The past week has been full of uncertainty about my current ability to run 26.2 miles. As shown in Charleston my aerobic capacity and form is currently the best it has ever been. There's no avoiding the worries of all the little nagging aches in your legs before a big race though. My penultimate run before Miami was last Thursday, and despite all numbers indicating I was in top shape ready to run fast, my calves were more sore than they had been throughout my training. Even the afternoon before the race my easy run made them a little sore again. Fortunately, far less so than Thursday's run and towards the end of my easy 4 miles they were beginning to loosen up a little.
I finalized my clothing choice and nutrition plan for the morning shortly after my run on Saturday. I had been unsure whether to wear running shorts or triathlon shorts but I eventually chose triathlon shorts to avoid the chaffing of running shorts late in the race. Nutrition-wise, I decided that I would follow my Charleston Half-marathon routine before the race - rice krispies with 2% milk two hours before the start, and some liquids about an hour from the start. In our race packets we received a small bottle of the Gatorade Prime formula, so I complemented that with some water and was ready to go. For during the race I had bought 3 energy gels at the expo. The aid stations with gels were not sufficient, and in retrospect I only saw one station at 19 miles with gels so I am glad I had my own. In terms of gear though, I am a minimalist, I don't have a fuel belt or any other sort of belt to put my gels on or in, nor did I wear a jersey or shorts with pockets in. Consequently, I had the choice to rely on the aid stations, or carry my gels in my hands until I needed them. I chose the latter and it clearly paid off in the end.
If you read my post following the Charleston Half, you'll know that my goal was 2:55 going into Miami... at a stretch. At the least, I hoped to just break 3 hours. The initial plan was to go out at a pace of 6:40 per mile and then maybe pick it up in the second half if I could manage it. My warmup felt fairly good and I enjoyed reminiscing as I ran around parts of the Miami 70.3 run course - fortunately it was about 35 degrees cooler than it had been that day. After a little more than 2 miles I headed to my corral and made my way through the crowd as much as possible. I knew my first mile wouldn't be particularly slow even in a crowd, so I wasn't too worried about making it to the front.
The first mile of the Miami Marathon & Half-Marathon is the "hilliest" by far... Miami is flat, so the 30' high bridge about three quarters of a mile from the start is the highest point on the entire course. Starting out as planned I looked at my garmin over the bridge to make sure I was staying on pace. I hit fairly even splits through the first few quarter miles and went through the mile mark in 6:36, well within an acceptable deviation from the plan of 6:40. Mile 2 dropped to 6:26 having come off the bridge and onto the flat causeway leading to Miami Beach. I felt good though, and began to get into a rhythm so I didn't worry too much about the 18 seconds I was under my goal pace. Mile 3 was back to 6:38 and the sun began to rise along the horizon as we entered Miami Beach (the race starts in the dark at 6:20am). By mile 4 I caught some of the lead women running the marathon. In particular, I recall passing Ashley Gorr at the southern corner of Miami Beach (mile 4.1) and would next see her about 22 miles later. As the sun came up though, I truly settled into a rhythm knocking off mile 4 in 6:26, 5 in 6:30, 6 in 6:27 and hitting the official 10k split in 40:28. Mile 7 was slightly quicker at 6:21 before running 5 consecutive miles within a range of 2.5 seconds of one another (6:24.4 to 6:26.9). I went through 10 miles in 1:04:43, just 62 seconds off my pace at the Charleston Half-Marathon and I was feeling fantastic passing marathoners and half-marathoners alike that had started out too quickly. For instance, of the marathoners alone, I went through 10k in 46th place (chip timed) and then moved up to my eventual position of 29th by the half-marathon split. Taking just my first half-marathon I would have hit the 10k in 119th place, and then passed 30 people by the finish. The 47 people total that this method says that I passed, then, may or may not be at fault. My second 10k was just 39:47, followed by a 13th mile of 6:11 thanks to the half-marathon finishers surrounding me that were all kicking it in to their finish line.
At the half-marathon point I was at 1:24:48 - an average pace of 6:27 per mile, but I felt amazing and knew I could maintain the pace through at least 18 miles. Even after that, I didn't expect I would slow nearly as much as I had in Burlington, so it became increasingly clear that I'd crush the 3 hour barrier. The 7 miles following the half-marathon point did a lot more than maintain the pace I had been running. In fact, the 10k split between 20 & 30k would turn out to be my fastest - a blistering 39:18, faster than my opening 10k in Charleston, and faster than I ran for the 10k 3 weeks ago in Connecticut (by 1 second). I hit the 30k mark in an official split of 1:59:48 (under 2 hours!) and the 20 mile mark in 2:08:07 (recall that my first 10 were 1:04:43 and you'll notice that the second 10 miles were 1:03:24 - a full 16 seconds faster than my 10 mile split in Charleston!). My overall pace had dropped to just 6:24 over 20 miles... so much for 6:40, or even 6:36!
The final 10k of a marathon is running legend. I experienced the demoralizing effects of hitting the "wall" in Burlington with a final 10k of 55:59 en route to my 3:18:57 debut. But that race was long over for me before I got to 20 miles, I was struggling to stay on tempo after about 8 miles, and hit 20 in 2:22:58 - 14:51 slower than here in Miami. I was not about to give in and run another 59 minute 10k though. Pushing through to the finish I hit splits of 6:36, 6:44, and 6:43 for miles 21-23... not bad considering that was the planned pace to begin with! After 23 miles in a marathon there is one thing I personally think should not get in your head - you still have more than 5k left to go. Returning to downtown Miami I ran my slowest mile of the day with a 6:57 for mile 24. Turning onto Brickell Avenue it helped me (slightly) knowing that I had run along the same route the afternoon before from my hotel, and that the hotel was within a mile of the finish. Naturally, though, my legs began to cramp after about 24.5 miles! There was no way I was letting it slow me down any more though. Relaxing as much as possible I got to the 25 mile mark after a 6:56.2 mile and just had 1.2 miles to go! Crossing a small drawbridge just before 26 miles gave me a slight downhill (apparently brought to me by the good folks at ING...) before kicking it in to the finish (mile 26 was 6:55.8). Ashley, who I had passed 22 miles before, was the catalyst for my "kick" but ended up beating me by 2 seconds, despite my last quarter mile being at under 6 minute pace.
Overall, it was an incredible race. My official time was 2:51:03, placing 1st in my Age Group (16-19) and 29th overall!
Now back to training for triathlon season!
