You must be swift as the coursing river (as long as it's the Lazy River) - comments welcome

[DopeyBadger]

Have fun!

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Race "plan": Space Coast Marathon
In which planning has some serious limits

Well, it's been kind of a weird taper. I'm watching Apollo 13 this evening (over lunch was Hidden Figures - do you sense a theme here?) and things have just started going wrong. I can relate to this.

GIF of Tom Hanks saying "Houston, we have a problem"

Somehow, though, I seem to be in an okay place right now. I've had no pain on any of my runs this week, so I'm hopeful about being able to run the marathon. Of course, my unplanned break in week 15 makes it really hard to predict how it will actually go. But I'm planning for the things I can.

First, being the slightly obsessive runner that I am, I laid out everything I need for tomorrow, then loaded what I don't need in the morning into the car. (Have I mentioned that it's weird to be driving to a race? This doesn't usually happen.) I'm planning to be in bed around 8, because I have to wake up at 2:30 and leave at 3:30

Another fun hiccup: tomorrow morning is forecast to be the warmest for about a week on either side. And humid. The low overnight is 67, with race temps ranging from 69-75 and dew points from 67-71 It may also be a bit rainy, which given the rest of the forecast might honestly be kind of a plus. It's like the universe doesn't want this race to go well

But we can only do the best we can with what we have. We have yet to come to my favorite scene in this movie:

YouTube video of literally trying to fit a square peg into a round hole

So, you know, you might not make it to the moon, but you can still get home in the end.

Anyway, like I said, my plan is at this point is basically "let's start the marathon and see how it goes". I've got 4 UCAN gels and 2 GUs, which should be more than enough, and my handheld is filled with Skratch. I'll refill it with plain water on the course.

Space Coast has an interesting setup: there are two different half marathons, north and south, and the full covers both courses.


Space Coast course map

While things have been going encouragingly well this week, I've only run up to 5-ish miles, which is still at least 21 less than I'm trying to run tomorrow. So who knows how my Achilles will react. As I've said, if I do have issues, I'll just walk/jog it in for the half. If I'm doing okay, then I'm just going to be following the "plan" I read in one of the many running books I've picked up in the past year or so:

- Run the first 10 miles with your head.
- Run the second 10 miles with your training.
- Run the last 10K with your heart.

And then I guess we'll just see what my head, training, and heart have to give me. I'll let you know tomorrow!

 

[azrivest]

Love that three stage plan. Feels so appropriate for a marathon.

Have fun tomorrow, I hope the T+D is favorable

 

[Scootin'By]

Have fun and good luck! I hope you've got David Bowie on your tunes list for the race

 

[Naomeri]

Good luck!!

 

[NYC_MW]

Good luck and enjoy!!

 

[RuntheMouse]

Good luck!

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Too tired for an actual recap right now, so I'm just gonna leave this here

 

[RuntheMouse]

Too tired for an actual recap right now, so I'm just gonna leave this here

View attachment 813649

Incredible!!!

 

[col1]

Too tired for an actual recap right now, so I'm just gonna leave this here

View attachment 813649

Congratulations great job

 

[nancipants]

Yessss! Great job!!!

 

[Naomeri]

Woohoo! Great job!

 

[NYC_MW]

Wahooooo

 

[striker1064]

Awesome job! Congrats!!

 

[Scootin'By]

Congrats!!!

 

[garneska]

Nice job! Can’t wait for the recap.

 

[GollyGadget]

Congratulations! Enjoy your rest. You earned it!!

 

[avondale]

Wow! Fantastic! Congratulations!

 

[DopeyBadger]

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Race recap: Space Coast Marathon
Cocoa, FL | November 26, 2023
In which things finally go well

Well, after sleeping for about 14 of the 24 hours following the race, I finally feel almost human again. Marathons, am I right?

As you all know, the past couple of weeks have been a journey. Straining my Achilles two weeks before the marathon put the whole race in doubt, much less any time goals. So I went into this race thinking, "I don't know, I guess we'll just see what happens."

First off, surprise, I did not go to bed at 8 p.m. It was more like 9:15. And then it took me a long time to fall asleep, so when my alarm went off at 2:30, I'd gotten about 4 hours of sleep Getting ready and taking the dog out only took 15 minutes longer than I planned, so I ended up leaving my parents' house around 3:45 and got to the race at 4:30. Fortunately that turned out to be plenty early to get a good parking spot just a block from the start line, and I had hardly any wait to pick up my bib. I went back to the car and pinned it on my Star Wars tank with my galaxy Bibboards (clearly this race is right up my alley ).

After spending a little while sitting in the car doing nothing, I headed for the start line. I decided to line up with the 4-hour pacer and see how that felt. She said she was planning for even splits throughout the race, which sounded pretty good to me.


