I really appreciated how good a job they did with the awards, post-race food, etc.

The weekend itself was even better. I was a little nervous about staying at somebody's house before the marathon (because I have all my crazy pre-race rituals), but it worked out perfectly. It was such a runner's house this weekend. When we arrived, there were little goodie bags for us on the table filled with Gatorade, PowerBars, and gels from her parents. We had the perfect pre-race meal of sushi last night, then the extra order of steamed rice this morning. After dinner, we watched most of Braveheart to get pumped up for the race. Then today, Sarah's mom, who was such an inspiration cheering for us out on the course, met me at the finish with my backpack (and the enclosed warm clothes.) The hospitality couldn't have been any better.

So, all in all, I really am happy with how today's race turned out. It wasn't quite what I was looking for on the time, but I feel really good now (like I could go out for a jog, if it were required, although I won't – I'm taking tomorrow off too.) I think there's definitely a little more in the tank that I can use to propel me to a sub-3 this fall and then onto the longer races next year.

Thanks again everyone for the good luck wishes and great advice. I was running with you all out there in my head today. Well, you and William Wallace...