Portland Marathon: Runner's recap

Brad ran his first marathon Sunday!!! Here's his recap:

For beginners like me, one of the many challenges of preparing for a marathon is choosing an appropriate race pace.  Experienced runners warn against, “going out too fast.”  The most efficient method of pacing yourself during a race is to start slow, then speed up over the course so that you finish running faster at the end than you were at the beginning.  The challenging part about having never ran a marathon before is that I had no idea what “too fast” was for me.

A portion of my cheering section

When I started training I decided I would probably shoot for under 4 hours, so my training runs were geared towards ~9:00/mile.  I knew that I would be training for this during climbing season, so I would have a limited amount of time to train between trips.  My attitude was that I’d use a minimalist training program and take it easy during the race and just enjoy the experience.

In the last few weeks leading up to the race I decided I felt like I should be able to go faster.  I was feeling confident about my ability to finish, but decided I would be disappointed if I finished with too much in reserve, so I decided to take a gamble and run the first half of my race at ~8:45/mile.  I figured that I could throttle back if it felt too hard and still meet my goal of under 4:00 hours, so it didn’t seem like a huge risk.

I felt great for the first 18 miles and was exactly on pace.  Around mile 20-21 my legs started to feel sore.  It felt like DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) that you usually get the day after a hard workout, except it kicked in DURING the race.  Bye-bye glycogen, hello lactic acid.

I’ve spent plenty of time exercising on sore legs during hard workouts and multi-day climbing trips, so I recognize this type of pain as my body’s way of warning me that I need to stop or I will pay for it later.

I also know that it is possible to ignore the pain and keep pushing, but eventually your body will make you stop.  The runners who had to be helped into the medical tent after crossing the finish line are evidence of this.

No, really, I don't need to go into the tent

All I was interested in doing was pushing hard enough to meet my goal, but not end up in the medical tent or collapsing short of the finish.  With 6 miles to go I knew this was possible, but that I had a lot of suffering headed my way.

At about the 22-mile mark the course starts to go downhill.  I had planned to run ~8:30/mile at this point, but ended up closer to ~9:30/mile for the last 5 miles.  : (
This meant that I ran the end of the race MUCH slower than I ran the start, the exact opposite of what you’re supposed to do.  I made the classic beginner mistake of “going out too fast.”

Fortunately, I was able to throttle back and still meet my goal of running under 4 hours.  My official finish time was 3:56:48, which I’m plenty happy with.

Cool-down cape on, ready to refuel!

I’m not sure I want to run another marathon.  Training for one requires a huge time commitment, and I have other things I’d rather focus on right now.  I do plan to continue running half marathons.  I find the half marathon distance to be long enough to be challenging, but the training time required is much more manageable.  I’m sure the lessons I’ve learned through the marathon experience will be helpful in the future.

Some of my lessons learned:

My 5 longest runs training for this consisted of two 16-milers, two 18-milers, and one 20-miler.  Most of the training programs I looked at suggested that there’s no reason to train beyond 20 miles.  That’s probably fine if your only goal is to finish, but I felt under prepared for the last 5 miles or so.  Most likely that’s simply due to the fact that I decided to run faster than I’d trained for, but I feel like I could have benefited from the experience of exceeding that magic 20-mile barrier under less stressful conditions. 

If I had it to do over again I’d probably train to 23-24 miles, but at a very easy pace and do it at least a month before the race to allow for adequate recovery.  During the race I’d stick closer to the pace I’d trained for, then speed it up after mile 20 to burn off whatever I had left.

Gels are much too sweet to eat 5 or 6 over the course of a race.  I have a thick sports drink/diluted gel mix that I make at home which is much more palatable.  I used this mix for my training runs but couldn’t use it exclusively during the race because I would have needed to carry several bottles of it to get enough calories.  I ended up eating 5 gels and ~300 calories worth of my homemade gel over the course of the race.  I ate one gel about every 4 miles, and switched to my homemade stuff once I got sick of the gels.  I felt like this left me adequately fueled for the entire race.  It would have helped to have different flavors of gel or maybe something salty to nibble that would cut the sweet.

I drank at almost every water station along the course.  Usually I’d only get 2 gulps of water or so at each station, but this was enough to keep me going without upsetting my stomach too much.

The Portland Marathon was an awesome race!  I understand why it’s lauded as one of the best in the country.  Race support and logistics were great.  There was a TON of food and beverages in the finishers area and the space was large enough that you could hang out and stretch and eat and drink without anyone chasing you out to make room for incoming runners.  I had no problems during the entire race, it was great.  

My only complaint would be the expo venue.  The downtown Hilton was crowded, hard to navigate, and parking was difficult to find. We went in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday, which was probably prime time.  Liz and I might do the half marathon next year.  If we do we’ll go early in the morning when they first open to avoid the crowds and parking issues.

Escalator to the Hilton catacombs.  Happy we made it out alive.

:)