Fargo Marathon Recap

8am on 5/22/10 was the beginning of the Fargo Marathon, my second marathon.
Here is the short and long of it all.

Summary (for those of you that don't care about the technical stuff)

Starting weather: pleasantly cool with a light rain (perfect)
Finishing weather: warm, sunny, and strong gusting winds (not perfect)
Goal time: 3:50
Actual finish time : 3:55:43
Overall place: 308 / 1878
Gender place: 471 / 1124
Age group place: 89 / 182

My goal for this race was to finish in 3 hours 50 minutes. After mile 22 I "hit the wall". My quads started to ache, my calves were cramping, and my right knee had a little bit of a twinge. At this point I believe all but the knee can be attributed to not taking in enough sodium. The knee I blame on not doing enough running specific strength training.

Overall, I felt great throughout the run until after mile 22, then it felt like the longest 4.2 miles of my life.

A marathon is such an interesting beast. You train 18-20 weeks for (in this case) 4 hours of running. Certainly there is much more to it than that, there are many mental and physical challenges along the journey. But the rewards are well worth it as well as the camaraderie of other marathoners.

The Details

Now for the good stuff!

I really feel like I learned some good information from my first marathon, and I am almost certain that # 3 will be even better. Here is what I have learned, the mistakes I made, and where things went well.

The Friendships
Before I talk about the actual marathon and training details I have to give a plug to the great DailyMile people that were at Fargo, I know there were more, but these are the ones I know and had contact with.
Jenn - I have spent many hours running with Jenn here in Sioux Falls. She has dramatically improved her running skills within the last year and will continue to grow. She's a great friend, keep your eye on her training, she will likely be qualifying for Boston this fall in Chicago.
Jenessa - This was Jenessa's first marathon. I had the great opportunity of first meeting her in St. Cloud for the Earth Day run where she PR'd her half marathon. She finished strong in Fargo and will also only get better. Way to go Jenessa!
Rob (aka Rob the Runner) - If your are on DailyMile you have got to check out his mileage. Rob is such a great spirit and inspiration on DM. In celebration of running Fargo, Rob was sporting the "mara-hawk" hairdo, check it out!
Emily A. - What a sweetheart! Emily and I had the same race goal and I had the pleasure of running with her for almost the first half of the race. She wasn't feeling it and eased off of the pace after awhile but she still had strong performance for the day.

The Training
When I first started training for Fargo, my intention was to use Higdon's Intermediate II plan. I quickly figured out that this plan was a little too aggressive for me and backed down the the Intermediate I plan. Not a huge difference but it did not have the 50 mile weeks. My running is a great mental release for me and I found myself overtraining and becoming injured three different times throughout my training. Between a hamstring problem, a knee problem, and tendonitis I guess that I am lucky to have even completed this marathon let alone PR it.

 I am my worst enemy with my training and created my problems by not allowing my body proper rest among other things. I am going to use a well respected coach this time and see if I can have a more successful training period.

A lot of equipment for such a minimalist sport!

Fuel and Nutrition
During the Twin Cities marathon in October I made the mistake of not taking my gels or drinking enough water because I didn't feel like I needed it. At that time I was also hung up on using one type of gel, which was the orange GU with caffeine (another mistake). This time, after some experimentation, I switched to the Hammer Gels. So far I love them. They are the best tasting and easiest to consume gels that I have tried. What seems to work for me is to consume one gel every 4 miles (or about every 35 minutes). I also drank water at every water stop to keep hydrated and help break down the gels. The one thing that I will change on my next marathon is to take in some electrolytes. Once again Hammer Nutrition offers Endurolytes, an electrolyte replacement. I actually purchased these before Fargo, but had not trained with them and was not comfortable using them. Side note: For the second time, I also consumed a 5 hour energy drink moments before the start of the race. Does it help? I like to think so, but it's difficult to say for sure at this point.

The Weather
Really nothing we can do about the weather. It's always the luck of the draw. Spring marathons are tough because you train through the snow and cold of winter, the nice cool spring days and then you hope it stays cool for your race. Leading up to Fargo it looked like it was going to be much warmer than what I had been training in. Luckily we caught a break on race day and had cool temps with a light rain, at least for the first hour. The clouds stayed out for the next couple of hours, then the last hour the sun and the wind showed up to add an extra challenge. I am glad that I was able to get a couple of warmer weather runs in pre-marathon so that I was somewhat acclimated to it.