Waiting in the starting area

As the race got closer, the crowds built, although it was certainly nowhere near as packed as like a Cherry Blossom. I remember thinking that the race announcer wasn't great - he kept repeating the same instructions, which is okay because there were more people each time, but he didn't say much beyond that, nothing inspiring or motivational The guy singing the national anthem was also odd. It was like someone once told him he should vary the volume to be more engaging, so he decided that meant he should do one line loud, one line soft, regardless of whether that made sense with the lyrics But whatever, I wasn't there for the race announcer or the national anthem.

The race itself started with a countdown to launch, where they showed an actual rocket launch on the screen and had CO2 machines blasting up "rocket fuel exhaust" in lieu of a starting gun, which was fun. We headed off...uphill?? Wait, that's not fun at all! Lol, luckily the hill was short and really one of the few on the course.

The first mile or so was very crowded and my slowest by a significant amount. That's most races for you, though, and I'd rather have the first mile of my marathon be a little slow than a little fast. I got separated from the 4-hour pace group but caught back up and stuck with them for a few miles. It was dark. We were running along a road with houses on one side and water on the other, so there wasn't much reason for a lot of lighting. Between the dark and the crowds, I was almost surprised not to see more people trip, although one guy did fall right next to me trying to hop over the curb to pass someone. (He got right back up though.)

After a few miles with the 4-hour pacer, one person in the group noted that our pace seemed a little fast, and I agreed - we'd been running about 8:55 pace according to my watch. I was still feeling very comfortable with the pace, though. (I didn't realize it at the time, but we were on a slight downhill, so that might have been part of the reason for both of those things.) Less comfortable was the crowd - people kept shifting around and almost running into each other, and I was a little worried about falling myself. Since I was good with the pace, I took the opportunity of a gap created by a water stop that I didn't need yet to move ahead of the group. And I never saw them again!*

*This is not literally true, in the sense that I did see them on the "and back" portions of the out-and-backs. But they never caught up with me after I passed them, so it is true in spirit.

Then, however, I was on my own. I focused my sights on three people ahead of me who seemed to be running around the same pace: Bald Guy No Shirt, Green Tank, and Heather. (Heather thoughtfully put her name on the back of her top.) I stuck to them for a bit before passing Bald Guy No Shirt. Green Tank had disappeared somewhere, and shortly after that Heather stepped off to the side, so I was pretty much on my own again.

The turnaround marked the first quarter of the race. It was a convenient setup, because if I ran each segment in less than an hour, I'd come in under four hours. Even I can do that math! Given everything that had gone wrong over the past two weeks, I didn't know if I'd be able to do that, but I was happy to finish the first ~6.55 miles in somewhere around 58 minutes. Thanks to @striker1064's timer suggestion, I had my first gel at 40 minutes, and things were going well.

As predicted, the conditions were warm and humid - I think the T+D was around 67+64 at the start. On the bright side (pun intended), it was overcast, so even though it was light at this point, I never actually saw the sun. So I didn't feel too bad, and I was still working on my Skratch.

At some point after the turnaround, Bald Guy No Shirt caught up with me again, but based on his breathing less than 10 miles into a marathon, I didn't think he'd be with me long. (I was correct.) I briefly latched on to a few more people over the rest of the first half but none for long. I had another gel, and I did refill my handheld around mile 11 or 12. Then came the moment of truth, the go-no go as it were: it was time for the turnoff for the half marathoners to finish and the marathoners to continue with the race. What would I do??

Hmm, I guess trying to create suspense doesn't work very well when I've already shared my finish time. Oh well.

Anyway, having had only the most minor twinges from my Achilles so far, I decided I was a "go" for the marathon. Gulp, but also yay!

The turnoff took us through a few turns away from the street most of the race was on, until we got back to the south course. I had been a little worried about this part because of the way the race works. The north course and marathon runners start out on the north course, which has a 4-hour time limit. Twenty minutes later, the south course runners start going the other direction. Since the south course is also the second half of the full marathon, it has the same time limit: 7 hours.


Space Coast course map

On the one hand, I think it's great to have half marathons with longer time limits so more people can participate. Races should be for everyone who wants to try them. From a more selfish perspective, I was a little worried about having to navigate through walkers. But fortunately most people were good about sharing the course.

Aside from a few moments around mile 15 or 16 where I was thinking, "Oh no, everything hurts and I'm dying already??", I felt really good. I actually passed the 3:50 pacer around then, which didn't seem right, but she was alone and holding her sign upside down, so I thought maybe something had gone wrong and she wasn't actually on that pace anymore. I was pretty sure I wasn't going that fast

Around 17.5, I switched from podcasts to music and it was glorious. A good song is excellent motivation. I don't know what the people going the other way thought about my dramatic lip-syncing, and I don't care

I was getting pretty thirsty, and I ended up filling up my handheld at two consecutive water stops. After that I tried to slow down my drinking a little so I didn't have to stop and use the port-a-potty. At the second turnaround, they had cooling towels, which helped. I squeezed some ice water over my neck and arms and then stuck the towel under my hat until it dried out.

