Cheap Marathon in Derry, NJ

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.

Wineglass Marathon Video

On youtube there is an extended video of the 2017 Wineglass Marathon, including drone shots. It's a great video and an excellent overview of the race. I didn't see myself in any of the shots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRaNmuLPJiI

Wineglass Marathon Analysis

I've been thinking about what was different about the Wineglass Marathon versus my previous marathons that contributed to the good performance.

Certainly one important factor is that it's the fastest course I've run. It's a faster course than Clarence Demar, the site of my prior PR. The Demar course, like Wineglass, is net downhill. But the Demar course has a steep downhill over the first 10k, followed by some rolling hills and several significant climbs. The most memorable of these is a short but very steep climb out of a cemetery in the 24th mile.

Myrtle Beach could be a fast course except for the wind, which hits you in the face as you run up Ocean Ave for the middle 10 miles of the race. Disney can be a fast course, but I've only run it as my first marathon or as the latter part of the Goofy Challenge, and at a time when I was recovering from injury.

Wineglass has a gentle overall decline to it, with some mild rolling hills and a couple climbs that are not bad at all. The weather was perfect the day I ran it, with no wind and temps starting in the high 30's and ending up near 60. Everything was setup - environmentally at least - for a fast run.

But I think the course and weather were not the most significant factors. Here are the split times of my four fastest marathons:

What seems to stand out about the Wineglass splits is what happened in the second half of the race. Instead of getting slower, as I did on the other three marathons, I got faster. And it's not that I went out in the first half a lot slower at Wineglass than the others. In fact, from miles 6 to 15, I was running fastest at Wineglass.

I remember in the second half of Wineglass feeling strong but waiting for the fatigue to manifest itself in my quads and glutes as it had in my other marathons. But it never really did. I felt strong all the way to the end, so strong that I cranked out the last 10k at an 8:09 per mile pace, much faster than I expected to be running at that point. After the race I was of course wiped out,  but this time my quads and glutes were very sore but OK, and it was my calf muscles that gave me problems with cramps.

I think the difference is that this year I've been pretty much injury free all year, except for missing a couple of days over the summer. The training this past year has included 3 marathon training cycles, each with 3 50 miles weeks in them. That's a lot of miles in the bank, and a lot more than I've ever had in the runup to a marathon.

My training was also conducted more carefully. On the pace runs (usually Saturday) I would try to run at least at the goal pace or a little faster. The course I ran on Saturday included substantial hills as well. On Sunday I would run easy on a flat course, my new favorite course being along the water in Newburyport. It got to the point that I was pounding out the pace runs fairly easily, even with the hills, and completing the 20 mile runs without being completely wiped out.

So in the end, I think it was the steady training all year that was the most significant factor.

Wineglass Marathon Recap

I ran the Wineglass Marathon on Sunday. The bottom line: I PR'd and BQ'd with a 3:38:15, a bit more than a 3 minute PR. It's not fast enough to actually run Boston, however, as I'd need something like a 3:36 given how runners are allowed to register (faster runners first until the spots run out).

The Wineglass Marathon is a great race. The Corning/Bath area seems to have avoided the deterioration that has generally affected the Southern Tier of New York State. Corning is still an attractive mid-sized city and the countryside is pretty, as upstate New York generally is. The race is point to point from Bath to Corning.

The Expo was held at the Corning Museum of Glass, and was a standard affair for this size of a marathon (about 2,000 runners). That doesn't mean it was bad. The swag included a nice pullover embroidered with the Wineglass Marathon logo and a small bottle of champagne. A picture at the Expo:

And here is a picture of the finish line on Market St. in Corning:

The start of the race is out in the country near Bath. You are required to take a bus to the start, which drops you off about an hour before start time. It was cold that morning, in the 30's, but I was prepared with my throwaway sweatpants and sweatshirts (2 of them, plus gloves). They also thoughtfully provided a large heated tent for the runners. When that got full, they opened a nearby municipal garage.

The course itself is net downhill, but without any steep declines. It's got some gentle rolling hills along the way and a couple non-trivial hills which are not bad at all. The worst is perhaps similar to the mile 21 on-ramp hill at the Disney Marathon. Overall it is a very fast course.

