Richmond Marathon, take 3

Short version: 4:11:54, fast first half, survived second half, new PR for marathon (surprised me too).

Long version:

The feeling of going under 4 hours in a marathon is still missing from my life, and soon 3 toenails will be missing as well.  We’ll come back to that.

As I drove to the race it was pouring rain. I was very worried about a long run in that weather, but it cleared up mostly by the start. The 8k folks got drenched big time. My new job has a parking deck near the start so I had a really easy time getting in to park and arrived at 7am for the 8am race start. Not worrying about parking was sweet.

Race time came around and I was waiting with Jeff at the start. Jeff had been my super-fast training partner all season long. I wasn't going to run with him because he had been so much faster than me. Soon after the rolling start (300 ft. before the actual start line we were running), he left me to go beat some Kenyans (I think).

On my last long training run, I averaged 9.33 for 20 miles. I was hoping to do the same for this race. The problem was I felt really good, crazy good in fact. I let my body set my pace and only looked at my watch to see how fast I was running. I never looked at my watch once and decided to speed up, but I did look at it and decide to slow down (when I was at 8.01 pace).

After I settled in, I just started cruising. Jeff was in front, no worry I’d catch him, my sister Kris was at mile 6 with my Oatmeal Crème Pie and I was good to go. I saw Kris and Scott (her BF) near the start and I couldn’t figure out how they would be able to get to mile 6 with all the traffic blocked. Turns out they didn't meet me there, or at mile 7, or at 8, or at 9, or 10. At this point, I had been kicking ass for 10 miles and that whole time I was banking on food to keep the engine running. It had been an hour and a half and I was getting hungry. I skipped the first couple water stops because they were complete chaos, but without my supplies, I’m screwed.

Just before mile 10, you take a right and head up a decently steep and long hill.  During my 20, I hammered this hill for the first time ever. I decided to attack it again (my 3rd fastest mile). I started passing people who were walking or slowing and then I hear “Scott!”. It was Kris and she had food! I gobbled up my pie and ran the rest of the hill chugging Accelerade. It was a beautiful thing.

Sufficiently fueled, I continued running. The next section was hilly and that took its toll on my quads, but I kept running hard. I saw Carrie around mile 11.5 and she snapped some “action” shots with her new camera. I later heard that Kris and Scott were waiting for me at mile 12 when Carrie texted them to say I was already passed that point. I was running faster than everyone expected – including me.

Somewhere around mile 15 or 16 Kris caught up with me to give me some more grub and some surprising news. I was ahead of Jeff. Carrie figured that around mile 13, I was about a mile in front of him. To myself I said WTF, to her I said, “Are you kidding me?” Now I had a reason to crush the course! To beat Jeff would mean I wouldn’t get crap from him about another race where he beat me.

Sadly, the feeling of euphoria didn’t last long. The constant pushing of my quads to go harder was catching up with me. My knee problems from the last few weeks were catching up with me. The fact that I was going to pass within a short distance of the finish before turning away, mile 16.5, was in my mind. Almost, I stopped running, luckily, the pain in my knee quickly went away and I continued on.

Somewhere around mile 17.5 I ran into my old neighbor Bobby. Bobby is a marathon training team coach, and he’s pretty good at it. I had already been dragging by the time I caught up to him, but he said something that picked up my spirits. He simply pointed out the 4:00 pacer that was no more than 50ft in front of me. The mythical 4:00 pacer, just like the unicorn, had never seen in the wild. The news that I was in front of Jeff and within striking distance of 4 hours was insane.

For every race you should set a few simple goals. Goal B, something you really think you can achieve – mine was to finish (before the race I told Carrie I was 55% sure I wouldn’t be able to finish the race due to knee pain). Goal A – finish with a 9:35 pace – close to my 20 mile run. Goal A++, the stretch goal, beat Jeff and break 4 hours.  Here I am at mile 17.5 and my stretch is in sight!

