CIM Race Recap

Yesterday I ran the California International Marathon in Sacramento, CA.

Expo:
Nashville_to_CIM We went straight from the airport to the Expo. It was get in, get out operation, but in a 30 minute timespan I was able to pickup my bib, see Jeanette Faber drop some knowledge at the elite press conference and chat with her and Scott Bennett about race plans and how to dress for a below-freezing marathon.

That afternoon Dave Milner (my coach) sent me the plan:

If you don’t have a significant headwind, I think you should run at 2:44:00-2:45:00 pace (6:15-6:18/mile), and then just stay there until about 17-19 and then do a self-assessment before attempting to pick up the pace. I would say some 6:10s would be fine on significant down miles 1, 3, and 4. Mile 11 (nasty hill) might be a 6:30. But other than that, you should be pretty consistent.

Pre-race:
Scott and I rode to the start together. We got there just about 1 hour before the start. I think it was about 25˚. After a quick stop at the porta potties we made our way to the start line to scope it out. There was a table setup with free supplies like Gu, safety pins, and HOT CHOCOLATE. It was deliciously warm and I couldn’t resist.

About 20 minutes before the start I did a 5 minute jog, visited the porta potties once more and stripped down to my race clothes. I had a hard time figuring out what to wear for a 27˚ marathon. In the end I decided to wear split shorts and a single with compression shorts underneath to keep the hamstrings warm, arm sleeves, Swiftwick 12″ wool socks, a head band for my ears and gloves. I kept a long sleeve tech shirt as a disposable layer for the start. After dropping off my warmups I made my way to the start, did a couple of strides and lined up close to the front with about 4 minutes to spare. It was a pretty much perfect pre-race routine.

The Start:
About one minute before the gun I suddenly got nervous as I realized I was about to run 26 miles at a pace faster much faster than my easy run pace. This wasn’t supposed to be easy, but it is supposed to feel easy at the start and I suddenly had no idea what 6:18 was going to feel like. Luckily there was literally no time to worry about it and the gun went off.

About 20 feet into the race a woman dropped her water bottle. It wasn’t a disposable bottle, but a nice big bottle with a hand strap. She exclaimed “shit” and turned to back to retrieve it while 7,000 ran right at her. I couldn’t help but laugh as Scott observed, “that is not the way you want to start a marathon.” It was too bad Matt Pulle wasn’t there to see it (he has a thing for people running with water bottles).

Early Miles:
The first mile was mostly downhill so I wanted to be particularly careful about starting out too fast. I felt relaxed and never looked at my watch until I hit the lap button as we passed the first mile marker. 6:13 was a little fast, but not too bad. I tried to settle down a little and went through the second mile in 6:15. At that point I felt good and warmed up so I tossed the over shirt.

In the days leading up to the race I read the Race Day Strategy chapter in Advanced Marathoning (a book I highly recommend). In it, Pete Pfitzinger talks about how the first half of a marathon should feel easy and you shouldn’t be too focused on the pace. Yeah, you want to run the planned pace, but you don’t want to have to think about it so that you can save your focus for later in the race when you need it. I tried to practice that as I clicked off miles 3, 4, 5, and 6 in 6:12, 6:10, 6:20 (uphill), 6:13. I took my first Gu at mile 5.

Just before the 6th mile marker we ran over a timing mat. As I ran over the mat I knew that my first update would be posted to my twitter account and if anyone following my progress they would see that I wasn’t running super conservatively. It was like firing the initial cannon blast in the battle of CIM.

Erica and Leslie with signs at CIM At the 6th mile marker Erica, Craig (my father-in-law) and Aunt Leslie met me with a water bottle. I didn’t see them until the last minute but Craig did a great job of getting me the bottle. I drank all 8 ounces over the next 3-4 minutes.