There is a lot of on course support, with water stations every 2 miles featuring both water and gatorade. Some of the stops also dispense gu gels and fruit. The race also has amazing spectator support. The course takes you through several small towns and hundreds of spectators turned out in each of them to cheer us on. The finish is thrilling as well, going straight down Market St. in Corning for a little less than a half mile. You can see the finish line banner off in the distance and the street is lined on both sides with throngs of enthusiastic spectators.

My goal was a sub 3:40, which would be both a PR and a BQ (Boston Marathon qualifying time).  My strategy was to run with the 3:40 pacer till past the halfway point, maybe to mile 18 and, hopefully, then push out ahead of him. It would all depend on how I felt at that point.

As it turned out, the 3:40 pacer started out a little fast I thought. (A 3:40 marathon equates to an 8:23 per mile pace.) So I let him go and ran by feel and my watch. I ran slightly less than goal pace for the first 10k. That was a comfortable pace, and any faster would have been work. If you are working in the first half of a marathon, you aren't going to make it anyway, so it's necessary to run at a pace that feels easy, whatever it is, goal pace or not. Since I was running at slightly less than goal pace, the 3:40 pacer gradually moved away. By mile 6 he was about 1/4 mile ahead of me. But by then I had also settled in to the race and was cruising at my goal pace. I could see the 3:40 pacer out ahead of me with a swarm of perhaps 30 runners around him. I was glad I didn't have to negotiate the water stops in the middle of that mob.

Since I was now running at race pace, the 3:40 pacer stayed about 1/4 mile ahead of me. I decided not to try and catch him and contented myself with ticking off mile for the time being. Here are my splits for the first half of the race, including a 20 second bathroom stop just after the half:

Around mile 15 I did an evaluation of where I stood. At some point, if I was going to get the 3:40, I was going to have to close down the 3:40 pacer. I still felt fresh and strong, and my legs were all there. The most substantial hill on the course is at mile 14 and I had no problem powering up it. So I decided to take it up a notch and pushed my pace up to about 8:13/mile. I reminded myself to be patient and not try to catch the pacer all at once. It's a marathon after all.

So for awhile I just zoned out, losing myself in the rhythm of my legs and breathing. Occasionally I would look up and the 3:40 pacer would be a little closer. I could also see runners start to peel off the group around the 3:40 pacer and fall back. I'd pass them as I closed down the pacer. That would give me a boost of confidence and then I would go back to zoning out. I eventually caught him at the 21.5 mile mark. He was a very animated fellow and I could hear him a long way off motivating people. As I ran by he yelled to me "That's right! You pass me! Go!" I got a boost from that and put in my fastest mile of the race at mile 22, an 8:04. Since I still felt strong, although by now of course I was working hard, I decided to attempt to maintain that pace for the remainder of the race. I could hear the 3:40 pacer's voice gradually recede behind me.

I slowed down a bit in the last couple of miles, but not much, and I finished the race strong. Here are the splits from the second half of the race:

My official time was 3:38:15. I negative split the marathon for the first time, going out in something like 1:50:45 and coming back in 1:47:55. The run down Market St. to the finish really is incredible, a little bit like running down Main St. USA at Disney, only this really IS Main St. USA.

Here is a picture of me crossing a bridge shortly before the final turn down Market St. to the finish:

And a couple of me crossing the finish. Can you spot Tricia and Kevin in the background?

This was the first race for which I experienced leg cramps in the aftermath. In fact, I endured repeated calf cramps in both legs. Kevin was helpful in stretching them out. The medical staff advised me to keep drinking gatorade, stretch them, and keep moving, which I did. The post race food includes apples, bananas, bagels, cookies, chicken soup and a few other things I can't remember. There is also a bell you can ring for a PR which I neglected to do.

The recovery has been more painful and slower than my other marathons. I suppose that is a good thing insofar as it indicates I left everything on the course. Today (Tuesday) Tricia and I are going to the Topsfield Fair, where I will eat my way from one end to the other.

UPDATE: My original chip time posted right after the race was 3:38:15. Then when the official results came out it was 3:38:35. I saw on FB that people were wondering why 20 secs had been added to everyone's time. Whatever the reason, I checked the results again today (10/12) and the official results now say again 3:38:15. I'll take it!

Myrtle Beach Marathon Recap

I ran the Myrtle Beach Marathon last Saturday. The bottom line is that my goal was to run a 3:40 BQ but only managed a 3:44:03. I'm not really disappointed, however, as I'm about 10 lbs over my best running weight and struggled with a headwind on the mid point of the course.