I stopped around mile 18 and tried to stretch out my quads and calves. This didn’t do anything to the growing pain I was feeling. It was odd. I’ve had cramps before and the pain wasn’t cramps, it was just pain. This pain stayed with me as I turned onto the Boulevard (of broken dreams). Sadly, it is an apt description. Prior to Boulevard on Main St., I also ran into Coach Debbie, the speed demon coach from my training team. She was looking for, and worried about, Jeff. She expected to see him in front of me and was worried that he wasn’t. I passed on word that he was a mile or so behind me – dreading that she would tell Jeff that I was in front of him.

Apparently, she did tell Jeff I was in front when he caught up to her. She then upped his pace until I was in sight and on Boulevard, he pulled in beside me. Had I been feeling better, I would have been more upset, as it was, I just said, “Poop”.

After a minute of catching up, he pulled away.

The next 8 miles were a blur of food or drink from Kris and the volunteers and fits and starts of speed. I kept calculating my finish time against what I remembered (incorrectly) was my PR, 4.08. At mile 20, I had my last Ibuprofen and pie. I didn’t want to eat or drink any more. This whole time I had been listening to music while I ran and I noted that even when tired, some songs picked me up more than others. Around mile 23, I started walking the beginning of the songs and then would run for the remainder of the song. It was a good strategy, but it hurt on the long songs.

I kept that strategy and it worked well enough for me to keep a good pace while running. I also forced myself to walk faster than I’ve done in previous marathons.

By the time I saw Bobby at mile 25.8, I was done. My legs hurt like hell and my interest in running was low. He forced me to run the last block to the last turn onto 5th street. He didn’t run my pace, he ran faster than me and made me run faster too (thanks Bobby!). With his help, I made the corner and started the long descent to the finish.

I got a few more shout outs by some coaches and running friends and didn’t walk again. On the last few hundred steps the road has a pretty good decline. I noticed that I was almost stopping myself with each step trying to control my downhill run. As two young ladies passed me, I decided I need to change my stride. I lengthened it by about a foot, started pumping high knees and only landed on the balls of my feet. In my mind it reminded me of a dog running in deep snow. The changeover worked and I was the one that was passing people.

I rolled into the finish and felt… Great!? Huh? Like I hadn’t just run? It was odd; I’ve never felt so good at the end of a race. My legs didn’t hurt, my knee was fine, I wasn’t out of breath, I felt, in a word, normal. I got my finishers medal, my drop bag and finishers blanket and walked around normally. It was really odd. It didn’t last of course, within 10 minutes, I ran into Carrie a couple former co-workers and the tightness set in. Eddy, one of my former co-workers, asked if I was doing the Muddy Buddy. I smiled and said I’d talk about it another day.

An interesting note, until I started writing this, I didn’t know that I had PRed this race. Everything I did and the help I got (thanks Kris and Scott), gave me the 29 seconds I needed to set a new personal best. How about that?

I mentioned my toenails in the beginning. I have no idea what I did to my toes to make them want to leave, but I did something. Being a runner, I’m used to losing toenails, but one is flat out messed up looking.

I should note that Jeff came in at 4:01:25. He beat me, but the elusive 4 hour mark got away. Will he run again?

Pace (minute per mile):

1. 9:17
2. 9:08
3. 8:45
4. 8:56
5. 8:49
6. 8:43
7. 8:23
8. 8:40
9. 8:34
10. 8:41
11. 9:10
12. 8:56
13. 8:52
14. 8:49
15. 8:57
16. 9:30
17. 9:59
18. 9:41
19. 10:10
20. 11:13
21. 10:00
22. 11:16
23. 10:59
24. 10:46
25. 10:35
26. 10:29

Results:

PLACE	NAME	BIB	AGE	10K SPLIT	HALF SPLIT	20 MILE SPLIT	NET TIME	GENDER PLACE	DIV PLACE	DIVISION
1943	SCOTT TERBUSH	3515	39	55:48	1:56:37	3:05:16	4:11:54	1247	195	MEN -- 35 THROUGH 39

Richmond Rox Half Ironman

Yesterday, I did my second Half Ironman.  It’s comprised of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and 13.1 mile run.  It was supposed to be a lead up race for a full Ironman next year, but more on that later.

