Third Times a Charm... I DID IT!!!

Last Saturday's marathon set up to be a perfect day to run... and I needed it to be. After enduring two heartbreaking marathons earlier this year where I just missed my 3:15 Boston Marathon qualifier by running a 3:17:45 in Napa Valley in March and 3:17:19 at Grandma's in June, I needed things to go right for me last Saturday morning in Ashland, WI for The Whistlestop Marathon, and they did. The weather couldn't have been any better if you would have ordered it. The Whistlestop is not your typical marathon in a couple of ways. First, it has a fairly late start time of 9am. Most marathon nowadays start fairly early, 7 or 8am, to beat the heat of the usual days. Up in Ashland, you generally don't have to worry about that since the race is in October and the area borders Lake Superior. It usually makes for some pretty cool temps at race time, as was the case last Saturday with a starting temp of 50°. That's perfect in my book. The other unique thing about The Whistlestop is that it's a point to point course, 24 miles of which are on an old, converted railroad track now made up of packed gravel and limstone. It's a pretty forgiving running surface and really gives your knees and joints a break from running on concrete and asphalt that you usually have to endure in most races. The tough part about running on that type surface up there is that there are inconsistancies in the footing. You might go from running on fairly big gravel pebbles, to soft, silty dirt, to ruts in the path caused ATV use, to a nicely packed surface. It sometimes makes it hard to get into a nice running rhythm when you are often darting side to side to find the best footing. It's a bit of a challenge but well worth it when you get to see the amazing Fall color display that the course provides. Wisconsin is known for having some of the most amazing Fall colors around, but I would have to say this is one of the best areas the Badger State has to offer. It's spectacular and you get to see mile after mile of it as the northwood trees line the whole course. The other nice thing about those trees is they give you optimum shade coverage if the sun is out like it was last Saturday.

After the singing of God Bless America, the race was underway. As I stated last week in my blog, my goal for the race was to start out fairly conservatively by running between 7:20 and 7:25 pace for the first half of the race and then build from there. That strategy was pretty much thrown out the window after the gun sounded. I didn't start out guns ablazin', like there was no tomorrow, but I still had a pretty quick first mile at 7:00 minutes even. It wasn't anything super fast but it was still 20 to 25 seconds faster than I wanted to be. I tried to calm myself down a bit and telling myself in essence to "ease up a bit" and "relax" and although I slowed somewhat I was still knocking off miles between 7:04 and 7:10 per mile. I really couldn't help it, though. The cool, crisp weather of the northwoods was just way too invigorating and my legs were feeling way too good that I just wanted to throw all caution into the wind and see what I could do for the day, so that's exactly what I did. Even though there were well over 700 marathoners entered in the race, I was pretty much on my own during much of the race. The race spreads out pretty quickly but the nice thing is that there are usually plenty of runners in sight to keep pace with and to reel in and pick off here and there. At the halfway point I was still feeling exceptionally good and my time reflected that. Thru 13.1 miles I was at a little over 1:33 and on pace to run a 3:06 marathon. Again, 3:15 was my Boston Qualifier so I was well ahead of that. The question was could I keep up that unrelenting pace. The answer was an emphatic yes. The next ten mile splits were all between 6:51 and 7:09 pace, five of which were under 7:00 minute pace, and the scary part was that I felt good doing it. I wasn't struggling to hang on or just looking for a solid finish... I was laying waste to this course, which only three years earlier, pushed me around a bit and caused me to finish in 3:23:06. Last Saturday, I was the one who felt like I was doing the pushing. After a good 24 miles or so my feet finally hit pavement. It was a welcome feeling, too. No more darting from one side to the other to find the best place to put my feet down. I was tiring a bit at this point so it was nice to just be able to run on a flat, smooth surface and just try to get in a nice running rhythm to knock of the last mile and a half or so. It also helped that the town people were there to encourage me on and tell me to finish up strong. One lady even yelled out to me and let it be know that I was in the top 20 for marathoners. I was pretty tired by that time so all I could say was, "Really?" As I would later find out, it was true. The main thing was my time. Where was I going to finish timewise? After a few more minutes and rounding a few more corners, I soon found out. 3:06:01. That's what I crossed the finish line at... 3:06:01. Not only did I decimate the Boston qualifying time by nine minutes, I also broke my personal best time from the 2003 Quad Cities Marathon by 51 seconds. I was dumbfounded to say the least. I honestly didn't know if I would ever get back to running a marathon time of that caliber again. The hard work paid of the last year paid off, though. The disappointment of narrowly missing my goal times at Napa Valley and Grandma's motivated me more. This time I did it, and did it soundly and with ease. The lady who yelled out to me was right, too. I did finish in the top 20... 20th out of 754 runners to be exact. By far, the highest I ever finished. It was quite a day. After retrieving my duffel bag and putting on some dry clothes I gave my mom and brother Pete a call. It was hard to tell them how the race went without choking back a few tears... I was just that happy. That's what a marathon does... it can really bring out a deluge of emotions. Those who have run them know what I'm talking about and for those who haven't, I'm sure you can imagine.

I'm a little sad that this is most likely the end of my marathoning for the year. Part of me would really love to do one more sometime in December but I think that might be pushing it a bit. I've really caught the bug, though. Number 10 is in the books and I'm looking forward to number 11. Maybe it will be Boston in April, maybe it will be Ft. Collins, CO in May... who knows. All I know is that I'm looking forward to that next one, looking forward to the training, and maybe even shooting towards running under the three hour time barrier... wouldn't that be something. I think I can do it, though. We'll see what next year brings.

A quick sidenote: I wanted to say congratualtions to my two running buddies who went up with me to Ashland and also ran The Whistlestop. My good friend Dave Dexheimer completed the 24th marathon of his career, finishing 212th overall with a time of 3:44:11, and my other friend Steve Chavala completed his very first marathon, finishing 233rd with a time of 3:47:34. I'm really proud of you both.

MY SPLITS FOR THE RACE

• Mile 1 - 7:00
• Mile 2 - 7:04
• Mile 3 - 7:07
• Mile 4 - 7:09
• Mile 5 - 7:10
• Mile 6 - 7:10
• Mile 7 - 7:06
• Mile 8 - 7:05
• Mile 9 - 7:04
• Mile 10 - 7:00
• Mile 11 - 6:58
• Mile 12 - 6:59
• Mile 13 - 7:02 - 1:32:14
• Mile 14 - 6:51
• Mile 15 - 6:54
• Mile 16 - 7:06
• Mile 17 - 7:04
• Mile 18 - 7:04
• Mile 19 - 6:56
• Mile 20 - 6:54 - 2:21:28
• Mile 21 - 6:57
• Mile 22 - 7:01
• Mile 23 - 7:09
• Mile 24 - 7:25
• Mile 25 - 7:18
• Mile 26 - 7:28 - 3:04:48
• Mile 26.2 - 3:06:01

Saturday's race: 26.2 miles > 3:06:01 > 7:05 pace

Miles last week: 42