We arrived in Myrtle Beach on Friday morning at 7:30, had breakfast, then drove around checking out the area and running errands (like getting my saltines and peanut butter for my pre-race meal).  We also experienced our first "attraction" -  a house burning down! It turned out it was a controlled burn as part of a firefighter training exercise.

At 11:00 the Expo opened so we headed to the Myrtle Beach Sports Complex to pick up my bib. It's a nice little expo and, along with the bib and tech shirt, you get MB marathon logo'd socks as well. Here I am outside the Expo:

We were staying at Breakers Resort right on the beach, and as a "host resort" for the marathon, it provides a shuttle bus to the start line (about a mile from the hotel). It's also at mile 12 on the marathon route. The plan was for me to go to the start line on my own, then see Tricia at mile 12, after which she would walk the mile to see me at at the finish line.

Dawn view from the hotel room balcony

MB is a mid-sized marathon, with 1239 finishers this year. There is a half-marathon that runs concurrently, starting at the same time and on the same course, peeling off at about the 11 mile mark. The half had 2510 finishers. The race also features a marathon relay, so all told, there are something like 4000 starters. The race is big enough that it has a lot of infrastructure and support but not so big that it feels like a cattle drive.

Race morning was cold, sub 40 degrees with a steady breeze. I was wearing throwaway lounge pants, hat, gloves and two sweatshirts and was still cold. There were other runners wearing nothing but shorts and a running shirt and did not seem bothered at all. I ditched the lounge pants shortly before the start, then the gloves at mile 2, one of the sweatshirts at mile 4, the hat at mile 8 and the other sweatshirt at mile 10. It was a beautiful morning if cold.

Pre-race the runners were friendly and I met several, including a man of about 60 - John from Harvard, MA. He had already BQ'd and would have no problem running the 3:45 that is the BQ time for 60 year olds.

Drone View of 2017 Marathon Start

I decided not to look at my watch for some unspecified period from the start of the race and just run in to a pace I was comfortable with. That worked for about the first 5 miles until a runner next to me announced his pace, which effectively let the cat out of the bag. I checked my watch and saw that I was running pretty fast, about an 8:20 pace. Here are my splits from my watch with some notes:

I happened to catch up to John from Harvard around mile 6, who conceded that he took the first miles out too fast, around 8:00 per mile. That's almost never a problem for me, as even if I try to start fast I start slow. John and I ran together for a few miles, running past the warbirds park at the airport and through the Market Common.

Taken the day before the race -Warbirds Park

I lost John at a water stop somewhere around mile 7 shortly before we turned on to Ocean Blvd. The one drawback people mention concerning the MB course is the headwind that one typically runs into up Ocean Blvd from miles 7 to 18, right next to the beach. And as we made the turn on to the road at mile 7, I could feel the wind in my face. At that point, though, it wasn't all that bad.

As we ran up Ocean Blvd, however, the wind grew stronger and was pretty stiff by the time I saw Tricia at mile 12. The half split had me under 1:50, but I was skeptical of that as my watch had me almost 2 minutes slower when it finally showed a 13.1 distance.  Everyone's watches were going off later than the mile markers in the first few miles so I wasn't convinced the half marker was correct. In any case, to ameliorate the wind, I was doing my best to draft behind whatever runners I could. How effective that was I don't know.

The wind got worse as we ran up Ocean Blvd, to the point that there were heavy gusts in your face around mile 16 and beyond. I tried not to fight the wind but I could still feel my glutes and quads as they powered through it. Finally at the turnaround at mile 18.3, the headwind was gone and I could evaluate the situation.

Since we were now heading back in the opposite direction, I had hoped we would have a tailwind instead of a headwind. Unfortunately, we were now several blocks inland and the wind was essentially gone, so no tailwind - but at least no headwind. I came across John from Harvard again just before mile 19 and we talked about our situations. With the headwind gone I felt I still had something left in the tank, and doing some quick math I thought the 3:40 was not yet out of the question. We agreed to take it up a notch together, and he and I paced each other for the next 3 miles. I needed something close to 8:00 miles for the 3:40, however, and I only managed 8:26, 8:15 and 8:22 for miles 20,21 and 22. At that point the 3:40 became a mathematical impossibility, and I lost a little heart. I'm not sure I could have sustained that pace in any case, but I had no desire to destroy myself trying to run a 3:42 instead of a 3:44. So I let John go and just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other until the end of the race. I did manage a sprint the last tenth of a mile after turning the final corner in to the finish line chute.