The race actually finishes inside of the Fargodome, it's a great experience!

The Marathon
My game plan was to stick with the 3:50 pacer up until mile 23, then if I had anything left in the tank to give it some gas and finish strong. Throughout the race we were right on pace, even a minute or so ahead of goal pace at around mile 14. I kept falling behind the group at the water stops until somewhere around mile 16 when I actually found myself ahead of the pacer. This was not intentional but I went with it and did a decent job of maintaining about an 8:45 pace, at least until I finished mile 22. The pace group caught and passed me right after the mile 23 marker and I just didn't have it in me to keep up. My quads were aching and the last two miles my right calf started to badly cramp. I had to walk it off, I was afraid that if I kept running while it was cramping that it would get so bad that I might not be able to finish. I did a combination of running and walking to the finish. That last mile seemed like the longest mile ever.

In reflection, with better training and continuing to dial in my nutrition, I can realistically see taking another ten minutes off my PR for the Mankato marathon.

After the marathon with my running buddy Jenn.

The Technical Stuff

I have to say that I am very happy with my splits, they were pretty consistent until the bonk at 23. 

Looking at my heart rate, it took a pretty good jump about 1:45 into the race and continued a steady climb afterwards. This is where I believe that electrolyte replacement would have greatly helped.

Lots of details, but to me that's part of the fun. Knowing that there is room for improvement is a great motivator!

Biking for a Cause

After much debate, procrastination, and sweet-talking my wife, I have finally decided to enter the world of cycling. I have thought about cycling on and off throughout the years but until now I have never been interested enough to part with the money required to purchase a bike and the necessary gear to go with it. Sure you can spend some money on running shoes and clothing, but getting started in cycling is a whole new ballgame. I did a lot of shopping around and asking questions before I bought my bike, I even pitted a couple of bike shops against each other to get the bike I wanted at the best possible price.

So here it is, the Giant Defy 3, so far it has been a great bike for me.

Other than the obvious fitness reasons for purchasing a bike, I have also signed up for a fundraising ride in August. I am riding 100 miles through Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa in order to raise funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation ( JDRF). This is a great organization that is working towards a cure for Juvenile Diabetes. My goal is to raise $3,000 or more for this ride. So here's my pitch -

If you can afford to donate even $5 towards this cause it would be greatly appreciated. You can quickly and easily donate here on my fundraising website. It's safe, secure website and you will absolutely not be spammed with emails, you can even donate anonymously if you like! 

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I know many of you have families and other financial responsibilities. This is why I am only asking for a $5 donation. If you can and would like to donate more that would be awesome.

Thanks again, I will keep you updated on my training!

St. Cloud Earth Day 20

Saturday April 17th was the Earth Day Run in St. Cloud, MN. It was a somewhat unique event in that they ran both a half marathon and new this year, a 20 mile run. I had great company at this race with Daily Mile friends Jenn B., Megan N., and Jenessa. Each of them ran well, both Jenn and Jenessa obtained half marathon PR's and Megan ran a very solid 20 miles. They are a great bunch, if you are on Daily Mile and you don't follow them already, you should, I expect each of them to have some great race results this year.


Obviously running is a physical sport, but I would say it is equally and many times more so a mental sport. Preparation, attitude, and determination are major factors in the result of any distance run. It is easy to be intimidated by a race or a long run. But if you have trained properly, and have the right mindset your results will generally be positive. I found a great quote on Twitter from EnMotivate : If you truly expect something to be difficult, it will be. ~ Pete Cohen.  I went into this run with expectations of having fun, maintaining a responsible pace,and working on fine tuning my fuel plan for Fargo.  


The Fun Part
An amazing thing happened on this day. I woke up in a great mood (not that amazing), and I was really looking forward to this run. I have been training hard through some really crappy weather and was looking forward to see how things would shake out. I have started to develop a new attitude towards running this year and it is all about enjoying the runs. I don't know that I have too many more PR's left in me and frankly I am not too worried about it. It is all to easy to obsess about training and racing, but my eyes have been opened to the joy of running. Throughout this race I made it a point to thank as many volunteers as possible and talk to and encourage other runners along the way. I hope I made some people feel a little better about there run, even if for only a few moments. I was running well and felt good most of the way, so why not try to spread a little love?