Halfway:
I continued to run relaxed and intentionally unfocused. It felt great as the miles continued to click off. I remember thinking at mile 9 that the miles were going by really quickly. There was a big group about 200 meters in front of me that I debated catching and running with. I was guessing it was a 2:43 group aiming for the women’s B standard for the Olympic Trials. I made a conscious decision to not be that aggressive and to just run my race. I took my second Gu at mile 10.

At the halfway mark two things happened:

Erica, Craig, and Leslie were there with another bottle. I almost missed them again, but got the bottle thanks to Craig calling my name and running to me. I only drank about 2-3 ounces of that one.
The timing mat sent out my second update. I was right on pace and so that felt good.

Miles 7-13: 6:14, 6:13, 6:12, 6:12, 6:11, 6:16, 6:12 (like a metronome!)

Middle Miles:
The miles from 13-18 kept clicking off almost effortlessly. I started feeling really good about how I paced the first half and was cautiously optimistic that I would be able to hold the pace. I took my 3rd Gu at mile 14. At mile 16 I started feeling like I might have to take a bathroom break. At mile 17 I started having a pretty sharp pain under the arch of my right foot. I thought that maybe the end of a shoelace had slid into my shoe. I decided to wait as long as I could and then duck into a porta potty and check my shoe while taking care of business.

Just before the mile 18 marker I ducked into a porta potty for 80 seconds. I couldn’t find anything in my shoe and since I was wearing 12″ wool socks I couldn’t look at my foot without taking my shoe off. I decided to save time and just run. In hindsight, wearing the wool socks was a bad choice. I didn’t need the warmth on my lower legs and they might have been the culprit in what turned out to be a pretty nasty blister. I stepped out of the porta potty, took my 4th Gu and started to make up some ground. It was actually pretty exciting to be able to come from behind and start picking people off. Unfortunately I was passing some people for the second time.

Somewhere in the middle of mile 19 I started feeling a twinge in my left hamstring. I didn’t think it would be a big problem, but it did make me a little cautious. Erica, Craig, and Leslie gave me my last water bottle in the middle of mile 19.

Miles 14-21: 6:08, 6:13, 6:14, 6:13, 7:31 (80 second bathroom break), 6:08, 12:33 (probably 6:14, 6:19)

The Last 10k:
My plan was to pick it up for the last 10k. My hamstring was still giving me a little worries so I decided to just cruise in at come in under 2:45 including the potty break. I was on pace for an amazing race and didn’t want to risk an injury. I took my 5th and final Gu at mile 22.

That was a crappy plan. Once I got into downtown Sacramento there was a headwind that came out of nowhere. It was a slight downhill, but it felt like I was running uphill the entire time. I was still passing people, but my pace was fading. I kept trying to pick it up, but realized that I was going to miss the 2:45 goal. I didn’t really have a secondary goal and knew that I was going to beat 2:47. Maybe I could at least get 2:45:xx. To make matters worse, one of the guys I passed decided he would just draft off me and ran right on my heels for a while. I got annoyed enough to pick it up a little and drop him in the 24th mile.

The last two miles were miserable. It still felt uphill and was nothing like I had planned. I was still splitting my watch, but I wasn’t paying too much attention to it. At that point I just wanted to finish and actually had a “I could just walk for a couple of minutes” thought sneak in. That wasn’t going to happen, but I was falling apart fast. The cold hadn’t bothered me all day, but suddenly I was getting really cold. Not too surprising since it was still only about 32˚.

All done at CIM I passed the 26 mile marker and realized that I had just pulled off a HUGE marathon PR. It wasn’t the final 10k I had wanted, but I felt really good about the race I ran. As I crossed the finish line the announcer called out “Jackson Miller from Nashville, TN. It was 10˚ in Nashville this morning.”

Final time: 2:46:09 – 23rd in my age group.

As I walked through the finish chute, the woman giving me my mylar blanket wasn’t convinced by my answers when she asked me if I was ok. I think she was walking me to the medical tent when I finally strung together enough coherent words in a row that she let me go off to meet my family. I guess that is a good sign that I didn’t leave much out there