Detroit Rock City!
Surgery on February 11, Detroit Marathon on October 16. The road was a long one with lots of sweat and lots of pain but it was so freakin’ worth it. Thanks to Hanson Coaching Services, some very, very special people in my life and the abject fear of failure in front of hundreds of people - I ran a PR Marathon eight months post foot surgery.
I ended up in Motown the weekend of October 16 thanks to a friend who really wanted to BQ. He asked me where I would suggest, I said, “Go where I went. Detroit. No question and if you go, I’ll go with you and pace you.” Oops, did I say that out loud. His response of, “That’s great, let’s do that.” Confirming that I had indeed said it out loud. I’m in, I guess.
Thankfully, our BQ requirements are the same, so his will be fun. We trained all summer. He trained on a modified MTT schedule with lots of fast miles and long runs. I trained on the schedule developed by Luke Humphrey of Hanson’s Coaching Services. He customized their standard schedule to factor in my lack of base mileage. I told him my goal was 3:15. That’s a 3 minute PR over a time I ran in Detroit in 2006. Five years older, one less nerve in my left foot but I was focused.
I ran the repeats and the tempo runs. I did the 8 consecutive 16 milers over 8 weeks. I did the recovery miles. I lost about 25 pounds. I was defintely ready.
The Detroit Marathon is on Sunday, we ran the final mile or so of the Marathon course on Saturday late morning - dead into a 25 mph headwind. Yikes, that could be a problem. Saturday was very windy but there was hope for Sunday weather-wise.
Sunday morning was about perfect weather-wise, high 40’s at the start, lots of clouds, wind was moderate to light depending upon where you were. The first half saw a little bit of light rain and lots of darkness as we finally got some light around mile 6. It was a bit fast at 1:36 but not totally off the wall crazy.
The second half became more of a test. Two/thirds of the runners took the right hand turn at mile 12.5 and headed to a 13.1 mile finish. This left far fewer people on course and almost eliminated the crowd support. We also faced a few miles into the wind on the way back to the city and the finish line. It was all a game to keep your pace and get to the finish, there were no crowds of college students lining the road, no thousands of spectators cheering and encouraging you. It was me and a few runners trying to find a way to finish. It was funny, the biggest group of non-runners I saw in the last half (not at a waterstop) were 4 people as I hit the Riverwalk section of the course. I had to actually run around them as they were walking and talking along the Riverwalk oblivious that there was a Marathon in progress (reminded me of Shamrock).
So, I made it. Second half was 2.5 minutes slower than the first. There are a few reasons for that but none of them really relate to my training. I knew I was prepared for this race but was apprehensive about not running “20 milers.” I may have felt better at 23 than I did anywhere else other than the finish line and FishBones Bar after the race. I met my goal with 41 seconds to spare. About five minutes after finishing I was trying to figure out what Marathon to run in the Spring so that I could break 3:10. We’ll see about that…
The part about fear of failure in front of hundreds of people, yeah, it’s a coaching thing.
The four guys that flew to Detroit to run a Marathon all qualified for Detroit. Mission accomplished and we had a blast doing it.