There is a video of the finish line at youtube here. Fast forward to 3:44:36 and you can see me cross the finish line in the yellow shirt.

I had my usual post-race experience. Considerable pain for about half an hour, lying down for 20 minutes made it feel much better.

The race features a very nice medal and I really like the race shirts this year:

After a rest and a long hot shower, Tricia and I had a nice lunch and later that day went to the Medieval Times dinner/show, which was excellent.

I'm not that disappointed with the result. Of course I was thinking 3:40 when my half split was on target, but really that would have been quite a stretch when I am at least 10 lbs over what I was when I ran the 3:41 at Clarence DeMar.  3:44 is very respectable given that and the headwind. I'm also encouraged by the fact that I was able to put in my fastest mile at mile 21.

Looking forward, I am entered in the Maine Coast Marathon in May from a deferral last year. I'll probably run it, especially if I can knock off the weight and get back to 180 for race day.

Myrtle Beach Marathon Pregame

Less than a week to the Myrtle Beach Marathon.  I'll run 3 on Tuesday, 2 on Friday down in Myrtle Beach, then run the marathon at 6:30 AM on Saturday.

Live tracking and results can be found at this link: MB Results.

Strategy for the race? I've been thinking about that all day. I ran the 8 miles this morning easily and without pushing it at all, and ran a sub-9 minute pace. I felt like I could have run forever at that speed. My remaining marathon goal is to run sub 3:40, which would be a Boston Qualifier (BQ) for me. That's an 8:23 pace for the marathon.

The whole training cycle went well, I'm healthy with no pain in ankles or knees, and feel strong. The one fly in the ointment is that I'm not as light as I was in 2015 for my marathons. I was 180 or less for the Clarence Demar race and both Disney races. This year I was well over 190 for the disasters at Waitsfield Vt and the Bucks County Marathon. I've managed to get back under 190 for Myrtle Beach but not by much. The odd thing is that I feel much lighter than that and am wearing the same clothes (size 34 jeans) that I bought when I was at my thinnest in 2015. But the scale says 188.

A 3:40 marathon is a 1:50 half marathon pace. Since I start slowly anyway, the smart thing to do will be to start moderately and negative split the second half if I'm feeling it. What I did in both my first Disney race and the Clarence Demar was to forget about my watch and spend the first half dozen miles settling in to a pace I thought I could sustain. I think I'll try that at Myrtle Beach. If it turns out that the pace is such that I might have a chance at 3:40, then I'll hold that into the second half, then make a judgment about trying to speed up later in the race.

There is no way I'm starting fast in an aggressive approach to the race. The last thing I want is a death march in the final 10k. I'd rather forego the 3:40 than go thru that.

I don't think it will come to that. I feel healthier and stronger than at any time since the Demar marathon in Sept. 2015. But the fear is definitely there, which I suppose is a good thing.

Right now the weather forecast is looking ideal: Low of 46, high of 56, with 10 mph wind.

Here we go...

Another Look at the DeMar Marathon

 Post-race one naturally wonders whether you ran properly in a strategic sense and maybe, if you did something differently, you could have run faster. One thing that sticks in my mind is that during the first half I fell in with a group of runners all attempting to run 3:40 marathons (my goal time). We started to drift apart between miles 8 and 11, with some moving ahead of me, and some falling back. One guy moved ahead of the group, I ended up passing him at mile 25 when he stopped on the side of the road to throw up, and he later sprinted past me at the finish, finishing 2 seconds ahead of me. Another guy noted around mile 9 that we were running too fast for a 3:40 and he backed off. He gradually caught up to me and slowly passed me about mile 21. He finished in 3:39:42, so he ran a very disciplined race, holding that 3:40 pace throughout. When he noted that we were running too fast for a 3:40, that was in the first half when we were running sub 8:20 miles. I knew we were fast, but I also knew we were running downhill and I felt very comfortable at the pace; I was worried that if I slowed down I would be actively braking myself, which you shouldn't do on downhills and is just as tiring as trying to run faster. In retrospect I don't think I would have changed that.

