ORRRC Marathon, where I fail to qualify for Boston by a very large margin

I picked this race because I thought it would be a good place for me to try to get a Boston qualifier. Somehow I had managed to forget that I have had some really sucky races in Xenia doing the associated half-marathon, so there wasn’t a good reason to expect that the marathon would be any better. I guess I should have thought about it a little more carefully.

Because, I had a really sucky day in Xenia. I am trying to figure out exactly what went wrong. Was I really so badly trained? Was I really still sick? Or is it just a place where I am doomed to run poorly?

For Those of You Who Don't Live Here, a Bit about Xenia

Xenia, a place I go to only when I enter this race, is about an hour's drive north of me. One of its nicknames is "city of hospitality." The website says that Xenia is "rich in traditional values." The main thing Xenia is known for, however, is tornados. The tornado of April 1974 killed 33 people and destroyed about half the town.

The Friday night before the race I was watching the weather report on TV and sure enough it looked like a little bit of a twister was touching down in the area near Xenia. I asked someone during the race why they schedule it for tornado season, and we joked about how it is always tornado season in Xenia.

Wikipedia says that Xenia was known to the Shaunee Indians as "the land of the crazy winds," which wouldn't be so bad if it was at our backs the whole way. Unfortunately, on an out and back course, it doesn't work that way, and the wind was blowing in our faces on the way back.

They used to hold this a bit earlier in the year. I recall the first time I went up there for the half-marathon, I think it was in early March. And it was like 20 degrees and windy. It was horrible. So maybe tornado season is an improvement!

Comedian Dave Chappelle owns several houses in Xenia, and the city is mentioned in a "They Might Be Giants" song. But I think if you played word association with most people around here and you said "Xenia" they would say "tornado." Sorry Xenia!

The other thing Xenia is a little famous for is being the residence of the author of the novel "And Ladies of the Club," which I personally have never read. I found a bed and breakfast that claims to be the setting of the novel. It seems to be really close to the start/finish of the race and looks like it would be a great place to stay if you were coming from out of town for this race. The other place you can stay is a Ramada, that is supposed to be nasty now, but was at one time the start/finish/staging area of the race.

Xenia is close to the town of Yellow Springs, home of Antioch University, which contributes a little bit of funkiness to balance out the traditional values (IMHO). Truly, it is hard to find a place that is more small town, midwest than Xenia (said this Jersey Girl). Unless, maybe, Pawnee, IN.

What’s Good About This Race

There are a lot of good things about this race. Let’s start with the value. It is an amazing value. The pre-registration fee is just $25. This makes it one of the cheapest marathons in the world. It is cheaper than a lot of the 5ks are around here.

From my perspective, the race delivers on a lot of the necessities:

•  Accurate mile markers
• Adequate aid stations, fully stocked with water and Gatorade
• Volunteers to point you in the right direction so you don’t get lost (become more of an issue for me recently!)
• Parking at the start/finish
• Plenty of food at the finish, including a variety of hot soups and cookies
• Showers at the finish
• Scenic course, relatively flat
• It’s just an hour’s drive away for me

What’s Not So Good about this Race

Weather can be unpredictable. Can be windy. Will definitely be windy somewhere along the course. No shade on the road portion. Can get hot if the sun is out.

Hmmm, that may be the only negative thing. But since I have never had a good race here, I probably won’t be trying it again. At least not the full marathon.

If you are a racer who needs a lot of crowd support and people cheering and music playing and other forms of entertainment along the way, well, you won’t get that here. But I don’t need that stuff.

So, I signed up for this months ago and focused my training (to the extent that I ever focus my training) on it. Although I was, as always, a bit short on the long runs, I did more speed work, and I did it more regularly, than I ever have before. I didn’t do as many build-up races as usual, but because my fall races had gone so well, and that was before all the speed work, I was optimistic on this front. And although I didn’t do as many long runs as I was supposed to, I did more than usual. And I felt great after them. And I wasn’t having any particular biomechanical problems, unlike other times.

I figured if I could jog through a 4:36 with no specific training at all, I really shouldn’t have a problem going sub-4:00 with the training I did this time. Right?

Wrong, apparently.

Before the Race

I did a 20 mile run about 3 ½ weeks before the race and it went great. I had not done a training run that long since the last time I qualified for Boston, ten years ago. The week after that long run, I came down with a nasty head cold. I had a lot of nasal congestion and some coughing, but it did not develop into anything worse or get bad enough to make me go to the doctor in search of antibiotics.

I did go down to Louisville with Zen for two days of agility while in the thick of the cold, and I skipped the Heart Mini-Marathon that Sunday because I was still a bit sick. At that point I was a week out from the marathon. I felt recovered enough to do a little running early last week. The congestion and the coughing would clear up while I was running, but I found myself still coughing a bit in the evenings.

By Wednesday, I was feeling good (although still somewhat congested) but I decided to not run the rest of the week and rest my legs. I was not worried about the cold affecting my race. I made a conscious effort to eat less over the past week, so I would not be carrying any extra weight on race day. Basically, I tried not to do my usual mindless snacking between meals, and didn’t let myself have any alcohol or ice cream. If I needed dessert, I had a cup of yogurt or a piece of fruit.