At mile 20, I was still feeling pretty good! I was very excited at that point because my time was a little under 3 hours, so all I had to do to run a sub-4 marathon was finish a 10K in less than an hour, and I was pretty sure I could do that. Woo! I wasn't done yet, but the end was in sight (figuratively). "Go the Distance" came on and I teared up a little

I wasn't really going any faster, but I kept passing people - other marathon runners, not just the walkers - and no one was passing me. This was also excellent motivation. I love passing people I even passed the 3:55 pace group (which meant that that the 3:50 pacer did indeed have an issue somewhere - that must be rough).

By mile 23, I felt like I still had some gas in the tank, so I started to pick up the pace a little. I didn't want to go too hard, because 3.2 miles is not nothing, especially when you've already run 23 miles. But I didn't want to leave anything on the course either. I was starting to get tired, but if I could go faster, I would. I filled up my handheld one more time and had my last gel. Let's do this

Those last few miles are kind of a blur. I passed more people. Eventually we turned off the coastal road and started winding around toward the finish...and around, and around. ARE WE FREAKING THERE YET?? I was so ready to be done. Finally the finish line came into view, and I picked up my feet as fast as I could.

And I was finished! I crossed the line, stopped my watch, and staggered over to the barricade to hold myself up for a minute. I was 111% done. I didn't have an official time yet, but my watch said 26.2 miles, 3:50:09. YES!! I was happy. Also tired.

After a second hanging onto the barricade, I got myself together to pick up my GINORMOUS medal. Seriously, this thing is huge. I made my dog model it when I got back.


My dog wearing the giant Space Coast medal

They also had water and more cooling towels right at the finish, along with finisher beach towels, which was kind of a cool piece of swag. The theme of this race series is Mission to Mars, and this year's race was Viking I, so everything is Mars/Viking-themed.


Space Coast long-sleeved technical shirt (which a surprising number of people wore on race day despite the warm and humid weather), "mission" patch, medal, and finisher towel

After a Very Long Walk, I made it to the post-race snacks. Chocolate milk was great. They also had pancakes, bananas, mini muffins, and beer. I saw some people with pizza, but I couldn't find it. So food and drink offerings were only okay compared with the cool swag. I walked around for a while so my legs wouldn't stiffen up too much, then headed home feeling exhausted and sore but thrilled with my performance.

I didn't remember enough about individual miles to do a mile-by-mile recap, but I am very happy with this chart:

Strava race analysis chart - look, my 3rd and 6th 5K splits are exactly the same! That's cool.

The consistency! The amazing thing is, I had no idea what I was capable of running when I started the race. I just told my body, "Today we are running a marathon," and my body said, "Okay, this is how fast we can go," and somehow that worked?? That makes no sense; I had never really raced a marathon before, only tried to finish, so I didn't even know what it should feel like. And yet somehow I ran a 6-minute negative split and was pretty even from about mile 2-23. (AND it matched up almost perfectly with those last two M effort intervals from Thursday's run!) How does that even happen? I have no idea, but I am very proud of my execution in this race.

My fueling was also consistent thanks to my timer. I had 5 gels, half a liter of Skratch, and ~2 liters of plain water throughout the race. I also took some cups of water to dump on myself as it got warmer and humid-er.

I'm pretty sure no one passed me for at least the second half of the race, which is pretty cool. I didn't really speed up until the last few miles, so that means that I judged my effort really well compared to all the people I passed. And I came in 5th in my age group! (That would never happen in DC ) Official time: 3:50:43

I did struggle a bit after the race. My legs were sore and I had all kinds of blisters and chafing, but I could deal with that. The real problem was the massive headache and the nausea it caused. It made it hard to eat much even though I knew my body really needed food. But after a LOT of sleep, I felt mostly better by Monday afternoon, and today (Tuesday) I am only a little sore. My Achilles, which miraculously barely bothered me at all during the race, is maybe a little extra tired but still doesn't actually hurt, so hooray for soft wave/Graston/eccentric calf raises/a few extra days of rest!

Overall I think I did about as well as I possibly could have, and I was very happy with my performance. So naturally, I finished the race thinking, "Wow, if this is what I can do with an Achilles strain, a messed-up taper, and warm and humid weather, what could I get with better circumstances?"

I don't know if I would do another Disney marathon just because of those long stretches with absolutely nothing, but I'll definitely do another marathon. I was really pleased with how good (I mean, relatively speaking) I felt at the end, and even today I'm a little sore but nothing too serious. I clearly have a lot of room for improvement - I think I could cut 15-20 minutes off of my time just using what I learned from this experience, with no improvement in my fitness at all. So obviously I have to do that now to see what I'm actually capable of

I'm never going to be able to stop doing marathons, am I