Maintaining Pace
Yep, I am very much a typical runner, I go out too fast at the start, and have nothing left at the end. I proved it in my first marathon and I still do it much too often in my training runs. This time it was different, but I did have a little help. My goal was to finish with a 9:00 - 9:30 pace without wiping myself out in the end. Luckily there were pacers at this race, so I found the 9:33 pacer and stuck with him. My plan was to run faster the last part of the race if I felt well enough to do so. 9:33 seemed a little too easy the first few miles, but I stuck to the plan like a champ, for the most part. I did pass the pacer and pick things up at miles 6 - 10 knowing that I was going to have to make a bathroom stop. When I stepped out of the port a potty I had to pick my speed back up to catch back up to the pacer which I finally did somewhere close to mile 12. I kept a pretty steady pace through the next 4 miles and then started to push the it a little at mile 16, simply because I felt like I could. I feel good that I was able to finish strong and run my last two miles at close to 8 minute pace, my pacing plan worked well!


The Fuel Plan
This is where I have the most anxiety about my long runs and the marathon. Mostly because I did such a poor job of it during my first marathon that I really don't want to make the same mistake twice. I have asked questions on Daily Mile and done a little experimenting on my own. I have not come to a complete resolution yet but here is what I have so far.

1. 5-hour Energy - yeah, don't freak out. I am typically not a big believer in these things and I am not sure how much it has actually helped. But, the two times that I have tried it, I had solid results. I will give credit where credit is due, I borrowed this idea from Rob-The-Runner on Daily Mile.
2. Hammer Gels - I have tried Honey Stingers and Hammer Gels on my long runs. I like the flavors and the ease of consuming the Hammer Gels. I use the non-caffeinated gels simply because I don't feel like I need any more caffeine than what is in the energy shot. I consumed one gel for every four miles. This seemed to work out well, but I may try every 30 minutes on my next long run.
3. Water - I still have some work to do in this area but I drank from every water stop and walked through most of them to drink. I was still a little dehydrated at the end of the run but it was much better than my first marathon experience.

Here are some pictures of me and the great DM runners that I mentioned earlier

Finding hills in Eastern South Dakota

Living in the eastern part of South Dakota limits the opportunity to run many hills. They really are far and few, especially if you are looking for trail running. Most people don't go looking for hills, in fact they avoid and despise them. I am not sure that I actually enjoy running up a hill, but the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment is like a drug. I get an incredible high after ripping my lungs out on a challenging hill run.(sounds fun right?)

Running up a steep hill on pavement is one thing, but blasting up a single track trail is much more fun. Here are some of my favorite hills.

Big Sioux State Park
Elevation profile (hmmm... should I say this park is the tits!?)

View from the bottom of one of the hills. Doesn't seem like much.

But from the top, it's a little more daunting.

















Beaver Creek Park
Elevation Profile

 

Beaver Creek- Spring Run

I was looking for a little variety this week, so I conned Jeff P. into running the trails of Beaver Creek with me today. I knew it would be muddy, but to add to the excitement it rained for most of our 5.35 miles too. It was just a nice casually paced run with lots of hills and mud. Here are a few pictures that I took along the way.
For me, this is the cream of the crop, this is what makes it all worthwhile, being able to find places like this to run.

Here is the Garmin upload of our run. It's not a very long trail so we had to make several loops to complete 5 miles.

March-ing on...