Friday night when Tommy came home from a week out of town and made himself a martini, I could not resist and I had one beer. Saturday night I was going to cook a pasta dinner, but instead we had takeout from a local Italian place and I stuffed myself.

I was a little nervous about the weather. Weather.com was saying 30% chance of showers for the entire morning. I hoped it wouldn’t rain. Temperature-wise it was supposed to be low 50s at the start and climb to the low 60s by afternoon, which sounded okay. It had been in the 80s earlier in the week, so 50s was going to feel great.

Race morning I was up at 5-ish for coffee, yogurt and banana. I left for the start around 6:15. It took me a little over an hour to drive there, because there was some thick fog on the second half of the drive. I got one of the last parking spaces in one of the lots near the YMCA where the race start and finish is set up.

I picked up my shirt and bib, used the bathroom inside the Y (another nice feature of this race), and retreated to my car until it was time to line up.

I was wearing my CW-X capri tights (which I need to think about replacing before they become translucent), a shortsleeved tech top and a hat from Fargo. I also wore my old, shredded (a couple of dogs have munched on it, and I also ripped it on something during a race one time) blue anorak, which is lightweight enough to tie around my waist or that I could even pitch although it seems like I am doomed to have that thing forever. I was still worried about rain and the anorak is handy for that.

I debated over wearing my big fanny pack that holds a water bottle, or a smaller one that just holds my gels. The aid stations were mostly two miles apart, but not always I ended up going with the water bottle, because there were some spots in the middle of the race where the aid stations were more like three miles apart and that is too far for me to go without water in a marathon.

The Race

My goal was a 3:59, which would give me a Boston qualifier for the 50-54 age group, which I intended to use next April. I have run faster than that, but it was ten years ago. Since this was an ambitious goal, I decided that I would be happy with a time under 4:15, which would still show improvement over recent years, and would give me hope that I could get my time down under 4:10 this fall. A 4:10 run after September 25 will give me a qualifier for Boston that I can use in 2014.

Oh yeah, and I might not actually run Boston even if I do qualify. What I really want to do is run a marathon in Gansett, Rhode Island, on the Saturday before the Boston Marathon. That race uses the same qualification standards as Boston, and it is in a state where I haven’t run a marathon yet. It is also more exclusive than Boston, because the only way to run it is to qualify, whereas Boston lets in some charity runners, foreign tourists, and celebrities. The other problem with Boston now is that even if you qualify, you might not get in because more people qualify and apply to run it than the race will accept. Paradoxically, it is now both easier and harder to get in to Boston. So, I’ll use the qualifier for Gansett, but I might possibly do Boston as well if I can get in.

For a goal of 3:59, you have to average 9:06 per mile. The ideal is to run a little slower in the first half and faster in the second (the elusive “negative split”) but that hardly ever happens. Most of the time, I find myself slowing down in the second half of a marathon, even on a good day. But I was going to try to just keep it around 9 minute pace, and hopefully a little below for some of the flatter miles.

They used chip timing for this race, so even though it wasn’t a big field (1100 runners in the half and the full, combined), I didn’t have to stress out too much about my starting line position. It did take me maybe 30 seconds to get over the start line, and every second was going to count if I wanted to qualify.

The first two miles is a loop around downtown Xenia that brings you back by the start line, before you head out on the country roads and bike trail. My watch said 8:50 at the first mile marker, and that was encouraging. I felt good. I really thought I could hold that pace for 25 more miles. I took off the anorak.

The second mile was a 9:08, and that was okay because it included a short walk break while I took some water from my bottle, and removed the anorak. It was overcast and very humid. The fanny pack felt kind of heavy around my waist, and the anorak didn’t help, either. I had a little water at the aid station.

It was uphill to mile three. My watch said 9:52. I told myself it was the hill, or maybe the marker was in the wrong place. It was now quite humid and warmer than I had expected. I was glad I had the water bottle with me because I was thirsty, even if it was weighing me down a little. I had my first GU with the water.

In the fourth mile, we turned on to the bike trail and the course flattened out. I missed the 4 mile marker, but miles 4 and 5 were an 18:29, not too far off the 9:06 pace. I missed the mile marker for 6 as well, but 6 and 7 were an 18:35, again, not horrible. I had another gel and water somewhere in between at approximately mile 6. That sub-4:00 was slipping away but I didn’t feel too bad and I resolved to just take it a mile at a time and do my best.

Mile 8 was a 9:10. Better. Mile 9 was a 9:27. Now we headed out on the country road, and the sun came out, and I started to struggle. I had another GU and some water. And it sucks to start to struggle this early in a race. I felt overdressed, and wished I was not wearing black. At least my hat was white. I chatted with a guy who lived in the area who advised me of the hill coming up ahead. Uphill in the sun. Great. It wasn’t that steep of a hill but it was quite long. Mile ten was a 9:48. This is when I knew for sure that it just wasn’t my day.