I’ve previously done one of these in the past, but somehow felt less prepared this year (cause I’m older?).  The first time I swam in the James River near Jamestown, once again it was the James, but closer to Richmond this time.

To start the swim we were supposed to swim to the middle of the river and float there for the race to start.  I elected to hold onto the dock and start from there.  I was rocking a new wetsuit and when the race started I zoomed out into the river.  The swim upriver was longer by ~100ft than the downriver portion.  With the wetsuit on, I felt like a much better swimmer.  During the race there were a few times where it felt like I wasn’t moving at all, but I kept going.

It wasn’t long before I was alone in the back on my wave.  The next wave, 5 minutes later passed me by, as did the last wave, another 5 minutes back.  I kept on swimming, desperate to get to the buoy and start my cross river swim and then after another buoy, the downriver swim.

If I was asked what I thought about while swimming the answer would be simple: my stroke, and the zipper tag that kept getting wrapped around my shoulder.  I probably tried 20 ways to swim faster.  I swam for about an hour and with my walk/jog back to transition, completed the first leg in 1:05:07.

Over the last few weeks I’ve tried different outfits to prevent chaffing, and last week I found an answer.  I wore running shorts, no top, under my wetsuit.  When I got out of my wetsuit (no small task) I put on my biking bib over my shorts and a cycling jersey as well.  I also added socks and put my shoes on in transition.  All told it was a slow, but acceptable transition.  

Time was 7:38

During the swim, I started to get hungry, so within the first mile of the ride I ate a Little Debbie Oatmeal Crème pie and it hit the spot!  I needed something that was moist and had calories.  Within a few miles on the bike I had to go to the bathroom.  I knew about a water exchange in the 30’s so I was going to hold it until then.  Luckily, just as it got bad, I saw mile 45 water stop on the other side of the road and used that.  It was perfectly timed because after that, I picked up my pace and started to feel great.

The course is pretty lonely when you start in the back and at first all I saw were the ladies from the last swim wave, and they were passing me.  After I felt better and picked up the pace, I was able to pass a few folks, but it was slim pickings.

The ride was uneventful with a couple big hills here or there and through 38 miles, I had a really nice pace, 18.5+.  Then I turned onto route 5 and the hills started.  I wasn’t able to stay in the aerobars on the hills and honestly, my back was hurting so much, I didn’t want to.  And then the headwinds started.  A strong storm came through the night before and it left strong winds with some heavy gusts.  A nice way to punish someone is to have them go uphill into the wind.

Somehow, I made it back to transition.  I went through 48 oz of my Enduro Accelerade mix, 20 oz of water, half of a picked up bottle of nasty lime Gatorade, 3 oatmeal crème pies, and one honey stinger.  I finished the bike with sore legs, but no cramping.  My time of 3:30:26 was slower than I wanted, but not by much as I wanted to save juice for the run.

Coming into transition, I once again took my time to switch into my running gear.  Unlike after my swim, I was more stable on my feet.  My second transition was 3:01.

When I left transition, all I wanted to do was forget the back pain from the ride.  I started walking, but saw a couple Marathon Training Team coaches and had to ‘represent’, so I started running.  Slow at first, I steadily picked up the pace.  By the time I saw my Sister, Kris, and her friend, Scott, I was running strong.  My jaw was sore, not sure why, and when she offered my gum, I said no.  When I came back around 5 miles later, she offered my beef jerky and I almost started laughing.

The run course was kind of cruel.  It was a lollipop course, but instead of looping on the round part, you had to run almost to the beginning, on the stem, before you turned around and went back out.  It did allow me to see a lot of competitors, so that was nice.  On the first lap I passed a bunch of people, but I didn’t know if they were on the first or second lap.  The fact is that when I got back from the ride, people were already finished and heading home.

Towards the end of the first lap/beginning of the second, I started to get hunger pains –not a good sign.  With no food because I forgot it on my bike and no food on the course, I was up the creek.  As good as my first lap was my second was that bad.  After the first lap, I was probably on pace for a sub 2 hour half-marathon, that was quickly gone on the second lap as I had to start walking.

