#CMM is the hash tag from Twitter for the Country Music Marathon. Occurring on April 24, 2010, It was going to be my first marathon, but so many things went wrong. First and foremost: I didn’t make it.
There are many reasons, but there are also no excuses.
- My nutrition training didn’t work. I trained throughout the past 6 months with e-gels. I used them whenever I went more than about 10 miles, which frankly, was a lot of times, especially in 2010. But, I don’t think I have ever used them in the conditions I was in and pacing I was on.
- It was warm and muggy. Not hot, and not particularly bad, by any means, but practically all of my training was done in cold weather. I didn’t consider how much the temp difference and additional humidity would make. And that course has hills. Now, it’s not got a few HILLS, on it, it’s more like it has a few flat areas. I wouldn’t say there were any killer inclines, but they simply were everywhere.
So, When combined with the next reason below, my body simply didn’t have enough experience to deal with the gel load and stress load I was putting on it. So I’ve got to try harder to use my nutrition in a race setting and get something that works better for me.
- My expected finish time. I’ve been pushing myself harder and harder over the last year. That’s the easy way to describe it. About this time last year, I started running. 2 miles in 30 minutes was pushing it, and there was some walking involved. I’ve done a 10k (my first race ever), a few 5k’s and two half marathons. Reasonable people tell me that even doing a marathon now is pushing it a bit. Frankly, my expectations were too high. I was pushing for the sub 4 hour marathon on my first go.
I told everyone that I would be happy with a finish, but that wasn’t quite true. As I trained, and ran, and put those miles behind me, I kept speeding up. Starting out, 10 min miles were pushing it, especially over distance. But I kept at it, did speed work, and low and behold, my times came down. I consistently was running at a sub 9 min mile. But the kicker was the distance… Most of my speed came after I had done my really long runs, and had started into the taper down phase. Plus, in something I disagree on, most advice tells you that your long runs should be ran slower to minimize injury.
So yes, I went out with a sub 7:30 pace. Yes, I slowed back down pretty quick. But I held a 9 minute average for the first 19 miles. Mile 20 is when it all fell apart for me. I took my fourth egel, walking up the hill into Nashville and it just came right back.
Which leads to the final, real reason… The weather.
- Tornado warnings, and the course being shut down. I crossed the bridge in downtown Nashville after gel 4 issue, pretty much at a fast walk. I hurt. I knew I was going to be be slow at this point. Looking at the sky, and knowing that they were planning on closing the course, I knew my race was done. I don’t mind running in rain, but walking in hail, lightning, and tornados seemed to be too much. I took the turn at 20 miles onto the half course. I didn’t think that I had the time to recover enough to finish the race. I knew I could finish, but I knew I was going to have to slow down a bit, and probably alternate some walks into the mix. I didn’t know what the plan for getting people off the course was going to be, in the case of really bad weather.
What I didn’t know is that they were pushing everyone off the course right around the bend anyways.
Does that make a difference? I don’t know. I guess I know I wasn’t going to make it, regardless. Could I have made it?
YES. I know that. I wouldn’t have been sub 4 hours, but I ran the mile and a half to the half finish line at a 9:15 pace. I could have finished. It probably would have been sub 4:30, although maybe not by much.
It wasn’t my day (nor the day for many others on the full course.)
Elite offered many discounts on the next race, and opened additional slots for San Diego. I didn’t receive such an offer. I don’t mind the race fee… You take your luck. I do wish the slot offer had been extended, as there wasn’t any availability, and I DO want to get this marathon behind me.
So that’s it, in a nut shell. Now I have to keep training (harder) and move on to the next race.
