Yesterday I ran what is likely my last marathon, the Cheap Marathon in Derry, NH. The marathon course is two loops of an out and back half marathon course. So you know what to expect on the second half of the marathon. It's run on the Derry Rail Trail, a paved trail about 12 feet wide. To space the runners out, there is a staggered start with pairs of runners going off at 7 second intervals.
The course is advertised as flat, but it actually consists of a series of mild inclines and declines. They aren't obvious to the naked eye but are noticeable when you are running them. There is only one serious hill, which happens to occur in the last mile of the half marathon loop - so it also occurs in the last mile of the marathon.
My goal was to run a BQ time (3:50 for 60 year olds), a goal I missed by almost five minutes.
Although I didn't meet the goal, I'm satisfied with the race. I haven't been able to run the heavy mileage that is really necessary for marathon training since the arthritis kicked up in my hip and knee back in the autumn of 2017. Back then I was running up to 50 miles/week in training, now I can't do much more than 25 miles per week max. I've been making up the difference (or at least trying to) on the elliptical and the rower.
My plan was to run the first half at BQ pace, which I did running a 1:53 for the first half. I could tell, however, that I was engaging my quads a little too much and that I would likely pay for it later. I've run enough marathons to know what the first half should feel like. I was able to negative split the marathon when I ran my PR (and a BQ) at the Wineglass Marathon in 2017 (just before the arthritis became a problem). This time I knew it would be a battle to just maintain that same pace through the second half.
I actually managed to hold close to it well past the 20 mile mark, but I could feel my quads losing it. At the point where I had 5K left, I calculated I'd need to run a little better than an 8:50 pace to make the BQ time. Even if my quads held up this would be a challenge as it was the hardest part of the course. It's one of the mild incline sections and also contains the only serious hill in the last mile.
And, in fact, my quads gave out altogether in the last mile shortly before the last hill. They knotted up completely and I could feel cramps coming on. Rather than fall over, I stopped and walked up the hill. Obviously this killed any chance of the BQ. The goal now was to finish in under 2 hours.
The walk up the hill allowed me to recover enough to run the rest of the way in (slowly), finishing with an overall pace just under 9 minutes/mile.
When I crossed the finish line, I felt more relief and acceptance than disappointment. I ran a 3:54 marathon at 60 years old running half the mileage I would normally put in for a marathon. Back in 2018 I wondered if I'd ever run races again, let alone run a sub 4 hour marathon at 60. If I really tried, I could probably take some minutes off that time by running a more favorable course like Wineglass and squeezing a few more pounds off (I got to 182 for this race, but I could get into the 170s if I got completely medieval in my eating.) But I have no desire to do this. I didn't really enjoy the 20 mile training runs and I'm not interested in going through again the pain involved in the last 10k of a marathon.
Going forward I'm going to concentrate on the shorter races, the half marathon and 10k. I'm done with the marathon, but not with running.