I was able to muster up enough strength to run the last 100 yards or so and happily finished the run in 2:33:13.

I finished without any cramping, but was really close to cramps in my left leg.  I may have had some stomach cramps when I drank too much water/Gatorade, but thankfully, that passed quickly.  I had Gatorade at every water stop and at one stop I had 2 salt pills.  I didn’t experience any chaffing, which is a first for a long race.

		Swim		T1		Bike		T2		Run		Total
First race		1.34.20		6.57		3.11.29		1.25		2.34.03		7.28.12
This race		1.05.07		7.38		3.30.26		3.01		2.33.13		7.19.24
Diff		-29.13		+.41		+18.57		+1.36		-.50		-8.48

The end result is, because of my much improved swim time, I beat my first Half Ironman by over 8.5 minutes!  It’s always nice to PR.

Back to my Ironman plans.  I realized during this race I need to do a few things before I sign up and compete in an Ironman.  1. Lose 30+ lbs, 2. Work on my shoulder strength/stamina for the swim, 3. Strengthen my core for the bike.  When I do these things I will start and finish my first Ironman.

Rocketts Landing Duathlon

At 5am, I went outside to get the bike on the car and saw it was raining.  Great, I thought, my bike's going to get went in transit.  Of course, it didn't stop raining until I left the venue hours later.

Rain really isn't that big a deal.  It does have a tendency to increase chaffing as it turns every seam into sandpaper.

Because of high water, debris, etc., the Tri turned into a Du.  I had originally been signed up for the Tri, but wasn't comfortable with my swimming, so I switched to the Du earlier in the week.  Apparently, that wasn't needed.  This meant there were a lot of folks on the starting line with me and Jeff.  The race started and everyone took off.  I settled into an easy pace and Jeff shot out of the gate.  I think my average was around 8:15 pace, not bad.  I got on the bike and immediately passed 10 folks trying to figure out why they were in the wrong gear.  I rode hard and tried to keep a solid pace the entire ride.  I had issues on the first big hill near the start and several folks I passed earlier, passed me back.  I didn't have my aerobars on and I think I was slower without them, but my pace still wasn't bad (19.5 overall).  I managed to pass a lot of folks.  I also was passed by a lot of folks.  Because of timing, the race was split into waves based on age/gender.  This allowed me to be passed by a variety of folks throughout my ride.  Oh yeah, it also rained off and on the entire ride.  Mostly drizzle, but still...

Onto the run.  Because of the way transition is set up, and because it was raining, I came into transition a lot slower on the bike than I normally do.  I didn't put on my quick laces, so I had to untie and retie my shoes.  I didn't think to double loop them and my laces came undone in the first mile.  It's a nice run with only one section on actual road, with the rest being on sidewalk/paved trail, and gravel.  I was just moving along when just after mile 1 (of 6.24), I was passed by an older gentleman (64 I think).  Just after he passed me, he pulled up with a cramp.  I thought to myself, I haven't even thought about cramping this whole time and 'ting' I felt a slight cramp in my leg.  I kept running trying to figure out if it was a real cramp, or just a figment of my imagination.  Turns out it was real.  I kept running though.

As we made our way to the floodwall, I kept running and getting powerade/water at every stop (thankfully, there were several).  When we made it to the floodwall we were faced with large puddles.  I really didn't want to get my feet any wetter than they were so I dodged around them until I hit the 50ft long puddle, taking up the entire floodwall from one railing to the other.  It was really funny to see it there because I just kept thinking about how much Alex would like to run through this and I wouldn't let him.  I laughed to myself and splashed right on through.

The run progressed and my cramps were getting worse, but they hadn't forced me to stop.  I shortened my stride to not use the muscles too much, I drank, I ate, and I kept running.  Slowly, I inched my way back to the end of the race.  As I made the last turn I had my cheering section out for me.  They all yelled encouragement and it was good to see them there, and on the bike course.

I finished in 2:33.  It was a long race, but it was fun.  I was sore the rest of the day, even after the free massage.  In fact, I told Carrie that my only purpose after the race was to test all of our chairs.