Another interesting exercise is comparing my split times at DeMar with the times in my first marathon at Disney. I put them in a chart with Disney in blue and DeMar in green:

Marathon splits - DeMar Marathon in green, Disney 2015 in blue

Disney is very flat course and DeMar is more rolling, with significant downhills in the first half. The spike at mile 10 in Disney was stopping to visit a port-a-potty, and the spike at mile 20 was exiting the ESPN Sports Center with some congestion. The spikes at DeMar in miles 11, 20 and 23 were all hill sections. It's interesting that I ran a faster pace on miles 11 and 12 at Disney than at DeMar. Also interesting is that the second halfs for both races have a very similar shape. Steady up to mile 20, a slowdown there, recovery, then a significant slowdown in the last 5k, the slowdown at Disney being more severe than at DeMar. Perhaps what I should strive for in my next marathon is to work on smoothing out that last 5k. If I could have maintained an 8:30 pace the last 5k I would have shaved something like 50 seconds off my time.

In retrospect, I ran the race about as well as I could have and I don't think I would have changed much. I went out in 1:49:07 in the first half on a downhill course, and came back in 1:52:28 on a second half that was more challenging than the first half. The last 10k I was in a position to put up a very good time if I could hold it together, and I had not spent so much energy that I fell apart in the last 5k. After the hills in mile 23, I recovered a little and I had some hope to hold that pace to the finish, but the pain was bad enough that I was worried I might cramp up or collapse like at Disney. I slowed down, but did not collapse like at Disney. Hopefully with some more miles in the training bank and experience, I'll be able to maintain pace over the last 5k.

Clarence Demar Marathon Recap

I changed the title of my blog since it's not really any longer about my running the Disney Marathon as a way to motivate myself to become healthier... now it's just a general running diary.

Pre-Dawn check in at DeMar Marathon

My goal for the race was 3:40 and I ended up running 3:41:35. In retrospect, a 3:40 time was pretty ambitious for this course. It represents a 12 minute PR over my Disney time on a harder course. The DeMar Course is not strictly speaking "tough." But it's not an easy course, either. It is net downhill and there aren't really any killer hills, but there are a lot of rolling hills that, I discovered, are very taxing over the marathon distance. And there is a long uphill in mile 12, a couple of short steep hills in mile 23 (the famous cemetery section) and some other non-trivial climbs scattered throughout the course. It all adds up to the fact that you don't really ever get a good chance to settle in to a long, extended flat cruise.

Rather than another mile-by-mile recap, I'll just give my splits with some notes with what I can remember of the race:

1. 8:06        8:06 all downhill
2. 8:18      16:24 down with short uphill 
3. 8:09      24:33 downhill
4. 8:08      32:41 downhill
5. 8:07      40:48 downhill
6. 8:17      49:05 rolling 
7. 8:21      57:26 rolling
8. 8:24   1:05:50 rolling
9. 8:22   1:14:12 rolling
10. 8:21 1:22:33
11. 8:37 1:31:10  Hill up to dam then flat
12. 8:29 1:39:39
13. 8:28 1:48:07 long uphill
14. 

half split 1:49:07 - about where I wanted to be, 1 min ahead of a 3:40 marathon.

15.  8:27    2:05:02 missed mile 14 split, so this is average pace for miles 14,15
16   8:19    2:13:21 flat
17   8:30    2:21:51
18   8:32    2:30:23
19   8:31    2:38:53
20   8:42    2:47:35 Need 52 minute 10K for 3:40 goal. Don't push for it.
21   8:26    2:56:21
22   8:23    3:04:22 Flat
23   8:47    3:13:23 Cemetery hills, steepest on course. They hurt.
24   8:34    3:21:47 Flat. Recovered a bit and picked up pace a little
25   8:48    3:30:36 “Why am I doing this?”. Pain but no crash
26   9:05    3:39:41 “God just make it end”. Pain but no crash

 

Finish 3:41:35  “Can’t believe I have something left. Little sprint to end.”