I ran a little with a woman who was doing her first marathon. Her goal was just to finish and hopefully be under 4:40 or even 4:30. I told her she looked strong and she would make it. She was one of those tall, skinny people who doesn’t seem to sweat much. She pulled ahead of me.

And at this point I guess I got a little demoralized, not even able to keep up with someone whose goal was so much more modest than my own. Mile 11 was 10:42. Mile 12 was 10:19. Mile 13 was 10:39, mile 14 was 11:16. I wanted to drop out. I was getting in a bad mood and thinking about how there was no reason for me to be doing this race if I wasn't going to qualify for Boston.

Around mile 14.5 we turned back onto the bike trail. Mile 15 was 10:59. At some point in here I passed the tall, skinny lady, and I told her she still looked strong and she would make it. I had some brief conversations with other Maniacs. Most of them passed me. One guy who passed me told me that he had run a marathon in NJ the day before, then drove nine hours (he must have been speeding and did not stop at all along the way!) to get to Xenia. And he was running faster today. He was very proud of himself. Good for him, but I'm not sure he needed to share his tale of wonder with poor me.

Did have a lot more conversations with folks than usual during this race, maybe because the race organizers discourage the wearing of earbuds, so people were bored and needing something else to do besides just plodding ahead.

I continued with the gels every three miles, until late in the race when it was just too much trouble to deal with them so I switched to Gatorade at every water stop. Going so slow, I was actually a little worried about being over-hydrated!

Mile 16 was 9:54. I missed the mile 17 marker but 17-18 was 20:22. I thought things were looking up until I got to mile 19, which was 11:08. I just wanted it to be over!

Another guy who passed me decided he had to tell me all about how great he felt and how he was going to finish even faster than last year and he was going to pick it up and even break 4:30. Well la-dee-dah, hooray for him, I thought.

Mile 20 was 10:50, mile 21 was 11:30, mile 22 was 11:47 (things were really getting rough), mile 23 was 11:53, mile 24 was 11:54. I could not believe that after all that training I was barely going to be any faster than I was last summer/fall with almost no training. What, then, is the point of training? I don't know. I also ask myself this question every time Zen jumps off the top of the a-frame at an agility trial, but I digress.

Mile 25 was 11:40. Near the 26 mile mark we turned off the bike trail onto the street. There were volunteers blocking the bike trail, and it is a good thing they were there or I would have missed the turn (indicated my orange arrows painted on the grass).

I made the turn at the same time as another woman whom I had not noticed until that point. She turned to me and said what I had been thinking for a few hours---"this really sucks!" I said, "yeah, this totally sucks!" It was so nice to meet someone who was expressing exactly what I was feeling at that point instead of all the silly cheeriness about what a beautiful day it was to run, and how awesome it was that we could all be out there doing this race even if we were slow and all that kind of crap.

She said what sucked even more was that the next day she was going to have to get on a plane to California, and I agreed with her that totally sucked. Mile 26 was a 10:55.

At this point ordinarily I would have kicked ahead of this woman because, hey, we were still racing, after all. But she looked younger than I am (she was) and I just didn't care anymore so I let her beat me. Okay, well, I did try to pick it up a little but she did the same thing, and she crossed the line just ahead of me.

After the Race

I got my medal---surprisingly nice one---and walked to the car to get my gear bag (which seemed incredibly heavy), then headed into the Y for some soup. I decided to eat first and then change in case they were running out. There was a choice of chili, broccoli with cheese, and chicken noodle. I went for the chicken noodle. I also grabbed a couple of chocolate chip cookies that appeared to be homemade. I headed for a spot at one of the tables, but I was afraid to sit down (because I might not be able to get up again) so I mostly kind of hovered. I ate the cookies first because that was more what I was in the mood for. But the soup was just the perfect thing.

While I was eating, the tall, skinny woman came up to me and thanked me for supporting her during the race. She said that she had achieved her goal, and that our brief encounter during the race really helped her.

There are some days---most days---when I feel like my entire purpose on this earth is to make other people feel better about themselves. Maybe that's why I was really there doing this race, after all. Like all those people who passed me, I was there just so they could have someone to pass.

I told her she was still looking good. Because she was. She didn't even look like she was sweating.

I, OTOH, was quite a mess. I finished my soup and headed off to the locker room. I decided to wait until I got home for my shower, so I just changed into dry clothes and flip flops and headed out. I was pretty happy when I took my shoes and socks off to see that my feet didn't have any blisters. I was a little worried about how I would extricate myself from the car when I got home, but I called Tommy and told him that he might need to come out and help me. It felt really wonderful to sit down in the car!

Final results showed my time to be 4:31:17. I was 2 of 4 in my age group (which means, apparently, at some point an award will be arriving in the mail, since they gave them out to the top 3 in the age group) and 169 of 246 marathoners overall. The woman who won the age group finished in 3:49, closer to where I had hoped I would be. Third place, I believe, was tall, skinny lady with a 4:38.

With a couple of weeks perspective on this, I am going to blame it on the cold/flu/whatever that was I had. I don't know if I could have gone sub-4:00 otherwise, but I think it took more out of me than I suspected.