March has been a roller coaster of a month for my running.  I jumped into the first week with a 40 mile week and discovered once again that I am not invincible. I have been adding some core work to my routine for a few months now but I was not incorporating enough "easy" days into my running routine. The lack of easy days seemed to lead to some nasty knee pain that kept me from running for 11 days. I did go to a physical therapist and she told me that the pain was from weak glutes. So I kept myself busy by going to Power Pump classes and spin classes and did some extra stationary biking on my own to try and keep my fitness in line. I was finally able to run again on March 21st. For you non-runners, when you cannot run due to an injury you truly appreciate being able to run when you can. For awhile it seemed like everyone but me could run and was doing so. It was a little disheartening for the duration but I am past that now. 
As I write this, it is now less than 50 days until my next marathon which is in Fargo, ND. My goals for this marathon are to run it without hitting the wall, and finish faster than I did in the Twin Cities. I learned a lot from my first marathon and will go back and review my posting of that run as a refresher. I felt that my two largest mistakes were that I did not fuel enough or properly during the race and I definitely ran too fast starting out. After 17 strong miles the wheels fell off and it was a struggle for me to finish, mile 17 is also where the hills started. Most of my splits up to that point were well under 9 minute miles which is not crazy out of my league, in fact I felt great until around miles 16-17. This picture reminds me of how I felt immediately after the marathon.

I have had some beautiful runs through the winter and I am now enjoying the awesome spring weather. My next race will be in St. Cloud, MN on Saturday April 17th, which will actually just be a 20 mile training run for me with some friends. Hopefully all will go well and I will stay healthy and continue to enjoy my runs!

The Endless Winter Continues

Today's run concludes week 6 of my marathon training plan. It has already been an interesting and rewarding journey of extreme temperatures and creative time management to get to this point. So here are my random updates.

WINTER RUNNING
This winter has been especially harsh. We have had a total snowfall this year of about 58 inches and way too many days below zero. My coldest run to date that I can remember was -15 with the windchill and -11 without wind. As I noted in an earlier posting, I invested in some winter running gear so that I wouldn't have to be a slave to the treadmill all season. Three layers on top have kept me plenty warm including a basic Under Armour long sleeve base layer, a Mizuno Breath Thermo Running Crew, and a RRS Jacket. To keep the legs warm I have a pair of Adidas tights and a pair of Under Armour wind stopping pants that I alternate. I keep my feet warm with Mizuno Breath Thermo socks, and stay sure footed on the icy days with Yaktrax. Next winter I will invest in better gloves, my hands stay warm most of the time, but I struggle on the really cold days.

LOGGING THE MILES
Sticking to my training plan has not been too bad so far. I just have to do some planning ahead to get the miles done. I have only been running 30-35 miles a week so far but next week it jumps up to 40 and will increase to 50 miles for some weeks. I will have to do some creative scheduling to get these future runs accomplished, but it will happen.

RUNNING BUDDIES
I have been very fortunate to have some great running buddies the last year or so. I started out with Jeff who talked me into signing up for my first marathon. After he was injured I started running with Jenn who has become an insane future triathlete who is logging miles on her new bike and quickly learning how to swim. She now has a coach that has her using heart rate training. Both of them have gone in a different direction with their training so I have been forced to look for someone else that I can train with. Today I met up with a small group of people that belong to the Sioux Falls Area Run Club. It wasn't easy getting up at 5am on a Sunday to run, especially since it was going to be 20 degrees warmer in just a few short hours, but I am glad I did it. I met four great people and had a nice time. That is certainly one of the side benefits of running, meeting new people that share a similar passion. I am lucky to have great friends like Jeff and Jenn and looking forward to meeting more people through the club.

MISC. TRAINING NOTES
This year I have been focusing on adding cross-training to my regimen. That's cross-training, NOT cross-dressing. Anyway, I joined the Y last fall so that I could participate in some of the classes. Being able to work out with other people really helps keep me motivated. I have been taking a class called Power Pump which typically consists of low weight high rep weight lifting including squats, push-ups, lunges, and more. It was a little tough to get used to at first, but I really enjoy it now. The other class that I occasionally attend is  Sports Conditioning on Sunday. This class kicks my ass every time. I only go after I forget how painful it can be. It is a constant hour of marching in place, squats, lunges, push-ups, jumping, and more at a high intensity. It's a great workout but can be quite humbling. Both of these classes have definitely increased my upper body strength and I like to think that they have made me a better runner.

I am now a third of the way through my training plan and as of today's writing have 82 days until the Fargo Marathon. It's nice that I keep hearing positive comments about what a great marathon it is and how well it is organized. I am looking forward to this and hope to have a better experience and outcome.