At the 2:47:35 split at mile 20, I knew I had to run a 52 minute 10k to get a sub 3:40 finish (marathons are a 10k with a 20 mile warmup, right?)  That's about an 8:22 pace. Which meant I was just about bang on my 8:23 overall race pace. But I knew 3:40 was a tall order given the cemetery hills in mile 23 and the typical end of marathon slowdown, hills notwithstanding. So I forgot about race time and just attempted to hold my form together. The last 5k my legs really hurt, not just the quads but everything: Glutes, hamstrings and calfs were all screaming. I was really hoping to avoid the hard crash I experienced at Disney, and fortunately that never happened. I never got any numb muscles, or felt sick, or the emptiness I felt at Disney. In fact, despite the pain I was able to put on a mild sprint in the last tenth of a mile.

Some amusing stories from the race:

- It was a good thing Tricia and toured the course a few weeks ago. The bus from the finish to the start took a wrong turn (which I recognized) and I had to guide the driver to the right destination.

- I passed a guy puking on the side of the road at mile 25. He sprinted by me just before the finish and beat me by 2 secs. I congratulated him.

My overall impression of the DeMar Marathon is that it is a great small marathon (300 runners), well-organized with very enthusiastic volunteers. The morning check-in at the finish is at a very nice college fitness center with bathrooms, you wait for the start in a heated gymnasium in an elementary school (low 40's temperature at the start), and the first half of the course is absolutely stunning in the early morning light. The second half of the course is not so scenic but I don't really care since at that point I'm all about racing. The whole event has a friendly, small-town New England feel to it that is charming. I might do it again sometime, but next Fall I'd be more interested in a flat race I could go again for a sub 3:40 time.

Clarence DeMar Marathon Results

Half: 1:49.07
Full 3:41:35
I'm happy. Left it all out there

Clarence DeMar Marathon Results and Schedule

The Clarence DeMar Marathon does not post live results (I emailed the race director to find out). They will text my official time to my iPhone after the finish, however. I'm planning on posting the time to this blog as soon as I can after the race. That should be between 12:00 and 12:30.

The race day schedule planned is this:

3:00 AM - Wake up and get ready for the race. I might be awake already since I couldn't sleep the night before the Disney Marathon. Hoping that doesn't happen here.

3:30 AM - Leave for Keene, NH. It's a two hour drive and I'm not planning on staying there overnight before the race. Thus the early morning drive.

5:30 AM - Arrival at Keene. Get my race bib, prep everything (apply glide, pocket gu gels, etc.)

6:30 AM - Board the bus for the start line in Gilsum. You leave your car at the finish line at Keene State College, they bus you to the start in Gilsum, then you run back to Keene. Should get to Gilsum by 7:00 AM

8:00 AM - Marathon Start.

11:00 AM - Finish Clarence DeMar Marathon. (Just kidding. I won't be running a 3 hour marathon)

11:30-12:00 PM - Finish Marathon. My goal is a 3:40 so I should be done before 12:00

12:00-1:00 PM - Text result to my blog, take some pictures, drink water and eat, take a shower (Keene State College will be open for this), hang out a bit and enjoy the finish.

1:00 PM - Head back to Danvers.

3:00 PM - Arrive at Danvers. The most important part of Marathon planning is arranging the post-race feast.

After the DeMar marathon I plan on taking Monday off work. Tricia and I are going to head into Boston and I plan on eating my way through the North End. Can I put on 5 lbs in a week like I did after Disney? Just another PR to chase.

Marathon and Predicted Results

I've already sort of settled in on 3:40 as my goal time for the Clarence DeMar Marathon. As a sanity check on the realism of this goal - and also because it was just fun - I decided to plug in my recent results into the estimated finish time calculator at Marathon Guide. What the calculator does is take your time from one distance and estimate your finish time at other distances. It does more than just a simple linear projection based on mile pace. Based on how runner pace typically varies between distances, it either discounts your pace estimating a longer distance or increases it for a shorter distance. My most recent result was the Seacoast 10k. Plugging in the 46:23 I ran at that race I got the following results:

Distance	Guide Estimate	PR	Delta (PR-Guide)	Delta %	PR date
5k	22:08	21:48	-00:20	-1.5	6/3/15
10k	--	46:23	--	--	8/22/15
10 mile	1:16:34	1:16:52	+00:18	+0.4	6/21/15
Half	1:42:51	1:44:15	+01:24	+1.3	5/3/15
Full	3:35:25	3:52:35	+17:10	+7.4	1/11/15

The second column is the estimate from Marathon Guide. Following that is my personal record (PR), the difference between my PR and the Guide estimate, that same difference as a percentage, and the date of my PR. It's impressive how close the estimates are on my 5k, 10 mile, and Half results - all within 1.5%. So the formula they are using seems pretty good.

