After a disappointing 2018 race season, hitting the reset button in 2019 was a welcome thought. First up on the list was the Cellcom marathon in Green Bay. Everything about Cellcom excited me. It was a course I'd never run before. Not super flat like Chicago, but flat enough and best of all, the course ran through Lambeau Field. Green Bay is an hour drive from my hometown, so I had the opportunity to stop in and see my family and have a little "home cooking" the day before the race. Being an avid runner herself and knowing how much I invested in preparing for this race in attempting another shot at qualifying for Boston, my wife suggested I go up to Green Bay by myself the night before the race, stay in a hotel and relax and prepare on my own time. As much as I love my family and look forward to them cheering me on in my races, I think most runners that are parents with young kids would agree that bringing the family with me to share a hotel room the night before a big race probably doesn't lend itself to a good night sleep.
So I grab my race packet and head back to the hotel to relax. I went through my pre-race routine, which essentially was an early and light dinner, followed by another light meal just before bed. Plenty of fluids and an early bedtime and I was ready for the race the following morning. I should point out that the forecast all week had called for a weekend full of heavy rain, starting Saturday afternoon and continuing through Sunday, so I spent most of my night preparing mentally for a wet day. I never sleep well the night before race (I try to make up for this by banking extra sleep the week of the marathon) so I was tossing and turning when my phone registered an email. At 4:30am, I knew it was from the race director. Damn it. You've got to be kidding me. I knew what it said before I read it: the race was being cancelled due to flooding on the course. My mind went to my workouts. The long runs I've put in. The sacrifices. I work hard and prepare for every marathon I run, but this one was different. After qualifying in 2017 and having to go through a rough 2018, I was healthy and in peak form again. I felt cheated.
Because only the marathon course was flooded, the race organizers gave the marathon runners the option to run the half marathon instead. Why not? I'm here. I'm trained up. I paid for it, so let's do it. More than that, I had prepared all night, and all week really, for a long run in the rain, and even though they are conditions that no runner hopes to see, I was curious to see what it would be like. The half marathon course was fine, it was nice to race on a course and in a city I was unfamiliar with. But having the privilege to run through Lambeau field, and actually be down on the turf, was something I'll never forget. As a lifelong Packer fan, it was definitely an emotional moment. If you're looking to run a half or full marathon, consider Cellcom, just to run through Lambeau. Ironically and to my dismay, it didn't rain at all during the race. Not a drop. Go figure.
Before leaving Green Bay, I had one last trip to make. Instead of celebrating the marathon and perhaps a qualifying PR, I decided to drown my sorrow and frustration at Hinterland restaurant across the street from Lambeau Field. I'm a craft beer lover, and Hinterland has been my brewery of choice for many years now. It's my Graceland. And while I've had their beer, I've never been able to get to their restaurant, where I've heard amazing things about their food. So I bellied up to the bar, by myself, and spent a few hours drinking a few flights of beer and tasting some delicious food. I had a lot of planning and thinking to do on my way home, but at least my belly was happy!
I spent most of my way home contemplating two things: One, is there a marathon coming up that I can quickly sign up for? And two, how do I re-taper my training? I reached my peak fitness about three weeks out from the race, and slowly tapered my mileage and workload to prepare for Cellcom. But now what? How do I re-taper? Is that even possible? I quickly had an answer to my first question: the Maritime Marathon in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. I've run the race a couple of times before, and in my mind it was my best option. It's a flat, out and back course run along Lake Michigan. The only question mark was the timing: the race was 3 weeks away. My strategy (or thought process) was to treat my recent Cellcom half marathon race as my last long run in my training, and I would follow my typical taper schedule for the next few weeks leading up to the Maritime Marathon.
The physical reset was the easy part. The mental side was a different story. I've said it before, but a lot of emotion and mental energy go into training for a big race, and even though I never physically ran the marathon in Green Bay, I was still exhausted from the experience. Mentally drained. And in hind sight, probably in need of a break from running. More than just a few weeks, anyway. I have no doubt that I was still in peak running shape as I approached the start line at the Maritime Marathon, but again, mentally I was still tired. I ran a 3:09, missing a qualifying time by 4 minutes, but just as with any race, I gave it everything I had. I tried to focus on the positive parts of the marathon: out of all the marathons I've run, this was the one I felt the most comfortable running. The last 5k of all marathons are tough; a true grind, how bad do you want it moment. But there was no time in this race where I wanted to quit. So what does that tell me? It told me two things : One, I nailed my nutrition. This was something I really focused on in the off season in terms of studying the physiological aspect of the marathon and reading about how other successful runners approach fueling during the race as well as the week leading up to it. So I was happy with that. And second, I nailed my pace. In my last marathon, I went out too fast for my level of training and by mile 20 I was toast. Although I didn't run a qualifying pace, I was happy with my splits and most importantly, how I felt in the final 5k.
After the half marathon and marathon (and two tapers!), I needed a break. I took about a month off from any serious training, which gave me some time to reassess my goals for the rest of the year. Did I want to give up the marathon distance and goal of qualifying for awhile? Should I switch gears and maybe do some more enjoyable and carefree trail races in the fall?
In making my decision, the thought that kept running through my mind was not wanting to waste my fitness level. Despite the setbacks, I still felt I was moving in the right direction and even more importantly...I still wanted it. I wanted to achieve my goal. And at some point in my month off from training, I recommitted myself to doing just that. No doubt about it: let's go. I settled on the Milwaukee Lakefront marathon the first week of October. Training went well, very much a continuation of the work I'd already been doing, but with one minor tweak. I decided to focus more on speed intervals and tempo runs, doing two of these workouts every week, which meant less overall mileage but more quality miles. I also tweaked my long run on the weekend, where I alternated slow and easy long runs one weekend, followed by a goal pace long run the next weekend. Like I said after the 2018 season, I wanted to spend as much time at race pace as possible in my training. In my mind, if I want to run a race at a goal pace, I need to train for that pace.
Marathon morning weather was ideal: 40 degrees, partly sunny, slight breeze. Perfect day for a qualifying time, or at least a PR. In the first half of the race, I again nailed my game plan. I always like to start a little slow, and let body find it's comfort zone, which typically happens for me around mile 5. At this point in the race, I'm warmed up and the butterflies are gone and I can hit the "cruise" button. There was one point in the first half that for 6 or 7 miles, I ran right next to another runner, stride for stride at exactly a 7 minute per mile pace. To the second. It was right where I wanted to be, so I thought the moment was pretty cool. I hit the 20 mile mark again, right where I wanted to be in terms of time and pace. The last 10K of the race broke me down, as usual, especially the last three or four miles. I ended up running a PR 3:05:26, but missing a BQ by 26 seconds. There was a small part of me that was disappointed, but again and again: marathons are hard and I knew I gave it everything I had, both in my training and also the race itself. In reality, I would have probably needed a 3:02 or better to make it to Boston.
My main take aways from 2019: In terms of my nutrition, I think I accomplished my goals. I felt the strongest I ever have in the final few miles of both marathons this year, and while part of this may be due to experience, I attribute at least some of it to my pre-race and race nutrition. Feeling strong (relatively speaking) also proves to me that I paced myself well. While I didn't achieve a negative split in either marathon, I think I came within a minute of doing so in each race. Moving into next year, I think I'll continue to explore adding more interval workouts to my training, as well as doing more heavy weight training to add more leg strength. I look forward to taking a mental break in the off season with some slower running, but being in Wisconsin, I'm not looking forward to the cold.