Alrighty. This one is tough.

I knew going into it that I wasn’t trained as well as I’d like. But I also knew that I can be pretty competitive, and the numbers had been coming up closer as I neared taper. I wasn’t as good as I was a year ago, but I wasn’t far off, either.

Last year, we debated about on twitter and in real life about what to wear – the forecasts were bouncing around all over the place until the morning of the race. Turned out to be close to perfect.

This year, there wasn’t any debates over what the weather was going to do, that I saw. It was cold.

Pre-Race:

31 degrees at race start, and that was warmer than expected.

Having said that, I don’t think for a moment that I considered NOT running this race. It’s simply a great event. The race organizers, aside from being massively, crazily against headphones, do an incredible job. Last year, I heard at the post race dinner there were 1100 volunteers. 1400 people took the starting line. That’s an INCREDIBLE ratio. It shows.

But it was cold. The ground was frozen, and I think that played a part in my race. I had considered running in Kinvaras, but frankly I still am not comfortable in them. I think they are fine shoes, but after running in Vibrams for so long, they feel like marshmallows on my feet. I can’t feel the ground in them, and while I’ve noticed that I can run fast in them, I have also seen that on long runs, my form deteriorates badly. I’m sure my form deteriorates in the Vibrams, but I’ve never felt like it was nearly as bad.

Clothing

From the ground up:

• Vibram Bikila LS
• CWX compression tights (which, truth be told, are neither compression nor really tight anymore.. Time for new ones)
• Pair of shorts
• Mizuno BreathThermo shirt
• Windbreaker shell.
• Oh, and a brand new pair of running mittens! The first pair that actually kept my hands warm!

The Race:

It took about 2 miles to get up to temperature, but after that, I was good to go.

My first 15 miles were great. Consistent 8:30 avg, plus or minus about 5 seconds. I knew that there were relatively few porta potties on the course, but I remembered there was one around mile 16.

I ran with quite a few people, some of my running friends from Franklin, until I ran ahead (only to be re-passed later), some complete strangers. I love being able to be on a run and start up a conversation on the fly. It’s something that I’m rarely able to do elsewhere, but the common bond of running really seems to encourage.

It’s also pretty cool that I ran into Drew Jones from Fleet Feet Nashville and Emily Ryan, my daughter’s 2nd grade teacher. Emily also has the distinction of being a heck of an athlete, and that’s understating it. Drew fitted me into a pair of motion control shoes when I first started running, and I’ve been giving him some good natured grief as a Vibram runner ever since I converted. They were both down supporting our Nashville runners. I saw him & Emily several times on the course. I can’t say enough about the level of support given.

So mile 16 – Potty break. Got running again, but I never regained my original pace. Shortly after I got running again, I started feeling my calves start to cramp up. For the next 3 miles, I struggled with it, slowing a bit, but realizing that it wasn’t working very well.

I haven’t had this happen to me before. I think the harder ground due to the cold temperatures put more stress into my calves than I was used to. I was fueling well (E-gels every 5.5 miles), and I don’t think that it was a lack of electrolytes.

Mile 21 – Worst mile of the race. I had started trying to walk the cramps out at this point. Mile split was 11:43. I hadn’t fully cramped up, but I could tell it was getting worse every mile. I also felt that if I let them get fully seized, the race was over. To be honest, I knew the race as it was over anyways. But I could still use the run as a training run, and I sure wasn’t going to stop unless I absolutely had to.

Mile 23 – My salvation appeared. My first Rocket City Marathon, I ran into the family around mile 20, and spent a few minutes enjoying them meeting me on the course. This year, I hadn’t seen them since the mile 3 loop back toward the start. Given that I was on Mile 23, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be seeing them.

But as I rounded a curve towards a cheer area, I could have sworn I saw my wife shaking a tambourine and my daughter. But that couldn’t be right. Where did Jeffie get a Tambourine? Where was my son, and his grandmother? I knew it was around mile 23, and frankly, I was beginning to doubt my fueling strategy as it was obvious I was delusional!

But it was them. I ran up to my wife, mumbled something about pain, and was told that Mary wanted to run with me. That’s all I needed. It was more than I needed. Mary ran with me for about 200 feet, to where my son and mother were at.

The last three miles were consecutively faster. Not great, but I finished sub 9:30 on the last mile.

Official time was 4:09:19. Almost twenty minutes slower than last year.

Wrapup:

I was disappointed. I knew I could have done better, and HAVE done better. That’s a tough pill. Even with issues, excuses, and anything else I could throw out there, it didn’t feel as good.

Lots of my friends from Nashville ran this race. I think most, if not all of them did very well. I’m honestly thrilled for them. This is a great event, and it’s very conductive to success. In retrospect, I’m disappointed in the time, but I didn’t feel like I did that poorly.

Regardless, I knew I had another marathon in a month. I had to get over this, treat it as a LONG training run, and keep going.

If you look back at my report from last year, our Sunday continued to be great. My daughter was on the front page of the newspaper, cheering me (and the other runners) on. She made the online version this year, with the rest of the family!

Race bling, goodies:

They also give away a nice race hat, in the color scheme of the year. This year, that appeared to be Orange. It’s a nice looking hat, I suppose. It’ll come in handy on early morning runs and evenings, when visibility is low. But as a University of Alabama supporter, living in Tennessee…. I’ll be wearing Red and White much more often than Orange.

This race also sends a photo of you crossing the finish line. Last year, it was straight from them. This year, it was from Brightroom. Either way, with the cost of race photos being so high, it’s a really nice perk to have.

There is another thing that I feel like is important about this race, from my standpoint. I KNEW I had a second chance with Disney marathon, and frankly, with the amount of money we were dropping on Disney, it was my A race much more than this. I thought throughout the race that I’d push hard enough to do it, preferably with a good time, but not hard enough to get hurt.

It worked. I felt better the day after the marathon than I had after some of my training runs of 3/4 distance. I ran lightly the week immediately after the race, and started building again for Disney.