Marathon Guide estimates me at a 3:35 marathon based on the 10k result. So that should give some confidence that I can get sub 3:40.  Assuming the "error bars" are the same on the marathon as they are on my other races, let's assume +/- 1.5% on the marathon time, which gives a range of times from 3:32:12 to 3:38:38.

Another way to do this is to plug the 3:40 marathon time into the estimator and see what it says I should be doing for other races:

Distance	Guide Estimate	PR	Delta (PR-Guide)	Delta %	PR date
5k	22:37	21:48	-00:49	-3.7	6/3/15
10k	47:22	46:23	-00:59	-2.1	8/22/15
10 mile	1:18:11	1:16:52	-01:19	-1.7	6/21/15
Half	1:45:02	1:44:15	-00:47	-0.8	5/3/15
Full	3:40:00	3:52:35	+12:35	+5.4	1/11/15

The interesting trend here is the way my percentage decrease on the estimated time gets higher the shorter the distance, -0.8 for the half all the way up to -3.7 for the 5k. This would seem to imply I have more speed vs endurance than the "formula runner" used in the calculation. A little surprising since I think of myself more as an endurance runner than a speed runner.

The advice the experts give for a marathon is to "let the race come to you", meaning don't start with an aggressive pace but rather one more comfortable, and if later in the race you are still feeling it, then the race has come to you and you can safely increase your pace. This is my preferred approach to racing in any case. I think I can safely start with a 3:40 goal time (about an 8:20 pace), and go with how I feel later in the race.

Last 20 Mile Run - Taper Ahead

I had my last 20 mile training run the DeMar marathon this morning. After this it's a gradual taper to race day. I ran my (now) usual Wenham course with its rolling terrain and hills. After touring the marathon course, it's clear that the Wenham course is good training for it. Similar to the DeMar course but slightly harder.

The 20 felt very good and I felt strong enough to pick up the pace a bit in the last 5 miles. My mile splits:

1 10:57
2 10:08
3 9:39
4 9:42
5 9:37
6 9:36
7 9:47
8 10:16
9 9:55
10 9:59
11 9:31
12 9:17
13 9:41
14 9:20
15 9:31
16 9:15
17 8:56
18 9:01
19 9:05
20 9:12

I thought about going further then thought better of it in favor of sticking to the program. When realized how sore I was when getting out of the car later, I'm glad I did!

Clarence DeMar Marathon Tour

We dropped off Ethan at UMass for the Fall Semester yesterday and decided to head up to Keene, NH to tour the Clarence Demar Marathon course. The race starts in the tiny town of Gilsum at the Gilsum Historical Society. We had a bit of difficulty finding the race start - it's easy to drive right by Gilsum - but after a couple of wrong turns we eventually found the start. Not long after the start the course crosses the Gilsum Stone Arch bridge:

It's a beautiful bridge that my pictures don't really do justice:

Here are some views looking off the bridge at the Ashuelot River. The course continues down the road at the right and follows the river:

And the other side:

The course winds its way along the river generally downhill (rivers don't flow uphill) through some very pretty, shaded country. It's not all downhill but rather rolling and the pavement isn't always good so I'll have to watch my step. We didn't stop and get any pictures along the river but here's one out of the car that gives a taste of the scenery:

 Around mile 9 you come to the Surry Mountain Dam and do an out and back along the dam. Some shots off the dam:

more of the dam:

more of the dam again:

The second half of the course flattens out and is not quite as scenic - you are no longer running along the river but it's still a nice course:

We drove through the famous cemeteries (famous if you follow the DeMar marathon) with their steep but short hills in the 23rd mile. Eventually you end up at Keene State College for the finish. The town of Keene already has banners out welcoming marathon runners:

One thing I didn't realize about the course was how twisty and turny it is. There aren't many long, straight stretches like you find at Disney World. There are also a number of loops and double backs where you will see other runners coming in the opposite direction. I kind of like that because it keeps things interesting to see other runners. It's a good thing I've been running hills up in Wenham because, while there aren't many big hills on the course, a lot of it is rolling.

The course is very scenic, about which my pictures don't do justice, and I can't wait to run it. Three weeks to go.