And I did.

Shady Grove Sprint Tri

Today I competed in the Shady Grove sprint tri.  Sprints are the shortest official tri distance, with a 300 meter swim, 12 mile bike and 5k run.  It's been a while since I last did a triathlon and I didn't do a lot of prep work for the race other than general get in shape stuff.

As you may or may not know, I set a goal when I was 34 to do an Ironman when I turned 40 and that is next year.  I set up this race as a kick off for my year long training.

To start, I didn't know anyone who was doing the race.  At packet pickup, I saw two folks I know, former snagger Isabel H. and former soccer teammate Bill G.  Before the race started I found more folks: a former running partner, a MTB biker, and a snagger spouse (Eddy S. wife) also doing the race.  It's always nice to see friendly faces on the course.

I'm in between houses right now so I wore my jeans and a collared shirt over my tri suit while I waited for my turn to swim and got grief from everyone I saw.  It was funny.

For the swim, I did a practice 300m swim and came in around 55 seconds a lap.  I figured that my 7:30 estimate would be accurate since I would probably go slower.  I went much slower and did an 8:18.  I was told afterwards, by my friend Jeff, that I never really took my left arm out of the water while swimming.  That's not good.  I was passed by 4 people and actually backed off my pace the last 2 laps because my arms were getting worn out.

Before the race I had made a point to myself that I wouldn't rush the transitions since this is simply a warm up race, something to get me into the training groove.  That all went out the window when I was passed in the pool.  I came out of the water and jogged quickly to the transition area to get ready for the bike ride.  Once there, I got ready and moved out for the ride.  Yesterday, to get ready for this race, I swapped out my road pedals for my mountain bike pedals.  The MTB pedals are what work with my MTB tri shoes and they allow me to mount and dismount quickly.  As I ran with the bike to the mounting line, I kept touching the pedals so they would be in the perfect position for a quick mount.  When I got to the line they were slightly off and it took two hops to get on the bike and away I went.  In transition, I passed 3 of the 4 people that had passed me in the water.

The bike ride was somewhat uneventful.  The only issue I had was a slow rider in the middle of the road that prevented a car and myself from passing her.  I was worried about getting a drafting penalty from following the car too closely, but two things prevented that.  1) I'm a really slow swimmer and by the time I'm riding, the refs are all at lunch and 2) The car managed to get around pretty quick.  I managed to pass about 17 people on the bike, including the last person to pass me in the water.  At almost 20 mph, it was one of my slower rides.  I still don't have my stamina to charge up hills, but it's coming.

My favorite part of most every tri is the bike dismount.  By the time I get there, most quick dismounters are already gone and they no longer expect a high speed dismount.  I was out of my shoes and riding on one leg when I made the last turn to the dismount line.  The two guys at the line were yelling for me to dismount before the line and just as I crossed it I hopped off the bike into a dead run and continued to the transition area.  I heard one of the line guys say, "Wow, that was good."  And another person said something about me running right off the bike.  When it's the best part of your race, you take pride in it.

I continued my fast pace off the bike into and out of transition where I heard Rick (as a volunteer) yelling for me to hurry up and I did.  I'm not sure what my pace was, but I think it was sub 8 to start.  Before the race, I was really worried I would have to walk during the run so I focused hard on my breathing and pace.  Towards the turn-around I started slowing down, but kept running.  For a first, no one passed me on the run.  I think I passed about 20 people.

As I came to the finish I had a little extra in the tank and picked up the pace to cross the finish.  As I crossed the finish, I saw the announcer guy talking to Alex.  I walked up to Carrie and Alex and Alex went to give me a hug, until he felt how sweaty I was and went back to Mommy.  It was funny.

When I finished I felt great.  I thought it was perhaps my fastest ever tri, turned out it was my second slowest.

overall 1:13:25

S: 8:18

T1: 2:14

B: 36:30, 19.89 mph

T2: 0:50

R: 25:33, 8:15

12/23 in age group

90/182 gender

117/325 overall