On September 08, 2019, I ran my second ever marathon at the Holland Haven Marathon against the coast of Lake Michigan. I started increasing mileage this summer just to see how long runs felt and maybe improve on my 2016 Demar Marathon time.
Training went pretty well. Some days I was up at 3:45am to beat the weekend heat wave. In all of my long runs even 20, 22, 25 miles, I didn’t really hit a wall of exhaustion like I did in 2016 training. I was taking more energy packs on runs and overall of course I have less body weight. So leading up to this marathon, which I know is a flat course, a sub 3 hour race felt within striking distance.
That requires 6m52s miles for 26.2 miles. Round down to 51s or 50s if you want a tiny bit of breathing room built in. With little else on the line anyway, I figured I might as well “go for it” realizing this pace could turn out to blow up somewhere in miles 18-24.
Mile 1-6: Mile 1 is really an important benchmark, right? You run for 6-7 minutes and see how the first mile feels. It was slight downhill and I was through mile marker 1 in 6m36s. I tried to slow down for mile 2, which was a 6m44s. Mile 3 in 6m48, miles 4-5 in an average of 6:40 each (I missed mile marker 4 so I had to combine), and mile 6 in 6m47s. So the first 6 miles were all somewhere between 4-12 seconds ahead of pace. Cool
I’d originally intended to take GU energy every 8 miles. Around mile 4.5 I decided to switch to every 6 miles
Mile 7: The mile marker sign is off! I saw the marking on the ground but the sign was a good 50 seconds further down the course. I asked a course worker “Is this right? Cuz there’s a 7 on the ground a minute back” and she’s like “Yep this is right!” Later comparison with watch times prove it was not right.
Mile 8-10: I keep running ~6m40s miles and pass one runner, and gain ground on another to pull even with him. However at this point my legs start to feel alarmingly tired for this early on. I try not to worry about it and assume it’ll pass. I actually slow down and match pace with the runner ahead of me to take a “rest mile” which puts…
Mile 11-13.1: Mile 11 was a 7m00s! First non-ahead of pace mile. That’s okay – the easy pace did me well and there are also a couple small hills in this section.
At mile 12 I took my second GU and walked the water station for about 10 seconds and caused another runner to run into me. That was my bad lol.
After that, I actually felt like the hills mixed up my muscle usage – maybe my “flat running” muscles were just getting tired and after running the hills I felt better than the scare around mile 9. I cruised to the halfway point in 6m48s and 6m53s miles. Passing halfway at almost exactly 1h28m30s, or a minute and a half ahead of 3 hour pace.
Mile 13-20: Miles ranged between 6m37s and 6m51s miles. I’m still banking time against goal but I’m starting to do math in my head about if I’m allowed to slow down… or what if I do: “I saved 90 seconds at the halfway point, so once I get to 9 miles out if I started running 7 minute miles I’d still make it!”
Slightly after mile 16 my left calf cramps for about 0.3 seconds. “That would be bad” I thought “If I full on cramped I’d probably be done for“
Third GU at mile 18 and I grab a spare from the aid station
Ned Stark is in my head: “The wall is coming“
Mile 20: Crossed in 02h14m59s “Just a 45 minute 10k to run. Just run a 45 minute 10k“
Mile 21: (6m45s) Every minute is the worst minute of my life
Mile 22: (6m52s) “Nice already a third of the way through the 10k”
Mile 23: “Just run a 24 minute 5k“
Mile 24: (4th GU cuz why not) “Don’t cramp. Don’t die. Should I just give up now?”
Mile 25: (6m54s) “10.5 minutes to run 1.2 miles don’t mess up”
Mile 26: (Slowest mile: 7m10s.) My legs were done for. I was dialing back slightly knowing the only way I miss 3 hours is a full on catastrophe. I don’t remember much but I passed a lot of slower half-marathoners and they all said nice things like “You’re almost there! Good job!”
I could see the end by the time marker 26 came – and finished in 2h57m50s (10th overall). So I never have to do this again…
Results: https://results.rmraces.live/Igniteyoureventcom/events/2019/holland-haven-marathon/results